Recently, I was given the opportunity to go see a Swedish Film at an AMC theatre near me. This film, Watch The Skies, was filmed entirely in Sweden and released in 2022 under a completely different name, UFO Sweden. However, this screening was for a new edition of the film, a sort of re-release which featured “Immersive AI Dubbing”. To put it simply, the film is exactly the same, save for a newly shot prologue scene; however, instead of the actors speaking their native Swedish, they are instead speaking English with Swedish accents. Then, using software created by Flawless AI, they readjusted all the lip flaps and facial movements using artificial intelligence and computer-generated imaging to match the new dub of the film. Going into this, I expected Watch The Skies to feel like that old VHS tape of Godzilla 2000 I used to watch as a kid, where the voices “matched” but were obviously dubbed over, expressions never fully matching the vocal performance. To my surprise, this was not the case.

As the opening scene plays out, the performances felt extremely natural. I had almost stopped thinking about the dubbing concept and began to just accept the film for what it was, a Swedish movie about UFO hunters. I stopped looking for odd AI tampering or uncanny valley faces, and sort of relaxed into the film. This is a long preamble for this review, but I feel it is important to stress how seamless the dubbing was. To be straightforward, this did not elevate the film for me; I would even say that if I were to see the film in its original form, my opinions of the story, characters, cinematography, and pacing would more or less be the same. I suppose that would mean the mission of Flawless AI —to make international films more digestible to a Western, English-speaking audience —was a success. I’ll break down more of this as I go through the review, but for those wanting to know this first, yes, it works and it’s pretty effective. 

The film follows a young, troublemaking teenager, Denise (Inex Dahl Torhaug), who is obsessed with the sudden disappearance of her UFO-hunting father. Believing him to have been abducted by aliens, Denise reaches out to her father’s old crew, UFO Sweden, a coalition of Swedish skeptics and scientists, who investigate unexplained phenomena in the Swedish countryside in hopes that they may be caused by or linked to UFOs. Led by Lennart Svah (Jesper Barkselius), this group of misfits is convinced by Denise that a recent anomaly in local weather patterns bears a strong resemblance to previous UFO sightings. Thus, the team must come together to uncover the truth while being pursued by both the local authorities and the Swedish government. 

Right off the bat, this film evokes classic UFO films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but through a Stranger Things lens, where the characters are lovable goofs and determined teenagers, and the score is comprised mostly of electronic synths. The film has moments of intense emotion, drama, and suspense, with scenes of lighthearted jokes and banter in between, keeping the tone light and playful. Watch The Skies wants to be a fun 80s adventure, which it succeeds at, through its period-accurate set design, likable characters, and simply evocative concept wrapped in an entertaining film experience. There are real stunts in this film, where actors are driving and crashing real cars, which is a low bar that even the MCU can’t get over sometimes. I’m unsure how else to say this besides that the film felt like The Goonies, a film I had also recently revisited. For those who aren’t aware, The Goonies, is a beloved children’s adventure film from 1985 that, in my opinion, is very okay, but holds a special place in my brain due to how magical the viewing experience felt when I first saw it as a child through its visuals, performances, and score. Watch The Skies scratches the same itch. It’s not an extremely mindful and inspiring investigation of some deep theme; the film is simply a 1-hour and 55-minute family adventure. 

I could certainly see this film causing next to zero splash if released in the United States, not due to the film itself, but simply because the film is in another language. There’s an extreme layer of difficulty in getting people to watch a film in another language, especially if it’s haphazardly dubbed in English. Ask any fan of Japanese anime or Korean soap operas, and the dubs are always worse than the subtitled versions. However, with this new AI dubbing, Watch The Skies can clear this layer and just simply be a family UFO adventure film from Sweden. I was able to speak to both the director and one of the lead actors of the film, shoutout Victor Danell and Jesper Barkselius, about the dubbing process, asking if anything was lost in translation from Swedish and English. Both agreed that this process, which they were involved with through re-recording every line of dialogue but now in English, felt more like a creative adaptation than a simple dub. Barkselius talked about being able to reevaluate certain scenes in the film, where now he can add a new layer of emotion or depth to them via this new dub. He even stated that he enjoyed the film more in English than in Swedish. Additionally, Danell felt secure in the film’s redubbing, with him still able to keep creative control of the film even if it was in a completely different language.

Also in attendance at the screening was a representative from SAG-AFTRA, who was there in support of this experiment. SAG-AFTRA representative expressed that the union was on board with this type of “controlled experimenting” instead of wild card companies just throwing stuff out unafraid of the consequences. They also praised how this process allows the creative team to be a part of the process, if they desire. In Watch The Skies’ case, all the actors returned to rerecord all of their dialogue and provided consent of their likenesses to allow Flawless A.I. to recreate their faces to match the new dub. Going back to the film, the performances were genuinely very charming, in part due to the actors’ authentic Swedish accents. Motivation monologues and punchlines came directly from the performers, and you can feel it. Even with an actor who struggled to speak English fluently, like Håkan Ehn, who played Gunnar, little was lost or misunderstood in my screening; if anything, much was gained via the dub, as he could never have been able to deliver a performance like that if the film had been shot entirely in English. 

One of the biggest pieces of drama to come out of the 97th Academy Awards season was the use of AI in the Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role winner, Adrian Brody, in The Brutalist. The creative team used AI to enhance Brody’s accent to sound more “authentically” Hungarian, a language that is notably difficult to learn (or so say those involved). Instead of casting an actor who could deliver a more accurate performance, they used AI and then won an Oscar. Where Watch The Skies differs from The Brutalist is in how they use their tools. The Bruatlist used AI as a shortcut to keep a previous Oscar Winner on the cast, while Watch The Skies worked with their performers to create a new version of their film entirely. I hesitate to call this revolutionary, but it’s certainly one of the few examples of filmmakers and distributors using AI as a tool to make more accessible art, instead of using it as a cheap way to cut some corners. 

Watch The Skies may not be the best film I’ve seen in 2025, but it’s definitely one I’ll be thinking about for the rest of the year. Both for its enjoyable plot, characters, and performances, and its innovative use of a tool to enhance filmmaking rather than cut corners. I hope this film becomes an example of how we should embrace technological advances in the arts, always aiming to improve art and artists instead of replacing or diminishing them. 

3/5 Fun time, go see Watch The Skies, dubbed or subbed, with friends and family! 

Watch The Skies (also known as UFO Sweden in Sweden) is directed by Victor Danell, and follows a young, troublemaking teenager, Denise (Inex Dahl Torhaug), who is obsessed with the sudden disappearance of her UFO-hunting father. Believing him to have been abducted by aliens, Denise reaches out to her father’s old crew, UFO Sweden, a coalition of Swedish skeptics and scientists, who investigate unexplained phenomena in the Swedish countryside in hopes that they may be caused by or linked to UFOs. Led by Lennart Svah (Jesper Barkselius), this group of misfits is convinced by Denise that a recent anomaly in local weather patterns bears a strong resemblance to previous UFO sightings. Thus, the team must come together to uncover the truth while being pursued by both the local authorities and the Swedish government.