As a collaboration (as it were) between Kubrick and Spielberg, AI was of course a must see film. I don't have a lot of comments on it. The usual reviewers on the web have said everything that needs to be said. I'll only mention that I mostly agree with those whose reviews are favorable.

The one thing I wasn't prepared for, though, was the extent to which this, or at least the first hour of it, is a Kubrick film. More so than Eyes Wide Shut, in my opinion. In fact, I saw Eyes Wide Shut twice on the big screen and now, two years later, I still don't really have an opinion of it. Or at least I don't know quite how to think of it as a Kubrick film.

AI, though, at least for the first hour, has the definite Kubrick look. I couldn't explain to you what that means, but I guess it's one of those cases of I-know-it-when-I-see-it. Apparently Spielberg was working from storyboards that Kubrick had made up, so that must be a big part of it.

Then, as so many critics have commented, the second half turns into more of a Spielberg film. Which is certainly okay, and a lot more warm and fuzzy. At least one critic I looked at claimed that the ending actually does show the Kubrick influence --- in a similarity to the ending of 2001. Well, I wouldn't agree. But then I've never much liked the ending of 2001 anyway. In fact, I don't know that Kubrick films are actually something that one likes. Maybe The Shining. But mostly Kubrick's specialty was not so much in making a film that's enjoyable, but one that blows you away.

I guess that's more or less true of AI. No, I take that back. Thanks to the Spielberg contribution, it is enjoyable. In fact, in the second half of the film there are things that are a lot of fun. One can sort of extrapolate from the first half though, and see the sort of film this would have been if Kubrick had made it himself. (The reason he didn't make it though, according to the scoop I read on the web, is not because he died, but because although this was a film he'd wanted to make for years, he never felt capable of doing it. So he asked Spielberg to direct it for him, because he felt it was more Spielberg's sort of thing.)

Anyway, AI is a movie that blows you a way. Several of the reviews basically say, ``You may like this film or you may not. But you've got to see it.''

Me, I did like it. And I will now think of it as being Kubrick's last film.

One other thing I'd say, though. For those whose approach to movies is primarily thematic --- ``What are we expected to learn from this film?'' --- there's lots to think about here. For myself, though, I didn't think about any of that. I was just interested in it as a movie.