‘The Creator’ Movie Review: AI Might Not Be The Enemy, This Thought-Provoking Film Suggests

Gareth Edwards‘ The Creator takes place in a post-apocalyptic future in which Americans dedicate themselves to hunting beings of artificial intelligence protected by people in a Southeastern country known as New Asia who treat sad beings as equals.

A former United States Army soldier, Joshua Taylor (John Taylor Washington), who after five years of losing his wife, Maya Fey-Taylor (Gemma Chan), to an attack from American soldiers, is recruited by the United States Army to go to New Asia and find the weapon known as Alpha-O.

The weapon was created by Nirmata (the word for “Creator” in Hindi), the person responsible for New Asia’s advancements in artificial intelligence. He is told that Fey-Taylor is still alive. Taylor finds out that the weapon is a robotic simulant created in the form of a child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), whom he nicknames “Alphie.”

After going rogue and taking Alpha-O for himself, Taylor soon begins to realize that perhaps artificial intelligence may not be the real enemy.

One of the themes that this movie effectively presented is the value of life and whether AIs share that value. In one scene, Taylor is shown beating a robot to death and, afterward, shrugging it off saying that he did not kill it but simply turned it off, indicating that he saw beings of artificial intelligence as any other inanimate machine.

The scene shows the artificial intelligence crying out in pain, demonstrating it is capable of feeling pain just as any other human being. This scene was followed up by another showing robots inside a trash compactor, lying upon a pile of other seemingly deceased robots and pleading to be saved until they are eventually crushed.

With the help of these scenes and several others showing simulants and robots being killed, as well as a funeral for one robot in New Asia, the film allows its audience to feel the pain of the AIs.

Audiences might be capable of asking themselves whether or not the humans in this film should be seen as virtuous heroes.

In addition to these brilliantly presented themes, the lead actors, Washington and Voyles, both do a fantastic job in their respective roles. The amount of raw distress and pain conveyed by Washington’s delivery can convince audiences that he was able to convincingly portray a man who had lost so much and was unable to move on from his losses in a healthy manner.

Other emotions, such as bitterness and self-contempt, were also indicated by Washington’s delivery, showing that he’s a man who sees little to no virtue in himself. This is especially present during the scene on a train when Taylor tells Alpha-O that since he is not a good person, he cannot go to Heaven.

As for Voyles, the fact that she rarely speaks throughout most of the film makes her seem intimidating during the scenes where she, as Alpha-O, takes control of technology and fights back against the United States Army, but her speaking parts help her character believably appear to audiences like an innocent child on whom they can take pity.

Voyles credibly portrays an innocent child with the sadness that she conveyed in Alpha-O’s voice, enabling the audience to take pity on a character who just wants to live a life of peace, not war.

One of the issues that holds the film back is its rushed pacing, which prevents the film’s audiences from feeling stronger emotions towards the characters.

When Taylor released Alpha-O from a facility and got to see the outside world for the first time, it only lasted for a few seconds.

The scene showing the funeral of a robot was also very rushed, and this, in turn, also prevents the build-up of emotion.

The film might have shown how the funeral played out by giving more time to show a human friend of the robot, giving a eulogy that would emphasize the positive impact the robot had on their lives and even further the film’s message that artificial intelligence is not the enemy.

The Creator‘s themes and lead performances offer hints of greatness, but its rushed pacing often makes it difficult to evoke an emotional response out of its audiences.