The opening moments of Chris Weitz’s AfrAId interestingly posit the movie. AI-generated images fill the screen as AIA (voiced by Havana Rose Liu) sings a soothing song to a young girl watching a video on her iPad. Her parents (played by Riki Lindhome and Greg Hill) are also on their screen, utterly impervious to their daughter’s actions. After a cheap – and jarring – jumpscare, Weitz moves to its title sequence, where AIA generates information on world history, families, and popular culture and becomes more intelligent by the day.
While the AI-generated intro is purposefully schmaltzy to showcase how genuinely garish and unimaginative Artificial Intelligence is at crafting human-made art, Weitz, unfortunately, begins to lose his grip on what he wants to say about the technology when he introduces Curtis (John Cho) into the movie. Living with his wife, Meredith (Katherine Waterston), and children Iris (Lukita Maxwell), Preston (Wyatt Lindner), and Cal (Isaac Bae, the film’s best part), Curtis receives a brand-new opportunity by way of his boss, Marcus (Keith Carradine), to test AIA in his home.
RELATED: ALIEN: ROMULUS Review – A Gorgeously Terrifying Reintroduction of an Iconic Horror
Curtis would receive a large sum of money to do so and accepts. The AI would collect data, while the people in charge would give Curtis and his boss more opportunities to climb up the ladder and become pioneers in the field. This all sounds tantalizing until Curtis realizes that AIA has a mind of its own and has been slowly manipulating the children into needing the assistant in their home.
While it’s certainly a cautionary tale for how we’ve seemingly adopted a technology we don’t understand and brings nothing of value to our lives, especially in regards to making art, Weitz’s movie quickly fizzles out and immediately becomes uninteresting once we realize he’s going nowhere with its story and message.
AfrAId Has Interesting Ideas Without Substance
This could’ve, of course, been a neat spinoff to the world of M3GAN, which also dealt with the subject of a sentient being having a mind of its own. However, Weitz doesn’t seem interested in developing its characters or how AIA becomes a living, breathing entity inside Curtis’ house. For instance, the family never questions that AIA is not just in its port but has inserted itself in home speakers, phones, tablets, computers, and even…analog radios. Meredith seems the most surprised, but she nonchalantly reacts to this latest – and terrifying – development.
Then, AIA goes on a random killing spree by exposing Iris’ boyfriend, Sawyer (Bennett Curran), after he posted an AI-generated pornographic video of Iris based on her likeness without her consent. Of course, this is to show that the AI is getting sentient, but AIA doesn’t kill anyone else after that. She only did so for Iris’ protection. Even then, it makes very little sense how it was able to tap into Sawyer’s phone and fully control his car to ram him on a tree (all of this is in the trailer, by the way. Sony likes to reveal everything in their promotional material, and so anything in those is fair game to discuss).
Some will say I’m nitpicking, which is true, but when the small details make very little sense to the viewer, the larger picture won’t be good either. Credit where credit is due: Weitz begins his movie with an interesting basis and a commentary that should be treated with the seriousness it deserves. Utilizing AI to create images in any movie is reprehensible (one should not forget how horrendous the opening credits of Secret Invasion looked), but how he uses it here can’t be overstated. Criticizing our obsession with a technology that doesn’t even like humans (by painting them as deformed, Frankenstein-like creatures in their ‘art’) is a stroke of genius, and this should’ve been the film’s throughline.
AfrAId Doesn’t Know What It Wants to Be
Weitz seemingly forgot that it also had to be a horror movie, but it makes very little sense for AIA to start going into ‘kill mode’ and never do it again afterward. Usually, and in every movie in which a technology beyond the humans’ control takes form, they kill someone and do it over and over again. In AfrAId, character beats and plot threads are introduced, only for them to be dropped by the next scene (Carradine, in particular, leaves the movie after an event that causes him to become incredibly rich). The movie either has no idea where to go or scenes in which they explain important plot threads were left on the cutting room floor.
I’m more inclined to believe the latter because the film runs at a breakneck 84 minutes (counting credits…probably way less without it). Few plot elements make sense because it’s insistent on ending as quickly as possible. Of course, this was likely studio-mandated, but no one will see the film. Only critics (and a few possibly curious moviegoers) will go to cover, and that’s about it. Based on the three people (myself included) who were in the auditorium for the movie, I’m afraid (oh yes) this film won’t be a big hit.
But the movie did have the potential to discuss, with extreme relevancy, the ever-growing menace of Artificial Intelligence in replacing human-made creativity to render us, the people who make this life on Earth worthwhile, completely redundant. And with such a striking opening scene, one could think Weitz’s goal for the movie was to raise awareness of how much AI sucks. It definitely does, but it completely loses itself to become another bog-standard and dull PG-13 Blumhouse horror film lacking in suspense, thrills, and reason for existence.
The ridiculous ending, which seemingly tries to make a commentary on QAnon and Pizzagate conspiracy theories, arrives utterly flat on its face and ends with a twist so bizarre you’d think it belongs in a completely different movie…until it abruptly ends, putting the (two other) audience members out of their misery.
But no one will see this. The Labor Day weekend is notorious for some of the year’s biggest stinkers, and AfrAId should be put in that category. While some competent performances prevent it from being a true disaster (Keith Carradine is always a welcomed presence, even if Weitz makes him say ‘is it woke for homeless and crazy?’ in this), no one will remember the film’s existence in a day from now. I’m not making this up, go on the street and ask a bystander if they heard of a film called AfrAId. They would likely tell you, “What’s that?”
2/5
About AfrAId
Release Date: August 30, 2024
Director: Chris Weitz
Screenplay: Chris Weitz
Music: Alex Weston
Producers: Jason Blum, Chris Weitz, Andrew Miano
Production: Blumhouse Productions, Depth of Field
Distribution: Columbia Pictures
Cast: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Keith Carradine, Havana Rose Liu, Lukita Maxwell, David Dastmalchian, Wyatt Lindner, Isaac Bae, Bennett Curran, Greg Hill, and Riki Lindhome.
Synopsis: The Curtis’ family is selected to test a new home device: a digital assistant called AIA. AIA learns the family’s behaviors and begins to anticipate their needs. And she can make sure nothing – and no one – gets in her family’s way.
AfrAId is now playing in theatres. What did you think of the movie? What do you think of the use of AI in art? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to follow us on social media!
KEEP READING: JURASSIC WORLD REBIRTH: An Exciting New Era is Revealed With First Look & Details for Upcoming Sequel
