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The boldest thing about “The Creator,” a mix of mostly familiar science fiction and war movie tropes, is the filmmakers’ choice of a villain: the United States of America. Director and co-writer Gareth Edwards’ film is set some 40 years in the future and imagines an American campaign of mass destruction against New Asia, a kind of pan-Asian restaurant of a country.
The United States has banned artificial intelligence after blaming it for a nuclear explosion that destroyed Los Angeles. New Asia, on the other hand, is a wonderland of tolerance, accepting not only multiple ethnicities and languages, but also robots with AI brains and the partially human cyborgs called “malimulants.” The United States sets out to eliminate all AI-conscious creatures in a war that initially recalls Vietnam – the director cites “Apocalypse Now” as one of his inspirations – and soon turns into one of “Oppenheimer’s” atomic bomb nightmares .
At the center of the American offensive is Joshua (“Tenet” star John David Washington), who lives undercover in a part of New Asia that looks like a Thai beach resort. He is a war-torn veteran whose missing arm has been replaced with a robotic arm, making him a type of cyborg himself. This is significant because one of the morals of “the Creator” is to accept all living beings, even those that are partly or entirely machines.
Joshua is happily married to Maya (British-Chinese artist Gemma Chan), who has no problem with malingering, and they are expecting a baby. But the couple’s domestic peace is shattered when the United States attacks brutally – led by, of all people, Allison Janney. (Yes, the “West Wing” star is playing something like the ruthless Tom Berenger role in “Platoon.”)
Joshua, who is revealed to be a widower, becomes embroiled in an American attempt to destroy a new superweapon created by the mysterious Nirmata, whose name is Nepali for “creator.” This threat turns out to be a malingerer in the form of a 6-year-old girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), nicknamed Alphie. Like all malingerers, Alphie has a large metal-lined hole on the side of her head. (Why? The Creator doesn’t address such questions.) Still, she’s pretty sweet, and Joshua easily transfers his fatherly feelings for his lost child to her.
And so Joshua fights against the United States alongside malingerers like Harun (Ken Watanabe, who starred in Edwards’ “Godzilla”). To protect Alphie, Joshua travels with her or in search of her to various locations, including a massive American flying fortress. The United States called the ominous military airship NOMAD, but in honor of Edwards’ direction of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, we’re calling it the Death Star.
Edwards hasn’t made a film since 2016’s Rogue One, reportedly a troubled project. With “The Creator” he comes a little closer to the strategies of his 2010 debut “Monsters,” which was shot for less than $500,000. Edwards’ new film is hardly a low-budget production, but the filmmakers took measures to cut costs by shooting primarily on location and using relatively inexpensive digital cameras.
Special effects were later added with varying degrees of success. The visuals are sometimes bleak and the CGI additions aren’t always convincingly integrated into the whole.
“The Creator,” co-written by another “Rogue One” veteran, Chris Weitz, begins hectic (and somewhat confusingly) and often features rousing crowd scenes. But the film’s ultimate goal is to be a tearjerker that focuses in-depth on the fate of a few characters as the world crashes and burns around them.
While receptive viewers may shed a tear, others will find the sentimental aspects of the story unappealing. Overloaded with incidents, effects and explosions, “The Creator” fails to develop the personalities and relationships that would give its main characters a poignant humanity. The film’s attempt to touch the heart seems artificial.
PG-13. In the theaters in the area. Contains violence, some bloody images and strong language. 133 minutes.