Just a horrible movie

The ending. I was gobsmacked when this cheesefest doesn't end with David at the bottom of the ocean, but suddenly jumps to 10000 years later??? With ridiculously designed aliens who are bringing back his mum. But for some reason only for a day? What? So that they can reenact a washing agent commercial.

I know, Kubrick supposedly gave his blessings for Spielberg to do this and some ideas supposedly came from Kubrick, but anyone who has seen a single Kubrick movie cannot believe that he would have delivered something anywhere near as cheesy and shoddy as this film.

No offence to anyone who enjoyed it though, just m 2 cents.

Interesting, it's good to read someone else's perspective... I really like the film and consider it among Spielberg's best work...

Do you think that Kubrick cast a shadow on the film? i.e. that for some people simply knowing that Kubrick was involved gave it expectations that it simply couldn't meet?

For example how the movie looked... Kubrick is a photographer and it shows in his films with their compositions and lighting. Spielberg's movies rely more on camera movement, special effects and his cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, who nailed the look here. I really like how dystopian it looks and the atsmosphere throughout the movie... The haze that hangs on everything reminds us that something is not right with this world...

I didn't mind Osmont being annoying. I've always found him unrelatable but I think it works in this movie to be distant from the characters as it does cut through the sentimentality quite a bit and helps us focus on the larger themes rather than to treat David as our avatar. I doubt this is what they were going for but it worked for me.

Yes... It is a very cheesy movie. I'll give you that much 😉

I think the visuals and effects are great. The story is unique which you have to give points for.

I was one of those who thought the futuristic beings were aliens visiting Earth. Supposedly, they are evolved Earth Mechas. Missed that.

I don't get the Clone For A Day bit either. Why would a fully functioning clone only live for a day. Why could they only make a clone once? There was enough DNA material in the hair sample to make millions of clones. The only answer would be that they only *wanted* to make one clone, but even that begs the question "why".

The story is so unbelievable schmalzy. Just horrible! The way Spielberg whacks us over the head with his message is beyond believe. Yes, we get it, he wants to be a real boy. It was fun in Pinocchio.

The movie is horrendous. I remember the outrage over it performing so poorly and costing so much to make (100 million) from the critics. One giant bomb.

I didn't like the movie the first time I saw it and after watching it again recently I still have the same disappointment. I also did some reading and watching of behind the scenes material and it turns out that Spielberg and Kubrick's "collaboration" was done over letter correspondence and phone calls. They didn't huddle together and collaborate as much as I was first led on to believe, so it stands to reason why this movie feels NOTHING like a project Kubrick had touched, let alone inspired.

Schmaltzy is also a very apt description of the entire movie and its premise. IMHO, if Kubrick took the same principal characters and story he would have shifted the plot lines having David flee his maudlin parents after encountering a fugitive Gigolo Joe and the bulk of the movie would be about their perilous adventures together as they encounter a sick world inhabited by deranged humans who live only to amuse themselves with robot torture shows and mecha sex city tourist traps.

He could have incorporated the ending a lot more effectively by alluding to an impending apocalypse that led up to it unlike Spielberg who just cut to the chase. I agree with you on the ending as well as it played into a false narrative that David wanted his mother back so badly when in Kubrick's world the advanced robotic "race" would have probably tinkered with him a bit and changed his profile to be a cynical and serviceable machine. THAT would have been the ultimate pay off as with most Sci-Fi tropes we see that technology isn't always created to make things "better". Unfortunately, Spielberg fell back into his old ways and delivered a happy ending that wasn't even bittersweet.

It wasn't horrible, it just kept moving from one major plot to another.