SOURCE: Tibbetts, John C. “Robots Redux: A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001).” Literature/Film Quarterly 29, no. 4 (October 2001): 256-61.

In the following essay, Tibbetts offers a thematic and stylistic overview of A.I, arguing that the influence of director Stanley Kubrick on the film is “everywhere.”

Synopsis

In the world of the near future, [in A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,] the greenhouse effect has melted the ice caps and submerged many coastal cities, including New York. Although natural resources are limited, technology has advanced rapidly to serve the reduced population. In particular, robotic sciences are producing appliances that serve every human need. Machines clean the house, tend the garden, babysit the kids, even provide sexual satisfaction for lonely men and women. Yet, no matter how sophisticated these synthetic creatures are, they do not have feelings. In an attempt to correct this failing, robotics scientist Professor Hobby (William Hurt) of Cybertronics Manufacturing devises...