A24 Criticized For Using AI-Generated Movie Posters for ‘Civil War’
Film studio A24 has been criticized for releasing a series of AI-Generated poster ads for its critically acclaimed movie Civil War.
Alex Garland’s new movie Civil War broke opening weekend records for A24 this month and has already become one of the studio’s highest-grossing films ever.
The movie, which had a production budget of $50 million, follows a team of journalists and photographers traveling across the U.S. during a civil war which has engulfed the nation.
However, A24 has face backlash for reportedly using AI-generated images to promote Civil War.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, A24 released five posters to advertise the movie that depict post-apocalyptic scenes in iconic U.S. cities that have been torn apart by the film’s fictional civil war.
In the images, soldiers patrol the lake outside San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, while the Las Vegas Sphere is pictured as a blackened wreck with all its panels punched out, and a Miami street is seen lying in ruins.
The other Civil War posters show a floating gun unit in a lake outside Los Angeles and tour boats full of refugees on the Chicago River.
‘We’re Getting AI Movie Posters Now’
The ads were posted on Instagram and used as physical posters in a couple of locations. However, A24’s promotional Civil War posters were quickly blasted online for being AI-generated.
oh cool we're at a stage where we're getting AI movie posters. for an A24 movie. cool. i'm gonna go kms. https://t.co/K4msiqJtox
— jeremy (@jeremylovesyall) April 17, 2024
Film fans claim to have spotted some characteristic AI flaws and notable geographic mistakes in the Civil War posters.
A24 dropped these posters all accentuated with or generated by AI techniques. The fans hate it, but in a year, you won’t be able to tell. Too late.
Designers often use content-aware. I do. The issue is they could’ve paid a human to tie this all together and fix obvious errors. pic.twitter.com/Ag5qUifqqY
— Sam's Myth (@SamsMyth) April 17, 2024
For example, the two Marina Towers buildings in Chicago are on the same side of the river in reality but are on opposite sides in the art. Meanwhile, a shot of wreckage in Miami shows a car with three doors.
Meanwhile, other social media users believe that the giant swan in the lake is probably meant to represent a paddleboat rather than the real bird that is seen in the A24 poster.
The Rise of AI Images in Movies and TV
While A24 has not responded to the backlash online, an unnamed source close to Civil War tells The Hollywood Reporter that the images were indeed AI-generated.
“These are AI images inspired by the movie,” a source says.
“The entire movie is a big ‘what if’ and so we wanted to continue that thought on social — powerful imagery of iconic landmarks with that dystopian realism.”
This is not the first time the entertainment industry has come under fire for using AI-generated images in recent months.
Last week, Netflix was accused of using AI-manipulated images in a new true crime documentary What Jennifer Did.
Meanwhile, hit horror film Late Night With The Devil, which debuted in theaters in March, was criticized for using AI-generated images.
