The Creator - Interesting Premise with Amazing Visual Effects Action-Drama Movie of Human versus AI

My wife and I were trying to catch up the movies that we have not seen during our holiday trip a month before. But we decided to see this one first even if it was just released recently as it was available in all cinema chains. So after a small gathering of my wife's family, we both went to the cinema not very far from the restaurant and were just in time to buy the next earliest show. OK, I'll start on it now.

Brief Story Line

Story was set in the future where Artificial Intelligence (AI) that was created to help humans had instead done major destruction to the U.S and was ultimately prohibited. However, a country called New Asia was trying to maintain the AI which led to an operation by the U.S government in that region. They sent a team of soldiers led by Colonel Howell (Allison Janney - Lou, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children etc) with Sergeant Joshua Taylor (John David Washington - Amsterdam, Malcolm & Marie etc) as their guide to search for Nirmata, the alleged creator for next high level AI weapon and destroy it.

Joshua only accepted the task as he wanted to look for his wife Maya (Gemma Chan - Don't Worry Darling, Raya and the Last Dragon etc). But the mission took an unexpected turn when Joshua found a simulant in the form of a young girl, later referred to as Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).

So how would the story conclude? You could find out in this movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Although I have not seen the trailer to this movie before, but the topic of AI was intriguing for me. There was also a comment from my wife's sister who told us it was a good film which made us more curious. Turned out the movie was indeed interesting in term of story that focused on AI which affected people's life plus the war between AI and human (the actual part that I am more interested in). However, the film itself was not a full action type and had some drama elements. Not exactly what we were hoping for with lots of war/action sequence, nevertheless still pretty entertaining. 

The Sci-fi element was obviously very strong for this movie which was supported by great special effects. Now this is the most amazing part cause the effects were quite stunning with realistically created simulant that looked like real-life robots and that large ship NOMAD especially when it was shown in more details. I saw the whole closing credits to find out if there was any mid or post end credit scene (which there was none) and noticed there were a lot of special effects companies used. But one name truly stood out, i.e. Industrial Light Magic (ILM), the company who did effects for various films like the first Star Wars trilogy, Jurassic Park etc.

The movie itself had quite long duration of 133 minutes with steady pace. It was not too slow, but it was not so fast either which probably made me less excited. The film felt more adventurous and lively since Alphie appeared as she brought some light feel with her innocent face (both of us felt she looked a bit like our youngest 3 year old nephew). I thought the newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles did a decent job in her debut. However, even though there were some chasing scenes, the movie never felt too suspenseful and I thought felt lacking in term of intensity. It did have few emotional moments, especially towards the end.

The cast in general were quite OK. Aside from the names I mentioned above, there were also support characters such as Harun (Ken Watanabe - Godzilla II: King of the Monsters, Tokyo Vice TV series etc), Joshua's former superior Drew (Sturgill Simpson) and few others. The film was directed by Gareth Edwards (director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Godzilla and others) that he co-wrote with Chris Weitz (The Golden Compass, Cinderella etc) and it was not adaptation of anything. For me, the musical score was awesome which should not come as a surprise since it was done by Hans Zimmer (Top Gun: Maverick, The Lion King 2019 version and many more). Oh there was a bit of surprise for us when we heard Indonesian song playing in the background of the film (which was odd considering it was set in new Asia that looked to be Vietnam). And we were even more surprised when we heard the second one later with brief Indonesian language dialogues in one of the scene.

Overall to me, this film was enjoyable enough as sci-fi action drama. The topic was interesting, the visual effects were great but the lack of intense moments made it less exciting for me. I even felt sleepy in one or two scenes (apparently my wife also felt the same), but it did not make it a completely boring movie. It probably would be more satisfying for me if it had more suspense. Oh the film was classified for 13+ which I thought was right. It is not a kid's movie but not extremely violent or having adult theme that warrant a more mature rating. So if you are interested in the story of humans versus AI with some actions and nice enough drama, then you could give it a try. But if big war and lots of actions are what you are looking for, then you won't find it here. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars