Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
David, a robotic boy—the first of his kind programmed to love—is adopted as a test case by a Cybertronics employee and his wife. Though he gradually becomes their child, a series of unexpected circumstances make this life impossible for David.
A.I. is a visually stunning and emotionally ambitious sci-fi fable that blends Kubrick's cold intellectualism with Spielberg's sentimental warmth, sometimes uneasily. Haley Joel Osment delivers a remarkable performance as David, and the film's world-building and cinematography are genuinely exceptional. However, the plot loses coherence in its final act, and the ending—with its controversial alien-mediated coda—is widely considered a misstep that undermines the film's emotional integrity, feeling both protracted and tonally inconsistent with what came before. The film's Pinocchio-inflected premise and its haunting meditation on consciousness and love remain distinctively original.