The more I think about this film, the more my opinion dwindles.
Its vision cannot be faulted. This is a stunning depiction of future Earth every bit as jaw-dropping as was — for its time — the 2019 Los Angeles envisioned by 1982’s Blade Runner. The work by production designer James Clyne and visual effects supervisors Julian Levi and Jay Cooper is wholly immersive; this feels like an authentic — and credible — glimpse of technology and cityscapes, further into our 21st century.
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| The more time Joshua (John David Washington) spends with the simulant he has christened Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), the less he's able to view her as anything but a human child ... her unusual abilities notwithstanding. |
No, the problem lies entirely with sluggish pacing and the clumsy storyline by director Gareth Edwards and co-scripter Chris Weitz. It simply doesn’t gel. Following a fascinating prologue and solid first act, continuity cracks become increasingly obvious, along with progressively unbelievable behavior and emotional responses by key characters.
The colossal environmental devastation and cold-blooded loss of human life — on a massive scale — also is quite unpalatable.
Finally, the physical punishment and hair’s-breadth escapes endured by our sorta-kinda-hero become ludicrous. This isn’t a superhero movie, and he’s a plain-vanilla human being.
A newsreel-style prologue provides background on how rudimentary, first-gen robots — akin to what we have today — evolve, during subsequent decades, to become life-size AI “servants” capable of independent thought and action.
Everybody throughout the world embraces this technological revolution … until AI triggers a nuclear explosion that destroys Los Angeles. In the wake of this catastrophe, the U.S. government ban all AI, and embark on a campaign of mass destruction throughout the world.
This puts the United States at odds with Eastern nations, which continue to develop the technology to the point where these simulants become human-like, and are embraced as equals. Some AIs continue to look like machines; others have bodies and faces, the latter only the front half of a “head” backed by an intricate cylindrical power and intelligence gizmo.
The result: all-out war between the United States and Asia.
(The film’s press notes make a point of involving “Western nations” in the AI purge, but only the United States is on display here: no indication of Europe, Canada or Australia, not to mention Eastern Europe and Russia. That feels sloppy.)
The story proper begins a few years into this war, and introduces Joshua (Washington), a special forces American soldier operating clandestinely in Asia; his cover is deep enough to include a pregnant wife, Maya (Chan), whom he loves dearly. Unfortunately, operational wires get crossed; Joshua and Maya wind up in the middle of an American anti-AI firefight that claims her life.
Joshua, broken, returns to the States. Five years later, he’s approached by Col. Jean Howell (Janney), who wants him back into the field. U.S. forces have been making significant advances in the war, thanks to an enormous scan-and-destroy military base dubbed NOMAD, which hovers in the upper reaches of Earth’s atmosphere.
But recent intel indicates that an AI mastermind known only as Nimata has created a weapon capable of destroying NOMAD, which likely would turn the tide of war. Howell knows that Joshua is familiar with the key AI lab installation where this weapon likely is hidden.
Joshua refuses to get involved … until Howell reveals that Maya actually may be alive, and living in the war zone.
The subsequent sortie, with Howell calling the shots while Joshua leads a small special forces team, unfolds with the crisp, edge-of-seat suspense that Edwards delivered so well in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. (James Cameron similarly excels at this sort of search-and-destroy mission, as he has demonstrated so well in Aliens and his Avatar films.)
Things go awry, of course … but Joshua successfully finds the weapon:
A 6-year-old AI girl he christens “Alphie” (Voyles), with the thus-far-limited ability to control — or shut down — tech by thought.
(Yeah, that’s a big ask. You gotta just roll with it.)
When Joshua’s parental instincts kick in — remember, he lost an unborn child — and he turns into a reluctant protector, he becomes a pariah to both sides. Howell, viewing him as a traitor, pulls out all the stops to hunt down and kill him and Alphie; Harun (Watanabe), an AI simulant who speaks both English and Japanese, is assigned by Asian forces to eliminate Joshua and retrieve Alphie.
By this point, it becomes obvious that the moral center of Edwards and Weitz’s sci-fi parable plays on our country’s current polarizing fear and loathing of “the other.”
The first act clearly paints U.S. forces as the “good guys,” and Asian simulant forces as terrorist “bad guys.” That line blurs as the story proceeds, in great part because of the strong familial bonds constantly shown between Asian civilians and their AI companions. We also slide wholly into Blade Runner territory, when forced to contemplate whether simulants should have the same rights as humans, to pursue life, liberty and happiness.
This ethical quandary gains additional weight from the spooky manner in which so many of these wholly CGI robots and simulants move in recognizably human fashion, thanks to outstanding motion-capture work. (I was particularly enchanted by a quick shot of a child walking along a farmland road, in the company of an elderly simulant whose robotic body language perfectly echoed that of an old woman.)
Washington puts heart and soul into his portrayal of the conflicted and mentally tortured Joshua; his desire to somehow do the right thing is persuasive. The always capable Janney, initially viewed as “merely” impressively command-savvy, blossoms into an equally ruthless Javert.
Watanabe almost steals the show. Harun radiates quiet nobility, despite the violent nature of his assignment; he becomes the simulant whose intelligence, perception and willingness to see shades of gray, further cloud the knee-jerk simulants=evil equation.
Voyles’ Alphie is endearingly childlike, but also somewhat machine-like: a captivating blend of both. Her wide, owl-like eyes speak volumes, whether curiosity, calm acceptance, quiet determination or stark terror.
Sturgill Simpson makes the most of his mid-story appearance as Drew, once Joshua’s fellow special ops soldier, and still best friend. Drew now has “gone native” in Asia, and runs a robotics factory with girlfriend Kami (a sweet performance by Veronica Ngo).
Alas, these many solid parts simply don’t add up to a satisfying whole. Matters get too contrived and implausible during the lumbering third act, and plenty of viewers are likely to be repulsed by the increasingly vicious and negative spin put on U.S. military commanders, who embrace inexcusable scorched-earth tactics.
Then there’s the unsatisfying manner in which this story leaves us with a massive “But what happens next?” finale.
Edwards is a talented action director, but his story sense is weak; the core premise here is thoughtful and intriguing, but he doesn’t develop it well (a common failing among directors who mistakenly believe they can write with similar skill). He should have assigned the script to other parties.
The Creator simply doesn’t cross the finish line.
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