There weren't many fans of Robert Zemickis' filmed play, Here. While Zemeckis was nice enough to keep this one from being a full-on Christmas movie, which is what doomed us to 20 years of people insisting that The Polar Express is watchable, Here is plenty weird to look at. Most of that comes from the bizarre decision to use generative AI to cut and paste Tom Hanks' and Robin Wright's old faces onto their current ones. Like every Zemeckis special effects bonanza of the century, the result is another putrid example of computer-generated artistry—this time with that modern AI sheen. Moreover, Lisa Kudrow thinks it's "an endorsement of AI."
On Dax Shepard's podcast, Armchair Expert, Kudrow criticized the movie and its use of the very technology her union went on strike over last year. "They shot it, and they could actually shoot the scene and then look at the playback of them as younger, and it's ready for them to see," Kudrow said. "All I got from that was that this is an endorsement for AI. It's not like, 'Oh it's going to ruin everything,' but what will be left?"
Thankfully, not enough people saw the movie to receive the message. Still, Kudrow's concerns are more pressing in an industry (and society) looking to replace labor with AI slop that can't even sell Coca-Cola without disgusting viewers. Kudrow's main worry is that young actors may soon have to compete with productions that license Tom Hanks' image.
"Forget actors. What about up-and-coming actors? They'll just be licensing and recycling. Set that completely aside, what work will there be for human beings? Then what? There'll be some kind of living stipend for people, you won't have to work? How can it possibly be enough?"
Again, it's cold comfort that most people skipped Here and are, therefore, blissfully ignorant of how much it concerns Benjamin Franklin, whose de-aging, we begrudgingly admit, is pretty convincing.
