Gareth Edwards’ latest film “The Creator” intrigued me and then engaged me much more than expected, and that is quite an achievement. Yes, its story premise and ideas are quite familiar to say the least, but the movie handles its story, character, and background with a lot of curiosity, intelligence, and sincerity. As a matter of fact, its relatively quieter and smaller moments for building the characters and the futuristic world inhabited by them feel more important to me, though I also really appreciate the considerable skills and efforts put into those expected epic moments in the film.

At the beginning, the movie succinctly establishes its futuristic alternative world where artificial intelligence (AI) technology has been developed much faster than ours. At first, the humanity embraced AI with fascination and enthusiasm, but US and most of western countries became quite hostile to a certain disastrous incident which wiped out the downtown area of LA. This eventually led to the beginning of a long battle between the US Army and the New Asia, where many AI robots such as androids called “Simulants” want to live freely and peacefully along with humans.

When we are introduced to an American soldier named Joshua (John David Washington, who has gradually emerged as a distinguished actor even though occasionally channeling his father Denzel Washington in terms of his voice tone), he has been secretly trying to track down a certain mysterious figure known as the creator/savior to many AI robots out there, but, alas, his undercover operation subsequently gets botched with another personal loss in his life. Five years later, he is approached by the two figures from the US Army, and they have a mission to be accepted by him. There is a powerful secret weapon developed by that mysterious figure associated with AI robots, and they need Joshua to locate and then destroy that weapon. Although he is not so reluctant at first, Joshua eventually agrees to accept the mission mainly because he wants to meet again someone who was very important to him in the past.

That person in question a young woman named Maya (Gemma Chan), and a number of brief flashback moments show us more of how much she and Joshua loved each other around the time of his undercover operation. He approached to her as a part of his undercover operation, but he found himself caring about her much more than expected. Although her character is another typical case of a tragic female figure hovering over the hero’s mind, Chan fills her rather conventional character with enough warmth and presence at least, and she and Washington are believable in their few intimate moments in the film.

Anyway, Joshua soon goes to a certain remote spot in the New Asia along with a bunch of soldiers led by a tough commander played by Allison Janney, and he and other soldiers subsequently invade a secret facility where that secret weapon is supposed to be stored. When a certain big bunker inside the facility is opened, Joshua encounters that secret weapon, and, what do you know, it turns out to be a little AI robot girl. When it seems that this little AI robot girl has some information about Maya, Joshua decides to focus more on his personal business instead of the mission, and he and the little AI robot girl consequently find themselves chased by not only the US Army but also the local authorities of the New Asia.

Rather than hurrying the story and characters, the screenplay by Gareth and his co-writer Chris Weitz takes its time for developing the characters and their futuristic world more. While Joshua’s strained relationship with that little AI robot girl, who is casually nicknamed “Alfie” at one point, is handled with enough care and sensitivity, the movie also pays a lot of attention to building up its futuristic background with lots of style and details to be appreciated. For example, several urban locations in the film will definitely take you back to Ridley Scott’s classic SF film “Blade Runner” (1982), and it is not surprising that many of AI robot characters in the movie poignantly feel more human than most of human characters in the film besides Joshua and Maya. Cinematographers Greig Fraser, who recently won an Oscar for Denis Villneuve’s “Dune” (2021), and Oren Soffer did a stunning job of vividly presenting many different landscapes on the screen, and the production design by James Clyne is simply superb as constantly providing awe and wonder which deserve to be savored at big screening room.

In case of several action sequences in the film, they are presented with enough dramatic impact accompanied with an aching sense of horror and tragedy. The US Army in the movie incidentally has a gigantic battleship floating above the Earth for attacking any base of AI robots in the New Asia, and how it mercilessly attacks will probably remind you of how horrific and devastating the attacks of the Death Star felt in Gareth’s previous film “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” (2016). At one point later in the story, the movie just watches the destruction of a base from the distance, but it still feels quite devastating to us nonetheless, and the South Asian landscapes in the film being invaded the US Army will also evoke the Vietnam War at times.

Above all, we actually come to care about Alfie and the journey she takes along with Joshua, and young performer Madeleine Yuna Voyles does a lot more than holding her place well among Washington and the other notable main cast members including Ralph Ineson, Veronica Ngo, and Ken Watanabe. Like Alicia Vikander’s AI robot character in Alex Garland’s little SF masterpiece “Ex Machina” (2014), Voyles brings uncanny qualities to her AI robot character, and, though you may not be surprised by her hidden origin or her special abilities, it is touching to observe her “emotional” growth along the story. In my skeptical viewpoint, AI and the humanity will regard each other forever over the gap which may never be filled for good reasons, but isn’t it nice to imagine that AI entities can learn and acquire the best qualities of the humanity?

In conclusion, “The Creator” a knoukout Hollywood blockbuster film which actually cares about amazing and attracting us with ideas and visuals, and Edwards demonstrates again that he is one of the most dependable genre filmmakers out there. Since his admirable first feature film “Monsters” (2010), he has steadily advanced with “Godzilla” (2014) and “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”, and now here comes his best work to date. Even though I was rather dissatisfied with the screening condition of a sneak preview I attended with many others, the movie really captivated and excited me, and I will certainly soon watch it again under a better screening condition.