'AfrAId' Reviews: "Viewers might think cheap A.I. could've made a better movie"

         On August 30. 2024, Columbia Pictures released 'AfrAId', which has earned a mixed reception from critics, currently holding at 29% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, "Curtis (John Cho) and his family are selected to test a revolutionary new home device: a digital family assistant called AIA. Taking smart home to the next level, once the unit and all its sensors and cameras are installed in their home, AIA seems able to do it all. She 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." The ensemble cast includes Havana Rose Liu, River Drosche, Lukita Maxwell, and Katherine Waterston. But what did the critics say?

Photo by Chase Yi on Unsplash

        Carla Hay of Culture Mix writes, "The muddled and not-very-scary horror film Afraid has a dimwitted plot (about an A.I. device taking over people's lives) that falls apart by the time it stumbles to a very weak ending. Viewers might think cheap A.I. could've made a better movie." Adding, "Afraid” makes a very unconvincing attempt to get some empathy for AIA by making it look like AIA was programmed to protect her owners by any means necessary. There are mentions of AIA being able to “learn” human emotions. According to the movie, all she wants is to find a home where she is loved and wanted—because don’t you know that A.I. devices need love too?"

       Avi Offer of NYC Movie Guru praises the film, stating, "Curtis (John Cho), a marketing executive, agrees to test a new smart home AI device with his wife, Meredith (Katherine Waterston),  son, Cal (Isaac Bae), and daughter, Preston (Wyatt Lindner), the device, called AIA (voice of Havana Rose Liu), takes control over their lives in AfrAId. The screenplay by writer/director Chris Weitz doesn't earn any points for originality, plausibility or imagination, but it does take its concept to dark territory while allowing the film to serve as a thrilling, timely and eye-opening cautionary tale about the dangers of AI. A subplot involving Preston dealing with a deepfaked image of her face transposed onto someone in a porn clip feels undercooked. However, it does raise awareness about the terrifying existence of deepfake. Although the dialogue lacks nuance, it does have a few instances of wit, i.e. when Meredith references HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey when Curtis brings AIA home. There's also a surprisingly moving scene where Meredith interacts with an AI version of her late father on the TV screen. AIA is clearly a double edged sword. If it were human, she'd be a classic narcissist who showers her victims with gifts to take control over them and makes their lives difficult when her victims want to end their relationship. Although the film's title is AfrAId, it's not a palpably scary horror film like T.I.M. nor a dark comedy like Meagan. The modicum of scares are more psychological in the sense that AIA has seemingly unlimited power and control. How far will she go? Fortunately, the third act, which won't be spoiled here, has an refreshingly unconventional twist up its sleeve which ends the film on an effectively chilling note. Katherine Waterston gives a heartfelt performance that breathes life into her role. John Cho is also well-cast here and gives a solid performance."

       Natalia Keogan of Paste Magazine says, "Making such an insubstantial film about one of our era’s greatest technological shifts isn’t just annoying. It feels downright irresponsible." Continuing, "It goes without saying that AIA is no HAL, and another irksome decision by Weitz rests in the machine’s inherent programming as either infantilized entity or matronly caretaker. Why should a synthetic organism subscribe to gender roles? (Again, questioning why so many of these “assistants” are personified as women could have asserted some sort of narrative integrity). The terrifying whims of a cold, calculated machine would have worked much better for the flimsy genre parameters of AfrAId, which in turn wouldn’t have the burden of engaging with the social influence that shapes modern AI initiatives."

       Leigh Monson of AV Club notes, "Almost entirely bloodless and with half a handful of kills, there just isn’t enough visceral terror to make up for the disparate, thematically muddied nonsense that’s been cobbled together into the shape of a movie. If a more fleshed-out version of this film did exist at some point, it was almost certainly deemed enough of a failure that the shorter runtime was the mercenary compromise necessary to eke out any hope of a return on investment. As much as we may wish to call this a monstrosity of artificial intelligence, its failures are unmistakably human."

       Benjamin Lee of Guardian was less impressed, stating, "There’s undeservedly good work here from Cho and Waterston, who work hard to make us believe them as a credible couple going through a heightened scenario but there’s so little time here for even partly fleshed out characters that they quickly become useless pawns, secondary to Weitz’s muddled theories on digital culture. As with so many tech thrillers that have come before, AfrAId is more concerned with being relevant than being entertaining."