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This heavy-handed example of hubris shows what in this film damns the human race. Professor Hobby, like Victor Frankenstein before him, believes he can play God; so too do all of the humans who have contributed, consciously or not, to the global warming that in ''A.I.'' dooms life on the planet. In ''A.I.'' humans have squandered Eden and made a mockery of the stewardship which they have interpreted as God-given dominion and license</mark>....<br> | This heavy-handed example of hubris shows what in this film damns the human race. Professor Hobby, like Victor Frankenstein before him, believes he can play God; so too do all of the humans who have contributed, consciously or not, to the global warming that in ''A.I.'' dooms life on the planet. In ''A.I.'' humans have squandered Eden and made a mockery of the stewardship which they have interpreted as God-given dominion and license</mark>....<br> | ||
David's <mark>obsession with his unreality</mark> is the core of the film; the underground world of Rouge City is the place where technology and the Dionysian meet. Martin's cruelty, the Flesh Fair, and <mark>the Mecha body parts dumping so reminiscent of Nazi atrocities</mark> are evidence that <mark>"when manipulated by humans--adults or children--toys embody all the temptations and responsibilities of power."</mark> Finally and most importantly for Professor Hobby and ''A.I.'', <mark>"when toys come alive as beings created by humans (usually male), they replicate 'divine' creation and imply vital possibilities for human creativity while arousing concomitant anxiety about human competition with the divine. These creations also threaten human hegemony"</mark>. Professor Hobby, despite his Geppetto-like vest, is what Kuznets calls <mark>the "bad toy maker."</mark> Imagine the scene in which David is provoked to violence when he returns to his maker's lab and is addressed by a perfect duplicate of himself as you read Kuznets' description: <mark>"the atmosphere that surrounds the bad toy maker can make the toy shop a fiercely threatening place to be"</mark>. As soon as they are <mark>endowed with sentience and self-consciousness, both robots and toys become us</mark>, even when we choose to ignore this fact. <mark>To be a plaything is to be objectified; to be a self-conscious plaything is to be abused</mark>....<br> | David's <mark>obsession with his unreality</mark> is the core of the film; the underground world of Rouge City is the place where technology and the Dionysian meet. Martin's cruelty, the Flesh Fair, and <mark>the Mecha body parts dumping so reminiscent of Nazi atrocities</mark> are evidence that <mark>"when manipulated by humans--adults or children--toys embody all the temptations and responsibilities of power."</mark> Finally and most importantly for Professor Hobby and ''A.I.'', <mark>"when toys come alive as beings created by humans (usually male), they replicate 'divine' creation and imply vital possibilities for human creativity while arousing concomitant anxiety about human competition with the divine. These creations also threaten human hegemony"</mark>. Professor Hobby, despite his Geppetto-like vest, is what Kuznets calls <mark>the "bad toy maker."</mark> Imagine the scene in which David is provoked to violence when he returns to his maker's lab and is addressed by a perfect duplicate of himself as you read Kuznets' description: <mark>"the atmosphere that surrounds the bad toy maker can make the toy shop a fiercely threatening place to be"</mark>. As soon as they are <mark>endowed with sentience and self-consciousness, both robots and toys become us</mark>, even when we choose to ignore this fact. <mark>To be a plaything is to be objectified; to be a self-conscious plaything is to be abused</mark>....<br> | ||
Since it is very clear in the film that humans are directly responsible for doing themselves in and for taking every other species down with them, the robots' nostalgia for the human past does not make a whole lot of sense, especially since these mechanical beings seem <mark>capable of a depth of feeling that no human in the film ever shows</mark>. We are told that humans had "spirit," some ineffable quality or faculty that robots lack, yet the evolved Mechas <mark>form a post-human just community that compares favorably with Collodi's just community and that contrasts vividly with the out of control selfishness and irresponsibility of their human forebears</mark>....In this respect, ''A.I.'' is consistent with what Brian Aldiss said in a 1997 interview in Wired (quoted on "The Kubrick Site") was <mark>Kubrick's belief that androids would "'be an improvement over the human race'"</mark>....<br> | Since it is very clear in the film that humans are directly responsible for doing themselves in and for taking every other species down with them, the robots' nostalgia for the human past does not make a whole lot of sense, especially since these mechanical beings seem <mark>capable of a depth of feeling that no human in the film ever shows</mark>. We are told that humans had "spirit," some ineffable quality or faculty that robots lack, yet the evolved Mechas <mark>form a post-human just community that compares favorably with Collodi's just community and that contrasts vividly with the out of control selfishness and irresponsibility of their human forebears</mark>....In this respect, ''A.I.'' is consistent with what Brian Aldiss said in a 1997 interview in [https://www.wired.com Wired] (quoted on "The Kubrick Site") was <mark>Kubrick's belief that androids would "'be an improvement over the human race'"</mark>....<br> | ||
<mark>Collodi's Pinocchio is not a utopian novel, but by positing a world in which responsible boyhood and adulthood are possible, it distinguishes itself from works like ''A.I.'', in which maturation is purposely and systematically denied</mark>. Ironically, the production schedule for ''A.I.'' would have been more leisurely had it been filmed in a world where growing up is impossible. According to Dustin Putman, the film was shot in 20 weeks rather than a year because Haley Joel Osmet was maturing too fast for comfort....<br> | <mark>Collodi's Pinocchio is not a utopian novel, but by positing a world in which responsible boyhood and adulthood are possible, it distinguishes itself from works like ''A.I.'', in which maturation is purposely and systematically denied</mark>. Ironically, the production schedule for ''A.I.'' would have been more leisurely had it been filmed in a world where growing up is impossible. According to Dustin Putman, the film was shot in 20 weeks rather than a year because Haley Joel Osmet was maturing too fast for comfort....<br> | ||
''A.I''.'s disturbing and somewhat incongruous conclusion marks it as <mark>a dystopia of childhood, a world in which perpetual childhood leads to endless frustration</mark>....<br> | ''A.I''.'s disturbing and somewhat incongruous conclusion marks it as <mark>a dystopia of childhood, a world in which perpetual childhood leads to endless frustration</mark>....<br> | ||