Let's get this out of the way, Gareth Edwards' The Creator is visually stunning and the futuristic world he introduced is deep and intricate. In the same way Rogue One made you believe that there was a bigger world of inhabitants outside of what the original Star Wars trilogy implied, The Creator sucks you in quick to its world and helps you understand the stakes of the players.
Unfortunately, the actual story that it's trying to tell within the world isn't very compelling and lacks a central message that users can latch onto. Here's the setup:
The same AI shtick from shows like Westworld apply here: human bad, kill AI. AI maybe good, just want to live. After coexisting for many years, a mysterious nuclear bomb explodes in the middle of Los Angeles and the US bans all artificial intelligence and declares war on them.
The supposed "terrorists" flee to New Asia, where the people are tolerant of the AI and not only harbours the AI, but actively fight against the US to maintain them. This starts a war between the US and, apparently, all of Asia, as the US will stop at nothing to destroy all remaining AI and its titular Creator, Nirmata.
Joshua (John David Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Gemma Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the nebulous architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself.
Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory, only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child, Alfie (Madeleine Yuma Voyles).
The movie was filmed across eight different countries, with Asian countries being Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal and Indonesia. The crew made Thailand their base and you can see many iconic Thai and Vietnamese landmarks peppered throughout the movie.
In these segments, it's hard not to think of the film as an allegory for the Vietnam war—the AI being the communist hiding among the peaceful people and the US are depicted as merciless savages who kill and threaten villagers. No joke, there's a scene where a US soldier threatens to kill a girl's puppy to find the hidden AI (the dog thankfully survives) and after the altercation, the victims scream out "Even those machines have more of a heart than you!"
So from this context, we're led to believe it's an anti-war film with the US reenacting its atrocities in Vietnam, but you'd be only partially correct because the film pivots to make it about the journey that Joshua and Alfie go on. The framing of this journey is of Joshua's attempt to find his supposedly-deceased wife so his motivations have nothing to do with the AI war in the background and the stakes that Alfie brings as a supposed weapon to end all wars is never truly felt by Joshua, nor the audience.
Unlike The Shape of Water that meaningfully presented an argument for how we treat and perceive 'the other', in this case, 'the other' being the AI, The Creator never gives room for the AI to show themselves as more than just 'the other'. They're simply victims and they can't do anything about it. Atrocities happen to them and none of the AI characters receive any characterisation. Even Alfie remains two dimensional as an avatar who soaks up the brutality of war.
The war does not affect Alfie's outlook on life and it never truly informs her decisions one way or the other. John David Washington also plays Joshua as a dogged character with a singular focus, finding his wife, so Alfie and Joshua never have the time to bond. Joshua is always huffing and puffing to the next plot point so their bond never feels earned. The other victim of this lack of characterisation are the locals in New Asia.
Even though they're at war with the US, they are always shown running or suffering injustices from the Americans. They're reduced to backdrop, when in the internal logic of the film, New Asia should have more agency, since they actively oppose the Americans.
The action spectacle (which should be enjoyed in IMAX) is truly original and probably stands next to Dune in terms of believability and scale. You'll truly believe the vistas you see and you never feel like you're looking at lifeless CGI. The art direction helps sell the robots and in this sense, the film succeeds in painting an original sci-fi world. But, when every character you meet, including the Allison Janney's menacing turn as Colonel Howell, has paper thin motivations and characterisations, it's difficult to really care about what's going on in that world.
The AI never become more than victims, the US army are evil and discriminate based on fear, and the main characters move along from checkpoint to checkpoint hitting almost every heroes journey/AI cliche in the book.
In a statement on what inspired Gareth Edwards to produce the movie, he told the story about how he travelled through the mid west and found a Japanese factory standing out in the middle of a field. He thought romantically that maybe they produced robots way out in the middle of nowhere.
"I started envisioning massive futuristic structures rising out of paddy fields, or thinking about fascinating spiritual questions that would come of a Buddhist monk being an AI. I found it captivating, and I got really excited about the idea of something “Blade Runner”-esque being set in Vietnam I was seeing. If I didn’t make that film now, then someone else would beat me to it…I had to do this!”
He was captivated by the idea of traditional Asian motifs married to futuristic aeasthetics and many of the films distinctive and lets face it, cool-looking visuals were inspired by this thought.
If it was merely concept art brought to life, The Creator would be a success. However, building on the idea of robot monks and shoe horning a weak allegory of AI as the other, without presenting the AI's side of the story, makes the film visually distinct but ultimately, doesn't have anything new to add to the genre.
if you're looking for a good action film in a world that's not based on a comic book, The Creator is for you. If you're looking for a deeper meditation on AI, the other, or what it means to be human, you'd best look elsewhere.
The Creator is in cinemas now. Catch it in IMAX for the full scale effect of the visuals.