2001-07-02 - 9:52 a.m. I went to see A.I. this weekend. Steven Spielberg has done something pretty sneaky. He's used his name, some amazing special effects, and a "summer blockbuster" release date to trick a few million people to go see a movie which will force them to think much harder than they expected to. This movie will go right over the heads of most people who see it, but it will really awaken some people who need to be awakened. I'm having a lot of trouble wrapping my brain around it, and I had a pretty good sense about what was coming when I went to see it. The first two thirds of the movie are well done, but pretty typical of the futurist movie style, which is fine until we get to the last third of the movie, and we start to piece together why it was done that way. When you get into the last part of the movie, we start to realize that every word, shot, and scene was planned and intentional, that every tiny part was important. The movie is not spelled out for us, but as we start to realize what's beginning to happen we start to see the "I wasn't ready for this" expression on people's faces in the audience. I've been thinking about this movie for a few days now, and I feel like I felt in college when I was working on an advanced calculus problem which was just outside my grasp. Every once in a while I could catch a glimpse of the answer, but it never really comes into focus. It's like trying to see a dim star which you can only view by not looking directly at it. It's like trying to watch the floaters in your eyes. It's like thinking about the distances between stars. It's like that moment you know you're not going to be able to stop yourself from crying. (0) Comments?