Despite its length, “Creator” never did get around to boring its audience. The new sci-fi movie has enough plot turns and enough beautiful images (mostly of rice paddies and corn) that people don’t have many chances to get distracted.
The movie also has a couple of real problems. For one, it has a quest plot movie that develops a rhythm. Our “hero,” Joshua (played by Denzel’s son, John David Washington), and whatever associates he has picked up in the last scene all move a little closer to where they think his wife is living.
She hides in what we think of as Burma or Malaysia, in a territory the future calls, “New Asia.” The New Asians are at odds with the rest of the world because they continue using, or being used by, robots. Supposedly, these mechanical people have “Artificial Intelligence,” but the movie doesn’t capitalize on this.
Joshua met his wife while he worked undercover in New Asia. They fell in love and she was quite pregnant during an attack on their beach-side retreat. They separated during the attack, and she may have been killed.
Five years later, Joshua is picked to go with a search party to find a sophisticated weapon the New Asians are believed to have, a sort-of skeleton key for all “smart” appliances. There is some suggestion that Ma and the secret weapon are in the same place.
Here’s where the quest starts: It goes action; reorganization; travel; action; repeat. Quest stuff is always like this.
The weakness stems from a the movies long running time. The pattern becomes too obvious. There are also flashbacks in the movie, but at least they’re brief.
The second problem is that the movie doesn’t decide who is responsible for a terrorist bombing. That is much more damaging than was the plot rhythm trouble. The reason the world is fighting the New Asians is because “A.I.,” (which represented by robots), who have earlier blown up a nuclear bomb in Los Angles, killing many.
It’s a machine revolt. The movie having a robot representative of “A.I.” suggested human error is actually to blame.
Soon after Joshua returns to New Asia, it is clear that the movie is sympathetic with the robots. We are told and shown that robots are nicer to humans than are the American soldiers. This is complicated because about half the robots have latex skin (cut over inch and a half diameter holes through their heads at their ears).
Viewers may mistakenly guess that these are cyborgs, humans with manufactured components. The film says they are “simulents.”
The movie’s human-like robots are duplicates of New Asians who have agreed to be replicated. The skin robots talk like humans, hug and more.
The metal robots fill up crowds, but won’t be mistaken for humans. The movie begins to confuse the latex robots with people, as if they can’t be replaced. This confusion absolutely wrecks the internal logic of the movie.
We can love manufactured items. As a boy I was fond of our refrigerator, but we replace them and move on as they break or we get older. The New Asians and director Gareth Edwards are emotionally “invested” in those robots with latex skins.
Viewers have to know who actually bombed L.A. in order to pick sides here. The only evidence we have that robots didn’t commit the act is the testimony of one robot who wasn’t even there.
The film may be relying on our own willingness to assume the worst of humanity to get viewers to decide the robots are innocent.
What a mess for folks watching this picture.
