Many things about the movie Civil War are meant to be incendiary. The very concept of the movie, which has been released during an election year when the political culture could seemingly mirror the extreme reality of the film, is enough to make a general movie goer feel uneasy. There is dynamic imagery in the trailers that showcase American cities in peril, and although that can be seen in almost any high-budget action movie, these sequences hit differently. However, with everything that Civil War does to illicit an uncomfortable response from an audience, a controversy has recently come from the less likely place — the way they made their marketing.

The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that a new ad campaign for the movie has been getting a lot of negative attention online. Civil War has released five new posters that aim to depict some haunting situations of American cities in shambles due to the war. However, these posters have been called out for having something off about them. They were made using AI. The posters in question were posted on the film’s Instagram and some were displayed as prints. A source explained, “These are AI images inspired by the movie. The entire movie is a big ‘what if’ and so we wanted to continue that thought on social — powerful imagery of iconic landmarks with that dystopian realism.”

AI is an immensely hot-button topic right now. While many wondrous things can be generated by these programs, there still lies an unsettling uncanny valley effect to whatever has been made. Some productions have experimented with it for its feeling of abstract like the title sequences for Marvel’s Secret Invasion and Late Night with the Devil. Both of these projects have come under fire for using AI instead of artists. And Civil War is also getting caught in the crossfire.

One person online had responded to the images, saying, “You know DAMN well how the film community feels about the use of AI Generated content. And the backlash [to AI generated stills featured in the horror film] Late Night With The Devil was more than enough to make that transparently clear to everyone: WE DO NOT WANT THIS. How stupid of your marketing team to even think this was acceptable. We are trying our hardest to fight against the push of opening Pandora’s Box with this shit and here you are willfully ignoring everyone’s concerns in that matter.”

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