Lunavom

An argument in favour of AI generation is that it could allow smaller or lone filmmakers to explore worlds and concepts that have been locked away behind million-dollar budgets since the invention of VFX. But on the basis of Lunavom, technology has a long, long way to go to bridging that gap – and a true understanding of character and human emotion will always outweigh visual spectacle: something able filmmakers ought to understand.

 

Created by Tamil filmmaker Muthu Karthikeyan entirely with AI, the film is a sci-fi tale of a human colony based on the moon in the not-so-distant future after the collapse of humanity. A mysterious signal from Mount Kailash triggers an investigation, and a glimmer of hope emerges of a brighter future from the lessons of the past.

 

There are important ethical questions about the use of AI in film that are far too extensive for a single review. Needless to say, many in the industry will find films like Lunavom controversial; my intent is to review this film independent of these. However, it really is impossible to separate it from the technology behind its creation. Most prominently is that for all the sci-fi spectacle, epic space sequences and photorealistic ‘actors’, the uncanny valley effect is completely overwhelming. Even 68-year-old Facebook users will be able to spot that the scenes are off, with the characters almost unanimously robotic and artificial. This is purportedly intentional, but it’s impossible to connect to their stories or invest emotionally when such a clear lack of humanity emanates from the screen. It is unlikely that Karthikeyan could have done much more to resolve this due to the technological limitations of the day, but whether the endeavour was worth proceeding with is another question due to this.

 

The plot is based around Tamil mythologies implanted into a futuristic imagined world where humanity has nearly perished. It is an admirable idea to proceed with – one that will be unfamiliar to many Western audiences and one that may not otherwise be supported by large studios. It is these types of stories where an argument for AI use exists – that filmmakers who otherwise would be ignored can punch through the ceiling of financial restriction. But Lumavom does a poor job of explaining its quite complicated story aspects and concepts. Perhaps to those with prior familiarity with the culture, this will have more of an impact, but otherwise comes across as difficult to interact with. It also seems particularly galling to mention humanity forgoing real human experiences in place of the artificial as one of the film’s themes.

 

If an appetite for fully AI films even exists, it is unlikely to be satisfied by Lunavom. The film is the definition of artificial and is utterly shallow despite occasional photorealism. There are far more interesting and fulfilling ways in which such a story could have been told, and whilst the questions around the benefits that the technology can have for small-scale films ought to still be pondered, AI superiority is still, thankfully, a long way off.