One can only think of a genre that has its finger on the pulse of society more consistently than science fiction. The genre primarily exists to take contemporary issues and controversies, present them in an imaginative fashion, and get audiences thinking about them in constructive new ways.
We’ve seen science fiction tackle the subject of artificial intelligence before in films like The Terminator (1984), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Ex Machina (2014), and more. However, with how inescapable the topic has become today, Gareth Edwards’ The Creator (2023) at times feels frighteningly aware of the universal anxieties that have been increasing as AI technology advances at a rapid rate, nearing the point when it may be advanced enough to replace humans in specific everyday tasks.
The Creator opens with a remarkable display of worldbuilding in a sequence showcasing this exact phenomenon. The audience sees the origins of AI in the film’s world and how robots were originally created to aid humanity in completing the most menial services. As humanity kept evolving, these bionic beings were incorporated with AI, allowing them to develop their own unique identities. The AI eventually broke away from humanity, dropping a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles, slaughtering millions.
The film’s story primarily takes place over a decade after this incident took place when Joshua (John David Washington), an ex-special forces agent, mourns the loss of his wife Maya (Gemma Chan) in a botched attempt to terminate a powerful leader of the remnant AI race. Joshua agrees to take on a mission in Asia, the last haven for the machines, to track down and destroy a weapon developed by the AI, rumored to be powerful enough to bring about humanity’s extinction.
Joshua’s complex and tragic backstory is the driving force of The Creator. He is a reluctant hero who has lost everything important to him and struggles to find a reason to care whether he or the rest of the human race lives or dies. Only after Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) gives him a faint glimmer of hope that Maya might have survived the attack does he decide to fight on just a little longer and try to find her along his mission.
Washington has proved that he has strong potential as a performer. He is charismatic and versatile enough to carry the viewer through The Creator, but he unfortunately doesn’t quite yet have what it takes to deliver on the film’s core dramatic aspects. Viewers partly get swept up in moments of despair, but Washington’s stilted delivery in these heavy scenes doesn’t drive the emotion home.
His performance is strengthened when Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) is introduced as the supposed weapon that was created to destroy mankind. Alphie is unique in that she is the first robot built in the form of a child. When Joshua discovers her, he decides to protect her, hoping she could lead him to Maya.
Joshua and Alphie quickly develop an endearing dynamic, directly resulting from Voyles and Washington’s charming chemistry. The two actors often play off each other so well that their individual performances are improved. A scene that occurs not long after they first meet in which Joshua tries to persuade Alphie to enter a vehicle is delightfully entertaining as one of the film’s few lighthearted beats.
Voyles is especially terrific in the film, marking her feature debut. She adds an element of pathos to Alphie, emphasizing her innocent nature. She is essentially a robot messiah whose singular goal is to bring about her kind’s freedom to live. She doesn’t carry hatred for humanity and simply wishes that the two groups can co-exist peacefully. Voyles translates this through her performance in every pure interaction she has with the film’s characters.
As Joshua and Alphie venture through the Asian landscape, viewers are taken aback by the stunningly varied designs of futuristic cities and towns. Edwards has always understood the awe-inspiring weight that a proper blend of ground-breaking visual effects and a sense of scale can add to the storytelling. He applies the same ingenious manner of showcasing towering structures and landscapes in The Creator as he did in some of his previous works, like Godzilla (2014) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016). His visual style makes it essential to see his films on the largest screen possible, and The Creator is no exception.
He constantly establishes perspective in every shot by including people or objects of comparatively much smaller size than what is being displayed. Not only does this add a sense of depth, but it makes the world feel more realistic and lived-in. It also helps contextualize the gravity of how devastating the use of a gargantuan American weapon known as the NOMAD can be when it sends missiles down to Earth from above the atmosphere, destroying entire cities.
All of this is captured magnificently by cinematographers Greg Fraser and Oren Soffer. What they accomplished is even more impressive, considering they shot the film using a camera available at almost any local technology retailer. Every shot of The Creator is astonishing and directly elevates Edwards’ creative vision.
One of the film’s minor faults is that it can, at times, feel rather familiar in its storytelling. The NOMAD weapon, for example, is essentially a death star from Star Wars (1977). The robots are similar to replicants from Blade Runner (1982), and humanity’s war against them is reminiscent of The Terminator franchise. Edwards has even discussed his numerous inspirations for the film in various interviews. Luckily, most of these borrowed concepts feel original because of how they are used together to tell this particular story and enhance the world it inhabits.
Unfortunately, some elements of The Creator could have been further developed in its screenplay, co-written by Edwards and Chris Weitz. Many characters feel one-note in terms of their motivations. Joshua is the most fleshed-out character in the film, but his journey ends up feeling too formulaic. The snippets of his backstory with Maya displayed throughout the film add some substance to his actions, but not enough to make him a truly memorable character.
Colonel Howell showed potential to be a great villain, but she is too often side-lined to establish enough of a presence for viewers to find her remotely intimidating. This is a shame, too, because Janney is fantastic when her character has proper attention, like in a scene where she interrogates a robot before coldly ending its life.
The themes of the story are often contradictory to the current woes about AI in the real world. Like with every technology, we take what is useful to us and upgrade it until we see it as dangerous. What could be a tool is being fought against today in major professions because of powerful people’s intentions to use it to cut down on their workforce instead of complementing it.
The practice of a person licensing their likeness for AI reuse in whatever ways companies want is currently being fought against by the Screen Actors Guild in the ongoing actor’s strike. However, this act is embraced and encouraged in this film’s world. In The Creator, AI is given the type of humanity that may come across as far-fetched by today’s standards but could become a very real possibility if we continue down the path that we’ve been treading on with this new technology. The fact that this film may get people to think differently about this issue is an incredible showing of what science fiction storytelling can accomplish.
In short, The Creator is an achievement in world-building. The film’s opening transports viewers to an intriguing, new world with its own histories and varied futuristic cultures. It’s extremely rare that we see the type of ethereal science fiction storytelling that The Creator offers, and Edwards delivers an epic experience in nearly every sense. Above all else, he has created a showcase of storytelling that can still be mined from the science-fiction genre to bring relevant topics and themes to the screen in profound ways that haven’t been seen before.
Review Courtesy of Evan Miller
Feature Image Credit to 20th Century Studios via The Verge
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