Between ChatGPT and the writers’ and actors’ strikes in Hollywood, AI is in the news a lot these days. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, then, that someone should write a screenplay about the subject and how AI is taking over our lives. That someone is writer-director Gareth Edwards (GODZILLA; ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY), and his new film, THE CREATOR looks at a time not too far into the future when AI is completely integrated into human life as we know it today.

It’s 2055 and some AI created by the US government detonates a nuclear device over Los Angeles. In response, the US and its allies declare war on AI, pledging to eradicate it from the planet. Easier said than done though, as New Asia, a conglomeration of formerly independent countries in southeast Asia, has chosen to wholly embrace AI, going so far as to promote human-AI hybrids known as simulants. Ten years on, the war continues to rage and Sergeant Joshua Taylor (John David Washington, AMSTERDAM; MALCOLM & MARIE) is operating undercover in New Asia to try to find Nirmata, a shadowy figure who is behind the advancements in AI in that part of the world. He is married to Maya (Gemma Chan, DON’T WORRY DARLING; ETERNALS), who is believed to be Nirmata’s daughter, and she is pregnant with their child. However, when the US Army launches a raid on their home, Maya is killed. Five years later, Taylor is pressed back into service when US intelligence reports that Nirmata has created an AI super-weapon that is capable to taking out the Army’s most lethal weapon in its arsenal, NOMAD, a space station that can launch targetted air strikes from high altitudes. Taylor’s job is to find this advanced weapon before it goes into use and shut it down.

It’s been a while since a film has divided critics and audiences as much as THE CREATOR does. Some people are calling it visionary; others are saying that it’s derivative. I’m tending towards the latter as the story has elements of STAR WARS, BLADE RUNNER, THE TERMINATOR, APOCALYPSE NOW!, PLATOON, THE SEVEN SAMURAI; SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET and about a half dozen other films in it. Edwards himself acknowledges that these films influenced his story so the question becomes, “At what point does ‘homage’ become ‘derivativeness’? My feeling is that wherever that line is, Edwards crossed it.

But to dismiss THE CREATOR as simply being derivative is to be lazy. Edwards shot much of the film in Asia (Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan) and he uses the picture postcard locations as backdrops for his massive set pieces, infusing the traditional Asian way of life with futuristic elements. This is where he is visionary and the results are stunning to watch especially in IMAX. The story quickly revolves around Taylor’s relationship with a young girl named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) and his attempts to find Maya, who apparently is still alive. Here is where I was disappointed with the film because I tend to focus more on plot than on visuals. Edwards assumes that Voyles’ cuteness and Washington’s acting ability are enough to have audiences overlook the story’s shortcomings (like everyone seems to know something about Maya but no one tells Taylor until they’re gasping their last breaths or that actor Ken Watanabe is criminally wasted here), and clearly, judging from all the glowing reviews this film has received, he’s right. That’s just not enough for me though, and I left the cinema shrugging my shoulders in ambivalence.

THE CREATOR is playing now in Hong Kong and around the world. It’s rubbish but it’s really good-looking rubbish.

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