Incoming wall of text.
(fair warning!)
OK. I just read Iroquois' comment in his linked reply earlier. Thanks for the reference. Forgive me in any of my misunderstandings with the plot as it has been many years since I've seen this movie. Perhaps I should watch it again before replying, but damnit I'm at work and I
need to burn a few minutes on a forum. So....
I assume by the topic that everyone reading here has already seen the movie, so I will not bother with spoiler tags. With that said though
...
***SPOILERS? ...just in case!***
Setting aside all the details now for the sake of the argument, I will reply first to Saunch's question on the ending being "happy" in spite of what happens to the character. For me, that is a very literal closure of David's story. Sad and bittersweet, of course, but it is finality and a very clear and clean ending to his story. Aliens; A.I; Jack-O-latterns; it does not really matter to me what the narrative vehicle used is, the point is that he
gets there (to the end of his journey, that is). Through all of the subtly of detail, it is still in the end very obvious closure. As a result, it just felt forced to me.
Now, back to Iroquois:
To the idea of ending things at the bottom of the ocean, I remember feeling sad but still inspired in his character at that moment. This would have been (for me, at least) a wonderful Pinocchio story where the machine boy becomes human simply through the act of devotion and of eternal hope---eternal, quite literally. In that context, he has faith. He has love. He has hope. He has purpose. And that leaves the audience (perhaps just me!) with the awareness that each day this boy must maintain his faith in order to continue. Which is what we all must do in our own lives. I mean to believe in something that gives us purpose to go on. I'm not talking religion, but more like... family. Enduring the abusive job to provide for the loved ones. To hope that tomorrow may be better, or that there is reason even though you know that tomorrow will most likely be the exact same thing. For me at least, his unending hope was inspirational and forced me to reflect on my own faiths as a comparison. His act of faith and hope then transcends simple A.I.
The struggle to endure is life.
Continuing the story past that point completely negated that inspiration for me while the story simply handed him closure. Is it sad, the choice he makes to have his mother with him? Of course! But choosing what he did, to me, was terribly selfish and started to erase away all the humanity that I had projected onto him by this point. Now, his character's motivation was reduced back to simple one-task A.I. automation:
"10 GET MOM; 20 GOTO 10," (<---old C64 BASIC, there for awesomeness!! Seriously. How often does one get to make such a reference?!) There was nothing to carry with me at that point when leaving the theater and, as a sad result, the movie overall became a bit forgettable.
I am clearly projecting. As I said, this is all my take on the movie and how it affected me personally. There was something very powerful there under the ocean. I do not think that I could have held such faith. In that confession, perhaps his heart, love, faith, and devotion are better than mine? Is he then a better
person than me?
Note: I am not comparing mechanics or software A.I. at this point in the story. I am instead reflecting on
my own humanity! Am I worthy, compared to this boy's struggle and faith? That the story could encourage me to even consider questioning all of this was brilliant!
And I loved it.
...and I felt inspired.
......
...and I continued my reflection.
*beat*
...flyover by close encounters' future A.I. that look confusingly like aliens, handing off gifts of time and space manipulation?
Meh.
I consider that an emotional and storytelling fail
, at least in context of what the movie was up to that point. Then again, I could just be mixing some of this up with an old episode of Mork and Mindy. It's been a while. =\
YMMV
<---- that's not a spoiler. just something to lighten the weight.
0=)