In online release, the new film by 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' director Gareth Edwards – 'The Creator', a beautiful but stuffy cyberpunk about artificial intelligence.

Earth, 2065. Humanity has long and firmly befriended artificial intelligence, and various robots have become so integrated into everyday life that they are now considered family members. Suddenly (as depicted in the film), a nuclear bomb explodes in the middle of Los Angeles, killing millions and destroying half the country. The US authorities blame AI for the incident and outlaw it; robots are hunted down and destroyed. However, a pocket of resistance, consisting of admirers of artificial intelligence, survives and establishes itself somewhere in Asia, where an airship called 'Nomad' is now sent.

Among the protesters, there is also an undercover agent, Joshua Taylor (John David Washington), who falls in love with their leader Maya (Gemma Chan) during his mission. Maya is believed by US authorities to be the daughter of Nirmata, the powerful creator of major AI achievements. During another military attack, Joshua loses Maya, the operation fails, and he returns home.

Five years later, the main military headquarters believes he must return because Nirmata has become active again and created a new weapon capable of destroying 'Nomad' and turning the tide of battle in his favor. Joshua refuses, but they hint that he might meet Maya there, who is still alive.

Arriving at the location, Joshua learns that the new weapon is a robot imitator in the body of a little girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), possessing incredible power. Joshua ignores the commander's order to destroy the robot and goes on the run with her, knowing she can lead him to Maya.

The sci-fi film 'The Creator' was directed by the filmmaker of 'Rogue One', returning to the director's chair after seven long years. It turned out to be a mix of 'I, Robot', 'Avatar', 'Terminator', and 'Children of Men'. From the latter two, 'The Creator' inherited the central theme and a similar visual style (especially the excellently shot exposition). Scriptwise, it looks like another soap opera about American colonialism (Edwards' reflection mainly concerns the Vietnam War) and the inevitable dominance of artificial intelligence, which, as classics have long known, humans only hinder. But in his film, Edwards unsuccessfully tries to reconcile everyone.

Nadezhda Vasilyeva

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The dialogues here are clunky, the characters are not exactly cardboard, but rather poorly drawn, as if they are collective images from other films on the same theme. And the main antagonist, the army general, is the spitting image of a caricature from 'Krokodil' magazine. This mishmash of unsuccessful images is exacerbated by the decent actor John David Washington, who plays so lazily throughout the film that his restrained yawns are physically felt on screen. Only towards the end does he seem to pick up speed and show some emotion, but by that point the film is already over.

The visual part of 'The Creator' is far superior to the script. Here you have real cyberpunk with all the money (the film's budget is only $80 million, but you wouldn't say so at first glance), diligently rendered, and in some places even shining with practical effects that are indistinguishable from real ones.

Edwards' inspirations here again include 'Star Wars'. The ship hovering in the sky called 'Nomad' with deadly weapons (identical to the Death Star), blaster beams, an evil copy of the R2-D2 robot, stormtrooper squads, etc. Only lightsabers are missing, but then 'The Creator' could easily be mistaken for another spin-off of George Lucas's creation. But perhaps Edwards wouldn't be too upset about that.

There is also a flaw in the action sequences. Despite the man-made richness of the visual part and excellent directorial finds (for example, the consciousness of a deceased person can be recorded on a flash drive for a short time – a technique not new, but fitting here), 'The Creator' clearly lacks colorful shootouts, adrenaline-pumping stunts, or simple and fierce fights between robots and humans to cover up the weak plot. The action scenes serve as background here, but they should have taken center stage. The film's finale somewhat levels out the overall lack of emotion, but simply does not have time to solidify anything, again due to the limited runtime. A director's cut would be welcome.

The main idea of the film rhymes with the sad ending and is presented here quite simply and without any conventions. Reason will someday prevail. But by the time that happens, apparently, only artificial reason will remain.