“Jaws” being a damn near perfect film I saw AI out of curiosity (after it tanked). I didn’t quite make it through the film but it seemed to me that Speilberg tried to make a a film that required literary style writing. His usual cinematic type film, ie an idea (shark, space aliens etc)supported by simple dialog, with well concieved shots, editing, scenes and scoring was ditched for the kind of complex idea that requires wordcraft to put it across in terms that don’t bore everyone to tears. “Casablanca” was mostly words. “Jaws” was almost purely cinimatic story telling. The second Spiderman is a good example of the melding of both styles. I couldn’t believe how BAD AI was and that Speilberg didn’t seem to know it.
2 hours later, I wanted that bit of my life back. How many endings were there to that stupid movie? Almost as many as that other Speilberg bomb "Minority Report" had, I think.
A.I. may not have entirely worked but it was still ambitious and consumate filmmaking. And his best films have much better than simple dialogue.