In Review: The Creator

 The Creator became a must watch for me when I first saw the trailer. It looked like it would be a visually stunning example of cyberpunk action. The actual film? Well it did live up to the visuals, but it lacked in some other areas. If you can look past the flaws, it is enjoyable.

Minor spoilers ahead.

The move starts with us discovering that robots have nuked LA. The West (the USA) has outlawed AI and robots. However, New Asia (South Asia all lumped together) has embraced them and let them live among them. A trillion dollar space station called NOMAD orbits above asia, dropping missles whenever it finds AI enclaves. Enter Joshua, a special forces opperative that fell in love while undercover. He agrees to do one last mission to stop an AI superweapon because it will give him a chance to find his wife. Things go sideways and he discovers that the "weapon" is a robot child. Pursued by both sides of the conflict, Joshua takes Alpha with him as the only clue to finding his wife.

The plot is nothing new. Gruff man has to escort a mesianic child to safety. You've seen it before: Logan, Babylon AD, Terminator 2, The Last of Us, and even The Mandalorian. That is not a bad thing. Archetyple plots get reused regularly. The question is how well the newest telling plays with the concept. Creator is largely paint by the numbers with nothing particularly surprising in this respect. 

One of the weaknesses, though, was that early on, the relationship between the two doe not make a lot of sense. Alpha follows Joshua for no real reason. We also don't really see the characters developing their bond. That said, actors had good chemistry and you can feel the emotion once it gets there. It just should have had a better lead up.

While you would expect the film to be a look at the questions surrounding the rise of AI, that is not really explored. It sticks to a pretty simple "robots are people" narative and does not really dive into questions of what it means to be alive or how AI  might change society. Instead, the story is a heavy handed swipe at American foreign policy. LA is 9/11 and NOMAD is just a supersized drone bombing poor people. I can stand a critique of America, but there was no subtlety or neuance. 

The Good: Creator is a gorgeous film. I do not think there was an instant in the film where I thought "that looks fake." I'm sure if I watched it inently I would see the CGI or some uncanny valley I missed before. But for the most part the effects are spot on. You would swear that the robots were real. On top of that it had some great set pieces. They made great use of SE Asian landscapes while still fitting in some Bladerunner-esc aesthetics. It also had a great sound track to make a feast for the ears as well.

The Bad: The storytelling left something to be desired. The sudden relationship between Joshua and Alpha should have been better flushed out and was only saved by good acting. The world building was lazy. Even casually thinking about it raises questions about how the war against the robots would work. How are they manufactured? How does soverignty fit into this war? Why are the New Asians so intent on protecting AI?

Humor was also a bit of an issue. There is one scene that is objectively funny, but just did not fit with the tone of the film, especially given that it did not have any lead up. Same goes for a one-liner that would have fit perfectly in a Marvel film, or an old 80's action flick

The Ugly: Some the millitary tactics made zero sense. Why send a team when you can blow something up from orbit? Why not send in more than a handful of people with fire support? At one point it seems like they are trying to be covert, then later just start a full on invasion. Also, nukes don't work like. And, this last one is more of a personal peeve for me, but how does a robot grow, why does its power have to grow with it? And I just hate technopathy. I think it is the most BS superpower.

So, should you watch it? If you love sci-fi films with great special effects, this is definitely a film for you. Otherwise, it is more of a maybe. The friend I was with seemed to enjoy it, probably because she was not picking it appart in her head. I could also see that it struck her emotionally. There is enough story there to keep most people from falling asleep. I liked it enough, but I doubt I will watch it a second time when it is streaming.