David Farnor | On 03, Dec 2023

Director: Gareth Edwards
Cast: John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Ken Watanabe, Allison Kanney
Certificate: 12

“What you want?” “For robots to be free.” “We don’t have that in the fridge. How about ice cream?” Ever since his low-budget debut, Monsters, Gareth Edwards has marked himself out as a storyteller with the knack for taking big concepts and grounding them in tiny, human reality. Now, after taking his ground-level perspective to franchise titans Rogue One and Godzilla, he’s back in original sci-fi territory to once again dazzle with details.

The film whisks us forward to 2055, when artificial intelligence is an established part of human existence. But when a rogue AI detonates a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, the USA wages war against it – while countries in “New Asia” live peacefully alongside it. The result is a war that escalates quickly, with America launching the USS Nomad, a space station with devastating power – and dispatching Sergeant Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) to hunt down Nirmata, the elusive creator of AI, and a new weapon that may spell the end of the human race.

That weapon, however, turns out to be Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), a young simulant girl. And, perhaps because she’s like a cross between Baby Yoda and the Dalai Lama or perhaps because Joshua was once married to Maya (Gemma Chan), the daughter of Nirmata, Joshua finds himself on the side of the young child against the might of the US military.

That in itself is hardly new territory – from Avatar to Star Wars, cinema has always been fond of championing the underdog over tyrannical invading forces. But The Creator’s masterstroke is that it takes that concept and applies it to artificial intelligence, which comes wrapped in decades of anti-tech sentiment – and is, in real life, currently a topic of much debate and fear. Gareth Edwards and co-writer Chris Weitz tap into that conversaion and, as their script unfolds, push all our buttons until our sympathies are swaying into thought-provoking, perhaps unfamiliar territory.

There’s more than a touch of Blade Runner and District 9 to it all, while the film falls into some pan-Asian generalities that don’t always help the occasionally clunky notes of dialogue. But Edwards stuffs the with some astonishing visual invention, from the design of the AI characters and a judicious use of sunsets to the battered droids and background holograms to the Nomad’s piercing blue laser curtain that sweeps across its targets with a chilling detachment.

It’s a masterclass in world-building and production design, leaning into the expanse and scale of the subject matter with a sleek yet tactile design. The cast, meanwhile, bring an earthy earnestness to proceedings, whether it’s Gemma Chan’s committed tech pioneer, Ken Watanabe’s sage veteran or Allison Janney’s fiersome US officer. In between them all, Madeleine Yuna Voyles is adorable in her smart vulnerability and John David Washington balances gruff melancholy with a humanity that underpins his shifting worldview – between this and Tenet, he’s one of the most charismating and interesting leading men around.

The result is an age-old meditation on what makes humans tick, machines feel and people do unspeakably cruel things, fuelled by confident blockbusting with a rare sense of genuine spectacle. Is man or technology the real monster? Either way, The Creator certainly announces Edwards as a distinctive auteur whose creations are always worth watching.

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