AI: Artificial Intelligence

 I really disliked AI: Artificial Intelligence when it first came out (I saw it in the theater). It seemed a bit sappy but depressing at the same time. HOWEVER. I seem to tune into it every time it's on television, so if you add up the bits and pieces, I have rewatched it so many times since then and had time to reconsider. It's even more interesting in our current age of actual AI, which of course really has nothing to do with the kind of AI depicted in the movie. The tech bro idiots who work on that stuff appear to have no human feeling themselves, so it seems less and less likely we'd create something with feelings. I feel a bit more sympathetic for the humans in the movie who are subjecting the robots to gladiator death matches and torture. These fabulous robots probably stole their jobs. But it's still a really depressing (I was right about that the first time) meditation on the ability of people to be cruel and thoughtless. Also it makes me think about the feelings we imbue upon objects, a strange human thing that I know I do all the time. Some parts seem prescient now. 

Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment are both superb. Jude Law! At his peak. His character is so sad and wise. When he says "I am. I was!" I felt that. Very Cartesian of him. Humans are extincting themselves and the movie is sad and super, super dark. But weirdly rewatchable. It has aged well, visually and thematically. There are still characters I find annoying (the mother! Ugh!) but I guess people are annoying irl so verisimilitude. Wouldn't it have been cool to see what Stanley Kubrick did with it? I do think Spielberg did a good job though. Kubrick could never have coaxed such a good performance out of Osment. Anyway this movie is good actually and I find myself thinking about it a lot.