AfrAId (2024) is a CAUTIONARY TALE, but… - Movie Review

what's going on everybody welcome back to the channel and in today's video we're going to be talking about afraid written and directed by Chris whites this film stars people like johon Cho Katherine Waton havan Rose Leo lukita Maxwell and more so here we are talking about the latest film coming from Sony pictures in collaboration with blumhouse a new horror film that takes AI to the front of horror once again which is something that we're seeing more and more these days and I think it's something that we're going to consistently see in horror as we get further and further into the world of AI and I think it goes without saying that there's a lot about Ai and the various improvements that it's made that are really cool some things that you can look at and be like wow it's crazy that AI can do that I know a lot of us are using AI whether it's the small tools like chat GPT or AI art but we know that this has the ability to be incredibly deceptive or just be utilized for some crazy things that can really harm the world moving forward so I think the horrors of AI the possibilities of AI are something that we've all kind of pondered in the various comment sections across social media over the course of the last few years but for the sake of this movie Let's Talk About The Base premise of what this movie is all about and then we'll get into my thoughts on it the movie opens up when we're introduced to Jon Cho's character Curtis a father of a family where he's got three kids his wife is played by Katherine Waton and he works for a marketing firm and now has the opportunity Unity to possibly work with a new client that has some sort of new AI device similar to something like a Google home or an Alexa this device is known as ya and they move this device into their home to test it out so he can see if he actually wants to be part of the marketing for this company of course as you would expect from the marketing of this film and just from the base premise of what this film is all about as time starts to go what starts off as a really interesting AI that seems incredibly impressive and very helpful to this family unfortunately ends up unfolding into it being more of a horror picture and showcasing the horrors of what AI is capable of doing and that's the base premise of the film at its core in a lot of ways this is a cautionary tale for the things that AI can be again I think something that we all kind of already know I mean you can go back to movies like Terminator and even movies before that that were already making comments about you know technology in general taking over the world and what happens if it was to have a mind of its own and it's thing we're seeing more and more as years have gone on and one thing that's incredibly clear is that it's going to get to a place where it can be wildly deceptive whether it be with videos imagery whatever the case may be and we haven't fully gotten there just yet though and this film kind of tackles that the lack of humanity behind AI especially when it comes down to things like AI art and AI video how it can be very convincing and oftentimes very compelling and cool to see but can also be uncanny and very creepy in a lot of ways as well and so this film very much tackles those themes that I think we're all feeling in the real world it also tackles how AI can be wildly helpful for people but how it can also hold people back from their full capabilities because it is kind of doing things for them or giving them a sense of appeasement that isn't really coming from actual hard work but more so just from something that can just be handed to you on a silver platter and so this movie does tackle some interesting things this film does have some interesting ideas but again I think it's all ideas we already had before we can watch a movie like this and unfortunately I don't think that afraid with the AI in afraid being the highlighted part here I don't think that afraid necessarily does much with those ideas the themes the ideas that we see here well I do understand it's trying to be a cautionary tale and I do think it makes some interesting points in the film again it's all stuff that you can already kind of have discussions about that are far scarier in comment sections all across the internet and in the case of this film a lot of it just felt very forced and very hamfisted it felt very much like a movie that had a general premise that almost felt like it was written by AI a lot about this film just feels so surface level and it feels like there was a lot about this movie that felt like it was left on The Cutting Room floor the movie has a very unnatural kind of way that it progresses throughout the course of the film with there being a story that you can follow but it feels like there's chunks missing in between certain scenes scenes don't really flow we get from one scene to the next and it's one of those films that by the time you get to the end of the movie it just feels like a movie happened but you didn't really feel like you went on a journey with these characters and I didn't go into this movie expecting anything Grand if you saw the marketing for the film it seemed like it was going to be a very silly schlocky horror film about AI so I went into the film expecting just that and unfortunately it just really didn't have much on the bone it really just feels like what I explained to you about what this movie is there isn't a deeper layer here there isn't a situation of like well let me just give you the base premise cuz there's more under the surface you should go see it for yourself if you can gather from what I'm saying what you can kind of see in your mind is this movie ultimately I don't think you'd be very surprised when you actually see the movie to see that it doesn't really have much more under the surface and that's really the most I could say about this film if I can praise it when it comes down to film making I do think that the performances in the film are fine with Jon Cho and Katherine Waterson giving some pretty solid performances as our lead performers here as well as the actors who play their kids they're not really given much on a script level but I do think that they do the best with what they have outside of that there are some great moments of lighting in the film as well and the cinematography is done competently enough but that's really all I can say cuz outside of that I found this movie to be a slog to watch honestly I felt like it was incredibly messy when it came down to its script and over on screenplay The Narrative was all over the place and while again it was something you could follow it's not a narrative that's hard to follow it just never really took it anywhere further than what the commercials for this movie show the trailers for this movie give you a a base idea and the film stays at that base idea consistently it never really has any twist or turns or anything that kind of makes you feel like oh man there's more of this movie Under the surface and when it comes down to all the cast members you have in here they just feel wasted John Cho Katherine Waterson even David Delian is in this film you have big names in here who have showcased themselves to be great actors and actresses in other things only to have a movie here that gives them really nothing when it comes down to the script and dialogue that often times felt like it was written by AI itself the dialogue in this film often times feels incredibly stilted very much unnatural and I feel like the film was maybe trying to go for that but that could be me just trying to give it Grace because it is kind of tackling AI there are parts of this film that are trying to tackle that lack of humanity behind AI the fact that there's something about it that's just off and and uncanny especially when it comes to video and images at times especially human images and again it's it's it's it's it's just one of those things that just kind of left me in the theater Going H I just don't really like the way that this is being told I just never found myself engaged I never felt inspired in any way shape or form and the movie clocks in at an hour and 24 minutes with credit so it breezes by really fast and ultimately it feels like it doesn't really ever do much with that runtime and that's really the most I could say about this film we got to the end of the film and it just felt like a cautionary tale that could have been more a cautionary tale that could have done more with this this idea that just genuinely never did and in a world where we do already have technology taking over the world movies this really added nothing to the conversation whatsoever and so that's going to be my really short review for afraid there's really not an abundance to this movie I wish I could tell you more I wish there was more to the themes and the ideas of this film that were really exciting I think the performers did it as best as they could but when it comes down to the writing the direction of this film The Way It Was edited something about it just fell off and Hollow there really wasn't much to it and I don't want to keep repeating the same things to you guys trying to find words to speak about this film it's a shame that there were so many great actors and actresses in this film that were underutilized but I guess that happens from time to time I think you should definitely avoid seeing this in theaters I can see some people maybe enjoying it later down the line on streaming but also one thing last thing to mention this is a horror film and I didn't even bring up any horror elements there are a few jump scares in the film that I think is where the film is trying to lean the most into the horror in some of those moments I guess you could say there was a little bit of tension in moments right before the jump scare came but it always felt like a jump scare was coming you knew it was coming it felt very telegraphed there was nothing about the film that was really surprising and outside of that I feel like most of the horror of this film really just kind of comes in our minds of what AI can be in our lives I just feel like this was just surface level surface level across the board so a big thanks to you guys for watching hit that like button comment your thoughts are you a fan of afraid that you not like afraid whatever the case may be leave any and all comments down below and I'll see you beautiful people in the next one bye-bye