‘The Wizard of Oz’ Is Getting an A.I. Glow Up.

“Artistic butchery.”

“The death of cinema.”

“You should all be ashamed.”

Those are some of the printable comments from a frenzied online conversation among cinephiles that started last month when Ben Mankiewicz, the Turner Classic Movies host and “CBS News Sunday Morning” contributor, took an adulatory look at a coming Las Vegas attraction called “‘The Wizard of Oz’ at Sphere.” The orb-shaped arena, in partnership with Google, used various A.I. tools to create a new version of the beloved 1939 musical.

But what about the vacationing masses who make up the target audience for the show? Will they recoil in the same way?

We will soon find out. The premiere will take place on Thursday evening, with the arena offering as many as three showings a day after that.

Here is what you need to know.

What is all the criticism about?

It is easy to understand why movie purists — and anyone worried about the rise of artificial intelligence — would loathe the project, sight unseen. Artificially generated images were added to scenes to make the original movie big enough to fill the venue’s massive screen, which wraps up, over and around the audience.

Dorothy grew legs, for example, for a scene that was previously a close-up. The poppy field now goes on and on. Because of the camera’s narrow aspect ratio in the original film, Uncle Henry was often off-camera, even when he was logically in the room; he’s visible now. The Cowardly Lion was given similar treatment.

The Sphere also cut nearly 30 minutes from the film, which was licensed for the project by Warner Bros.