By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
With fantastic potential as a sci-fi film centered on AI vs. humans, a very accomplished director at the helm, and a highly talented actor in the lead role, this has all the ingredients for a mesmerizing creation, but unfortunately turns into a hot mess. “The Creator” tries too hard to be “Avatar” with robots instead of tall, blue aliens. However, plot holes, poor character development, and ridiculous sequences with predictable outcomes undermine what could have been a great moviegoing experience.
After artificial intelligence is blamed for the detonation of a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, America declares war on all AI robots, except apparently the robots they use to fight this war. Joshua (John David Washington) is a former soldier who had been deep undercover searching for the one responsible for the AI’s advancement until his wife Maya (Gemma Chan) is killed during a mission. Five years later, Joshua is convinced with an obvious ploy to rejoin the U.S. military to hunt AI’s secret weapon that is rumored to have the ability to take out the American’s main weapon, Nomad (a massive ship with a devastating laser guided weapon system…sound familiar?).
When Joshua discovers the secret weapon is actually a robot in the form of a child, he begins to have a change of heart, affectionately naming it Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) and protecting the powerful child robot from his fellow soldiers. To keep Alphie safe, he must help it end the war, leading to a typical try to blow up the Death Star type of climax.
Expectations were unavoidably high having Gareth Edwards co-write and direct “The Creator,” because he’s responsible for the best “Star Wars” movie since the original trilogy, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” Where “Rogue One” has an extremely buttoned up and intelligent plot with very well written dialogue, the opposite is true for this film. The difference being he did not write the screenplay for “Rogue One,” and after viewing the messy, confused storyline with some of the worst written dialogue in “The Creator,” audiences can justifiably conclude that writing is not Edwards’ strength. Case in point, when the Alfie character is asked what it wants (as in to eat), Alfie cheesily responds “For robots to be free!” Enter cringe and head shaking here.
As for creativity in the story, there is absolutely none. This is a pure paint by numbers approach that’s been done numerous times before and done exceedingly better. It incorporates the robotic humanity ideology from “A.I. Artificial Intelligence,” as well as the violent evolution of “The Terminator” or “I, Robot,” but succeeds at neither. The U.S. military is once again depicted as overbearing, bloodthirsty meatheads with a scorched earth mindset to achieve their objective with no consideration of outside influences or consequences, similar to “Avatar,” but with much less character development. Gareth Edwards tries to manufacture emotional moments in the film that fall completely flat with obvious ploys that contradict the characters’ previous behaviors, just to set up a tear-jerking type of moment that is laughable and the audience can see coming a mile away. If viewers are hoping the action scenes could save the film, think again, because even those scenes are mediocre and dull at best.
The only thing Gareth Edwards does well with this movie is the visual effects, which are quite stunning at times and not surprising, considering his background and experience with visual effects. This could have been amplified with better cinematography, but unfortunately that was unimaginative and bland. The score from the legendary Hans Zimmer was solid and helped the audience to ignore some of the bad dialogue.
One actor is able to overcome the poorly written screenplay, and that is the star of the film, John David Washington. He provides natural charisma that draws the audience to his character, and he makes the dialogue his own. No surprise considering his father, Denzel, has had to overcome some bad scripts in his career as well, and John David definitely has similar talent. Look for him to next star in his brother’s, Malcolm’s, feature film directorial debut, “The Piano Lesson.”
“The Creator” is a disappointingly underwhelming film with cheesy writing and a predictable conclusion that hopes its audience fails to realize that much of the premise doesn’t even make sense. Basically, it’s a bad movie with good visuals. If you’re in the mood for a quality sci-fi film, skip this one and check out “District 9” from 2009 instead.
This movie earns:
