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In Reply to: A.I. (long) posted by Troy on July 04, 2001 at 14:46:18:
Are you watching the same cut I did?
Just because the advanced robots look like aliens doesn't imply
that they are.It was explictly stated that the skinny translucent things
were the advanced robots. How much more clear do they have to
make it?The fact that Speielberg has to SPELL OUT everything for the
numbskulls is a major fault of this movie.There was so much opportunity for the use of subtext and imagry
to tell the story. But no, you gotta have a dorky narrator putting
simplistic explanations on everything, or worse yet, characters
that have to explain who they are.The machine-become-man concept is not new. Maybe
Speilberg should have read a few SF novels and stolen some
endings rather than create one that I think even Disney could
have outdone.A lot of critics have dumped on the movie for the fact that
the lead character is a robot, and there is no way that the
human audience can feel for the robot, and there is no way
that the audience can expect the Mother and Father to love
the robot. It is a man-made thing and therefore man has the
right to destroy what he creates.There are two very interesting themes here that Speilberg
fumbles AND the critics totally miss.
1) DOES man have the right to destroy what he creates?
When a thing of beauty and maybe even life is created, do
we have any responsibility to it.
2) Can we define ANY form of sentient life by the axiom
"I think, therefore I am". IF so, then the robots have
as much right to life as the humans.Speilberg GETS CLOSE to exposing this issues, but then he
washes over them, confused. As if he could see part of the picture
(I tend to believe its part of Kubrick's vision) but
he can't handle it. He ran out of money? time? the ability
to communicate deep thoughts through cinema?Speilberg should be praised for this movie.
A director of his stature (deserved or not) should be ashamed he
screwed this up in so many ways.
Follow Ups:
God made Man to love him. Why would God love Man in return?So we make all these robots, following Asimov Rules of Order, plus we have them love us in their own way. Their morality (the morality of metal) frightens us. What will they consider to be acceptable behavior? Cutting a lock of hair? Dragging a child to the bottom of a pool?
Clearly humans were unfit to accept the robots. Humans are too fragile and the robots too tough. Plus the humans own motivations are suspect. Gods plans can be considered divine, but what common instincts drive people?
Yes, the skinny things at the end were robots, the gigalo robot said as much earlier, that someday they would be all that is left. Also interesting is that instead of millions of years of evolution, we see what 2000 years will do to these metal creatures.
But even then, as kind as they were, what were their motivations? Their morality? Where do you think they would go? Was this already the pinnacle of their existence? Were they just begun? I feel relatively confident that as slow as evolution is, if humans survive, the sky is the limit. I do not feel the same way about robots. What motivates them to evolve?
If the child robot is capable of sitting underwater for 2000 years praying to a statue, then what tangents will the new robots go on, and what logic loops will they enter?
It is man's imagination that wonders what advanced life forms would be like and what could they know and do they we cannot even conceive of that is the fascinating point of A.I. or any other sci fi novel or flick that focuses on Artificial Intelligence or man vs robot. Even the current crop of robot housekeepers, for example the cute little guy from NEC (Japanese company) are light years behind in terms of capabilities exhibited by the advanced robots that made their appearance at the end of the movie. I think the idea that the advanced robots were not hostile is a change from the usual pattern and the idea that they could make "dreams come true" is very god-like, you have to admit. On a human level, the (bonding) relationship that can occur between parent and child is another level not commented upon by the mass media reviewers, but I think is part of the movie's appeal.
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