Support The Daily Orange this holiday season! The money raised between now and the end of the year will go directly toward aiding our students. Donate today.

The question of generative AI’s place in film is a thorny one. Some see it as the future of video generation. Others see it as slop that’s killing the environment by emitting hundreds of tons of carbon.

Wherever you stand on artificial intelligence – I personally find it abhorrent in the arts – it’s undeniably becoming part of Hollywood. Films from this year like Robert Zemeckis’ “Here,” Harmony Korine’s “Aggro Dr1ft” and the supernatural horror flick “Late Night with the Devil” all feature generative AI.

But the technology isn’t just being used to help create films — it also can restore the movies of yesteryear. Look no further than the re-release of Daft Punk’s 2003 anime science fiction film, “Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem.”

The film follows an alien pop band as they are kidnapped and then return home. It played this past weekend at Regal Destiny USA, along with some of the duo’s music videos from the ‘90s and early 2000s, like “Da Funk” and “Around the World.” As part of the 4K image upscaling, the production team used an undisclosed AI tool to remaster the film.

“Interstella 5555” features Daft Punk’s 2001 hit album “Discovery” as the soundtrack, along with pristine visuals and absent dialogue to show that artists can reclaim their work from the greedy corporations who exploit music and technology for profit. But using an exploitative technology like artificial intelligence to create the film ironically betrays the heart of the picture.

The exact details of the film’s artificial upscaling remain unclear. Cédric Hervet, Daft Punk’s creative manager and co-writer of the film, was in charge of the remaster. He told an audience at the 2024 Reykjavik International Film Festival in October that the crew used “a special algorithm for anime to keep the (brush) strokes.”

You can immediately tell what Hervet is talking about as the extraterrestrial pop band’s journey looks much crisper than the original 2003 film. Though the smoothing effect may seem like an example of the wonders of technology, something’s lost along the way. Namely, the struggles that the characters endure feel less impactful or profound.

Without any dialogue, the film’s animation, by Japanese manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, relies on the four band members’ facial expressions to relay emotion to the audience. For example, the bass player Stella has a relationship with an alien who comes to save the band. You don’t even need flashbacks to know that her expressions indicate a prior relationship with him.

With the higher-rendered resolutions, the subtle facial expressions lose their magic and power. Similarly, the action sequences, which take inspiration from anime classics like “Akira,” feel too neat, lessening the thrill when the band members escape from evil Earl de Darkwood and his goons.

It’s a shame, considering how the film weaves together Daft Punk’s own feelings about technology and the music industry. Thomas Bangalter, one half of the French duo, said part of the reason the two called it quits was because of the convergence of technology and creativity. Banglater added his own musings about creativity, which he believed to be human-based and not algorithmic.

For a story about aliens riding a spaceship guitar back to their homeworld, “Interstella 5555” is unexpectedly bitter, optimistic, and above all, humanistic, in perceiving the music industry. Once the band is kidnapped by Darkwood, they’re transformed from their alien selves into mind-controlled humans. In flashbacks, it’s revealed many great musicians have been influenced by Darkwood, who wants golden No. 1 records to take over the world. The evil scheme may sound absurd, but these details point to how culture can be influenced by maleficent figures.

It’s a fascinating look at the intersection between music and money. The band, now under Darkwood’s control and named the Crescendolls, travels from one performance to another and writes autographs for adoring, ravenous fans. The glitzy and upbeat song of the same name underscores how pop can take on this form of media manipulation. Even as the duo creates this high energy instrumental song with samples and synths, ugliness remains.

Still, a happy ending where the band returns to their planet and plays the iconic song, “One More Time,” shows how the duo believes in the power of music that transcends worlds. There’s a concert that’s televised both on Earth and the band’s homeworld. The work feels more intellectual and emotional because Daft Punk acknowledges the unseemliness and nastiness that lurks in the music industry.

In their later albums like “Random Access Memories,” Daft Punk uses vocoders to question who they are as robots and stewards of electronic dance music. This reflexiveness is apparent throughout their careers, but the movie adds another layer to how the duo viewed their time near the top of popular culture with their album “Discovery.”

But the reflections and messages seem to fall on deaf ears for those who wanted to remaster the 2003 film. Bangalter said his “concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence go beyond its use in music creation.”

Daft Punk focuses on evolution, moving away from being robots entirely, as seen in the “Infinity Repeating” music video. In it, a single-cell organism becomes a robot before crashing and falling apart.

With artificial intelligence and algorithms, this “remaster” feels like the thud at the end of the music video. It doesn’t feel human after all.

Published on December 14, 2024 at 10:16 pm

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com