Starring Haley Joel Osmont, Jude Law, Frances O Connor, Teddy, Sam Robards, William Hurt, Ben Kingsley, Robin Williams, Jake Thomas
Written By: Steven Spielberg
Directed By: Steven Spielberg

I didn’t know what to expect going into this movie. I barely heard anything about the movie until the summer time because it was so top secret. I knew that this was a Stanley Kubrick movie, and that Steven Spielberg took over when Kubrick passed away.

The story involves a family who’s son has been cryogenically frozen because he has some type of cancer or disease. So the Father was chosen to get the first “Mecha” boy named David. The mother is hesitant of David at first, but eventually he grows on her a little. Then one day their real life boy comes out of his coma or they find a cure for his disease, and everything seems to change. David gets really intrigued with the story of Pinocchio so much, that he goes on this journey for a fictional character to be turned into a real boy. David eventually meets Gigolo Joe, played by Jude Law and hangs out with him throughout most of the movie. I went into the movie fresh, without reading any reviews, plot spoilers except from seeing the trailer.

So…what did I think of the movie you say? I was disappointed. I wasn’t really interested in this movie until I saw some TV spots, then the plot looked interesting and cool. The beginning of the movie started off sssslllloooowwwww and boring for me. Then 20 minutes into it, the film got going. I didn’t really like Haley Joel Osmont as an actor before, but he has proved me wrong in Sixth Sense and now in A.I. But he’s definitely a talented child actor and I’m curious to see how he grows up in Hollywood. Jude Law’s character, Gigolo Joe, was a scene stealer, but I think the biggest scene stealer of them all was Teddy. Teddy was a robotic teddy bear that was friends with David. David brought him everywhere with him, and Teddy helped out David a lot too.

I think they should make a sequel just about Teddy. Jack Angel did the voice of Teddy, and I looked up his info on IMDB and he’s a HUGE voice over actor. Basically he did every Disney movie plus Transformers (Smokescream, Astrotrain, Ultra Magnus) Voltron, and Scooby Doo. Now the movie had two versions it seems. A Kubrick version, which was the first half of the film; and then the second half was the Spielberg version. I liked the Kubrick version because it was just weird and interesting to watch, then towards the end of the film, it seemed to get into Steven Spielberg’s world. It even reminded me of Close Encounters Of Third Kind at the end.

I thought the Pinocchio premise was well over done, to the point of shaking my head in the theater. I think another great thing about this movie was the special effects. Rogue City was tremendous, and that was a total homage to Kubrick. With naked females as buildings and bridges, and you enter into that one intimate spot if you get my drift. The mechas were awesome as well, and looked really realistic. I thought I would see C3PO running into the picture screaming Master Luke over and over again, but to my disappointment, that didn’t happen. Wouldn’t it be funny to see all the classic Hollywood robots in this picture? Though some parts with the robots looked like some scenes inside Jabba’s Palace. I started giggling when I heard one Mecha speak, and you’ll know who it is, once the first syllable is spoken. Another part of the movie that was cool, was when all runaway robots were fleeing into the woods. It made you care for all the robotic people. The movie is definitely flawed, but it also has it moments.

I never really had that feeling of leaving a movie before but by the last half hour, I wanted to get up and leave. You think the movie is over with it, and then Ben Kingsley starts to narrate more of the moving. At this point, you should get up, walk out of the theater because I thought what happened was fitting enough. It seemed like Spielberg wanted that extra fuzzy feeling for the ending instead of what you think is the ending. Because of that, it makes me not like the movie as much. My advice to you is see the movie until you know when to get up and go. AND YOU’LL KNOW..

Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 146 minutes
Overall Rating: