Film Review: The Creator

 

Artificial Intelligence is getting a bad rap of late both in fiction and also increasingly alarmist studies suggesting that the stuff of fantasy movies and books in which our machines rise up and replace us could become reality. Might that happen?  I’ve no idea but it is certainly intriguing enough to make a film like The Creator feel closer to home. It explores a possible way in which our interaction with something we've created can take unexpected paths yet is more optimistic than you might expect.

 Spoilers after the break...

We’re in the year 2055 (not really that far away) and A.I. is blamed for a nuclear explosion that devastated Los Angeles and led to a ban on artifical humans or simulants in the Western world. They are being rounded up and incinerated but many have fled to the East where the technology has been welcomed and a war develops pitting Humans vs A.I. If this makes it sound incredibly epic then it has it moments but despite the action you can sense a more intelligent text at play too. The main conceit that the AI’s ultimate `weapon` turns out to be a child could be the signal for an overly sentimental film but director Gareth Edwards (who made the excellent Rogue One) ensures it’s not while still retaining a humanity. At its heart its about two people on the run from corruption and aggression. I would argue that the impact might have been even better had the nature of the `Creator` been kept secret in pre publicity but its still something that is handled really well. Likewise the whole `AI is bad` approach of other films and series becomes a more nuanced take here with a real sense of community portrayed amongst the simulants. Just like humans some of them can be trusted, others not.

Visually Edwards differentiates between the human and the artificial by showing simulants as having metallic parts at the back of their heads, their human faces grafted on. It’s a striking image which means they can dispense with the overused `who is really human?` plot you might expect in favour of what sometimes seems like an allegory for the cultural divide between East and West as well as that between nature and science. The script works hard for characters that are often passing through imbuing each with something that makes us understand them enough to care even if we don’t agree with them. This works best with a US military character Colonel Howell who is given something more in her background that makes some of the atrocities she orders seem difficult to square. She is doing her duty but she does have a life, a history and Alison Janny delivers a powerful performance as an antagonist who is a bit more than two dimensional. 

A sturdy John David Washington gives more of the strong yet interesting character work he showed in Tenet.  His character Joshua Taylor is an ambiguous undercover agent for the US military who is on screen for nearly all of the film and the actor’s expressive face and well penned story work well especially when we meet `Alphie` the young girl who is the so called Creator.  Played by Madelaine Yuna Voyles with what can only be called benign intensity she holds the screen so well and the two develop a bond that means we are rooting for them. Alphie is never played as the cute kid or a being who can’t control her power but a preternaturally confident though likeable child. Thankfully her powers- for all the build up the story gives her - are limited and also affected by her emotions which means the jeopardy is never too far away. In some ways it’s a traditional chase movie as the strange duo evade their pursuers while seeking a mythical location but it feels fresh despite the occasional nod to big screen sci-fi classics. 

The film’s look is always interesting with a washed out palette and a lot of striking buildings and devices, a lived in environment eschewing the shininess of some sci-fi films. The principal weapons are impressive -  enormous square metallic tanks have a real heft. Often we see a lot of circuitry as if to show us these are practical devices. There are bomb droids which race towards the target like giant versions of the never ending battery adverts. Best of all is the USS Nomad ,a floating weapon of destruction that resembles a massive religious icon (deliberate?) and which instils fear as it moves around scanning the ground before letting loose missiles. In practical terms you can predict what the weaknesses of such a machine are and indeed guess what’s gong to happen to it by the end but it is a very striking machine in a film packed with memorable tech.

It is odd that the real cause of the LA disaster is revealed in an offhand manner and that it makes no difference to the ongoing narrative when it should be a game changer for some characters. I suppose it reflects the laser sharp precision with which the US military operate regardless of any facts that should alter their mission. I’m not sure the development is needed really given how little it affects things. Definitely a cinema experience, The Creator has a lot of interesting ideas and offers a less biased account of the way technology may develop while never for a moment suggesting its going to be easy.