Universal Caught Using A.I. For 4K Release Of Jaws Sequels

Whenever you hear the name Stephen Spielberg, you often think of movies like Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones, and E.T. the Extra Terrestrial. But one of his most well known films is the 1975 horror movie Jaws, based on the 1974 novel of the same name about a killer great white shark terrorizing the people of a coastal town and how a few brave heroes set out to hunt down and kill the beast.



The movie went on to become a massive success making $476.5 Million on a $9 Million budget. It became one of the most iconic films of the 1970s and it received sequels and inspired multiple imitators such as Piranha, Orca, and Tentacles. With the film’s 50th Anniversary just a year away, Universal will most likely be re-releasing the franchise onto multiple formats.

However, one of the recent re-releases for the series, specifically the third and fourth films, has caused some controversy for the studio. It was discovered that for the 4K release of Jaws 3-D and Jaws: The Revenge the studio decided to use A.I. upscaling to get a better picture. What ended up happening was multiple characters in the background looking like something out of greek mythology.

Universal used Ai on the 4K restoration of Jaws 3 and 4 💀💀#Jaws #Horror pic.twitter.com/wP5aVhFThV

— Physical Media (@PhysicalMedia_) July 16, 2024

The new 4K UHD of Jaws 3-D looks STUNNING. Another excellent example of A.I. technology being utilised to remaster old and stinky films. Now Jaws 3-D looks like it was shot yesterday. 😊 pic.twitter.com/egqziSZFYb

— Dale 🍷 (@dallywhitty) July 17, 2024

To follow up on the impending 4K release of Jaws 3…

Here are some SDR screenshots from a 4K stream. They nuked the grain and smoothed everything over. You can see the AI sharpening in action all over these screenshots.

It is one of the worst 4K transfers I've ever seen, which… pic.twitter.com/I4LWqdkaJF

— carty™ (@cartycinema) July 4, 2024

It is not usually what you expect to think about whenever to year “Spielberg” and “A.I.” are used in the same sentence. This is a showcase of studios using the A.I. technology to try and “update” their older films to look more clean. However, the older the film is, the harder it is for details in the background to be enhanced. Whenever the program believes certain details are missing, it will attempt to correct them.

Hopefully if a 50th Anniversary collector’s box set is released next year they are able to correct these mistakes that the computer made. We’re already scared enough of the water as is, we don’t need to be scared of what’s on dry land too.

Source: Movieweb