Here: Why is the technology that rejuvenates actors Tom Hanks and Robin Wright in the new movie so alarming?

Hanks, 67, looks slim and has a radiant face.with a thick mane of curly hair, just as it appeared in splash And One party (1984) All those years ago.

If Zemeckis can achieve this effect in hereHow long will it take for this type of makeover to become as common as using makeup and hair dye to make an actor look a few years younger than he actually is?

Zemeckis has always been fascinated by the way people and places change over the decades; you just have to think about yourself. forrest gumpas well as the trilogy Back to the future.

He has also long been fascinated by digital innovation, which explains why scary moving models in pole clarification (2004), Beowulf (2007), Ghosts of the Miser (2009) The Very Strange Movie Welcome to MarwanCreated using real actors and motion capture technology.

Hanks, for his part, seems comfortable being able to play young characters until they die, and even after. Speaking on Adam Buxton’s podcast last year, he said that when he and Zemeckis did it, pole clarificationThey realized that. There was no limit to what this kind of computerized deception could do..

“Now anyone can recreate themselves at any age through artificial intelligence (AI) or deepfake technology. I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s where I’d be, but the shows can go on and on. Unless you understand what AI and deepfake are, there’s nothing that tells you it’s not me, it’s just me.

It is disturbing to think that in the long run, Current stars can be replaced with their AI multiples.And that rejuvenation could, in the short term, allow veterans of Hanks’ generation to continue playing roles that should, by right, be given to a new crop of emerging actors. But that could happen: rejuvenation has evolved from being a novelty to being an object of ridicule. Useful cinematic tool In less than 20 years.

In 2006, visual effects artists rejuvenated Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen pixel by pixel in X-Men: Final BattleThe most common reaction was a wry smile at how brilliant and mechanical they were.

This technology has been applied sparingly for years in science fiction fantasies such as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008) and Tron: The Legacy (2020). Then, In 2019, he became a key part of several major films..

Samuel L. Jackson has been rejuvenated throughout. captain marvel To play Nick Fury in the ’90s, many actors received the same treatment. Avengers: EndgameWill Smith was an assassin facing off against his younger clone. Gemini Project; and caused a great deal of controversy. Martin Scorsese applied what he called an “update” to Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci in Irish.

But his most notable performance so far was in last year’s film Indiana Jones and the Connection of Destinydirected by James Mangold, which had extensive flashbacks to Indy’s conflict with the Nazis in 1944.

Some critics have been impressed by this high-tech reminder. How handsome was Ford in the 80s?But many people reacted with skepticism. When you’re used to seeing a wrinkled, sagging face, it can be unsettling to see its strange counterpart with digital Botox.

in IrishIt was funny to hear Pesci refer to the seventy-year-old De Niro as “the boy.” There was no doubt that even if the wrinkles were gone, the actor was wider, heavier, and slower than he was when he filmed. taxi driver.

Wouldn’t it have made more sense if Scorsese and Mangold had used traditional forms to rejuvenate their heroes? Watch River Phoenix portray Ford as schoolboy Indy. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade It was even more impressive than seeing Ford himself transformed into a video game character.

And let’s not forget that. De Niro played a younger version of Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone. The Godfather Part IIwhile Scott Tyler played a younger incarnation of De Niro’s character Noodles Aaronson. Once Upon a Time in Americaand both were successful. And back to Zemeckis, are digital alterations more effective than traditional methods of making the McFly family older and younger? Back to the future?

Maybe not, but just as computer-generated scenes and digitally enhanced action stunts have become the norm, reanimated actors will likely soon become commonplace as well.

But what is surprising is how limited the use of technology has been. So far, Revitalization is still more of a tool than a serious source of storytelling.and its main goal seems less to make the characters look younger than to remind the audience of movies they watched when they were younger.

The emotional impact of young Hanks being misrepresented in here It’s based on our memories of the young Hanks when he started his career. The rejuvenated Ford in the latter part of Indiana Jones Evokes The thrill of watching classic Indy adventures.A rejuvenated Mark Hamill appears in The Mandalorian And boba fett book -TV series inspired by star Wars– To exploit our affection for that cinematic trilogy.

On the other hand, the party Aba’s Journey Which is showing in London since May 2022, is based on 3D projections of Virtual Apataris Who look like the Swedish Quartet as they sounded in 1979.

In most cases, rejuvenation has not been used to extend the careers of stars, or to facilitate a complex chronological narrative; it has been used to stir up nostalgia. Ironically, for a technology that is expected to be futuristic and revolutionary, still stuck in the past.