I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but TCL’s new movie trailer for Next Stop Paris is suspicious. It’s apparently part of TCL’s push for AI-generated content, and it’s been made by a mix of human writing, actors in motion capture, and generative AI. It’s also the best argument I’ve ever seen for not being worried that AI will replace real actors anytime soon!
Look, before we get into the fever dream that is this movie, please “enjoy” the trailer for Next Stop Paris:
The line “maybe you’re the dark, mysterious kind of man who never shows his vulnerability” is especially egregious when the trailer pairs it with a shot of the male lead looking appropriately shaded and broody.
It’s okay, though, because it follows up with him saying, “Maybe you’re the kind of woman who’s never sure of what you want even if it’s right in front of you,” so it’s nice they’re pop-psychology insulting each other equally.
To be fair, Next Stop Paris is not that awful; it seems to be mostly on par with the lower-tier Hallmark Christmas movies — the ones that appear to star a mix of non-famous actors and the actual residents of a town who just get filmed while wandering about their daily lives.
The bigger issue is that AI is just not quite there to make a realistic movie, and when your movie looks less realistic than a Christmas movie clearly filmed in July, there’s a problem.
I took the liberty of taking screenshots from Next Stop Paris to dissect some of the issues.
Let’s start with the photo below; it is not a human’s face! It’s squarely in the uncanny valley because real human skin does not look plastic.
The AI designed this man to look like the adult version of the jock bully in every 80s movie.
The AI wasn’t satisfied, so it also gave the main male character the look of a “brooding antihero from a 2010 CW show.” This is a look that overshoots broody and lands squarely in “you know what, I just remembered I’m moving to another country tomorrow, don’t call me, I’ll call you” territory.
THIS IS NOT THE SAME WOMAN AS BEFORE. She looks like the AI ran her through a “What would you look like as a Disney Princess” filter.
This was intended to be artsy, but instead, it gives off “love triangle or throuple?” vibes.
There seem to be too many or not enough fingers, but it might just be the weird angles—or maybe one of the characters has an extremely long thumb.
This looks exactly like the stock photo that came in a frame I bought at Target once.
This appears to be a scene that was cut and pasted directly from a racing game.
She still doesn’t look human, and it appears she has de-aged a little; maybe time moves differently in AI-Paris.
There are lots of establishing shots of this clock, and if you watch, the hands move really abruptly at 0:46. So maybe time moves differently in Paris!
Dramatic shot of the face-shifting protagonist or a fancy high school graduation photo?
Don’t worry. After all the time invested in dissecting this trailer, we’ll definitely be bringing you a full review when the movie hits this summer! I, for one, can’t wait to see how AI interprets human romance!