The Creator

 

Gareth Edwards' The Creator presents two minds to audiences.
One is concerned with the threat of unbound technological advancement, and the other the benign hybridization of humans and machines.

Both of these themes have been explored numerous times in film and television and, I feel, with more impact (Spielberg's A.I.: Artificial Intelligence [2001] and Alex Garland Ex Machina [2014]).

The apocalyptic world that Edwards has created with co-writer Chris Weitz is set decades in the future with humans and machines on two different continents. The machines inhabit "New Asia" and the humans, a militarized America, where the president is a uniformed officer. Yes, the socio-political messaging here is pretty heavy.

John David Washington plays Joshua, an Army sergeant on undercover assignment in New Asia, married to Maya (Gemma Chan), a human raised by A.I., who is pregnant with the couple's first child.

They are living peacefully in an A.I. enclave when a gigantic, floating American vessel drops bombs on the village just as Maya, who did not know Joshua was a spy, tries to join the A.I. forces in fighting back. Joshua and Maya are separated, and Maya presumed dead.

Five years later, Joshua is part of a mission led by Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) to locate and capture a device that could neutralize all American weaponry. Joshua discovers the device is actually a simulant child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). After the rest of the mission team is killed, Joshua takes charge of the child / weapon.

Predictably, Joshua and the child, whom he names Alphie, develop a bond as they try to elude Howell's forces who are determined to destroy her. During their flight, Joshua learns from a simulant fighter (Ken Watanabe) that Maya may be alive, and Joshua sets out to find her.

Edwards' visual effects artistry is on display in nearly every frame of this picture, particularly in the robots and simulants. But the movie's reliance on familiar narrative tropes and some anachronistic dialogue (Get in! This will be hellafun!) kept it from becoming a fully immersive experience.