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Artificial Intelligence: AI - Ending Discussions (Spoilers) |
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 Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 12:41 am |
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I just did my review for AI. From participation on RT, I know the ending is a pretty contentious topic. I didn't want people to discuss it on the review, so if you want to discuss it, here's the thread to do it.
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| Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 4:43 am |
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I love the ending. It is love in every form. It is completely contradictory in every way. Fleeting, and eternal. Confusing and clarifying. Hopeful and completely depressing.
It is perfect IMO.
_________________
Helping people is against my principles.
-Jeffrey Goines
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| Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 5:59 am |
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Hi Spike, I too love the ending. The fairy tale nature of it really provides wonderful closure for David's character.
Regarding why I didn't give it 10 stars, there were a number of things that I found issue with. Aside from some rather strange pacing changes, the Flesh Fair scene struck me as disingenuous. Crazed yokel's happily paying and screaming to see androids ripped to shreds wouldn't turn on a dime just because an android was a kid. It just doesn't hold well for me. There were also a number of minor issues, like the mismatch between the mother thinking the corporation will kill David and their intense desire to get David back; the issue of Professor Hobby leaving David alone forever and expecting him to stay there, right after he just describes all the self-directive stuff David does; and then not retrieving him afterwards.
But again, these are all pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, and I could certainly be swayed to giving it a 9 star rating if everyone thinks 8 is too low.
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| Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 1:17 pm |
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I hated the ending, but most of the movie didn't work for me. I liked the Kubric touches far far more than the Spielberg sentimentality. I had such high expectations for a movie that would dedicate itself to the concerns/ideas/consequences of Artificial Intelligence, but what we got was an updated version of E.T.
If I wasn't expecting more and the movie was more coherently and consistently the family friendly story maybe I would have enjoyed it more. The Kubric stylings just made me mourn what could have been. But even given all that I could never have warmed to the deux ex machina sloppy ultra-sentimental ending.
_________________
-Just a thought-
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 12:11 am |
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It's no secret by now that I didn't care for the ending, but I play a little game with myself every time I watch it, which sort of results in it having a more interesting ending (for myself, at least...as to whether others agree is up to the individual).
Anyway, here goes. Simple, really. The movie/story ends when David finds the Blue Fairy statue at the bottom of the ocean. Everything that happens after that is a glitch of the emotion "chip" in his head. BRAZIL-like, I know...but it gives me chills every time to imagine him sitting at the bottom of the ocean until the end of time (or whenever his circuit dies)...asking the Blue Fairy to make his mother love him.
_________________
“Time moves in one direction, memory in another.” - William Gibson
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:09 am |
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| Case wrote: | It's no secret by now that I didn't care for the ending, but I play a little game with myself every time I watch it, which sort of results in it having a more interesting ending (for myself, at least...as to whether others agree is up to the individual).
Anyway, here goes. Simple, really. The movie/story ends when David finds the Blue Fairy statue at the bottom of the ocean. Everything that happens after that is a glitch of the emotion "chip" in his head. BRAZIL-like, I know...but it gives me chills every time to imagine him sitting at the bottom of the ocean until the end of time (or whenever his circuit dies)...asking the Blue Fairy to make his mother love him. |
Does anyone know if the original script had the Aliens in it? I do agree that the Blue Fairy scene would have been a fine place to end it, although I really didn't have as many problems with the after-actions as most do.
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:28 pm |
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I thought the ending was just pure cheese. I did like the translucent, malnutritioned anorexic-looking aliens and the bizarre purity of their technology but all the rest was just too fairy-tale like. A prime example of the film's schizophrenic storytelling really...
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| Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:13 pm |
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| Metatron wrote: | | I thought the ending was just pure cheese. I did like the translucent, malnutritioned anorexic-looking aliens and the bizarre purity of their technology but all the rest was just too fairy-tale like. A prime example of the film's schizophrenic storytelling really... |
The fairytale aspect is exactly why I liked it. David structured his reality around a fairytale (this wouldn't be surprising for a real boy of his size to do either). For me, the ending worked in terms of providing an interesting closure to the story and character. I do agree that had it ended at the bottom of the NY ocean, this too would have worked just fine.
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| Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 12:14 am |
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| Case wrote: | It's no secret by now that I didn't care for the ending, but I play a little game with myself every time I watch it, which sort of results in it having a more interesting ending (for myself, at least...as to whether others agree is up to the individual).
Anyway, here goes. Simple, really. The movie/story ends when David finds the Blue Fairy statue at the bottom of the ocean. Everything that happens after that is a glitch of the emotion "chip" in his head. BRAZIL-like, I know...but it gives me chills every time to imagine him sitting at the bottom of the ocean until the end of time (or whenever his circuit dies)...asking the Blue Fairy to make his mother love him. |
One could almost imagine Kubrick himself giggling with glee at the thought of fading to black as David pleads to the Blue Fairy to make him a real boy. However from all I've heard Kubrick's ending is the one Spielberg went with.
The thing about the ending is that while it does reek of Deus Ex soap opera garbage with Mecha/Aliens finding David and bringing back his mother I don't think it is all there is to the ending. We have to remember that David doesn't get turned into a real boy. They just "give him what he wants" and sure he finds happiness in that he still is a mecha trapped forever by his program. That is amazingly depressing. For me I cared about David. I pitied David. The movie's end isn't sappy or sentimental to me. I think David had earned...the right to see his "mother" again but to take that right back and end on him sleeping next to her corpse is bittersweet and perfect.
I agree with SFAM, ending at the bottom of the ocean would have been fine with me but I think the ending as it is was just as depressing if you think about it.
_________________
Helping people is against my principles.
-Jeffrey Goines
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| Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 3:57 am |
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| spikethebloody wrote: | | The thing about the ending is that while it does reek of Deus Ex soap opera garbage with Mecha/Aliens finding David and bringing back his mother I don't think it is all there is to the ending. We have to remember that David doesn't get turned into a real boy. They just "give him what he wants" and sure he finds happiness in that he still is a mecha trapped forever by his program. That is amazingly depressing. For me I cared about David. I pitied David. The movie's end isn't sappy or sentimental to me. I think David had earned...the right to see his "mother" again but to take that right back and end on him sleeping next to her corpse is bittersweet and perfect. |
Well put, and that's a great assessment of the ending. It has a fairy tale quality to it with narration and all, but in the end, the ending isn't a feel-good one, is it? David isn't turned into a boy, his mother is wiped from the face of eternal universal memory, and David essentially comits suicide vice waking up again.
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| Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:04 am |
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| Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2006 7:18 am |
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On the issue of the end and how it fits with the rest of the story: the whole thing is supposed to be a fairy tale but it just looks like another Speilberg/ILM film. I think all ILM stuff has the same look to it and that look is so prevelent in film that we tend to think of it as "realistic".
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| Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 9:59 pm |
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I was going through a separation when I saw this movie for the first time and the scene where David is abandoned by his 'mommy' tore me up. Now that I'm adjusted to being a part time parent, I can at least watch it without getting the shakes!
As a fully paid up member of the National Secular Society, I'd like to add that the 'ending' at the bottom of the sea says an awful lot about the religious aspirations many of us have, or have had. How many of us, when the chips have truly been down, have found ourselves praying to a God that we're not entirely sure is listening?
Which is why the 'epilogue' ending is even more interesting. It echoes the question pondered by Richard Dawkins, the British scientist and outspoken advocate of atheism. Ultimately, David's 'reward' was illusionary, or at best, artificially constructed.
So at the risk of plagiarising Dawkins: Is it morally wrong to knowingly tell a lie that might give false hope, no matter how comforting it might be to the person who hears it?
_________________
Take back your brain! Check out the Free cyberpunk novel "i-con" at http://arksanctum.org
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