It has been months since the initial release of the trailer for the film “Civil War,” and last weekend, the movie-going public finally had the chance to take it in. Those mixed impressions from the trailer appear to to have remained in place, as the reviews and impressions of the film are across the board, from positive raves to stark disappointment. But most of the reactions are along the lines of it being a missed opportunity. 

Even the performance on its debut weekend was a mixed bag. It opened in the number-one position, and it was heralded as the biggest opening for the studio, A24. But this was with a modest $25 million at the box office; hardly the breakout hit they wanted it to sound like.

I have a desire to catch this one soon, as the elements in it look to be the kind of cinematic mess I savor. Conflicting and politically stunted posturing takes place, and there is no true reason given for why and how the country became fractured, beyond just a president being megalomaniacal. Kurt Schlichter gives a solid rundown of the film at our sister site, Townhall.

The advanced word was steeped in the word “controversy.” Many in left-wing Hollywood wanted this to be a scathing commentary on our current political climate in the country, with claims that this portrayed the conservative side in a scathing fashion, upsetting many. The problem with this; when that trailer was initially released, many on the right were not taken aback – they were laughing at the portrayals.

Journalists are supposedly heroic (really?!), militia members are adorned like they are at a rave while wearing fatigues, as well as the indolent concept that Texas and California have supposedly formed an alliance. A plot point involves a journalist traveling across the war-torn country (with others, including one in a UN blue helmet), in order to interview the president, who is said to shoot journalists on sight. 

Now, the production is generating more outrage, and it has little to do with the content on screen. The studio released a series of posters upon the movie's release, depicting imagery from various cities across the country that absorbed various levels of violence. (I was particularly fond of the bombed-out vista on Miami Beach.)

Why on earth is @A24 using AI generated images for promo instead of working with and paying a real human artist? This is genuinely foul and unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/IAmTdwaAuA

— Meg (they) (@meganroseruiz) April 18, 2024

Two things were quickly evident to those looking over these images. The first was that they depicted scenes that do not appear in the film. The other is more controversial, and that is how these graphics were clearly AI-generated. This is a topic that has become deeply reactive in Hollywood. The recent strikes that the industry endured in 2023 - by both the writers and the actors guilds - were heavily driven by the rising specter of artificial intelligence. The recent Amazon Prime release of a remake of “Roadhouse” was under fire over accusations it used AI to redub some spoken lines during post-production.

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The big question over these posters is how much of that protection, which the unions fought over last year, involves the graphic artist industry that creates the one-sheets for films. Some studios have their own in-house promotional art studios, while others reach out to the freelance market. If AI is beginning to be turned to for movie poster and other graphics promotions, this could lead to sweeping problems in that component of the industry, as a couple of people sitting at their computers can generate comparable art to a fully staffed art collective.

Even if there are none of the protections for the artists, that a studio would resort to this move after the strikes made this issue of AI use so prominent indicates their willingness to use this technology, and it also shows the true threat this presents to various aspects of filmmaking. Not only did A24 release some questionable images, they displayed the real threat in Hollywood is on the horizon.