“Execute her or we go extinct.”

Justin’s rating: Remember when remote controls used to be hardwired into TVs?

Justin’s review: Maybe I’m growing old and stogy, but I am not having this worldwide embrace of artificial intelligence that we’re seeing these days. I’ve seen way too many movies and read too many books about how all of this can and probably will bite humanity on the rear to trust it as a tool that’s under our control.

The Creator looks at what an AI war might look like in a surprisingly visceral way. It’s 2070, a decade or so after our own creations nuked Los Angeles and sparked a global conflict. Yet thanks to a trillion-dollar orbiting weapons platform called Nomad, humanity is on the cusp of winning against the artificial beings (which range from straight-up robots to simulants to cyborgs).

Instead of this being about the whole war, The Creator concentrates on the last mission that will end the war for one of the two sides. Joshua (John David Washington), a prosthetic limb cyborg himself, is enlisted to find the secret headquarters of the AI, rescue his wife, and stop the enemy from unleashing a super-weapon that could reverse humanity’s fortunes.

It’s a good way to be introduced to this vastly different world where the war’s reshaped civilization and thrown everyone on different sides of the AI question. Is this the next evolution of the species, or is it a threat, plain and simple? Can we live peacefully with AI as it emerges in our civilization, or would we be smart to stamp it out or greatly limit it?

These questions get a whole lot more complicated as Joshua discovers that the great weapon that’s supposed to take down Nomad… is a little girl named Alphie who loves TV. An AI simulant girl, but still. He ends up babysitting her behind enemy lines as she seeks her creator, the fabled Nimata, the leader of the AI. So what’s so important about this kid and how will she manifest as a weapon? Or as one character asks, “What the hell is she?”

As this unexpected escort quest proceeds, Joshua has to evade both suspicious local authorities, AI fighters, and the remnants of his military squad (led by a driven Allison Janney) who all want the girl and the secrets she holds.

We need to talk about how fantastic The Creator looks. You’d never believe that this was a mid-budget ($80 million) movie, as it looks like it cost three times that thanks to ingenious filmmaking and special effects that integrate well with the real-world setting. Reading up on the making of this gave me a deep level of appreciation for the ingenuity of director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One) and his team.

Even though there are lots of computer effects, this movie looks and feels a lot different than your standard nonstop CGI-fest. It’s beautiful, futuristic, and often downright scary with nuclear explosions, robots that move almost like people, gigantic structures, surveillance cameras everywhere, and laser rifle blasts screaming across the nighttime landscape.

It feels like a rare treat to be handed such a fully realized scifi world made from scratch. There’s a lot of crazy retro-future tech (which I always love) in this cyberpunk world, and the choice to film in Thailand puts all of this tech against as lush a backdrop as you could ever desire. It’s also not that hard to watch this and imagine a world where humanity is extinct while AI continues to go about living by picking up our routines.

There’s also a playful and unusual soundtrack at play that springs crazy music — often diegetic — that makes action scenes feel anything but routine.

Drawbacks? Well, I can’t argue that the plot is that original; it’s the same-old “lone warrior protects a weaker special person” journey we’ve seen plenty of times. And I’m not that convinced that this movie said anything of great substance about AI when it comes down to it. This movie tries to get the audience to grow sympathetic to these AI creations and take them at their word, but… I’m not buying it.

That said, I grew up with scifi movies that spread the cool moments and tech out because nobody had the resources and technology to be constantly showing the money shots. The Creator feels like one nonstop money shot that never stops throwing cool stuff on the screen and drawing us deeper into the setting.

With pulse-pounding action, a lot of imaginative tech (those mega tanks were the most terrifying inventions since AT-ATs), beautiful cinematography, and at least the outline of a moral quandary concerning artificial intelligence, The Creator became one of my new favorite scifi flicks. I only regret I didn’t get to see this in theaters.

Intermission!

• That adorable robotics newsreel at the start… that takes us through this alternate history rather quickly… and right into a nuclear explosion
• Nomad dropping that bomb, dang
• “Please make love to yourself. And also make love to your mother.”
• The bomb on the backpack
• Dogs love to play fetch with bombs!
• “Missed my turn!”
• The mind transfer from a dead brain into a simulant is creepy and cool
• Alphie’s got some real magic in those hands
• “Do not go native on me, pal.”
• Robot assembly is more creepy when their eyes keep looking at you during the process
• That’s some deadly ice cream!
• The shock waves after massive far-off explosions
• That’s an absolute unit of a tank
• The baboon is the tank’s natural enemy
• The running bomb is quite intimidating
• “What is the purpose of your travel?” “To be free.” “Enjoy your flight.”
• Can we give props to this movie for that incredible sound design for all the tech?
• That is the quickest full evacuation of a space station the size of Manhattan I’ve ever seen. And all in just three escape pods.