Why oh why does Spielberg have the reputation he does.
I'm sorry I dumped on Andrew Wommack's Christmas movie for trying to get three movies into one since this 2001 release tries to get in four.
First, there is the adaptation of the three Brian Aldis stories upon which the film is based. The movie isn't too bad at this point and expands on the plot and changes some things for the better. However, since the same problem with Aldis's work confronted Steven Spielberg as it did Stanley Kubrick, namely Aldis's not being able to come up with enough material for a film, Spielberg breaks off the first plot to start a second one partway through.
This second plot is that of the flesh fairs, though I personally think David living in throwaway town and then being rescued by Henry after Henry's virtual reality world as well as his real one have gone to pot would have worked much better. This was the plot of Aldis's third story about David, "Supertoys in All Seasons." We have never heard of the flesh fairs and the conflict between humans who are fully embracing the technologies of this world and the new Ludites so why introduce it now.
However, the second plot doesn't pan out either so Spielberg has to introduce a third plot along the lines of Pinocchio, something Brian Aldis did not want. Also, who thought it was a good idea to pair an artificial five year old boy with a sex bot?
Spielberg could have ended the movie after the petering out of the Pinocchio plot, but instead he extended the film by half an hour and introduced some fourth plot about a world 2000 years in the future that has been colonized by aliens. These aliens have expended great effort on trying to bring back humans from the dead but to no avail. It is generally not a good idea to resurrect the people you have supplanted. They died, you survived: give yourselves a pat on the back and go on with building your civilization in the place we once called home.
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