Acclaimed sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp has shared his work on an AI film. The director behind District 9, Elysium, and Gran Turismo posted a 14-minute-long short film that he made entirely with artificial intelligence on YouTube, which is a mash-up between a military movie and a zombie thriller.
Entitled 'Nightbourne', it features 32 AI characters, based on real actors, and tells the story of a helicopter pilot shot down and killed in action. However, it seems the army is actually building zombies to make super soldiers. It's a cool idea in theory, but it seems no one is happy with the execution or the fact that Blomkamp has used AI software Seedance 2.0 to make it.
"Wow Neill thank you for showing us that even in the hands of an established director AI slop looks indistinguishable from everyone else's AI slop," replied one on Twitter. "Holy fuck this somehow looks even worse than you can possibly imagine lmao," another simply replied as a third wrote: "Waited 17 years for District 10, and now this? Come on, man."
Others have been pointing out some of the inconsistencies in the film. Posting on YouTube, several viewers spotted inconsistencies with things like the injury placement, seeming duplication of AI actors, and strange reactions that feel "uncanny". Not only this, but there are some pretty strange line-readings and even moving buildings in the backgrounds of shots.
It doesn't seem like any of this will be stopping Blomkamp, though, as he also announced his plans to make a fully AI feature-length film. He has also founded a studio purely for AI called Barley Studios.
Blomkamp's film isn't the only AI movie knocking around. Recently, it was announced that another studio is remaking The Odyssey too, but they already admit it won't be at the same level as Christopher Nolan's epic.
For more movies out in 2026, check out our guides to upcoming movies and movie release dates you need to know about.
