If it were possible for robots to really feel emotions, this means that they would be an artificially created human. The only difference would be is that the inside of their bodies would be electronic instead of organic and they would never become ill or aged. They may be broken, but they could be fixed. They would be a superior form of human being. They would be able to love, hate, be jealous, happy, sad, excited, just as a normal human would. You would hardly be able to tell the difference. The robot humans would not be used as human services like Gigolo Joe, they would be able to follow their own dreams just as David does on his quest to become a real boy, to be more loved by Monica, but if they could do this, it could end up being the end of the human race as they would be able to get mad at humans for using them as services, just like a slave would be. They would feel abused and used so they would fight back and take revenge and because they are robotic, they would be a lot stronger than humans, less fragile and harder to destroy. The humans would not be able to win, or they could use humans as slave, just as they did with them, but this does not happen in A.I. Humans are extinct and all that is left is the robots searching for a way to examine humans and what they used to be like, just as we do with dinosaurs today! That is why in the film the robots are excited about finding David as he knew real live humans.
Some people would argue over robot rights as the human robots could be defined as living entities because they would have minds of their own. They would be able to choose what sort of life they want to lead, just as we can. Other people would not recognise the robots as living entities. In their view, in order to live you need to be able to respire, pump blood through your body and make decisions with a brain. In their view the only form of brain would be that formed by birth, childhood and adult experiences. They would believe that the robot was just an advanced human creation anyway. Another way of looking at this aspect would be that it is still a brain, but instead of being created in a mother’s womb, the robots brain would be created by humans or may be other robots using electronic parts for it. Cells and tissue are not the only criteria.
It is unbelievable that after robots ceased to be obedient and accountable to humans, they are prosecuted – because if your child was disobedient some of the time, you would not send them off somewhere to be destroyed, you would handle the situation logically and punish them, so hopefully they would learn not to do it again. It would not matter if you destroyed your computer because it would not feel pain or be scared by the destruction, but a robot that feels emotions is practically human, so destroying it would almost be like murder. Arguments over such cases would may be never be resolved and could result in a war between humans and robots for robots’ freedom to have the same rights as humans just as when black people were fighting for theirs. There is still some prejudice even today. After abolition of black slavery, the death of Martin Luther King (black rights activist) and the freedom of Nelson Mandella and the abolition of apartheid.
Humans already disliked robots that is why they made such things as the flesh fair because of jealousy towards them as they are better at some things than humans are, such as Gigolo Joe who is better at giving sexual pleasure to women than men are, which is why men would be jealous of him, so if a robot wanted to work along side humans then some people would be outraged by this.
Because Spielberg is Jewish he has a certain fascination with people who are different, being abused and explores the situations within his films. This situation is featured in other films such as Schindlers list, a film about the holocaust where Germans deny Jewish people of their rights, their humanity, their freedom just because of their religion, but instead of showing what happened in the holocaust war was actually about (where thousands of Jewish people where killed and tortured in concentration camps), he focuses on 600 people who survived to give it that happy ending, but in fact the holocaust was really a very sad event.
When robots start to feel emotions they become more than just a toy or a service, they became a true individual, in some people’s eyes, who should be treated and respected the way another human would be to you, if they respected and treated you in the same manner. In the real world, of course not everyone would see it that way. Being like humans most robots would hopefully turn the other cheek instead of being irrational as most humans do but you could not judge robots by right or wrong unless such rules are applied to yourself.
First of all when you see David you do not have any cares for him and he just looks like boy at a glance but you can tell by the way he talks and walks. He has totally perfect posture and speech without any emotion it, he is completely logical in what he does. When David is able to love and feel emotions he starts to act like a real child and does not walk like a robot and becomes illogical because his human side to feel emotion makes him believe that the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio was real and he thinks that if he does find the Blue Fairy his mother will love him. This shows that David is just like a human as he believes in the supernatural things which cannot possibly happen just as humans do. This is one of the faults of the human race; even David’s skin is more naturalistic. As David experiences his emotions he becomes more humanlike, for example, when he laughs. Normal robots do not laugh so that brings him closer to being more humanlike. He is jealous of Monica’s love for Martin, as Martin is a real boy and her real son. He is scared of the knife when Martin’s friends want to see if David as DAS. He is scared when he is about to be burnt to death and screams for his life and that is when the crowd believe that he is a real boy at the Flesh Fair because robots do not plead for their lives. He also gets angry. This is when he can be very destructive. He gets angry when he realises that he is not actually special or unique so he destroys the robot that shows him this (the same robot as him). With such strength he could destroy anything. The most memorable special effects for me were all of the half built robots when they are piecing themselves together and when they are at the Flesh Fair being destroyed and in the cage. I also liked Ruge City and the futuristic robots at the end of the film.
As the Flesh Fair scene starts there is a long shot from a very high angle to make the Flesh Fair look intimidating and dangerous. There is also a high angle on Teddy as he walks into the Flesh Fair, but this is to make him look vulnerable. Throughout the scene you are constantly reminded of the Flesh Fair sign; even as the woman picks up Teddy you can still see the sign that says “Flesh Fair Celebration of Life”. There is a low angle on the woman who picks up Teddy to make her look imposing.
As Teddy is thrown around and taken to the lost and found, the camera tracks the whole walk around the back of the stand where people watch the arena. All you can see are the shapes of people. It is indistinctive because you can see nobody’s face. You are then given another high angle of the arena and the people setting up the big cannons to make it look dangerous again. The camera then goes to a high angle on the robots in the cage to make them look vulnerable. The camera is tilted upwards to the singer to make him look imposing.
When the black robot is being put into the cannon, the camera tracks through all the robots to show their expressions and then zooms in to show the emotions easily and there is a close up of David grabbing Joe’s hand to show he is scared.
There is a very low angle on Teddy as he makes his way to the cage. The camera is almost on the floor to show what everything looks like from his point of view.
When the Nanny gets melted by acid, the camera zooms in to show her smiling face to David. When she turns, you can see all her robotic parts, but from the front she looks normal. At this point, the pace has slowed and is less manic, as the pace was very fast and manic before. David goes past the melted robots on the floor going one way as he is going another. It is meant to show he is next. There is a high shot when the audience are silenced, focussing all the attention on the Master of Ceremonies to make him look threatening. A high angle shot on the oil hanging over David and Joe shows it will be soon going over them keeps the audience’s attention.
When someone speaks out in the crowd, you can see actual faces instead of just bodies, to show that they are angry with the Master of Ceremonies and that their sympathy lies with David because they think he is real.
When David and Joe leave the Flesh Fair, there is a high angle shot looking straight down at them. It shows them going through the exit so that you know they are now safe and out of the dreaded Flesh Fair. The music is powerful, calm and significant making you feel the relief they feel at being out of the terrible place. There is a very low angle shot whilst they are walking and when they are out of shot you see the Flesh Fair sign once again before the film moves on.
All the way through the scene whenever someone spoke the music and crowd’s cheering volume was low, so you could hear all the voices. In real life, you would not have heard them otherwise. The Flesh Fair scene has elements of Ancient Rome in it because all the robots are being massacred in front of a large audience by people, just as people who had done something wrong in the eyes of others in Ancient Rome were massacred in front of a large audience by Gladiators. The audience watching the film would feel more sympathy for the robots rather than the humans because they are being destroyed in such terrible ways for no good reason, really just because they got old or supposedly did something wrong. The humans are being barbaric and are far worse than the robots; they even try to help to destroy them.
The atmosphere is chaotic and moodily threatening because all you can see and hear is robots being destroyed in all sort of imaginative ways and the crowd shouting and screaming “kill” and other comments along those lines. You also have dark music playing all about death. The music is very angry. You never see the faces of the crowd because they are acting as a mob and are not recognisable. Lat on at the end of the scene, the audience are shown the expressions of individuals.
In the second half of the movie, A.I becomes more like a fairy tale like Pinocchio where David goes on his quest to become a real boy. David is, in fact, real enough for us as an audience as he has all of the characteristics of a real boy and does nothing to make us believe that he is a robot.
The film descends into sentimentality because of the events that are happening, like David finding out that he is not special or unique. You find yourself empathising for the little robot child when David begs the fairy to make him into a real boy for 2000 years. The sad music reflects the sentimentality.
I did not expect the ending the praise the best side of what humans can be. It was a great surprise because anyone who can think and feel emotions for themselves would hate the humans for such prejudice against them, such as the treatment meted out in the Flesh Fair.
At the end David achieves unique status in two ways. They are:-
He being the only robot looking like a human and actually had experienced living with them, and
He is the only robot of his kind again.
A.I has a happy ending because like humans David had held on to his dream (that his mother would love him like a normal son) and in the end it seems she did, but in real life, people do not always achieve their dreams.
In my opinion does do justice to the original ideas up to a point, but loses some of its scientific debate by the fairy story aspect. We don’t really know how a robot would react with human emotions and what it would make of, or its reaction to, having human emotions. At the moment it is just science fiction but it could become a reality in the future; a flat fact!
