## The Cinematic AI Paradox: Why Hollywood’s Fascination with Artificial Intelligence Is Losing Its Spark
From the chilling rebellion of the Maschinenmensch in Fritz Lang’s *Metropolis* to HAL 9000’s cold, calculated betrayal in *2001: A Space Odyssey*, and Skynet’s relentless pursuit of human extinction across the *Terminator* saga, cinema has long captivated audiences with bold visions of artificial intelligence. Hollywood, it seems, has never lacked imagination when contemplating AI’s potential to dramatically reshape human destiny.
Yet, despite AI’s unprecedented real-world integration into our daily lives and industries, its cinematic representation appears to be losing its edge. This burgeoning reality is paradoxically undermining the very film genre it once defined, not to mention impacting the medium of film itself.
### The Diminishing Returns of AI Narratives
It’s entirely understandable why screenwriters and studios have gravitated back to AI as a subject in recent years. The technology sparks fervent debate within the industry – indeed, the threat AI posed to creative jobs was a significant factor in the 2023 labor strikes. However, the initial allure of these modern AI tales has dissipated with surprising speed.
#### From Box Office Buzz to Creative Bust
Consider *M3GAN*, the campy horror flick featuring a killer AI doll. Released just a week after ChatGPT’s public debut in 2022, it was a surprise box-office hit, tapping into a nascent cultural anxiety. Fast forward a year, and its sequel languished, proving to be both a critical and commercial disappointment. This rapid decline hinted at a genre whose novelty had already worn thin.
Even established franchises have struggled to navigate the AI landscape effectively. *Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning* (2023) introduced “The Entity,” a rogue AI, as its ultimate antagonist. The resolution promised in its cliff-hanger successor, *Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning* (2025), not only underperformed its predecessor but also failed to truly justify the colossal expenditures involved.
#### Mercy’s Missteps and Missed Opportunities
The latest cinematic misfire in this trend is *Mercy*, a crime thriller starring Chris Pratt. Released in January, one reviewer has already prematurely declared it “the worst movie of 2026.” The film sees Pratt’s LAPD detective racing against a 90-minute deadline, strapped to a chair, to gather enough evidence to convince a stern judge-bot (Rebecca Ferguson) of his innocence – or face instant execution. Its mediocre ticket sales suggest that many US moviegoers decided against seeing it based on the trailer alone. Perhaps the public’s disinterest stems from a stark reality: when real-world algorithms are already denying vital health insurance claims, fictional debates over an AI’s capacity for mercy feel remarkably trivial.
For the few who did watch, *Mercy* fell far short of its dystopian premise. Instead of grappling with the profound ethical implications of such a surveillance state and its medieval-modern justice system, it opted for cheap relativism. *Spoiler alert:* Pratt’s character and the AI ultimately join forces to stop the *real* bad guys, as the bot begins to exhibit “unrobotic” emotions and doubt, manifesting as convenient glitches. By the film’s climax, Pratt delivers a truly cringeworthy “we’re-not-so-different” speech to the holographic Ferguson: “Human or AI, we all make mistakes,” he pontificates. “And we learn.”
### A Troubling Narrative Shift: From Cautionary Tales to Unearned Redemption
#### The Softening Edge of Sci-Fi
This naive belief in AI’s inevitable progress toward enlightenment often feels dated upon arrival. It stands in stark contrast to the prophetic cynicism of films like Paul Verhoeven’s *RoboCop*, nearly 40 years old, which chillingly addressed a future shaped by cybernetic fascism. The current trend, however, seems to favor propagandistic narratives where AIs, initially scary, are secretly benevolent. This softening stance is also evident in cinematic misfires like Disney’s *Tron: Ares*, a wildly misguided attempt in 2025 to leverage an old intellectual property for the era of large language models, another cinematic train wreck.
#### Rewriting History with Algorithmic Approval
This insistence on finding an inborn value or honor in artificial intelligence extends beyond traditional sci-fi. It appears to be the driving force behind Time Studios’ new web series, *On This Day…1776*. Conceived as a blow-by-blow account of the year America declared independence, the series comprises short YouTube videos partially generated by Google DeepMind, though actual actors provide voiceovers.
The project has drawn significant attention and considerable scorn, largely due to acclaimed director Darren Aronofsky’s involvement as executive producer via his creative studio, Primordial Soup. Launched last year in partnership with Google to explore AI applications in filmmaking, Aronofsky and company are valorizing the nation’s founders in an aesthetic that critics argue is uncomfortably aligned with the authoritarian meme culture defining certain contemporary political movements.
### Charting a New Course for AI in Cinema
The current landscape suggests a critical juncture for cinematic AI. To reclaim its compelling power, the genre must move beyond predictable tropes and superficial ethical dilemmas. It needs to confront the complex, nuanced realities of AI’s burgeoning influence with the same audacious vision that once brought us sentient robots and planet-hopping supercomputers, offering genuine insights rather than comforting platitudes. Only then can film truly reflect – and perhaps even shape – our understanding of artificial intelligence in the 21st century.