A.I. DELVES into the futuristic world of androids, once more delivering warning on the moral problems faced by man playing God.

It is a combination of a sci-fi cautionary tale along with sentimentalism, asking the dominant philosophical question - Can machines ever exceed the emotional capacities of their human creators?

The story concentrates on a robot boy called David (Haley Joel Osmont), who has the ability to love.

A couple, Henry (Sam Robards) and Monica (Frances O'Connor) Swinton, who are grieving their son's imminent death, adopt him.

The opening is eerie as David tries to integrate into family life, however, the couple's son wakes from his coma and David soon finds himself dumped in the woods, literally.

David soon meets Gigolo Joe (Jude Law) at a Flesh Fair,' where robots are tortured in front of human audiences.

This is designed to pull the heartstrings, highlighting the fact that humans cannot control what they create, a la Terminator'.

Escaping from this fair, Joe and David travel to the Rouge City, a mesmerising sin capital, to continue David's quest to become a real boy.

This city is a kind of Las Vegas utopia with its sleazy undertones. The concluding part takes place in the submerged New York cityscape as David's journey closes.

The film contains an irregular pace, with some scenes bordering on being boring and pointless.

This is perhaps the result of the integration of Spielberg's warmth and intimacy, into the intellectual, perplexing world of Stanley Kubrick.

The ending was also disappointing, although it did fit into the fairy-tale genre, and also provided a more upbeat note, which was more common with Spielberg than Kubrick.

The good points included the successful parallel with Pinocchio and the moral dilemma of, if robots could love humans, can humans love robots? The special effects were predictably dazzling, but never upstaged the story, as so often is the case.

The performances from Frances O'Connor, Haley Joel Osmont and Jude Law will only enhance their growing reputations, and Jude Law's make-up was also extremely convincing.

This is not the usual Spielberg film. It is darker and more pessimistic than his other features (with the exclusion of Schindler's List'). It is a joint Kubrick/Spielberg production, and Spielberg's screenplay does draw from features such as 2001.

It also has enough influence from other sci-fi pictures (Blade Runner') to make it enjoyable for any science fiction fan.

The length (over two hours) and flirtation with tedium probably takes it out of the family-viewing bracket. Overall it tends to infuriate with its lack of direction, and strange mixture of pace.

Verdict: Smart

Rating:6/10

Reviewed by Kieran Such