Big Picture Big Sound

Hollywood has never met a trend it didn't want to be a part of, and the latest infatuation is artificial intelligence. From film plots to the workplace, A.I. has been a pervasive topic of discussion, and a key factor in the dual Writer's Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild-AFTRA strikes (the WGA recently accepted an offer from the studios, and their strike has concluded with a fair deal for writers). Gareth Edwards' "The Creator" is the latest movie to tackle the man-versus-machines trope in a visually dazzling but narratively lacking film.

"The Creator" looks like a hundred million dollar movie, but comes to theaters with a scant $80 million budget. In the world of effects-driven movies, "The Creator" is basically an independent film because this summer's blockbusters were weighed down by their hefty and inflated production costs, which caused numerous headlines about not being able to make their money back. More damning, blockbuster special effects have regressed, due in part to studio demands on the special effects houses, and to the fact that relying on green screens to create a scene has become more evident. "The Creator" offers some stunning action set pieces, but its craft doesn't distract from a shallow story.

John David Washington stars as Joshua, a former Special Forces agent who is grieving the loss of his wife (Gemma Chan) and unborn child in the war against the robots. He is summoned from his grief by Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) to track down and kill the A.I. creator, in an effort to protect all mankind. Joshua comes across a young A.I. named Alphie (Madeline Yuna Voyles, in a very strong debut), who might be the key to completing the mission.

"The Creator" begins just vaguely enough to pull you into its world, but quickly becomes tiresome and repetitive in its story. The first few action pieces are a marvel, but the next few feel like the movie is just spinning its wheels. Edwards, who co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Weitz, clearly has ambitious ideas on his mind for the movie, but they never feel like those ideas make it to the screen. Underneath the bombast lies a pretty shallow story: Man good, robots bad.

Since breaking out in Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman" in 2018, Washington has yet to make good on the great promise he showed then. That performance was perfectly tailored to Lee's vision, but the charisma Washington brought to the film has been lost in big movies like "Tenet" and now "The Creator." If anything, Voyles evokes more palpable emotion than Washington is able to wring out of Edwards' screenplay.

In a post-2020 world, it's hard to root against a movie like "The Creator" because original epics seem to be dying on the cinematic vine. It makes it all the more frustrating that "The Creator" doesn't live up to its big ideas and ultimately falls entirely flat in a rather simple story dressed up as something profound.