--- title: "A.I. Artificial Intelligence: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence" critics_score: 61 critics_reviews: 8 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001): what the critics said Critics' score 61 from 8 reviews: 4 positive, 2 mixed, 2 negative. The reviews lean towards admiration, but agreement is stronger on the film’s ambition than on its success. Praise clusters around the visual effects, the unsettling imagery and Osment’s central performance, with several critics finding genuine feeling in the robot boy’s search for love. Supporters see Spielberg’s combination of dark science fiction and fairy tale as a demanding exploration of humanity, abandonment and the need to be loved, rather than a reassuring children’s adventure. The spread is wide, and the chief dispute concerns whether the emotion is earned. Several reviews find the ending over-sentimental or overextended, while others question how comfortably Spielberg’s sensibility fits with Kubrick’s. RogerEbert.com admires the technical achievement but doubts the invitation to invest in a machine’s simulated love; The Guardian dissents more sharply, rejecting both the futuristic imagery and the child performance. Even some sympathetic accounts find the narration intrusive or the storytelling too explanatory. ## Empire — Ian Nathan Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. The critic sees it as a profound and visually astounding work of Spielberg's genius, blending Kubrickian elements with emotional depth into an unusual masterpiece. The film's philosophical questions about love and reality, along with its CGI and performances, are singled out for praise despite a divisive ending. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/artificial-intelligence-review/) ## Radio Times — Kilmeny Fane-Saunders Rating 4/5. The critic describes it as an ambitious dark-toned Pinocchio fable with terrific special effects, highlighting Osment's fine performance and noting it is one of Spielberg's bleakest works rather than a feel-good romp. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-2lq0jx/ai-artificial-intelligence/) ## The AV Club — Keith Phipps Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 29 June 2001. The film is a wild, ambitious inquiry into humanity's origins, nature, and end, delivered through the story of a robot boy programmed to love. Despite intrusive narration and occasional over-explanation, its virtues—strong performances and striking imagery—make it a defining, moving work of its time. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/a-i-artificial-intelligence-1798192684) ## RogerEbert.com — Roger Ebert Rating ★★★. 29 June 2001. The film is ambitious and technically masterful with provocative ideas and wondrous sights, but it miscalculates by asking viewers to invest emotionally in a machine character whose 'love' is only simulated. [Read the review](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ai-artificial-intelligence-2001) ## Total Film Fi1m's normalised score 65/100 (inferred from the text). 21 September 2001. The review calls it flawed genius that is bewitching and gripping yet ultimately cold and without emotional pulse due to an over-sentimental finale. Spielberg's daring visual and thematic ambition mixed with Kubrick influences is highlighted as both visionary and frustrating. [Read the review](https://www.gamesradar.com/ai-artificial-intelligence-review/) ## Slant Magazine — Ed Gonzalez Fi1m's normalised score 45/100 (inferred from the text). 18 June 2001. Spielberg's film is a strange, muddled mess of multiple episodes that piles on sappy codas and wish-fulfillment after a haunting Kubrickian core. It lingers due to emotional power and visual style but is undermined by distancing artificiality and excess baggage. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence/) ## The New Yorker — David Denby Fi1m's normalised score 40/100 (inferred from the text). 25 June 2001. The imagery and direction are precise, haunting and masterful in places, but the film is a ponderous death-of-the-world fantasy that milks sentiment from an Oedipal robot and drains vitality from its premise. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2001/07/02/faceoff) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 20/100 (inferred from the text). 21 September 2001. The film is a terrible disappointment, a quaint and dated vision of the future with unappealing child acting. It awkwardly combines Kubrick's and Spielberg's sensibilities into a soggy, creaky mess. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2001/sep/21/1) ## Screen Daily 20 June 2001. The review finds the film one of Spielberg's most ambitious, intelligent and problematic, praising its captivating and emotionally touching qualities, Osment's central performance and visual innovation while noting issues blending sensibilities. [Read the review](https://www.screendaily.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/406024.article) ## Sight and Sound — Philip Strick The critic explores the film's origins as a Kubrick project passed to Spielberg and its Pinocchio-like themes of illusion, love and reality. He praises the ambition, visual effects and crowd scenes while noting it is too soft-centred with an uneasy alien resolution. [Read the review](http://old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/1952) ## The New York Times — A. O. Scott Rating Critic's Pick. 29 June 2001. Spielberg has made his most disturbing, complex and intellectually challenging boy's adventure story, melding Kubrick's chilly style with his own sensibility into a layered fairy tale about abandonment, love and what it means to be real and mortal. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/29/movies/film-review-do-androids-long-for-mom.html) ## Time Out — TCh 5 December 2014. The review calls the film a clumsy but ambitious and personal blend of cerebral sci-fi and fairytale, praising its beauty, wonders, miraculous SFX and anguished expression of rejection, loneliness and love. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/ai-artificial-intelligence) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/a-i-artificial-intelligence.md