AfrAId: The wrong movie at the right time

⭐⭐

Rob Ryan

If you spend any time on the internet, specifically YouTube, you are likely to be bombarded with ads featuring influencers promoting editing software and their new "generative AI". Instead of hiring a professional to create convincing and creative backgrounds or god forbid have to set up a blue or green screen, this new AI can just place a cool background for you with hardly any of the work put in. On twitter/X if you are not being bombarded with ads promoting AI, there's a good chance you may come across some spicy to disturbing new stories involving AI. Just this week we've had the trailer to Megaopolis, Francis Ford Coppla's new magnum opus be pulled due to the critic quotes being pulled from sources unrelated to the movie as Lionsgate's now former Marketing consultant used Chat GPT to find negative critic quotes from Coppola's previous Films, only for the AI to just use quotes of reviews of other movies instead. Even more damming is actor Jenna Ortega coming out saying that the reason she has left twitter is due to being shared AI generated child pornography using her likeness. That's not even accounting for last years Hollywood strikes where writers and other members of the industry where begging their studio overlords to not replace them with computers.

I mention all of these stories related to AI because all of this makes it perfect for an effective and timely movie about its strengths but more importantly the problematic implications of it going forward and it's frustrating that AfrAId despite showing moments of promise, is ultimately another "Evil Sentient AI" movie that avoids all possibilities for this premise at every turn.

We follow a marketing man Curtis, (John Cho) who after a chaotic morning with the family is offered a new product to sell to consumers, the beneficiary's of this product (David Dastmalchian and Ashley Ramos) introduce him and his boss (Keith Carridine) to a new piece of virtual assistant technology called AIA, a more advanced and more living version of Alexa. Curtis decides to give it a trial run at his home before deciding on a deal to market the product.

The device is installed by the creators assistant, Melody (Havana Rose Liu) with her voice attached to the machine. Immediately the benefits outshine Curtis's trepidation, AIA's bubbly personality accompanied by Melody's voice proves appealing for his two sons (Wyatt Lindner and Issac Bae) who begin to clean the dinner table when she gives them points for house chores, his wife (Katherine Waterson) finds more quality time to herself when AIA takes over all of the responsibilities ranging from bills to moderating the kids and their daughter (Lukita Maxwell) manages to get back at those who made a deepfake sex tape featuring her likeness thanks to AIA's help.

Curtis is however not convinced as a Motorhome featuring some strange individuals lingers outside their home. They preform hand gestures similar to those who work at the AIA office. Far be it for me to tell you what happens next but any idea you might have for how this story goes, chances are it's probably way more eventful then entire second half of this movie. When its not unfocused and plodding, the movie feels like its been skimmed together in the editing room as it forgets about most of its supporting characters, interesting plot developments including the deepfake subplot get dropped, scenes in the trailer are not in the movie and motivations for why characters do what they do feel unearned. On top of that the movie devolves to an anticlimax that is contrived and nonsensical, one where the clear intent was to disturb but the actual feeling reciprocated would be more deflated if anything.

In order for this film to feel fresh in 2024, this needed to potentially scrap the whole "Evil Sentient AI" and tell this story in a way that hasn't been seen before, not only because the angle is overdone that even people that are Pro-AI scoff at the notion, but because AIA as a villain is nowhere near as engaging then say M3GAN. There are hints in Writer-director Chris Weitz screenplay that show a better movie trying to escape, for example the deepfake stuff with the daughter is timely and can be done well, the film opens with wired AI animations being viewed by a kid on an IPAD, Animations, that are more terrifying than the actual film. This could have indicated how common place AI has become that we are now using it to keep kids distracted as opposed to distracting them with art made by talented people, or how Curtis's boss is ecstatic to learn that the AI firm has bought his business and has now reached retirement, showing some potential satire for how and why CEO's ultimately let these AI firms take over the marketplace.

Even if you wanted to have the villain be a sentient AI that causes havoc, why then is this whole movie so tame? Not only in its horror but in its violence, why not go out there and have a bloodbath? It might have not been scary but it would have been way more entertaining than what we got at the end.

John Cho is a fine actor who can be an effective leading man, Searching (2018) proves that, Waterson has one emotional moment that she preforms effortlessly, I have no issue with their efforts but the movie leaves them with nowhere to go. I am not exactly asking for some cutting edge crusade against AI but with it being more and more commonplace and with people's fear of it worsening, now is the time to take this concept in new and creative directions but AfrAId despite looking and resembling something modern, manages to be so desperately behind the times.

Also, 2024 and we are still doing the generic "Fake out horror movie dream sequence"?!!! What are we doing here?