Artificial Intelligence: AI

Cast View all

	Haley Joel Osment	David
	Frances O'Connor	Monica Swinton
	Sam Robards	Henry Swinton
	Jake Thomas	Martin Swinton
	Jude Law	Gigolo Joe
	William Hurt	Prof. Hobby
	Ken Leung	Syatyoo-Sama
	Clark Gregg	Supernerd
	Kevin Sussman	Supernerd
	Tom Gallop	Supernerd
	Eugene Osment	Supernerd
	April Grace	Female Colleague
	Matt Winston	Executive
	Sabrina Grdevich	Sheila
	Theo Greenly	Todd
	Jeremy James Kissner	Kid
	Dillon McEwin	Kid
	Andy Morrow	Kid
	Curt Youngberg	Kid
	Ashley Scott	Gigolo Jane
	John Prosky	Mr. Williamson / the Bellman
	Enrico Colantoni	The Murderer
	Paula Malcomson	Patricia in Mirrored Room
	Brendan Gleeson	Lord Johnson-Johnson
	Michael Berresse	Stage Manager

Crew View all

Director	Steven Spielberg
Writer	Brian Aldiss, Ian Watson, Steven Spielberg
Producer	Bonnie Curtis, Jan Harlan, Kathleen Kennedy, Walter F. Parkes, Steven Spielberg
Musician	John Williams
Photography	Janusz Kaminski

Personal

Notes

WSR Narrative Review

Story Synopsis:
In a future world of runaway global warming and awe-inspiring scientific advances, humans share their lives with sophisticated companion robots known as Mechas. But when an advanced prototype robot child named David (Osment) is equipped with the artificial intelligence to show unconditional love, his human family (Robards and O’Connor)-whose own son, Martin, is in a coma-isn’t prepared for the consequences. When Martin recovers, David soon finds himself alone in a strange and dangerous world. Befriended by a streetwise Mecha (Law), David embarks to discover the secret of his own identity. A visual feast, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” is a fantastic journey into the future. Based on a screen story by Ian Watson and the short story by Brian Aldiss. (Suzanne Hodges)

DVD Picture:
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1 DVD picture exhibits images that are artistically stylized with lots of hazy, blown-out whites to give the picture a dreamy appearance (some may liken the look of the picture to certain films by Stanley Kubrick, who had originally planned to direct this movie). For stylization, cinematographer Janusz Kaminski often used smoke to help soften the picture and brighten the colors. The ENR silver-retention process was also used to increase contrast and give highlights more luminance. The color scheme is quite impressive, with vibrant hues, natural fleshtones, and deep, pure blacks. Typically, modern film transfers use an interpositive (IP) as the source element. With “A.I.,” however, to achieve the desired look, the primary transfer element was a specially produced low-contrast print. Due to the processes used on the production, many scenes on the DVD reveal a fair amount of film grain, but there are no signs of dirt or artifacts. Edge enhancement is noticed on rare occasions, and pixelization and shimmering details are detected at times. (Suzanne Hodges)


Soundtrack:
The soundtrack production, led by sound designer Gary Rydstrom and the team at Skywalker Sound, is certainly remarkable in the sense of creating ambient, sonically-appropriate settings that serve to both immerse and tell the story through the selective combination of soundtrack elements and sound design. As probably would be expected, substantial portions of the audio, particularly with the A.I. subject David living with the Swintons, are of a rather quiescent nature, and appropriately so given the subtle, yet dramatic on-screen action. The visuals often do figure most prominently, so it would be quite appropriate, on an artistic level, to ensure that sound is engaged to reinforce what is seen on-screen, without drawing excessive attention to itself. When David is forced out of his adopted home, the subsequent settings do result in dramatically increased spatial presence, particularly with the torture spectacle of the “captures” at the Flesh Fair in Chapters 16 and 17. The music, composed by John Williams and mixed by Shawn Murphy, has a wonderful, albeit usually subtle presence in the listening space. The recording of the music score is excellent, sounding airy and nicely layered beneath the dialogue and occasional atmospheric effects. Sometimes the score takes on a rather interesting characteristic, seemingly not necessarily with a melodic theme but rather being present to convey the visceral momentum. The low-end associated with the music is also sometimes engaged in a similar manner, and with distinct rumbles below 25 Hz in both the main channels and the .1 LFE. The use of the surrounds is characteristically gentle to moderate, but also with many instances of prominence, such as in the helicopter escape in Chapter 22. The soundfield generated by the surrounds should be particularly delightful to experience, sounding impressively spacious, and at times, with the enhanced dimensionality offered by the Dolby® Digital and DTS audio tracks, both of which offer a matrixed back surround channel. Imaging across the screen is compellingly wide and deep, with a panoramic presence that should certainly please. The dialogue reproduction is excellent, with voices sounding very natural and nicely integrated with the visual settings. The DTS® Digital Surround™ version delivers with a noticeably more effective, more prominent low-end presence, and in terms of spatiality, also sounds considerably more cohesive and immersive. This is a wonderful soundtrack and an excellent example of the effective role of sound in the film’s storytelling, even with subtlety. (Perry Sun)

This Disc Contains The Following WSR-Rated Superb Qualities:
Superb Sound Effects Recording Quality
Superb Music Score Recording Quality
Superb Special Visual Effects Quality
Superb Color Fidelity
Superb Cinematography
Reference Quality
Collector Edition

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