A. I. Artificial Intelligence

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * * )

Two of the world's greatest film-makers combine to make ... well, it's not one of the world's greatest films but it's a long, long way from being one of the worst.

Stanley Kubrick worked on the idea from Brian Aldiss' 1969 short story, Supertoys Last All Summer Long, about a cyberpet that is abandoned in the woods, for 15 years before passing it on to Steven Spielberg. Kubrick never felt that he'd hit on the essence of the film.

What you see is Spielberg's vision, made after Kubrick died in 1999.

The story is set in the future. Global warming has drowned the world's coastlines and many of its most famous cities but the American economy has survived by exploiting mechas or human-like robots.

Professor Hobby (William Hurt), whose company makes mechas, now wants to build "a robot that can love".

Twenty months later, meet Monica and Henry (Frances O'Connor and Sam Robards), whose child has been frozen until science finds a cure for his disease. Henry brings home a mecha, David (Haley Joel Osment), who has an advanced chip that allows him to learn, adapt and "love".

Like Pinocchio, David can never be a real boy. He goes to bed when told even though he doesn't sleep. He doesn't need to eat but ruins his wiring by swallowing spinach. Other kids are cruel to him.

For reasons that we won't go into — it would spoil the story — Monica abandons David in the woods. The mecha wanders through the world with Teddy, his mecha pet bear, dreaming of becoming a real boy and earning Monica's love.

He read Pinocchio at bedtime and believes that the Blue Fairy can bring him to life.

David and Teddy run into Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a love mecha, a hustler. After a number of adventures they arrive at Rouge City, where a wizard tells David where to look for the Blue Fairy, and the final, spectacular, poignant scenes are set in a drowned New York.

Law is his predictably remarkable self. The 13-year-old Osment, who is on screen in almost every scene, is (sorry, have to use the word) awesome; not the lovable kid from The Sixth Sense but something
subtly different, infinitely more complex.

Ultimately the film, spectacular in its effects, challenging in its subject matter, has to be marked down because Spielberg slips where he has so often — out of sentiment and wonder and into saccharin.

Rental video, DVD: Today

DVD features: two-disc set with movie (145 mins); special effects portfolio; production interviews with Steven Spielberg and Stan Winston, special effects designer; behind the scenes footage; The Robots Of A. I., A. I.'s Sound Effects and Score features; trailers; film-to-storyboard comparison; portrait gallery; behind-the-scenes photos.