***Artificial Intelligence: A.I.*** (2001)
***Running Time***: 146 min.
***Stars***: Haley Joel Osment, Jude Law, Frances O’Connor
***Found at***: HiettThe world’s icecaps have melted, effectively limiting mankind’s resources. Strict population management laws have been put in place. Technology has developed greatly, especially in the field of robotics, and now a company has built a child robot who can really love all those couples who are not allowed to have children. David (Osment) is the first of these robots with feelings. After being replaced by a real boy, David sets out to find his maker in a futuristic retelling of “Pinocchio.”
***Comments***: In a movie that clearly sets the viewer up to side with the robots, how is it that the part I most enjoyed included robots being blown to smithereens in the future’s version of a tractor pull? It’s because in “A.I.” all we get are bland attempts at emotion. While Osment does a very good job at being an innocent, nave child, none of the conflicts that should have brought us to love him fulfill their purpose. The family is a little messed up, David’s brother is a little mean, the spectators at the tractor pull are a little cruel, but a little bit doesn’t do it for this film. In a movie that could be filled with intense, dark moments of emotion and seamy undercurrents, all we get are little vanilla ripples set in a story that is unable to carry itself on such a flimsy raft.