A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Blu-ray) (Region 2) (Import)

*** A REVIEW FOR THE 2011 BLU RAY REISSUE ***

I remember the highly respected EMPIRE magazine giving a big spread to "A.I. - Artificial Intelligence" when it was first released in 2001 and duly awarding it their coveted 5-star rating. It was a movie of vision they said - and at the time - I thought they were right when I saw it at the cinema. But my oh my - how a decade and a new format can change things...

Re-watching "A.I." on BLU RAY in 2011 is a painful and frustrating experience - not just because the film hasn't dated at all well - but mostly because for a very large part of the movie the print on this reissue is awful...

Why is this the case? Anyone who's purchased "Minority Report" and especially "Saving Private Ryan" on BLU RAY will know of the 'saturation' technique Spielberg uses sometimes to get a certain look - a gritty, slightly smoked effect. Visually this means that the picture is full of shading and speckles - and 50 to 70% of "A.I." is inflicted with this technique too. And while this may have been ok on DVD (hidden even), the heightening of BLU RAY has made many scenes unwatchable as far as I'm concerned.

Instead of making the picture better - the BLU RAY has only accentuated the speckles and haze and made things worse. At times it feels like you're looking at a badly transferred video and not a state-of-the-art Sci-Fi film. Combine this with Haley Joel Osment's now irritating performance as the childlike Mecca David who wants his mother's love back (Francis O'Connor) and goes ceaselessly searching for a character in Pinocchio (dialogue above), the terrible circus-cum-torture scenes in the middle section with Brendan Gleeson looking like he's going to break into laughter at any minute and the dreadful sappy ending with Ben Kingsley's saccharine voiceover - and the whole thing reeks of scripted mess and confused vision. Some sympathy has to go to Spielberg who inherited Stanley Kubrick's story and had to viably bring his 20-year 'baby' to the screen. But whatever your feelings towards how Kubrick would have done it versus Spielberg's outcome - it is NOT going to be enhanced by this reissue.

Don't get me wrong - there are sequences that look good - even great - entering the futuristic city at night in the car through the huge heads with open mouths - flying out to Manhattan with the pleasure robot Gigalo Joe (Jude Law) in the flying/amphibious Police car - the discussion William Hurt has at the beginning with his students about making a robot that 'loves' for real - but these are few and far between. As most of the film takes place in the Swinton home (David's parents) and the headquarters of Cybertronics (the company that makes robots for all sorts of tasks), there seems to be no escaping the washed-out look of the film. The extras are good (the 2DVD set) but if the movie's unwatchable - then what's the point.

I liked "A.I." then and still think it has its very definite moments to this day - but let's be blunt about this - I just spent good money on a BLU RAY reissue of a film that is available on the DVD format for a pittance - and its not better - its worse - and absolutely not worth owning.

It is of course a matter of personal taste and choice, but it has to be said - even if you're a rabid fan of "A.I." - I'd say hire it first to see what it actually looks like 'before' forking out any money on it.

BLU RAY Credits:
VIDEO: 1080p High Definition 1.85:1
AUDIO: DTS-HD Master Audio; English 6.1 Dolby Digital, Castilian Spanish 5.1 EX, French 5.1 EX, German 5.1 EX, Italian 5.1 EX Dolby Surround; Brazilian Portuguese 2.0
SUBTITLES: English, Brazilian Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, Danish, Dutch, French, Finnish, German, Italian, Latin Spanish, Norwegian and Swedish

BONUS Material:
Documentary on bringing A.I. to the screen
Interviews with Steven Spielberg, Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law
Behind-The-Scenes featurette on the making of A.I.
Interview with Sound Designer Gary Rydstrom at Skywalker Ranch
Visit to Stan Winston Studios with early "Teddy" footage
Interviews with Lucasfilm's ILM special effects group
Trailers, Storyboards, drawings and hundreds of photos
Plus other unnamed features

Okay, let's get this out of the way, this is a grainy film, one of the grainiest I have bought in fact. Now let's get something else out of the way, it's supposed to look like this. Spielberg shot an at times washed out, dreamy and soft looking film, and it is shown here, warts an' all. It is not a bad transfer as some may think, a bad print wasn't used, nor could any "remastering" have been done to improve it. Applying DNR to "smooth" out the level of grain here would have probably created one of the worst Bluray releases so far. It would have removed every detail and texture and left us with a very bland picture. As it is the grain does dampen things a little, such is the speckly nature of it, but there is still far more detail shown here than on any previous release.

However, intentional or not, it is very grainy, this is more noticable at the start of the movie where it's mostly daytime scenes. It can be a bit distracting, but it also adds to the feel of the film. When things go a bit darker, in tone as well as in lighting, things do improve. The Flesh fair looks very good, the special effects hold up well, and that continues for the rest of the feature as they venture into the city and beyond. By the halfway mark the grain for me wasn't a problem, my eyes had adjusted, the grain had settled due to the darker scenes and more often than not, it looks very good. If I was to compare it to another bluray release, it would be Minority Report. If you were happy with the look of that film on Bluray then you should be fine here, if you thought it was too much then maybe pass on A.I.

We have a nice supply of extras on the disc. They cover many aspects of the movie from AI's creation, design, lighting, special effects, the robots, the actors, the soundtrack etc. Plenty to get your teeth into really.

Finally, if you can overlook/don't mind the level of grain here, then this is a good release and definitely a step up from the DVD. I saw A.I at the cinema and remember it well, it was never going to look silky smooth, and what we have here is a faithful representation of the Directors vision. It won't be for everyone but hopefully this review helps a few people in their decision.

One of the sci-fi master pieces of the new age. This edition is simply the best. The image and sounds explodes in the big screen. For the fans of the real cinema: BUY QUICKLY!!!!