#Wes Anderson Directing ‘Star Wars’? A.I. Trailer Mimicking Filmmaker’s Style Divides Social Media

Poor Wes Anderson. The filmmaker must rue the day the masses were able to use artificial intelligence to create tribute content that mimicked his signature visual style.

The latest piece of Anderson-like content to go viral is a trailer for The Galactic Menagerie, a YouTube clip created by the Curious Refuge channel. The trailer wonders what a Star Wars film would look like if Anderson had directed it, and features a lot of supposed traits that the filmmaker is known for, including symmetry, pastel colors, sardonic narration, painstaking attention to detail and offbeat humor. The mock cast also includes Anderson regulars Scarlett Johansson, Jeff Goldblum, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Willem Defoe, Ed Norton, Timothée Chalamet and Owen Wilson as Darth Vader.

The Galactic Menagerie was posted on April 29, but reposted by various accounts on Twitter on Sunday where it has been seen and liked by millions and commented on by thousands. Some of the feedback has been positive, with Twitter users keen on Anderson directing a Star Wars film for real, with some wags suggesting that it can’t be any worse than the recent films produced by Disney/Lucasfilm.

Among the positive comments, Twitter user @JBufford3 wrote, “Completely tracks and I would watch that. So good.” “I would watch this. I’ve always wanted to see what Wes Anderson would bring to genre fare outside his usual material. Would love to see him direct an episode of Star Wars or the new Harry Potter series,” wrote @GWinssinger. “

However, much of the reaction has been negative, with many suggesting the trailer misses the point of both Star Wars and Anderson’s works and still more people are highly critical of the use of A.I. to generate this type of content.

“You robbed both Star Wars and Wes Anderson films of what makes them charming and unique with this AI crap. Congratulations,” tweeted @doctorbaixue. @heathdwilliams tweeted, “Tell me you understand neither Star Wars nor Wes Anderson without telling me.”

In an impassioned tweet, @funEman_ wrote, “An artificial intelligence will never be able to grasp the sincerity of the emotions, expression and humanity painted onto the screen by Wes Anderson. All ai is capable of is mocking how an image is structured. It has no comprehension of Mise-En-Scène. It does not feel.”

“Videos like this are honestly a great showcase for why completely A.I.-generated films won’t work. It knows to replicate the center framing and pastel color scheme of Anderson’s work but it doesn’t get why those things are used when they are, leading to ugly purposeless images,” tweeted user @GreatCheshire.

And @firagawalkwthme tweeted, “You know A.I. art people dont understand Wes Anderson because if he ever made a Star Wars he’d kill Chewbacca.”

Previously, Anderson’s style has been used to create A.I.-generated images related to Harry Potter, famous athletes and world leaders.