The Creator movie review: John David Washington film takes a bold new look at the AI-powered future

Edwards (Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) mounts a convincing argument, his film an allegory of what happens every time a power encounters another it barely understands. As it so happens, the marauding, all-guns-in, bulldozer power is often America.

Based in a fictional “New Asia”, The Creator is beautifully shot, welding rural idylls and urban chaos in a way that we in this part of the world are familiar with. Shot in Thailand, it evokes America’s Vietnam blunder as much as colonialism’s colour-blindness in The Heart of Darkness. And hanging over this world is a flying killing machine called Nomad deployed by the West, which fires missiles down after scanning the countryside via eerie blue probes.

The directors of photography are award winners Greig Fraser (Dune) and Oren Soffer, and they do justice to Edwards’s vision. The clash in The Creator is triggered by a nuclear attack on Los Angeles, believed to have been set off by an A.I. machine. The West “bans” A.I., noting pointedly that “New Asia” still continues to “harbour” it.

So America sends down its men, women and machines to kill the A.I., specifically the one they call the “Nirmata”. The film helpfully explains that “Nirmata” means Creator in Nepalese, though of course we in India call it the same. In fact, in one of its egregious errors, the film has Hindi-speaking people pop up randomly in “New Asia” which, going by the world map, is far south and far east of the subcontinent.

One of the soldiers America has working undercover in this mission is Joshua (Washington), incidentally a beneficiary of advanced artificial limbs himself. While on the trail of a human in New Asia called Maya (Chan), with links to Nirmata, he has fallen in love with her. They are about to have a baby when Joshua’s bosses decide they are done with waiting and send troops in, thus breaking their wedded bliss and sending Joshua into a downward spiral.

Five years later, the US summons him again, as they have heard that Nirmata has built a “super weapon”, and he has the most information behind enemy lines. Joshua agrees, in the hope of finding Maya. What he almost immediately finds is a child, where the super weapon should be, who rests Wizard of Oz like in a huge chair watching TV.

This girl, whom Joshua dubs Alphie (Voyles), is meant to capture your heart. And she does, with her big eyes, tentative smile and soothing ways that pause the violence-filled world around her. In a break from form, Janney is the ruthless commander of the hunt for the super weapon. As Joshua finds himself drawn to Alphie, who holds the clue to Maya, it pits him against the might of the US army. Once the chips are in place, there are few doubts about where the story is heading. What still stands out is Edwards’s conviction in his alternative world, where who is to tell where machines end and humans begin.

Towards the end, the ambition soars even higher, with at least an extra 20 minutes of ending tagged on, including a journey to the Moon imagined as a regular flight. But, again, to the credit of Edwards, he tries to go logically from Point A to Point B – which is more than you can say for many superhero films. Voyles and Washington are the heart of this film, and if Voyles is a charmer, Washington has his father Denzel Washington’s presence if not his effortless charisma.

As their relationship upends what we know of creation, you might find yourself reminded of that song: “What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?” What if? Would you be able to tell?”

The Creator movie director: Gareth Edwards
The Creator movie cast: John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Allison Janney, Ken Watanabe
The Creator movie rating: 3.5 stars