The Creator is a great movie...

I was skeptical when I saw the trailer for "The Creator", it seemed like it had been done a number of times before- from "Terminator" to "A.I." In other words, I didn't think it could be original or even come across as authentic. I was wrong, and I will give this film more credit than most of the critics did. I think it deserves that, because it's hard to come up with anything that even has original paint. This movie has a crap ton happening, and while it's true that there are so many call outs and themes that appear to be stollen from other movies, I assure you this story is very much an original work. And those call outs are more tributes than anything else.

The plot is one that I have addressed here many times and struggle with, especially right now. Artificial intelligence is something I am VERY cautious of. For the most part A.I. has been vilified in movies and stories, it's usually the big-bad-guy in most science fiction films that deal with the subject matter. As it should be. Project like "Open AI" are curiosities that humans aren't ready to delve into. It's like when an 16 year old has a child vs when a 30 year old has a child. The difference is the maturity of the parents (hopefully). 

This movie does something different with the material. It makes the western world, the USA, the bad guys. The west is trying to kill AI because it nuked L.A. (turns out it was a clerical error). The east is trying to live in peace with AI and help it to grow and learn. In "New Asia" A.I. entities are just like people and live along side humans. The film posits that they are just like people on the inside- scared, curious, spiritual, angry, sad, lonely and so on. 

The movie tells the story of an undercover agent (Joshua) who goes deep undercover and marries one of the leaders of the AI community- she is human, but she is linked into the underground network of people protecting the AI beings. People who treat them with respect and want them to grow and learn just like us. Something happens to her at the beginning of the film and Joshua gets separated from his wife. He keeps looking for her for the whole movie, even though she's supposed to be dead.

In an attempt to destroy all the AI, the west creates a huge orbital structure called "Nomad" which can nuke things from orbit. Throughout the movie this thing floats around being a dick to all the simple AI folk and their friends in New Asia. Its drops a blue target on them and then nukes them from orbit in a cowardly way. 

So in order to deal with the shadow in the sky, the people and A.I. in New Asia come together to build a super AI, called "Alpha-O" which can bring down Nomad. A big badass so powerful it can "turn off" the eye in the sky.

Thats the basics of the plot- but there is so much more to this film, but I don't want to ruin it. 

So what makes this film a good movie? Well, lets get into that, here we go...

First, and I put this first because the studio did such a good job with it. The visuals and world building in this movie are bang-on. This movie isn't original with it's world, however, it puts it together in a way I haven't seen done before. There are so many influences and call outs in this film. 

One look and you can see exactly where the influences came from. Right from the beginning, with the old newsy type introduction, you get the feeling that you've seen some of it before. You have seen it before. The influences are vast and varied, I will list some of them for starters: Terminator, A.I., Blade Runner, Akira, The Hit, A perfect world, Rain Man, Tron, Deer Hunter, Platoon, Fifth Element, District 9 and so many more. There are too many to count, so I will go over the most obvious. 

The first is Akira! One of the original greats in the animated world. Akira is one of my favorite movies of all time. Incidentally, on a side note, the comic is better, but the movie is still pure genius. The visuals in this movie don't even pretend to come from other places. The style works so well in The Creator. When ever the movie takes us into the labs and cities of New Asia, everything smacks of Akira. And its so "Chefs kiss". 

Another influence is Blade Runner. Another great film! It's completely obvious with the dark and gritty neon and the smoke, the slang, and "Sims". When Joshua is searching for his wife he goes through a lot of the mega-city underbellies. It's brooding and shadowy, it is dark and mysterious, it's foreign and unexplained. On top of that, the script shamelessly uses phrases like "Simulant" or "Sim" among others.

Even "Nomad" looks like it escaped from the movie "Tron".  It glides over the countryside, an ominous one-eyed monster in the sky, made up of blue neon shapes. The scarred landscape of Asia is reminiscent of old Vietnam movies like Deer hunter or Platoon, and the crater in the middle of L.A. reminds me of The Terminator. 

Normally I hate this kind of thing, however they are stitched together so well in this film that I have to applaud the director for the work.  The stitch job on all these different styles is, for lack of a better word, makes if look seamless. It's like a big fat, fluffy, tribute quilt that grandmother made -it's perfect.

Special effects in this movie are great, in fact they are superior, because they have to back up the story and the multitude of styles the show-runners had to work with. They are consistant throughout the whole film and they are really good. The only complaint I had with them is the the size and altitude of Nomad at times seems inconsistent. Other than that, this movie has some fantastic special effects. I especially like the Buddhist-robot-monks in the temples of New Asia. They look great. Bravo SFX guys, bravo!

The acting in this movie is good too. This is one of the movies weakest parts, that being said, it's not really even that bad. The actors are good actors, most of them are great actors- especially the character "Alphie"- that is some god damn good acting. However, Joshua seems flat at times. I think the directors knew this and made sure to use dialogue sparingly with him. The same can be said with some of the Ops team too, they just don't seem to have much development, or dialogue. 

Maybe it's intentional, but the robots in this film seem to be more human than the human characters. More so, they seem warm and real, where as the human characters seem somewhat flat and one dimensional. Maybe that's why I cared more for them, than the humans.

The writing in this movie is good. For the most part it is great. There are a number of cliche's in this movie and tropes that seem inauthentic. It's hard to write something without these things though, especially dealing with the subject matter. The writing could have been better, but it's still good and deserves recognition for what it is- support for the rest of the film. Some of the dialogue could be better, more subtle. There are also parts that just don't seem to fit, case in point, the dialogue with Joshua as he is flown back to New Asia- it kind of isn't necessary. 

The action in this movie is awesome. Explosions, nukes, lasers, hand to hand. It's got it all, including duking it out with robots "fisty-cuffs" style. Cool vehicle chases in some truly unique kinds of transportation, are strikes, rocket blasts, and so much more. I really liked that the A.I. beings are just regular people, but they are a part of the fight as much as the humans are. Some of them are cops, some of them are doctors, some are what are called "sims". When they are killed, you kind of feel bad for them because most of them are just trying to do their job and be functioning members of society. The action for the most part is centered around the struggle between the smallest things, the people, the A.I. individuals, and the largest things, the military might of the entire west and, of course, Nomad. 

All in all, this is a really solid movie. I didn't expect much from it because it just seemed like another movie about a war with A.I. It doesn't happen that way. The A.I. in the movie come across as an exploited group of living, thinking, beings, who just want to be free and live with their friends and families like everyone else. The movie is about their liberation. While this has been done before, it hasn't been done this way. The movie really made me feel for them. I was not expecting that. By the end of the movie, I really got to hating the "western" world. I found myself rooting for the robots and their friends in the east. 

To sum up, go see this movie! I would grade this movie at a 90%, that's right, I would give it an A-, or a "9 out of 10 nukes for A.I."

Until next time...

Cheers! 

Cheers!