The Creator

The obsession with artificial intelligence has entered the current zeitgeist. The Creator explores the well-worn cliche of whether AI is a menace to humanity. The threat of cognitive machines and software has been getting a lot of press in the news lately. However, the concept is far from some recent phenomenon. Fritz Lang’s silent landmark Metropolis handled the subject way back in 1927. Nearly 100 years later, we’re still exploring the topic.

Our story is set in a dystopian future where human-like robots have integrated into society. However, the world is at war with the practice. John David Washington plays Joshua, a special forces agent grieving the loss of his pregnant wife, Maya (Gemma Chan). Joshua is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator or the architect of advanced AI that Americans see as a danger to human life. His mission also includes finding a revolutionary weapon that he is shocked to discover looks like a young child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). He is conflicted by various feelings.

The narrative has little to offer that feels fresh or original. The screenplay by director Gareth Edwards (2014’s Godzilla) and writer Chris Weitz (Robert Zemeckis’ Pinocchio) suggests that we should empathize with our enemy. Could our foe be just like us? With an eye toward the global market, the Americans are cast as the villains, and the citizens of New Asia are positively portrayed. Also, this film wouldn’t exist without Blade Runner. A narrator at the beginning describes AI-powered androids as “more human than human.” That directly lifts the slogan of the Tyrell Corporation from the 1982 movie, which was adapted from Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? I was reminded of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi classic many times throughout.

I started to look toward some personality in the performances. I must cite actress Allison Janney, who plays this hardened Colonel with a severe haircut. She’s a complete stereotype but an enjoyable one. She seizes focus whenever she’s on screen. Nine-year-old Madeleine Yuna Voyles is appropriately mysterious but cute as “Alphie,” the most powerful simulant. John David Washington as the star is less effective. He tries, but the actor never ceases to make me forget he’s pretending to be someone else. More believable are a pair of suicide bomber robots in one of the narrative’s more compelling setpieces. It’s an admittedly minor aside, but they were my favorite individuals.

I have more positives to extol. I love that this is an original sci-fi feature, not connected to some other property. Gareth Edwards also directed 2016’s Rogue One. Thank goodness this isn’t The Creator: A Star Wars Story. In that respect, it takes a financial risk, if not an intellectual one. Still, the budget is comparatively low, $80 million, which is quite reasonable for a sci-fi movie of this size. Yet the production design is fantastic. This is precisely the kind of picture that excels in a theater on a big screen with a superior sound system. It’s fun to savor the scope of the world that has been created. I appreciated the magnitude and the sweep. I’ll recommend the picture, but simply for the work that went into its creation.

09-28-23