Lucas McCain

I've only seen it once a long time ago so if I'm going to rewatch it, which version of the three should I watch? I probably will watch the special edition or director's cut but I wondered which one was everyone's favorite.

movieguru

I haven't seen it in many years since I was a kid. All I remember was how slow and boring it was. I'd suggest watching the shortest version of it you can. I don't think adding extra minutes to it would make it much better.

God, Part II

Despite movieguru's mind-boggling threadcrap about one of the five greatest movies of all time, I would recommend (assuming you will not take another major break between viewings) watching the original cut again first, then the director's cut every time thereafter (you can pass on the special edition altogether). If you think you'll watch only once and then not again for 10+ years, then go straight to the director's cut.

TomOpus

Just as God mentioned, I watched the original and then watched the director's cut. It's one of my favorite movies of all time.

Once you've watched those two, if you're curious, watch the new ending that Spielberg was forced to do so he could film other new parts that he wanted. You'll see how the studio should've just left the director alone.

JayDerek

and you bothered to even post in this thread because...?

Christ.


Lucas> my favorite cut is Spielberg's new(final) cut. So I'd vote you watch that version

darkside

This is honestly one where I have no major preference and I honestly like something about all three cuts. I would go with the final cut first and then go back and check out the differences. The new release makes it very easy to see all the differences in each version.

Adam Tyner

Seconded.

mike2

Idk about this movie....It just didn't grab me as I expected. Maybe because I was born in the Jurassic Park era when Close Encounters was a thing of the past. I thought Independence day was far more enjoyable. I know I'll get bashed for saying that but that's just how I feel.

Josh Z

My preference is to watch the Director's Cut, but turn it off as soon as



but before

Supermallet

Josh Z

Supermallet

Yeah, but that's Spielberg for you. Ambiguous is the last thing in the world you're going to get from him.

Josh Z

A stupid ending that ruins the whole movie is also a key feature of his filmmaking.

Chrisedge

Actually I find the ending the opposite of what Spielberg would probably do today.

One of my top 10 movies of all time and my favorite Spielberg movie.

cupcake jesus

Munich was plenty ambiguous, so was the ending of A.I.

cheers,

-the Jesus

Supermallet

How was the ending of A.I. ambiguous? I haven't seen Munich so I cannot comment.

dhmac

Yeah, the current-day Spielberg would probably have Roy heading up the ramp to enter the spaceship when his family shows up on the mountain out of nowhere and pleads with him to stay. He'll look longingly at the aliens and the entryway to the spaceship and then turn around and run to his family for a sentimental reunion. He'll then wave goodbye to the aliens as he stays with his family and the aliens leave without him.

(I'm a Spielberg fan, but he doesn't seem to quite have that something-something he used to have back in the day.)

Shannon Nutt

I prefer the Original Cut, with the recent Director's Cut a close second...I'm not a big fan of the Extended version.

Josh Z

I'm trying to figure that one out myself. When a character sits the protagonist down and explains everything that's happened in the story to him step-by-step during a 10 minute monologue, that's the exact opposite of ambiguity.

Supermallet

Yeah, and it doesn't help that after all of that, we close the damn thing with narration that explains again what we're seeing.

Giles

but if any of you actually watched the documentary 'Watch the Skies' Spielberg publicily states he finds flaws in his depiction of Neary - Roy is definately self centered and as Spielberg mentions, the deteriotion of the family structure isn't something he'd delve into nowadays.

Rogue588

Yeah, I feel the same way.

cupcake jesus

I see your point - the literal action isn't ambiguous at all. It isn't in most films. I think that the ending of A.I. is emotionally ambiguous. Many decry the end of the film as sentimental, but I think it can be interpreted as tremendously bleak.

David gets to experience an ideal day with his human "mother," whom he was programmed to love, but who never loved him in return. He and other androids in the film were built and used solely to fulfill human desires (for love, revenge, profit, etc.), and during the course of the film, David experiences rejection, fear, confusion, paranoia, and disappointment. His last day "living" is a perfect day, in which he experiences pure love, the one emotion he hasn't gotten to experience during the course of his "life." Basically, David dies and goes to android heaven, where he, like Pinocchio, becomes a real boy.

The narrator informs the audience, however, that the beings providing David with his final experience are of his own kind - androids who have evolved as organic beings would. They have become self-aware, and are the only form of sentient "life" left on Earth.

David's last day experience is a program that the evolved androids run as an anthropology experiment to study human emotion. They know that after they run the program, David will die. Thus, David's experience of love is a cruel illusion, and just part of his programming. David dies, having been tricked into performing a service for the only ones that he could depend on throughout the course of his life - fellow androids (like Gigolo Joe and Teddy). His own kind have become human - they use David for their own means, then toss him in the trash heap.

I think that the film can be interpreted both as having a sentimental ending or a bleak ending. I'm not sure that either interpretation is right or wrong. Like the mixed political and moral message of Munich, I don't think it's possible to tell how Spielberg feels about David's life and the end of his journey. That's what I meant by the film being ambiguous.

cheers,

-the Jesus

Supermallet

While that's certainly a well thought out interpretation, I don't know if what we're seeing on film actually supports that theory. I certainly wouldn't give Spielberg credit for an ending that intentionally ambiguous, and the fairy tale aspect of the closing narration says to me that it was not intended to be that way.

Also, it's far less bleak than Kubrick's original ending, which had the boy have the day with his mother, but then it ends and he's stuck, alive, awake, and fully aware, watched like an ape in a zoo by the other robots for all eternity.