A mistake we’ve all been making in our responses to the rise of AI slop is deriding it on the idea of its embarrassing errors and nauseating uncanniness. The truth is that the tech is enhancing at an astonishing charge, going from seventeen-fingered physique horror photos to borderline-convincing live-action movie in simply a few years. It is going to get higher nonetheless, and all of the whereas stay an uncreative and immoral act of plagiarism and wanton destruction of each the surroundings and artistic jobs. So whereas a brand new AI-generated video doing the rounds exhibiting a pretend live-action trailer for a Legend of Zelda film would possibly nonetheless have a lot to mock, that’s actually not the difficulty right here. The difficulty is how clearly it reveals your entire gen-AI grift.
The self-named “PJ Ace,” CEO of [grits teeth] viral AI video firm Style.ai, has posted a thread to X to boast about how he was capable of make a trailer for a Zelda film in simply 5 days, and for less than $300, utilizing a set of AI instruments inside Freepik. There’s a lot to unpack right here, however let’s begin with the video itself.
Nintendo took 40 years to offer us a Legend of Zelda film.
I made this in 5 days on a $300 funds.
It seems to be like a $300M blockbuster.
Let me present you ways I made this in 5 easy steps inside Freepik: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/DgkdPDPyGA
— PJ Ace (@PJaccetturo) January 6, 2026
You recognize, relating to making probably the most fast criticism of the footage, I can’t actually enhance on the response from New York Occasions tech author Mike Isaac:
unbelievable narrative work in case your viewers largely lacks object permanence https://t.co/o5FSDY4Khr
— rat king 🐀 (@MikeIsaac) January 7, 2026
Like just about each so-called AI movie you’ll see, characters will change their look from shot to shot, as a result of generative AI has no idea of what it’s producing, and so can’t examine one second to the subsequent. Therefore, regardless of some moments of completely convincing photorealism, this entire two-minute slopfest makes no coherent visible sense. I imply, go forward and decide your favourite pretend actor who reveals up all through.
But, as flawed as that’s, that is approach higher than movies we have been seeing simply final 12 months. These faces are not less than comparable (if nonetheless clearly totally different, from nostril and mouth form to complexion), given they’re all primarily based on the identical “reference material” (photos of actual actors who weren’t requested), and this aspect of the tech will even get higher, quick.
And let’s not be in denial. There are moments on this clip which can be actually spectacular provided that they have been completely created by computerized plagiarism. That’s in some half as a result of the truth that a human put a imprecise quantity of effort in, quite than simply leaving a machine to run away with its personal delusions unguided, as “Ace” lays out in his thread. It did, in any case, take 5 days to place collectively, and an entire bunch of cash was spent on credit to hurry up the processing. There are additionally moments that look embarrassingly poor, the types of issues that will see an actual trailer dragged throughout the web till the movie’s creators promised to return and make things better.
So, altogether it took $300, 5 days, three totally different AI instruments, and one boiled ocean. And for what? No, severely, for what?
Sloppy Drivel
I’m not going to argue this took away jobs. Pajamas Ace was by no means going to make this mock trailer if it concerned standing up, not to mention casting, lighting, make-up, set constructing, VFX, post-processing, modifying rushes, and the large quantities of cash it might have taken to create the above with out all of the shitty bits. The bits just like the awful-looking blood, crappy Moblin animation, that second the place Hyperlink seems to be like a cartoon on the finish, and his apparently simply taking pictures Ganon with a single arrow to win. Oh, and my favourite bit is when Hyperlink fires that arrow and, quite than the arrow shifting, Hyperlink’s hand simply explodes as an alternative.
However after all, that is additionally all concerning the potential of destroyed jobs, of sacrificing hands-on creativity, human inspiration, improvisational expertise, and tangible actuality for the sake of sloppy drivel that superficially seems to be like cinema. You recognize each film studio head is watching this rubbish and having greenback indicators seem of their eyes with a loud “ker-ching!” like they’re a cartoon pig, questioning how lengthy it may be earlier than they will eliminate the pesky bills of dolly grips, second-unit assistant administrators, and most of all, these infuriating actors and administrators with their heads stuffed with concepts. That is about an existential risk to a whole trade.
Degenerative AI
Getting again to that authentic X publish, let’s undergo it line by line as a result of it reveals so, a lot concerning the AI-brainwormed:
“Nintendo took 40 years to give us a Legend of Zelda movie.”
Um, no, that’s not true in any respect. Nintendo didn’t need to make a Legend of Zelda film till very just lately, and announced this intention in 2023. Final 12 months we received casting information, and towards the top of 2025 we saw sneak glimpses from filming. The ultimate movie is due to be released in May 2027, which means wanting any additional delays, Nintendo can have taken 4 years to offer us a Legend of Zelda film. Not to mention that it’s foolish to fake the 5 days to make this garbage could be akin to the 40 years since Zelda was created.
“I made this in 5 days on a $300 budget.”
A pc made it, with PJ rearranging AI-generated photos utilizing the likenesses of the film’s real-world actors with out permission. There wasn’t a “budget,” that was simply how a lot he spent on tokens by the point it was completed.
“It looks like a $300M blockbuster.”
It seems to be like an Uwe Boll film trailer, lasting lower than two minutes, with no discernible plot or character growth. It in no sense, from any angle, seems to be like a $300 million blockbuster, and nor does it seem like the trailer for one. It’s very technically spectacular stuff given how dreadful gen-AI clips have been a few years again, however that could be very a lot it.
And it’s all a part of the grift. Scour X and also you’ll discover hundreds of examples of individuals’s thrown-together gen-AI “trailers,” and exactly zero 110-minute motion pictures. (Don’t truly scour X, to be clear, because fucking hell.) This tech is simply able to creating the implication of one thing actual and by no means the true factor itself. It’s a tissue-thin veneer, all guarantees and no supply.
A trailer is a promise of a film to return. A gen-AI trailer is the ultimate product; an empty, plotless, largely incoherent assortment of putting clips, edited collectively in a approach that matches our understanding of the language of trailers, and as such is engineered to inform our brains that it’s a taster of one thing far bigger and extra important. It’s a con, a wheeze, and it’s at all times the act of these invested within the gen-AI trade quite than impassioned creators with a narrative to inform.
These clips will get higher and higher, look increasingly life like, and the end result shall be a extra convincing promise with precisely the identical lack of any supply. Our new buddy PJ Ace and the legions of AI bros congratulating him within the replies on X gained’t be occurring to make a full-length film utilizing these instruments, as a result of that’s an entire totally different act, one born of creativity. Scanning a bunch of Zelda property and a few actor’s faces, then arranging the leads to the form of one thing that reminds us of a trailer, is the other—it’s cynicism.
