Neill Blomkamp’s new zombie AI ‘film’ is just slop warmed over

Director Neill Blomkamp has released a 13-minute sci-fi short titled Nightborne, created entirely using ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 text-to-video generator through his new startup, Barley Studios. Loosely based on a Peter Watts novel, the story follows a military initiative that turns dead soldiers into weaponized zombies. Despite utilizing human actors' likenesses and concept art, the film suffers from hallmark generative AI flaws, including gibberish background text and unnatural character delivery. Critics argue that the project feels like hollow, machine-made content rather than a compelling work of art, highlighting the current limitations of text-to-video technology in capturing genuine human emotion and nuance.

(Source：The Verge)