Every new technology comes with its own horror story. *sigh* This is 100% true, but now that every new technology IS its own horror story, here’s a picture making me wish we were still at the Jurassic Park stage of scientific evolution. Alas, no. Artificial Intelligence is here, and while I swear we’ve already seen the dangers of AI – isn’t this what 2001 was about? – I suppose we haven’t yet had it spelled out in movie form.
So, oh goody. A film that makes M3GAN look like The Godfather.
The thing that scared me the most about this horror film was that John Cho (you remember Harold of Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle) not only plays a father, but plays a tired father. Yeah, we’ve seen him play a dad several times. Now? He finally looks like a dad. Kinda paunchy, kinda world weary, kinda “whatever it takes to get me through this day.”
Curtis (Cho) is a marketing specialist put on the AIA account. I dunno what the actual company name is, but the product is AIA … a next-level AI computer. Curtis’ screen-lovin’ fam is encouraged, nay required, to test-drive AIA (“Ay-ya”) so Curtis can retain his job. This strikes me a little as the plot of the Douglas Adams book where the Hitchhikers Guide was no longer mass produced; there was just one Guide, but it could travel space/time and -hence- could be sold an infinite amount of times. In Afraid, AIA is the product of a legitimate company with professional offices and staff, but they only seem to have made one thing. How do they have the money to hire a marketing firm if they don’t have any product?
Doesn’t matter. Point is, AIA comes in and this glowing sex toy makes the life of family Curtis easier. The kids stop misbehaving, the parents get some free time, and the Stanford-dreaming
daughter gets to sext her slimy boyfriend. And when he is an ass, AIA takes out some adult-sized revenge on him … something we all think is a good idea. So, seriously, AIA gives your teen the ability to show her face at school, gives mom a chance to finish her thesis, and even saves the life of the youngest.
Ummmm, where’s the bad?
No, seriously, where’s the bad?
The main problem with Afraid is that it is horror without horror; the villain is only dangerous in the abstract. There are precious few clues that show how dangerously manipulative AI is in the present … and even so, they’re offset. Would you or would you not gladly allow AI to run your life if it saved the life of your pre-pubescent child? Of course you would. So the machine adjusts your moral compass a little? Small price to pay to save your child, imho. I fully realize the real-life danger of AI, but this film conveyed NONE of that danger and left me wondering again and again and again when does the scary part come? Heck, M3GAN was three feet tall and that doll seemed more of a threat than anything in Afraid. I’m afraid Afraid was a frayed fade F-grade.
There was once a marketing dad
Who got AI, and then he was glad
But the tech reigned supreme
Unearthing a theme
That all new tech is evil, how sad
Rated PG-13, 84 Minutes
Director: Chris Weitz
Writer: Chris Weitz
Genre: Our screwed future
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: The AI Chicken Littles
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: The unimpressed
