The Creator review: A thrilling and thoughtful take on A.I.

With the recent proliferation of artificial intelligence software like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi epic The Creator arrives at a significant technological and cultural inflection point. And while current concerns about A.I. aren’t likely to lead to the global conflict depicted in Edwards’ thrilling film, which pits artificially enhanced intelligent robots against humanity, its reframing of often-dystopian depictions of machine intelligence reveals a more expansive and inclusive perspective. With few other comparable releases in play, The Creator is likely to stand as the most impressive and immersive sci-fi movie of the year.

Following back-to-back studio projects Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Edwards’ fourth feature represents a timely return to original filmmaking. Working with Rogue One screenwriter Chris Weitz, Edwards has crafted an absorbing and emotional vision of a near future where runaway technology has developed the potential to overwhelm civilization. With the fate of humanity at stake, Edwards turns away from the geopolitical (or intergalactic) issues that typically drive technological conflict to focus on key character dynamics.

In that respect, The Creator owes a debt to A.I. Artificial Intelligence, although Edwards envisions the prospect of a darker outcome for humanity than Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film. Setting the action just 50 years in the future heightens the peril, as a nuclear strike attributed to hostile A.I. attackers destroys Los Angeles. In response, special forces operative Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) sets out on a clandestine Apocalypse Now-style mission to infiltrate the A.I. stronghold of New Asia to identify and eliminate the mysterious leader of an alliance between A.I. forces and Southeast Asian nations. After his target vanishes, Taylor settles behind enemy lines and marries Maya (Gemma Chan), an A.I. specialist who is pregnant with their first child. During an attack on their tropical beachside villa by a highly trained U.S. strike force targeting Maya, she disappears, leaving Taylor to believe that she died.

Five years later, Colonel Jean Howell (Allison Janney) tracks Taylor down in Los Angeles and shares some astonishing news; Maya may still be alive in the war zone and she convinces him to join a black-op team and infiltrate a secret New Asia research complex where she could be located. His target is a newly developed A.I. super-weapon code-named Alpha-O with the potential to conclusively win the war, threatening to destroy humanity as a result.

Taylor’s discovery that Alpha-O is an A.I. in the form of a six-year-old girl called Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) immediately jeopardizes the mission when he hesitates to terminate the target. Edwards and co-writer Chris Weitz’s fluidly intricate script gets the audience over this conceptual hurdle by populating their futuristic world with both conventional-looking robots and A.I. “simulants” like Alphie, entities combining a more human appearance with high-tech enhancements and naturalistic speech and behavior.

The film’s remarkably realistic visual style, which frequently replaces typically bright, shiny tech with battle-weathered airships, weapons, and gadgetry, feels appropriately authentic. So perhaps it’s ironic that the technological centerpiece, a Death Star-like flying base station dubbed NOMAD that provides the setting for the movie’s climactic action set piece, makes noticeably less of an impression.

Rather than attempting to leverage scarce studio resources to achieve the film’s futuristic visuals, Edwards relied on innovative production techniques that he developed on his intriguing sci-fi debut feature Monsters. He reportedly completed The Creator for under $100 million, a relative bargain for an ambitious sci-fi release. Although the film was shot in dozens of locations in Southeast Asia, as well as Tokyo and Los Angeles, the filmmakers were able to add much of the action in post-production with a variety of visual effects techniques sourced from top-shelf developers like Weta Workshops and Industrial Light & Magic.

All of these technical innovations would be wasted without the contributions of a remarkably talented cast. Washington, who starred in Christopher Nolan’s futuristic thriller Tenet, gets a much more grounded role with Taylor, a traumatized soldier with clearly delineated personal issues that he can only begin to resolve when confronted with the possibility of reuniting with his wife and accepting the possibility of A.I. sentience. Washington gives a fiercely conflicted performance opposite Janney as his unrelentingly driven superior officer that’s gradually tempered by his encounter with Alphie, an entity displaying childlike behavior and awesome technological prowess.

Voyles is a true discovery in her debut feature role, convincingly embodying both innocence and determination in her character’s journey from A.I. simulant to almost human self-awareness, a development that the filmmakers perhaps push a bit too far in the final scenes. Edwards reunites with his Godzilla co-star Ken Watanabe as the lethal A.I. soldier Harun, tasked with protecting Alphie, along with a large cast of mostly local extras playing both human and simulant roles in the scenes shot on location in Thailand.

With Dune: Part Two rescheduled for release in 2024, The Creator could be poised for a slew of technical awards nominations and might even score nods in a few acting categories if the most influential organizations can overcome their typical aversion to sci-fi. Whatever the outcome, The Creator will remain notable for its remarkable resourcefulness, striking visual style, and resonant cultural themes.

The Creator opens in theaters September 29