A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

At its core, it's a modern take on Pinocchio- An artificial boy who just wants to be loved by his "mother", his owner who programmed him into treating her as his mother and unconditionally loving her. David is a robot child designed for those who can't have an organic one. (In the world of A.I., the melting of the polar ice caps has made land and resources more scarce, so population control is strict. In order to have a child, you have to get a permit, which is hard to do.) David is given to a family whose organic child is stuck in a coma and has been for forever. He's treated as nothing more than a robot at first, before the mother decides to 'imprint' him, making him treat her as his mother- a process that is irreversible. Unfortunately, as soon as she does this, their real child wakes up from his coma. The family tries having the two kids live together, but after an incident where David almost drowns the other, the mother decides to abandon David. David, remembering his mother reading Pinocchio to him, then sets out to find the 'Blue Fairy' and have her turn him into a real boy. His adventure eventually leads him to drowned New York, where he gains access to a submarine and visits now-underwater Coney Island and their Blue Fairy statue, where he asks the Blue Fairy to make him a real boy. Over and over. With no response. He asks, hoping to get an answer, repeatedly, for several hundred years until the ocean freezes over and David along with it. I wish that was when it ended. Apparently Spielberg or Kubrick (who wrote the movie before passing away, leaving Spielberg to bring it to life) thought it would be a great idea to force an actual ending on us. (Inhales) If you need to bring aliens into your movie just to make it end, you have a serious problem with your ending. This ending is infamous for being unnecessary and just overall confusing, and it just really ruins the magic of the movie for you. It doesn't matter what happened next, it should've ended with David freezing over. The movie's ending is less satisfying, being one where the main character doesn't succeed in his quest, but at least it would've made sense. I don't know what Kubrick was smoking when making this movie, but he just shouldn't have. Or maybe it's just because I'm not a fan of Kubrick's work.

This movie was so fraught with emotion and the search for meaning. The main one being, what is the purpose of living if this sad unpredictable existence is all there is. Where our loved ones die or leave us. Where hurt pain separation and longing are such an awful part of our existence. Truly made me glad to be a Christian because I know this life is not all there is and the one to come will be never ending and tears will be a thing of the past. Thank God for His Son Jesus. His greatest gift to mankind.

To truly connect with his movie you have to do as I have done and allow it to relate to the dreams and visions we all have had in our youth. "Artificial Intelligence" is a thinkers film set to a dreamy score by John Williams, filled with double entendres and references to other classicSpielberg & Kubrick films. I can go on forever about why I love this movie so much, but my favorite aspect of it is that it reminds me of my childhood love for the Disney film classic and 1982 Disneyland dark ride "Pinnochio."