To state the obvious, Hollywood has been obsessed with the power of artificial intelligence going back to the days of “Terminator,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” and even further than that. (The honor of the first notable film to deal with artificial intelligence would likely have to go to the 1927 silent film “Metropolis.”) So it’s not like “The Creator,” a sweeping sci-fi original set in the midst of a futuristic war between humanity and AI under the leadership of an entity known as the Creator, is breaking new ground here. If anything, this latest production is taking the baton from countless of its predecessors and (hopefully) delving even deeper into a troublesome, existential, and increasingly relevant concern.
If the marketing footage is anything to go by, “The Creator” is attempting to take a more nuanced position on artificial intelligence through the discovery of an AI child played by Madeleine Yuna Voyles. Edwards echoes that notion later on in the Total Film interview, evoking the viral story of a chat bot conversing with a journalist from earlier this year and noting how far this technology has come in such a short amount of time:
“Being a science-fiction fan, you wonder if you’ll ever live to see humans on Mars, or will we ever discover alien life? Well, I didn’t think we would have completely convincing Al that you could interact with, like HAL in ‘2001.’ So [regarding ‘The Creator’], what started out as a science-fiction movie now feels more like a documentary.”
However our real-world battle with AI turns out, “The Creator” is looking more and more exciting by the day. I for one welcome Gareth Edwards’ AI overlords. “The Creator” comes to theaters on September 29, 2023.