FJ!! & Production Design
Sep. 21st, 2002 02:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fjSo I am watching AI: Artificial Intelligence, and it is supposed to be not too far in the future. I haven't wacthed that much of it yet, so far it seems to be the story of a golden retriever, a machine evolved for the niche of social parasitism, in the shape of Haley Joel Osment.
Two things so far:
Haley is a really good artificial being. I wonder how much of it is acting.
I keep getting distracted by the production design of the modern house in the not too far future. All the furniture, the floors, the doors, is all supposed to be modern and stuff, but all I keep thinking is "Yellow version of the pouf from the new designer at Ligne Roset. Yup, there's that meshy computer pedestal on castors from the web. Floor's laminate, probably 3000 bucks for that area, would be better lighter. Nice use of the cube shelving from DWR. I have those plastic boxes in my living room."
It's totally ripping me out of this cheesy Speilberg movie -- "The man is in turmoil, glide in for a close-up!" -- but so far it is ok. 21 minutes into the thing and I don't give a crap about anyone because they all are written as simulacra. Spielberg's giving me archetypes instead of people again.
Two things so far:
Haley is a really good artificial being. I wonder how much of it is acting.
I keep getting distracted by the production design of the modern house in the not too far future. All the furniture, the floors, the doors, is all supposed to be modern and stuff, but all I keep thinking is "Yellow version of the pouf from the new designer at Ligne Roset. Yup, there's that meshy computer pedestal on castors from the web. Floor's laminate, probably 3000 bucks for that area, would be better lighter. Nice use of the cube shelving from DWR. I have those plastic boxes in my living room."
It's totally ripping me out of this cheesy Speilberg movie -- "The man is in turmoil, glide in for a close-up!" -- but so far it is ok. 21 minutes into the thing and I don't give a crap about anyone because they all are written as simulacra. Spielberg's giving me archetypes instead of people again.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-23 10:25 am (UTC)I've heard it argued that AI is "a fairy tale for robots". Within that type of context, archetypes would be the expected norm. I've adopted that mindset for watching it; otherwise, some of the scenes end up just too creepy-bad for words.
I'd spent some time wondering about the anguish I would feel if I were programmed to be emotional Velcro backed up by SuperGlue with no hope of growth or no mechanism for adaptation to inevitable changes within that relationship. Then I go play video games to get the ooky feeling out of my gut.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-23 10:38 am (UTC)I can see the point, but if so, the Greatest Director Of Our Times executed it incredibly clumsily by not letting us in on the narrative before the last segment, and that is if you even accept he did so in that segment at all, which, considering the many interpretations I have heard, is really up for debate.
While serving up human archetypes would fit that framework, by not telling us for ninety minutes, all he has done is bore us with pointless human archetypes, who didn't warrant any ivestemnt of curiosity by being served explicitly as archetypes for whatever reason. They just felt like blandly spec'ed Hollywood people.
no subject
Date: 2002-09-23 03:49 pm (UTC)The movie just can't be taken at face value, but, even as taken as purest Fairy Tale, it still suffers from the singular lack of a Moral.