It’s Oppenheimer vs Barbie at the box office, but thanks to a new AI-generated trailer, we’ve got a taste of what an actual Barbenheimer movie could look like.
2023 is proving to be a bit of a rogue year at the cinema: Super Mario Bros. is still the highest-grossing movie; Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania became one of Marvel’s biggest flops; The Flash defied all of the early hype by absolutely tanking with general audiences; and Sound of Freedom, a controversial indie thriller, is a major domestic hit.
And then there’s the same-day releases of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie; polar opposites in tone, both dealing with existential dread, and they’ve driven all sorts of audiences to multiplexes to see the double bill.
But what if there was a way to combine both films into a singular motion picture event? Well, AI has the answer with the first trailer for Barbenheimer.
Barbenheimer AI trailer is a “masterpiece”
The trailer, created by Curious Refuge, is a mishmash of dialogue taken from Barbie and Oppenheimer. “We imagine a future, and our imaginings… are fabulous,” Barbie says. “Barbie, together we’re gonna beat those Nazis… and we’re gonna look so good doing it,” an army general, presumably meant to be Matt Damon’s Leslie Groves, tells her.
There’s pink nuclear explosions, Ken eating weaponized uranium and glowing green, and Oppenheimer’s famous “destroyer of worlds” quote, which Ken describes as “so awesome.”
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The video has racked up more than 220,000 views on YouTube, with one user commenting: “Omg this is genius, I’d totally watch that movie!”
“This is not the crossover that we need, this is the crossover that we deserve,” another wrote. “What a masterpiece,” a third wrote. “I mean if this is what our AI overlords have in store for us pleb humans in the future, I think I’m down with it,” a fourth commented.
While one user said it “demonstrates why the actors and writers are striking”, as demand for AI regulation is a key part of the WGA and SAF-AFTRA strikes, another commented: “I like that the AI actors are clearly AI / animated, and quite distinguishable from the real ones. It would far less enjoyable and a lot more awkward if they were too real (a la deepfake).”
It’s certainly healthier than the fake posters for Tom Hanks’ Martin Luther King movie and Will Smith’s supposed Adolf Hitler biopic.
Barbie and Oppenheimer are in cinemas now. Check out our coverage below:
Oppenheimer review | Oppenheimer epic runtime revealed | Oppenheimer R-rating explained | Best way to watch Oppenheimer | Christopher Nolan on sex scenes | Oppenheimer cast and characters | Oppenheimer filming locations | Oppenheimer true story explained | Is Oppenheimer streaming? | Does Oppenheimer have a post-credits scene? | Who dies in Oppenheimer? | Oppenheimer box office | Barbie review | Barbie ending explained | Barbie Easter eggs | Barbie 2 | Barbie post-credits scene | Barbie cast | Barbie soundtrack
