10 Times Film-Makers Ruined Their Own Damn Movies

After a few detractors pointed out that A.I. Artificial Intelligence reads like an uneasy mash-up of Stanley Kubrick’s usually bleak style and stereotypical Spielbergian sentimentality, Steven Spielberg was quick to proclaim how faithful he’d remained to the film that Kubrick had imagined and insisted that its darker, more depressing elements were actually his and the more mawkish parts, in particular the much-maligned ending, were actually Kubrick’s invention.

That may very well be the case and it’s a claim that’s backed up by Ian Watson, the screenwriter responsible for the movie’s original story treatment penned when Kubrick was still alive and attached to the project. But it’s also arguable that had Kubrick directed A.I. Artificial Intelligence it could be a very different movie.

It all comes down to tone, really. Kubrick and Spielberg are two very, very different directors and though Kubrick may have wanted to include some uncharacteristically saccharine elements in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, it’s likely it would’ve been executed in a style noticeably different to Spielberg’s.

And though Spielberg did attempt a homage of sorts in adding darker elements in a Kubrickian vein, it’s still executed in his trademark mawkish fashion. Ultimately, even though he had Kubrick’s blessing, Spielberg was the wrong director to take over an unfinished Kubrick project and in the process ruined not only his, but Kubrick’s film too.