A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) — PICK
Lucy (2014) — PASS

 

Like the transhumanism-themed films Ex Machina and Her, Steven Spielberg’s messy but fascinating A.I. Artificial Intelligence explores questions around turning to machines for our emotional as well as practical needs.

Developed for years by Stanley Kubrick before being turned over to Spielberg, A.I. is as difficult and challenging as Kubrick’s 2001 and as shrewdly observed and obsessive as Spielberg’s Close Encounters.

The film is set in a world of melted polar ice caps, widespread coastal destruction, strict government regulation of procreation, cold, sterile living spaces and increasing human reliance upon — and antipathy toward — robots or “mechas.”

What Spielberg does so well is to explore the emotional reality of living in a world like this.

Even in our world, many people have pets instead of children, or even robotic or electronic pets instead of real ones. A robotic child, though … that would be a bridge too far for nearly anyone — at first, anyway.

Monica (Frances O’Connor) is horrified when her husband, Henry (Sam Robards), brings home a mecha boy while their biological son is in an induced coma due to an incurable illness.

Eventually, though, she bonds with the boy — and, on hearing a string of pre-set code words — he bonds with her.

But the film knows this is a terrible mistake — and, when their biological son is finally cured, the “chosen” son is cast out, and there is no solution to his terrible identity crisis.

A.I. explores religious as well as moral questions, with the theme of searching for one’s maker applying both to mechas and to humans.

It’s not for everyone, but I give it a qualified recommendation to fans of challenging science fiction.

On the other hand, pretty much everyone can skip Lucy, another transhumanist tale starring Scarlett Johansson, written and directed by Luc Besson.

Not unlike Transcendence starring Johnny Depp, Lucy is about a human character who rises above the constraints of human existence, gaining superhuman powers, merging with a computer and ultimately transcending physical existence itself.

Some critics were wowed by Besson’s stylistic excesses and the film’s cheerful B-movie flamboyance.

I couldn’t get past the fact that it’s as dumb as a bag of hammers — and, once Lucy’s powers get to a certain point, all suspense drains from the movie.