I'm a huge fan of SF and AI based plots - I was really looking forward to seeing this but it was a frustrating disappointment. It has terrible horrible shamefully bad writing. Not a single original idea about AI and in fact they don't really deal with AI apart from robots basically being exactly like humans but nicer. No original futuristic sci-fi ideas either with a lot of the futuristic stuff not making any sense. For example the AIs speak to each other in English, no super fast data pours between them. They can't even speak remotely over cellular or whatever... they use walkie talkies lol. They had an old women robot that limped around though the robots do not age?!? I could have forgiven all of this in the 80s or from an adaptation of an Isaac Asinov novel but we're in 2023 and we've all watched the Matrix etc... Also it had very little action and the action sequences it did have were bad and boring with yellow laser tracers zapping around in the near dark or fog. Visually it was ok and the score was decent but the poor writing completely ruined it for me. Half way through, I couldn't wait for it to end. You can't be a serious Sci-fi fan and think this is any good, it's just not possible... yes that's you good reviewers.

A not-so original sci-fi feature that punches above its weight class in terms of spectacle and world building, but is lacking in the writing department more often than not. Way too many examples of ham-fisted, on-the-nose dialogue, as characters bluntly tell the protagonist how high the stakes are, how important the child is, or any number of other expositional dumps. The high-level story is also rife with clichés, with the central arc feeling familiar to the point of predictability. Now, there are moments that land effectively. I would specifically call out the early interactions between Joshua and Alphie as being among the strongest of the film. But those moments are few and far between, as a lot of the more ambitious emotional beats feel rushed and/or forced. On top of that, it seems like delivering spectacle was perhaps overly prioritized, as many sequences don't hold up to even the most surface level logical scrutiny, resulting in a lot of eye-rolling, head scratching, and ultimately the death of suspension of disbelief (e.g., [spoiler]suicide bomb robots seem silly when you've got a massive tank shooting precise missiles that are shown to be more effective, or standby mode somehow fooling an army of scientists, or Nomad seemingly being in multiple places at once in the final sequence[/spoiler]). Admittedly, those types of complaints are nitpicky, and if the dialogue and big picture story had landed better, I think they would be easily forgiven. Not to mention, as I said initially, the visuals are fantastic. The Nomad's eerie beam of blue light is unique and memorable. The contrast of futuristic robots in a rural Asian setting offers plenty of striking visuals. I have no doubt that Gareth Edwards got incredible bang for his buck, stretching his $80 million budget to look on par with films that cost twice that. But in the end, the whole is less than the sum of its parts, with all of the fantastic visuals and handful of strong ideas combining into a package that was just okay.

The score sounds good (minus the weird corny Radiohead needle drop), it has a unique stylish look I love and the special effects are awesome. Once you get to the story though it's the usual sci-fi schlock; the robot hating human ends up helping the robot, humans vs. A.I., big war, who's good, who's bad... Seen this countless times. I don't mind the usual recipe but this film acts like you've never seen it, it's the only playing card and it's so predictable from beginning to end.

The first half I found pretty compelling it was a 7 but it completely lost me in the second half. Got tired of the story, it just constantly circles back to the mother which is uninteresting and such a stretched out storyline. Didn't like the pacing. The emotions felt artificial and silly, didn't make me feel much. So much stuff that's unexplained and illogical. The characters were fine at the beginning but it's like I got fed up of them in the second half and the relationship between the two main characters felt forced.

More of a personal taste but I hate the design for the Simulants, why bother covering the face with fake skin but not cover the back of the head and that ugly hole makes no sense. Overall a very average and forgettable sci-fi.

Round 3 of Gareth Edwards proving he’s a great visual director that doesn’t know how to breathe life in his scripts. Its best asset is easily the worldbuilding, combining influences from other science fiction material to create a new world that feels fresh. The technical execution is also really well done, with its cinematography and CGI being among some of the most visionary stuff I’ve seen since _Avatar 2_. Unfortunately, the sci-fi concepts this is working with are stale, it’s all stuff you’ve seen before and the movie doesn’t know how to put its own creative spin on it. Add to that a bunch of characters that aren’t written in the most compelling way (as well as bland, understated performances that will keep everyone questioning whether JDW is actually a good actor), and you have a movie that’s already pretty dull from the start. Now, a big saving grace of _Rogue One_ and _Godzilla_ were their strong climaxes, however that’s not the case here. Instead, _The Creator_ starts to rush to the finish line, which leads to the big emotional beats not hitting the mark. It’s like the pacing of this movie is constantly either rushing or dragging, annoying my inner Terence Fletcher in the process. Overall, while I’d love to champion this as the savior of original science fiction, there’s not much more originality here than a typical franchise film. I don’t want to call Edwards another Zack Snyder, because I think he’s certainly more talented, but he’s suffering from the same problems and doesn’t seem to learn from his previous mistakes.

5/10

5.5/10 - I was so hyped for this but unfortunately it was quite a letdown... :(

The CGI, cinematography, and audio/sound is nice but I didn't like the writing (at all!). I was expecting a cool Sci-Fi movie about AI with interesting concepts but IMO this is fantasy and not Sci-Fi as it lacked any science (I really cannot remember anything technical/scientific - I guess the highlights were "off", "standby", and "coding error"...). I also didn't find any meaningful deeper meaning and couldn't really relate to any of the characters. I only remember one (IMO) bad AI movie (Chappie) as I really love AI based movies but this was really meh (I don't hate it but I don't like it either - it basically left me emotionless - nice visuals, cool sounds, but a dull story, unfortunately). IMO the story was as full of plot holes than a Swiss cheese :(

I watched this movie in the cinema and don't remember any reactions apart from 1-2 laughs at cheap jokes (like the "I just switched it off"). I just sat there after the movie, watching the end credits and trying to think about deeper meanings, the story, etc. but the only thing that came to mind were the visuals and audio.

It makes me a bit sad that the budget was wasted on a story that felt way too cheap. Even without interesting Sci-Fi concepts it could've been better by focusing more on fantasy world building (like some recent Star Wars shows (apart from the main movies!)) or comedy (like Marvel movies/shows). I was also annoyed that many kinda important characters died - there was so much death in this that I quickly stopped caring about it as it simply became the norm or a least a theme...

It even ended with a boring (IMO) open end (and I do not hate open ends in general!).

Anyway, IMO the story is quite meaningless and contains too many plot holes.