Eclipse's "A.I. simulator" perfectly expressed my feelings on this movie. It went something like this:

To fully simulate the A.I. viewing experience, go sit yourself in 2.5 hours of rush hour traffic. At some point at the 2 hour mark, you may feel the push to leave. At this point, start poking yourself repetedly in the eye with a rusty fork for another 30 minutes. Only then will you feel the true experience that is watching A.I..

Needless to say, I didn't care for it at all. Well, except for Jude Law. He did a good job, but the movie was still horrible.

I liked this movie but is was sooooo depressing and at the same time beautiful.

1. The abuse of Mechas

2. Leaving David in the woods

3. Humanity lossed in Humans

4. Humanity gained in Mechas

The mechas certainly did not gain humanity.

I suppose my problem with the ending lies not in what happens but how it is told. First, the confusion with whether those are aliens or mechas. But, that's fairly minor. I guess my problem was that the ending was not a happy ending, but somewhat of a meloncholy conclusion to his adventure. It makes more sense that he was tricked into his happiness by illusion. But the tone of the end just seemed...far more happy than what was going on. As if Spielberg followed the blueprint for the ending Kubrick set forth but didn't see that it wasn't a happy ending. Nonetheless, I still think this to be one of the best of 2001. I think of most importance is to see this movie as a fairy tale...a robot fairy tale. The advanced mecha are telling this story, the adventure of a robot reaching out to fufill his purpose and be more human, like the creator. Notice how human characters are pretty much unimportant characters (barring Monica and Dr. Hobby who's roles in the robot's life are quite significant). And maybe on that note the ending is happy. This robot, after all these years, has found his peace and purpose, true or not. I mean, the robot view is different than ours. This fairy tale employs characters such as Gigilo Joe who by all means has no place in a standard fairy tale for his morally off kilter profession, but for robots that profession has little meaning. The values of humans are not that of robots. So the happiness of the ending is different. I say view this movie as if it were made for and by mecha. The impact of the story is different. Is my opinion on the tone of the ending right? Perhaps not, maybe the conflict of human thought of what is happy versus mecha happiness truly does cause the rift among viewers. The view on things that humans would look at throughout the movie makes me think that the values and meaning inherently pointed to in this movie are not those of us...but of the mecha that the movie creates. Just my random thoughts.

Wonderfully movie, very enjoyable.

It gets bashed for two reasons...

Speilberg directed it.

Kubrick didn't.

Maybe I saw a different movie....i coulda swore David came close....

I agree the mecha are far more trusting and loving in the movie than the humans are. In fact the humans seem almost robot like and cruel.

So I guess the mecha seem to be like what we as humans strive to be

I must say that I really liked this movie. Although maybe I need to watch it again to even better experience it

That's because I lost a little weight.



FYI, as confirmation that the robots at the end were mecha and not aliens, the voice of the mecha speaking to David at the end (and the beginning too, which lends credence to the mecha fairytale concept) is done by Ben Kingsley, who is credited as the voice of the "advanced mecha" in the credits of the movie.

As was mentioned in the other thread on this topic, count me in as one of the people that originally thought those were aliens at the end of the film, then when I realized I was wrong, my appreciation for the movie increased. When I thought they were aliens, and the end credits started to roll, my reaction was, "Huh????" But when I realized I had seen a transition in Earth history from human population to advanced mecha population, it made so much more sense.

That's not to say I don't think the ending is flawed. It is way too "talky" for me. I almost felt like training manuals needed to be passed out at the end to explain what the heck the mechas were talking about. I maintain that if Kubrick was alive to make this, he would have relied far more on using visual imagery rather than so much dialogue to create an impact in the epilogue. (I submit "2001" as evidence to support this.)

Still - there is one very "Kubrickian" characteristic about this movie for me. Stanley Kubrick may be my all-time favorite director but with only a few exceptions it was rare for me to love a Kubrick film after the first viewing. There is something unique about how the majority of his work is an acquired taste, and only on subsequent viewings of the film do you grow to appreciate it and realize how brilliant it was. I have only seen "A.I." once in its entirety, but it looks like it will eventually fall into that same category for me.

That's not where my problem lies with the film. I've only seen it once and like many people, thought those were aliens in the end and I just didn't get it. I may never get it. But the early parts of the film I really did enjoy.

Well, I'm going to movie from the reject pile back into circulation and rewatch it.

I understood immediately that the beings at the end were evolved Mecha, but I can understand the confusion. The character design is too similiar to the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

For those who saw it once and didn't like it or get it...

If you watch it again, and watch it as a mecha fairy tale (notice the narration at the very beginning to get in that mood)...

please come back and tell us if that changed your opinion of the movie or only reinforced it.

Thanks.

i'm surprised it ended on such a down note with Speilberg directing it. Speilberg is more of an optomist while Kubrick was a pessemist and i would have expected a very different ending from Speilberg but i was actually impressed with it. Kubrick would have still done it differently but i was happy with how Speilberg ended it, actually how he did everything. this is an excellent film.

Thanks for the "mecha telling a fairy-tale" insight. That seems intended and I did not "get it" on my 1st 2 viewings.

I just wanted to say that I did not like middle part of the movie, from when she abandons David, through the "Flesh Fair", up until the Rouge City scenes. Once they got to New York (or whatever) I liked it again. I did like the Jude Law character intro scenes (reminiscent of Bladerunner to me), but most of their time together seemed a little forced. That aspect (middle part of the movie) hearkened to The Wizard of Oz and the journey to OZ. In fact, the dancing Jude is kind of an amalgam of the Tin Man and the Scarecrow. OK, I'm rambling now....

Overall I was ready to trade this film, but I may give it one more watch. The first 50 minutes are the highlight, though, IMHO...

I've find myself watching this film quite often, actually.

It definitely has flaws, but I think it may be one of Spielberg's best films.

I didn't get the alien/advanced mecha thing either, although now i know, i REALLY want to watch the movie again.

The movie is without a doubt told from the advanced mechas POV. Ben Kingsley provides the narration in the beginning and end and also does the voice of the advanced mecha that confronts David near the end.

The only thing that took me out was the

Other than that, while it's a sad ending, it is happy in a way because

It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?

yeah, thanks.
obviously the narration was an indicator that Spielberg was going for a fairytale-like vibe, and i admit, that when i originally saw it i just took that at face value.

but, when viewed as a mecha telling (by implication- another mecha) a fairytale, every event in the film is placed in a different context.

this'll be very interesting to chew on the next time i watch it

This is why the film COULD NOT END when David falls to the bottom of the sea, the story would be incomplete.

I'm glad people are getting that this film is a fairy tale told from a Mecha's point of view (from the future). If you get this part of the film, you will get a lot out of the film upon further viewings of it.

"One year of love...

is better than a lifetime alone..."

Queen

I must've missed the Robin Williams bit.

Also Scot, you do notice that his mother, Monica, was totally different in the ending sequence than she was in "real life".. it may appear to be happy but was it? It was obviously fake, but you could also assume that it didn't matter to David.. it's happy, but only on the surface, the moment you apply any rational thought to it, it gets dreary..

wonderful, ain't it?