Director Gareth Edwards’ The Creator takes place in a world in which AI has detonated a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles, murdering millions and leading the Western world – specifically, America – to ban all forms of artificial intelligence. Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, the payoff to that juicy opening setup never materializes. Instead, two hours of confusing, frustratingly unsatisfying, yet visually stunning scenes with little or no emotional impact follow.
In 2065, years after the war against AI began, New Asia is a safe haven for AI. Robots, now referred to as “simulants” and sporting replicated human faces over their robotic interiors, exist peacefully amongst humans. They hold down jobs, help raise human children, and are held in higher esteem than New Asians hold Americans.
Simulants consider themselves an oppressed population and long to be free. Americans, cast as the big bad villains in this epic sci-fi tale, will do whatever is necessary to ensure simulants are sent to the scrap heap of history. Wiping out innocent human towns is considered justifiable collateral damage since residents are actively collaborating with simulants.
Americans need to cut out the symbolic heart of the simulants by locating and disabling the Creator before it releases a game-changing weapon that could turn the tide of the war in favor of AI. Ex-special forces agent Joshua (John David Washington) goes undercover in New Asia to help pinpoint the Creator’s location. While carrying out the secret operation, he falls deeply in love and marries Mia (Gemma Chan), a local who’s supportive of AI.
A tragic turn of events takes Joshua out of action and into what he believes is permanent retirement from service. Joshua’s mistaken about his long-term civilian status as five years post-trauma he’s drawn back into the war and charged with accompanying a team to retrieve and destroy the Creator and the Creator’s secret weapon.
In an odd twist (there are a lot of those in this film), it’s Joshua who discovers the weapon is an adorable simulant child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). The child, whom Joshua eventually nicknames Alphie, seems to know where to find the missing and presumed-dead Mia. Joshua shoves aside his duty to his country, and the memories of his family members killed in the nuclear attack, to protect the incredibly powerful simulant child and find Mia.
Gareth Edwards’ New Asia landscape is lush and beautiful until Americans turn farms into killing fields, evoking images of the Vietnam War as the body count rises. The casual mowing down of innocent civilians is apparently meant to turn the tide against the Americans and in support of AI. Yet, with its ponderous dialogue and one-dimensional characters, the script never makes the case for rooting for either side.
The connection between John David Washington’s Joshua and a world-ending AI weapon/cute little girl never clicks. It’s too stiff, too stilted, and way too easily transformed into a situation of protector and ward. It’s also unbelievable and off-putting that this child has a greater emotional range than Joshua.
The visual effects are the best thing about The Creator, and the world Edwards has built for this epic sci-fi tale is spectacular. However, the stellar effects can’t make up for a story that alternately feels too rushed and then too bogged down with exposition.
The Creator skips over ethical and moral issues regarding the misuse of artificial intelligence and posits that robots are peace-loving beings that want everyone in the world to just get along. And it would be absolutely fine to take that approach if it weren’t for a few glaring inconsistencies in the film’s plot.
It’s disappointing to come to the final act and still not understand the point of The Creator. (I’m still shaking my head over the appearance of a bomb-detonating monkey!) The plot holes are a mile wide, and questionable choices made on the way to wrapping up the story left me wondering if Gareth Edwards got lost in the (visual effects) weeds and lost sight of the big picture.
GRADE: C+
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for strong language, some bloody images, and violence
Release Date: September 29, 2023
Running Time: 2 hours 13 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Studios
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