#ishf

Chapter 1. An Unexpected Guest

An illustration for my Dragon!Ethan medieval AU benthan fanfic!

I plan to make one illustration for every chapter and yes I am working on the next one...it's just getting... a little out of hand...

unused sketch version:

Watched artificial intelligence directed by Steven Spielberg.

It is from 1998 and CLEARLY a different species of movie.

The pacing is....like. there is no predicting what will happen really because it just keeps going. And it doesn't punch a message across eventually, it's just a winding story with an end.

It reminded me of the wizard of Oz.

I am very impressed with the set design. It all genuinely looks like ... slightly futuristic - very like now but just slightly off in a good way.

Very impressed with this child actor. He did incredibly well. He was absolutely convincing as a robot.

I also think he didn't blink once on camera.

Dr. Know was a very expensive Google. Clearly they did not have ubiquitous internet yet - it's really amazing how that changes things when you think about it.

They start the movie off with a story of hella devastation due to climate change - but it never really features again. And somehow there is no energy crisis. Presumably because they have achieved functional tiny fusion engines that robots can run on forever (i.e. 2000 years).

Anyway. The world was well put together but didn't say much. The smartest person in the movie was the woman at the start who questioned who will take responsibility for a robot who can love (for they must?).

The question of sentience was never really addressed even though it is repeatedly shown that the other robots do possess something of the sort - very close indeed - almost indistinguishable. I found it unlikely that David was unique in a final sense.

But instead it focuses on the child's point of view and the child's journey and most finally the child's LOVE for his mother.

And that REALLY is the strength of this movie. Really.

The soundtrack gave off such a sense of horror though! For most of all of it.

Of course I believe the premise of this film is moot because I am quite sure that humans absolutely would develop love for robots as a matter of course - ESPECIALLY ones that look so incredibly human. Humans in these privileged positions anyway. On the other hand....positions of power.... pets... objects... slaves....

Empathy is not always a given...