That most important of questions is never addressed by the movie--I was not really interested in the sci-fi mumbo-jumbo and only continued to watch the movie to find out what happens as the parents get older and older and their "child" remains as he is.
Then after they get rid of him it turns into a Disney movie--what a mess.
It has been a while since I've watched this but I remember thinking why didn't the parents just have a technician turn David OFF? I don't recall them discussing the manufacturer "no turn off" policy so when she drove David to the frontier to fend for himself it just seemed odd to me. I also didn't feel anything for the mother or the father as they both came off as aloof and self-centered.
I remember feeling that a better story line would be David feeling jealous over his real brother coming back and recapturing his real parents' affection thus he runs away on a whim with his pooh bear but ends up lost. He soon regrets his action but then finds himself too far away and lost to find his way home. During this sequence we start to see David show real child like emotions like abandonment and being lonely...something all of us can relate to. Instead, they cut away to Gigolo Joe who imho deserved his own movie. I felt that he had no connection to David other than being a mecha on the run, but that's the narrative arc Spielberg chose for David. The flash forward to the distant future felt like a cop out to remedy our concerns or David's plight but then Spielberg interjects this Pinocchio homage instead. Lame
A lot of good points about this movie.
When I originally saw it in the theater I really hated it.
After a while I realized there was something in that intense dislike
of this movie that had tweaked me so much so I decide to see it again.
I did, and though I see the same problems that are mentioned by many
here, I also saw a kind of brilliance in the movie - to the extent that
it was about our own myths and programming of ourselves, humans.
The question raised was are we anything more than puppets and are
we fatally flawed and just used by one giant machine. The perfected
beings at the end had respect for David and all life, and went out of
their way to resolve his life, a kind of heaven of technological God.
Still the OP's question about why would anyone buy a ready-made
kid who can never grow up sort of puts this movie in perspective as
being way out of reality, an almost dreamlike movie without a real
clear plot or purpose.
People want ridiculous dog breeds.
shareI came here to say the same thing. Having an AI bot is like having a Border collie or German Shepherd. It’s a permanent 5-year old child. The difference is that you can trust the doggie.
Not for nothing, I have naught but scorn for this self-important POS film.
I wouldn't want a human child that never grew old because there would be the worry of who would care for him eventually. Just like a parrot that lives to 70+. It's a concern depending, especially, on your own age. But a robot child sure.
shareIt's a sales point to capture the pedo market, I presume.
shareSadly, that’s probably the most plausible use for robokids in this fucked up world. The elites would still procure the real thing, but your run of the mill playground dweller would be getting a David for Christmas.
When I first saw the film I didn’t clock the growing old problem, perhaps because it was a cold futuristic dystopia in which the human population was vastly reduced and AI was everywhere, but now it’s glaringly obvious. People don’t just have kids because they ‘love kids’, they want to continue their bloodline, family business, gain social acceptance, be grandparents, be looked after in old age etc.
Now I get that the mum is partially grieving for her real kid, but the film needed to have her in some kind of psychosis whereby she’d be suicidal/insane without a temporary substitute and the dad buys David as a desperation move.
Forever child, so they're always at the age of fun and don't become moody teenagers.
sharewhy do people keep their dead pets? (stuffed)
shareI think there are some parents who prefer to be parents to different age groups of kids. Like there are some people who want to be parents but not in the baby-toddler phase. There also are parents who seem to prefer having kids in the high-school/college age.
share