Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4697 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-03-18
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Italian
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 145 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
History will place an asterisk next to A.I. as the film Stanley Kubrick might have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick--after developing this project for some 15 years--wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio, claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg's kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (based on the Brain Aldiss short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long") after Kubrick's death in 1999, and the result is an astounding directorial hybrid. A flawed masterpiece of sorts, in which Spielberg's gift for wondrous enchantment often clashes (and sometimes melds) with Kubrick's harsher vision of humanity, the film spans near and distant futures with the fairy-tale adventures of an artificial boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), a marvel of cybernetic progress who wants only to be a real boy, loved by his mother in that happy place called home.

Echoes of Spielberg's Empire of the Sun are evident as young David, shunned by his trial parents and tossed into an unfriendly world, is joined by fellow "mecha" Gigolo Joe (played with a dancer's agility by Jude Law) in his quest for a mother-and-child reunion. Parallels to Pinocchio intensify as David reaches "the end of the world" (a Manhattan flooded by melted polar ice caps), and a far-future epilogue propels A.I. into even deeper realms of wonder, just as it pulls Spielberg back to his comfort zone of sweetness and soothing sentiment. Some may lament the diffusion of Kubrick's original vision, but this is Spielberg's A.I., a film of astonishing technical wizardry that spans the spectrum of human emotions and offers just enough Kubrick to suggest that humanity's future is anything but guaranteed. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

On the DVD: A perfect movie for the digital age, A.I. finds a natural home on DVD. The purity of the picture, its carefully composed colour schemes and the multifarious sound effects are accorded the pin-point sharpness they deserve with the anamorphic 1.85:1 picture and Dolby 5.1 sound, as is John Williams's thoughtful music score. On the first disc there's a short yet revealing documentary, "Creating A.I.", but the meat of the extras appears on disc two. Here there are good, well-made featurettes on acting, set design, costumes, lighting, sound design, music and various aspects of the special effects: Stan Winston's remarkable robots (including Teddy, of course) and ILM's flawless CGI work. In addition there are storyboards, photographs and trailers. Finally, Steven Spielberg provides some rather sententious closing remarks ("I think that we have to be very careful about how we as a species use our genius"), but no director's commentary. --Mark Walker

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:

Documentary on bringing AI to the screen
Interviews with Steven Spielberg, Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law
Newly produced behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of AI
An interview with Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom at Skywalker Ranch
A visit to Stan Winston Studios with early "Teddy" footage
Interviews with Lucasfilm's ILM special effects group
Trailers, storyboards, drawings and hundreds of photos approved by Steven Spielberg for this release
Interactive menus
Scene access
And much, much more!

Languages: Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 English, French, Italian
Subtitles: English, French, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Romanian, Bulgarian
Hearing Impaired: English, Italian
Widescreen 1.85:1

Synopsis
A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is the story of David (Haley Joel Osment), the first mecha (a futuristic term for a mechanized human being) designed with the ability to love. A couple whose son is in a coma "adopts" David to help them recover from their loss. Naturally, things do not go as planned, and David is forced to leave the mother (Frances O'Connor) he's been "imprinted" to love, and make his way in the world. Traveling with Teddy, a hi-tech stuffed bear, David escapes the Flesh Fair, where angry humans destroy mechas to "purge artificiality," and unexpectedly befriends Gigolo Joe (Jude Law in a wry performance), a robot designed to pleasure women. Joe agrees to help David in his quest to become human.
Director Stanley Kubrick originally developed A.I., at one point asking Spielberg to direct it. When Kubrick passed away, Spielberg took the reins. Using a treatment and thousands of drawings commissioned by Kubrick, Spielberg wrote his own screenplay (his first since 1979's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND). Osment, perhaps the only pre-teen actor who can effectively convey existential angst, gives a marvelous performance, helping Spielberg create a gorgeous futuristic fairy tale that questions the very nature of what we call life.

Customer Reviews

A.I. - Almost Intelligent
We (family) started watching this film on TV, but as it was on late, could only watch the first hour. What we saw gripped us, so I quickly rented it on DVD. We sat, wanting to find out what happened to David, the robot boy brought to `life' by a woman who thought she had lost her own son and so was able to programme David so that he looked on her as his `mummy'. Would he find refuge with the wide-boy android in the seedy underworld where droids and people mixed - or would they be caught by the droid-hating humans, who saw fit to destroy robots in terrible and sadistic ways?
This opening promised so much - and yet - we were hugely disappointed. The film after this seemed to lose itself and lurch into fairy stories: Wizard of Oz, Pinocchio (of course, as David longs to be a real boy so Mummy will love him.) A confused middle bit and then a whole load of `endings' that just seem to go on and on -with David being trapped in ice for 2000 years until Aliens find him. ("Aliens? What's all THAT about?" says my 12 year old.) Ah but - these Aliens can recreate his world from his memories, and bring back his mummy, but she can only last for a day - and on it goes.
Perhaps if we had seen the film all the way through the first time, the gripping start might have helped us suspend our belief. It was just SO disappointing as it had the makings to be a really superb film - looking at what it is that makes us human. The cinematography is atmospheric, the special effects are good, there was a real sense of involvement and tension built at the start. Sadly, it ended up being let down by its flabby plot.

ONE OF THE MOST DISTURBING MOVIES IN YEARS.
This movie which is as complex as it is disturbing on many levels involves a couple. Who have lost there son and with the help of the cybernetic corporation the Father works for are given David. He is an advanced robot programmed to mimic a human and learn to in effect become one. The earth which has been ravaged by global warming leaves the remaining Human population living on smaller continents. Humanity have built thousands of Machines who become more human like to take the work load from them. David is the most advanced and he through time want's to become a human ( which isn't a new idea, Look at Data in TNG ). However some parts of humanity despise the Sims and the most disturbing part for me. Was to witness the ' Circus of the Flesh' where the robots are ritually destroyed to a baying mob. This is a good film but not one if you don't want nightmares for a long time afterwards.

No intelligence full stop!
I remember at the time my girlfriend harping on about this film, saying it was the best thing ever, she said I would love it! I watched it and as a result lost all confidence in spielberg as a director and also dumped the girlfriend, I couldn't look at her the same way again after the AI experience.
The thing about this film, is that you don't really like any of the characters, the world is painted as being such a bleak and selfish place that I just couldn't force myself to enjoy watching the film and just wanted it to end. When the end finally comes, well it's true testament that spielberg has definitely lost the plot in recent years. I'm sure it reads much better in the written form but AI is one to avoid.