As much as I enjoy it whenever a distinctive, new voice that’s shown up to put a new spin on a classic genre gets sucked into the machine of a gargantuan franchise, it also bugs me a bit because often the talent in question has to march to the beat of someone else’s drum. Take Gareth Edwards’, for example, whose stark, yet poignant, 2010 creature feature, Monsters, led to him toiling away on the darkly serious Godzilla and the standout Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. While I loved what the director brought to each respective franchise (stark visuals, blue radioactive breath, Alan Tudyk as a petulant droid), I always wondered what Edwards would be doing if he was in playing sandboxes created by himself and not Toho or Lucasfilm.
Well, wonder no longer as he’s now brought us The Creator, an emotional sci-fi thriller that offsets some recycled ideas by offering up one one of the most memorable and haunting visions of the future in ages.
In 2050, a nuclear warhead is detonated over Los Angeles causing the entire western world to violently turn on the thing the United States holds responsible – all forms of artificial intelligence. However, were not talking about the odd sex robot or those programmes that knocks up creepy art, no, in this time A.I. is plentiful as the world is chock full of seemingly benign robots who work as servants, nannys and other such jobs and in the wake of this great purge, many have fled to take refuge in New Asia, a country that sees A.I. as the next step in evolution.
In this world we find Joshua Taylor, an American undercover agent who has infiltrated the robot embracing country in order to sniff out the identity of “Nirmata” the unknown architect New Asia’s continuing advancements in A.I.. However, not only Joshua has found himself in so deep he’s married to Maya, the suspected daughter of his target, but is expecting a child with her too, but hoth his dual life and mission is brought to a sudden end when the U.S. launches a devastating strike from NOMAD, a bowel voidingly intimidating military space platform.
After five years of mourning his wife and unborn child, Joshua is approached with another mission – to once again infiltrate New Asia and seek out and destroy a mysterious new weapon that Nirmata has created that’s rumoured to be able to end the war by disabling NOMAD. However upon finding his way in with a typically gung-ho team of typically tooled-up marines, Joshua discovers that the weapon is a simulant in the form of a small child which goes on to change things immensely as he believes that Maya is still alive and little “Alphie” knows how to get to her.
Thus a chase across New Asia begins as Joshua and his little ward make their way through a world where humans and A.I. live in harmony, robot hating marines stalk them, just waiting for the moment when they can feed a target into the ever-present, looming presence of NOMAD.
For a movie that features a throwaway detail that sees an billboard asking that people donate their likeness so that programmers have a more varied choice of what face they can give the next simulant that comes off the production line, The Creator ironically features a sizable hodgepodge of familiar, sci-fi concepts wrapped with a shiny new visage. In fact, you can’t spit in any direction (not that you should) without hitting a well worn trope that’s graced many a movie before it. A lot of the tech looks like its come straight out a Neill Blomkamp movie or even Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira, while the sight of a wide-eyed robot child staring in wonder at a meticulously created world mirrors Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Hell, even the force of American troops (here, interestingly cast as the out and out villains) led by Allison Janney are more than a little reminiscent of Avatar’s group of heinous humans and some may feel a little cheated considering how much the advertising campaign seem on touting this as a strikingly original experience.
However, in Edwards’ defence, while his “homages” are plentiful and rather obvious at times (the opening nuclear disaster even takes a cue from Terminator 2 and detonated over LA), the world it occurs in turns out to be something of a revelation.
Obviously picking up a few tips from the years spent wrangling giant, radioactive lizards and Darth Vader, Edwards’ world building has created a future rich in truly moving imagery as various, conflicting ideologies to give it stunningly unforgettable look. Essentially dropping cool, future tech and saucer-headed robots into the picturesque, green landscapes of Thailand that proves to be incredibly moving. Be it the sight of robots, rendered stanch pacifists by virtue their programming, wearing the robes and sharing the religion of monks or a robot sacrificing himself rather than risking the lives of cowering children, The Creator provides an endless string of extremely affecting images that nail you clean in the feels with more efficiency than a laser guided missile attack.
For a movie that’s so obviously dedicated to plucking the heartstrings with its dexterous, robotic fingers, The Creator certainly doesn’t hang about at the whole movie mostly takes the form of a chase movie as John David Washington’s psychology and physically damaged Joshua escorts his robot charge from one end of the country to the other in order to be reunited with his missing wife and it gives the movie a real sense of drive while giving us different aspects of New Asia as we go.
The performances are as strong as the visuals, with Washington giving us yet another strong but vulnerable role while joining the ever growing list of surrogate, sci-fi fathers as he progressively bonds with the “child” in his care. Matching him while sporting a chrome, whirring hole that runs through her head is Madeleine Yuna Voyles as the agonisingly innocent Alphie who puts in one of the best child performances I’ve seen in quite a while and the humanity she brings to the film helps immensely to put its themes across. With a cast that also includes a typically stoic Ken Wantanabe and Gemma Chan who seems to be seriously addicted to roles that have her in close proximity to robotic beings, Edwards’ legitimately moving world is in good hands.
However, those who err on the side of cynical may find certain aspects of the film – especially in the final third – may feel a bit too convenient and emotionally manipulative to ring true much in the same way that some regard the more broad storytelling strokes of Avatar with a wrinkled nose. But for those that apreciate flawless world building and plot twists that mercilessly drive a metallic fist into your gut and twists, The Creator aims – and succeeds – to bringing a tear to even the most metallic eyes.
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