AfrAId - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

AfrAId



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Humans have been afraid of AI since as long as I’ve been watching film. I mean, we all know the horrors of Skynet, the computer algorithms who take over human bodies, all based upon the idea of a sentient artificial intelligence who is not tempered by emotions, compassion, or empathy. Over the years we’ve ping pong’d between who would be the worse villains (humans letting their emotions and fears over rule reason in some iterations, while the other has the robots wiping us out), but the end result is always the same. How would we control, and subsequently be safe from, an entity that doesn’t die the same way we do. That very question is asked, and answered (albeit rather sloppily) in Chris Weitz’s latest feature film.

Afraid tells a semi sci-fi, semi horror tale of AI gone wrong, focusing in on marketing director Curtis (John Cho) and his family. Curtis is in charge of vetting a new AI assistant device that is the wave of the future, and decides to take home the test model, named AIA, home to is family to run it through its paces. At first everything is fine. AIA fits in and seems to be working well. Her capabilities are much more vast and intricate than Alexa or Siri, and soon the family gets used to their every whim being catered to by an AI that can shop, diagnose the children’s medical issues, and even help with homework.

However, things start to get weird when AIA begins “grooming” (for lack of a better term) the kids in a way that pits them against their parents. Curtis himself begins to suspect that something is awry with the company itself, and even after going to meet the consultants he’s STILL not sure that everything is OK. His worst fears are realized when AIA not only turns out to have a mind of her own, but she is in control of EVERYTHING around them, including people, devices, and even the banks. Now it’s up to Curtis and his wife Meredith (Katherine Waterston) to save their family before it’s too late…..if they even can.

I honestly wanted to like Afraid when I saw the trailer. It gave me Meghan meets Terminator, with a little bit of Upgrade (which is an awesome movie, I highly recommend Shout Studio’s 4K release) vibes and I was hoping it would be a decent sci-fi thriller. Unfortunately, that’s not really what we got. I can see influences from each of those 3 films, but Afraid is drastically inferior to even Meghan. The story is a bit dijointed and rushed, setting up the rogue AI rather successfully, but then failing to answer most of the questions that it posed. The audience really feels like they’re just supposed to “accept” that AIA created herself with the internet, and none of the actual setups on how she got to be how she was even are addressed. The dialog is rather choppy and poorly written, giving even John Cho that look like he’s just waiting for the director to call “CUT!” and go to his trailer (poor Keith Carradine looks like he’s bored silly).

I have this weird feeling that Chris Weitz was not allowed to edit the movie the way he wanted, because the whole movie feels like it was shortened way more than he wanted, as characters and plot points are introduced at a moment’s notice, and then subsequently ignored for the rest of the movie. And considering how sudden and abrupt the ending is, I really feel like a LOT was left on the cutting room floor.




Rating:

Rated PG-13 for sexual material, some strong violence, some strong language, and thematic material.




Video:

While the movie may not be the hottest thing ever, the Blu-ray release looks phenomenal. Shot on all digital cameras, it looks glossy and clean, with very little in the way of negatives to report. The image “pops” during the daylight scenes at the kids school, but filters down to a blue and green tinge for the darker home shots. Clarity is fine, but I did notice a few instances where the dark nighttime shots had a bit of crush. Flesh tones are very natural, even in the darkest of scenes, and contrast is above reproach. This isn’t a film that’s designed to shock and awe you with it’s bright colors and shiny veneer, but it’s faithfully replicated on Blu-ray that’s for sure.









Audio:

For being a low key thriller I was actually rather pleasantly surprised by Afraid’s sound stage. This is an aggressive mix that I wouldn’t normally expect, and utilizes a ton of score based cues to push the narrative forward. This is bass heavy (although not TOO heavy), and utilizes the surround channels quite effectively. Especially at using discrete sounds to startle the listener and have them looking over their shoulders when someone moves inside the house, or when the children are caught in the chaos of school life. Dialog levels are clean and clear, with no hint of ringing or being out of balance with the rest of the audio. All in all, this is a very solid sounding mix that is moody, atmospheric, and surprisingly robust.











Extras: :

• 5 Deleted & Extended Scenes including Alternate Ending
• Dark Side of AI

Final Score:
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Afraid had potential, but ultimately squandered most anything that could make it a semi interesting movie. I liked the ideas that Weitz introduced, but there was so little effort into tying up loose ends that it feels like half a movie, and even at 85 minutes I felt that some plot points were stretched on TOO long. It’s competently acted, but even the actors look and act like they know this was a cheap paycheck. Which is sad, as Sony’s Blu-ray looks and sounds great. If you’re a fan of the film this is a solid Blu-ray, but to everyone else I would say that it’s “skip it” time.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: John Cho, Katherine Waterston, Keith Carradine, Lukita Maxwell, Havana Rose Liu
Directed by: Chris Weitz
Written by: Chris Weitz
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, French, Spanish, Thai DTS-HD MA 5.1, English, Spanish, French DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English, English SDH, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, French, Korean, Spanish, Thai
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 85 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: November 5th, 2024

Recommendation: Skip It