I’m reminded that Steven Spielberg’s A.I. is coming out soon on home video. It’s unfortunate this movie did not get the response it deserved. I found it one of the most interesting and thought-provoking films of 2001; flawed, but still well-made, and deserving of more credit than it was given. Its poor box office should not reflect on the film’s quality.I would suggest it has more to do with Warner Bros’s misguided marketing campaign. The logo of the movie emphasized some kind of “childlike tale of wonder”, and even the name of the film harkened back to Spielberg’s movie E.T.. This was unfortunate since it engendered expectations that this was some kind of sequel — expectations the movie did not and would not fulfill. The movie had much more to say than following some boy’s adventures.
The title’s similarity to E.T. got me wondering. Maybe the two-letter titles were a code. Just like some believe the “HAL” 9000 computer is Kubrick’s swipe at “IBM”, since the letters H.A.L. are one letter away from I.B.M.
So what do we get if we do the same to E.T.?
“F.U.”!
I wonder if Kubrick considered that as an A.I. working title.
