‘ “The Creator,” Movie Review–Key for Ai in Cinema History AND Geopolitics in Asia Commentary…

– “The Creator” Movie Poster-Image; via IMDb-

— (Spoils ahead)

“1984,” “Blade Runner,” “Minority Report”…and now, in my opinion, “The Creator.” I know all major movies have a novel-version of said-movie, but I’m just sticking to the cinema-version. (If you want to see ALL my BOOK-ratings & what i’ve read, here’s my #Goodreads page -> https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/80908458?sort=rating&view=reviews ) What these movies have in common is: They are Science Fiction films that reflect a global, societal issue for its generation…

1984, obviously, political autocratic & fascist rule; Blade Runner, distant threat of human-androids that pose moral threats to society; and Minority Report held a mirror to how society increasingly utilized communicative technology of biometrics for marketing and, also, the morality of what i call, “anticipatory-crime”–when it has not happened (yet, or if ever!). The point is, crime was at the centerpiece for Minority Report…

With The Creator, it’s that ol’ juggernaut of Artificial Intelligence–Ai!

Like with the three previous classic SciFi movies i referenced at the beginning, Creator uses the current public fears and ignorance of Ai as its centerpiece to its main plot: and it’s manifested in The Creator by way of Ai bombing Los Angeles in the year 2065–and from there on, throughout the movie, is where the protagonist, Joshua (John David Washington) is constantly searching for his wife, Maya (Gemma Chan), after a raid from the American military in what’s called New Asia, as the US is in a literal war against Ai–in a similar way to the so-called War On Terrorism, after the 9-11 attacks in America in 2001.

My focus in my movie reviews are always on the bigger picture–ie, the plot, the delivery of the writing with the characters, etc. So, i’m not so big on the sentimental parts of Joshua warming up to the (cybernetic?) Ai-bio-mix child called Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) and Joshua’s angst of looking for his wife after the American raid at the beginning…to me, what’s my focus is how The Creator–again, similar to those three classic SciFi’s mentioned previously–illustrates how human beings throughout the world are overreacting to the potential of mis-use of Artificial Intelligence, and it’s reflective in our arts. In this case, a movie! Hence, why in The Creator Ai’s in robot-form are being hunted down in retaliation of bombing L.A…co-writers Gareth Edwards (also the director–*also directed “Rogue One” of Star Wars!) and Chris Weitz did a good job in reflecting this sentiment among a lot of Americans, while in Asia Ai-tech is part of their society. I get the sense in reading and watching the news this is the case in Reality!

Speaking of Asia…it’s not lost on me that the American military itself is a kind of antagonist in the film. The character, Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) comes across as just doing her job to “kill the weapon” (ie, little Alphie), but, to me, it’s clear that this movie reflects the geopolitics of the first 25 years of the 21st century has turned out to be so far: many nations throughout the world are not just anti-American, but anti-Western. We’ve read and seen this played out on the Real geopolitical stage with Russia, China, Iran, more recently within various African nations re-visiting the politics of history in the form of “neo-colonialism” and have kicked out French forces from their respective countries (Niger, Mali, etc). But yet accepted the Russian mercenary Wagner group instead…

What i’m getting at is, fellow Americans, like it or not, this is how a large share of the world view us: as the bad guys in the movie script of real geopolitics! Goes far back as America invading Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11 to more recent geopolitics of votes in the UN against Russia, China, Iran, sanctions, support for Israel and Ukraine, etc… And what’s really bad to me, speaking as an American-Leftist, is they often do not distinguish the Right wing Republicans from the Liberal Democrats! Which, of course, is ridiculous, because of Democracy, we cannot legislate 100% the way we’d like to due to the political opposition also in power that waters down more Progressive laws and international relationships…

This is important. Because average citizens throughout the world watch more movies than they read about intricacies of geopolitics. But that’s also a sign of a good movie: that it deals with the controversies of the generation–like it or not!

And of course, there’s the artistic aspect to The Creator–awesome in CGI representation–environmental artscapes that remind me of many of the futuristic cyberpunk cities one sees on the social media platform Pinterest, but in live-action form! It’s been several years since i’ve watched a good classic Science Fiction movie! Where there are no superheroes nor Fantasy involved. Where Science and Fiction are the foundation of the movie!

Bottom lining it, here, i give The Creator a 10/10…and welcome to the club of SciFi futurism classics!

~jm