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Already infamous before release as Stanley Kubrick's last film, but finished by Stephen Spielberg, I'm not familiar enough with Kubrick's work to know where the two directors' styles depart.  Spielberg touches I did recognize:  a child as the protagonist, lots of scary adults, and lots of long, lingering camera moves on people's faces.  It's not a quick-paced film, and what I recall of Kubrick's work, that's typical of both.  But enough comparisons.

Simply put, AI is an updated version of Pinocchio, albeit with not quite as happy an ending.  The fake boy David is a super-sophisticated robot (nicknamed Mechas by humans, aka Orgas) designed to be a child for childless couples.  It's an unpleasant future of melted polar ice caps and restricted childbirth, so the robot makers, personified by William Hurt, figure they can make a few bucks out of desperate couples.  Well, he phrases it more nobly than that.  An employee gets to testdrive "David" (Haley Joel Osmont) because his biological son is terminally ill and on ice at a cryogenics facility.  His wife isn't hot on the idea, but eventually warms up to the mechanical boy at the same time as the husband is further creeped out.  Then the real boy (Martin) is cured for some reason, thawed out, and sent home, where he tries to assert his superiority over David.  At a pool party, David overreacts to a pain avoidance test and almost drowns Martin.  Since David has been bonded with the wife, he can't be reprogrammed for another couple and has to be destroyed.  Rather than end the film quickly and have him destroyed, the wife dumps David and his supertoy Teddy into the woods.

End Act One, which I decided never needed to be seen again.  As always in Spielberg films, adults behave like complete unfeeling morons, making the robots of the film seem that much more likeable.  That and David creeps me out during those domestic scenes.  Everyone but him seems perpetually on the edge of hysteria, especially the wife, whose warming up to David really doesn't make sense to me.

Enter Gigolo Joe to save the film.  Played with Astaire-ish charm, elegance, and a few dance moves by Jude Law, he's just what the name implies:  a lover robot.  He can seduce pretty much any woman, and business is good.  So good that the husband of one of his clients has crossed her off his list permanently.  "I'm in bad trouble" says Joe as he flees the murder scene, then cuts out his operating license to hinder tracking.  Self-preservation is built into some Mechas after all.

Joe is on the run, and so is David, except that David doesn't know it.  Discarded Mechas have to be careful or end up caught for the Flesh Fair, a "celebration" of life where Mechas are destroyed with much fanfare.  Humans being the terribly insecure creatures they are, go to great lengths to make such wonderful toys, then end up fearing them, so they destroy them.  David and Joe are scheduled for the same fate, but David's uncharacteristically human reaction to the threat of being melted by acid confuses the crowd.  They pelt the Flesh Fair's MC and free David and Joe.

As mentioned earlier, this is an update of Pinocchio.  David has heard that story before and is obsessed with finding the Blue Fairy so he can be made into a real boy.  Joe tags along because David describes the Fairy as a woman, and Joe knows women.  Uh-huh.  They hitch a ride to Rouge City, which is sort of a futuristic version of Vegas, minus the family-friendly venues.  A holographic Robin Williams, aka "Doctor Know," tells them to go to the end of the world, aka Man Hattan, to find the Blue Fairy.  They swipe a helicopter sort of vehicle and find a nearly-underwater New York (compete with Twin Towers.  Hm), and William Hurt.  Finally meeting his prototype, the doctor explains it all to David.  Trouble is, David doesn't like the idea of being the first in a whole series of Davids, so he dives off the building and sinks.  Joe saves him but is hauled off by what appears to be the cops, so David makes his way to the ocean floor again.  He and Teddy find Coney Island, complete with a Storybook Land type of area, and a Blue Fairy statue.

Needless to say, the Blue Fairy ignores David's prayers to become human, and then another Ice Age comes.  These droids are built to last.  I mean Mechas.  A whole bunch of years later, highly evolved Mechas cut out the section of ice that David and the Blue Fairy stature are in, thaw them out, and watch them go at it.  Well, David, anyway.  They plug into his memory and are thrilled to find a Mecha that knew real living Orgas, so they recreate David's old house for him.  Then they offer to clone his long-dead mother for one day, thanks to a lock of hair that Teddy had kept all those centuries.  So he agrees to that, he has his mom one last day, she dies, and the movie ends.  Pinocchio's story without Pinocchio's ending.  Ah, well.

What I Liked:

• Gigolo Joe.  But I mentioned that already.  Jude Law is good fun to watch and presents a more interesting character, in spite of being quite artificial.  Of course, that seems to be the point of this film:  that the Mechas are more "alive" than the Orgas.  Beyond that I don't think about the deeper meanings of films.  I may have to customize an action figure to make this boy, he's so cool.
• The special effects.  I prefer mechanical effects to CGI any day.  Yes, most of the mechanical effects and makeups were supplemented by CGI, but these days one can't be a chooser, only a beggar.  Teddy was mostly mechanical, thanks to Stan Winston's minions, and that was fine with me.
• The Flesh Fair.  Not for the same reason as the audience, which was to watch Mechas being destroyed, but for the interaction of the doomed Mechas.  Their scenes were comical and poignant, and that's... a good thing.
• Disc 2.  On the DVD, I mean.  It has a lot of behind the scenes stuff, which I always enjoy.

What I Didn't Like:

• Humans.  But again, that seemed to be the point of this film - that humans are a bunch of bums, collectively.  Heck, even individually.  I honestly don't understand why the mother ended up warming up to David, since as a character, he's just a little too creepy.  I never would've activated the bonding sequence to become his "mommy," but that's just me.  And the husband, who was the one so gung-ho about David, never activates the bonding sequence and becomes almost psychotic around the fake boy.  Ehhh, humans...
• The Ending.  I'm not quite sure what to make of it.  Was it supposed to be a happy ending?  What then?  Destroy the boy, now that his entire purpose for existence is dead?