Introduction

A.I was a 2001 science fiction film directed by Steven Spielberg

taken over from Stanley Kubrick. Stanley Kubrick had been working
on the film since early 1970s till he handed over to Steven
Spielberg. The film basically follows the journey of a child Android,
David, who tries to find the “Blue Fairy” so that she can turn David
into a real boy and his mother can love him back. In actual fact,
David was a robot designed to love humans, as a child would love
their parents. For his designed functionality to work a voice protocol
would need to be imprinted in an assigned order and he would love
that person forever. We get to have a basic introduction of the
advancement of Artificial intelligence (Androids) in the beginning of
the movie leading to the conclusion of why a robot that can love is
needed. Although the scientist, Professor Hobby explained that it
was for couples who cannot conceive or have problem adopting
children, but it was later revealed in the later part of the story that,
David was actually created to look like the scientist’s child who had
passed away.

Alienated Presence

I find the progression of the character, David the android a very

interesting subject to explore. In the beginning of the story, when
David was first introduced into the family, he was shown as a creepy
and freaky humanoid who follows Monica, his guardian (before voice
imprint) around the house and scaring her. To create the effect of
this creepy and freaky strange presence, the initial entrance of
David was shown as a deformed long neck silhouette suggesting an
alien-like presence. I thought this silhouette looks like the evolved
super mechas in the ending further suggesting the difference
between David and Monica’s family, an alien presence. The next
similar suggestion occurs at David’s new room where Henry, David’s
father is changing his clothes for him and Monica who was looking
at David segmented image through the glass. David was smiling at
Monica through the warp image of himself creating yet another
effect of an alien looking distorted appearance. The last image was
when David was staring at Monica making coffee, the reflection of
David caused him to look like having 4 eyes, further making him
look strange and creepy. The mimicking of the “uncanny valley” by
the character in the initial part of the story where he tries to
observe every single thing and copy everything the humans do,
makes his presence as a robot very convincing. The interesting and
clever yet simple use of shots manipulation, successfully create the
alienated presence in the character.

Left: The long neck silhouette of David. Center: Segmented image of

David through a glass. Right: A four eyed David created through a
reflection on the table.

The Difference between a Human and a Robot – Knowing

Love

The next stage of progress that is interesting to take note would be

the voice imprint process where Monica have to read out a series of
words in sequence to David while pressing his neck behind. I find
this scene most fascinating where we can actually feel a subtle
difference before and after the voice imprint. When David was first
shown in the room, he was shown smiling a creepy and poker face
like smile. He was also speaking in a stiff manner but upon
completion of the imprint, we can see a vast change in his
expression and speech. The reason I find this scene interesting is
that, the moment David’s target of command was designated, he
immediately became human like, on screen it seems like the imprint
were what made him human but my interpretation is that, the
moment he knew who he had to love or the moment he knew love,
he became human-like. This is one of the main differences between
a human and a robot, the ability to love. Despite still behaving
slightly stiff and creepy, we can feel a slight difference and shift in
characteristic in David. He is no longer seen donning a creepy smile
and speaking in a monotonous voice, but we start to see him having
expression and emotions, when he tells Monica that he hopes that
she doesn’t die.

Left: The creepy poker face smile that can be seen on David’s face
throughout most of the first part until this scene. Right: The shift in
expression, where we see a more emotional and expressive face of David.

Sex and Love

During the introduction scene in the room where Professor Hobby

was giving a speech on Artificial intelligence, and he concluded that
based on his research, he suggest that they build a robot that can
love and another fellow member replied by saying that they ship
thousands of lovers model (prostitute robots) every month. I
thought it was an interesting dialog as the later part of the story
where David travels to Manhattan together with Gigolo Joe because
they placed 2 representation of the meaning of love together in the
story with David representing true love and Joe representing sexual
love or superficial love. Throughout their journey together we can
see the difference between David and Joe, as Joe looks at women
only as pleasure seeking creature while David only seeks to obtain
love from Monica. This 2 combination of character creates a very
contrasting effect and chemistry despite both of them being of the
same kind. It was a very interesting juxtaposition of characters. In
my opinion, the end for Joe and David also suggested how
superficial sexual love is not as enduring as true love but they
requires each other to move on with Joe helping David escape while
he gets arrested.

Humans and Robots

At the Flesh fair where we see human beings cheering and enjoying
the cruel destruction of unlicensed androids, it was a scene where
we see the basis of human nature explored and portrayed. In my
personal opinion, the cruel destruction of the androids was a result
of human’s jealousy towards these ever living beings, our jealousy
of an evolution where we’re not part of, but merely involved in. The
creation of an object for a purpose to make our life easier, and
ungratefully destroying them fully shows how backwards human
being are. It was only when David appears that they couldn’t believe
that he was a robot that needs to be destroyed. Putting this issue in
real situation, I find that, sometimes human being destroy each
other simply because they do not have something common they can
sympathize with, but when they do, they begin to put aside their
differences and move towards a common goal. In the movie’s case,
when they concluded that David was just a kid, like their children,
they act together to rescue David.

Conclusion

The film was like a masterpiece, telling the sad story of an android
child searching for a mother’s love. Fueled by the basic desire of
wanting to be love, he traveled across the globe simply hoping to
become a boy. The growth of the character, and his encounters
makes me slowly feels his desire to become a boy and frustration of
not being love. His never give up and un-questioning characteristic
about his own mission makes the journey a very touching and
enchanting experience.