First we had skybeams, then the multiverse, and now it seems the go-to for blockbusters is evil A.I.

“The Creator” follows a former U.S. special forces soldier (John David Washington) who must locate and destroy an artificial intelligence weapon designed to end mankind. Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, and Allison Janney also star while Gareth Edwards directs.

I’ve liked both of Gareth Edwards’ previous two studio films, “Godzilla” and “Rogue One,” so I was decently looking forward to “The Creator.” Like those two films, “Creator” looks stunning and has some entertaining set pieces, but it also shares the common flaw of thin characterization and a third act that becomes unraveled, which will surely leave audiences divided depending on how much stock you put into style-over-substance.

John David Washington has proven he can be a capable actor, doing a solid job in Spike Lee’s “BlackKklansman,” though he has also been labeled as unemotional following turns in Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” and Netflix’s “Malcom & Marie.” Here, he is solid acting alongside a young Madeline Yuna Voyles, and the two play off each other well in the “disgruntled soldier must protect a helpless child” way (though Voyles is hardly helpless). Washington isn’t given much to do with his character (he has a dead wife and his family was killed by A.I.; that’s all we really ever learn about him), but he has a few scenes that let him activate the tear ducts.

Recently, seemingly just in the last six months, A.I. has exploded into the public forum. I remember in March of this year explaining this new thing I saw on TikTok called ChatGPT to a teacher and he didn’t think it would catch on because it would be “obvious a computer wrote the essay;” cut to September and there are literal strikes in Hollywood over the use of A.I. writing programs and schools implementing guidelines against it. The latest “Mission: Impossible” is all about A.I., and we have governments rushing to try and regulate it. So Hollywood to be making films about the dangers and possibilities of it, although nothing new, can be a bit unnerving.

“The Creator,” despite coming out at a point in time where artificial intelligence is very prevalent and no longer just an idea (like it was in the days of “Terminator” or even “Eagle Eye”), doesn’t add a whole lot to the conversation. It tackles American imperialism, what it means to be human, and all those other tropes you’d expect from a movie like this, but those are issues better handled in previous sci-fi works, like the “Terminator” films and even “Avatar.”

I saw this film in IMAX, and while I didn’t think that format itself added too much to the experience I do believe this is a theater movie. Edwards has such a knack for creating lush worlds that they need to be seen on a big screen to catch every detail, and despite costing just $80 million this looks immensely, almost laughably better than the likes of “Expend4bles” ($100 million), “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($200 million), and “The Flash” ($220 million); you could even triple this budget and it still costs less than “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” While those films all have CGI and green screen that are noticeable at best, abysmal at worst, “The Creator” at no point had any shots that took me out of the film, and that is thanks to many on-location shots and merging of practical and post-production SFX to make it feel like a lived-in world. I particularly liked the design of Nomad, the human’s hovering warship. It silently approaches and hums about, and it almost feels like an alien spacecraft (despite being the tool being used to defend Earth; I’m sure there’s an analogy there).

Like “Godzilla” and “Rogue One,” this film unfortunately suffers from third act fatigue. By the time we arrive at the climax, we already had a faux ending and in-turn know where all the players will end up (and they do), and while it doesn’t derail the entire project it was weak enough to have me walking out wishing things had ended better. Edwards’ script (which he wrote with Chris Weitz) also takes a page from the “Rogue One” and “Aquaman” playbook, and pretty much every time a character is done dumping exposition there will be an explosion and firefight before we progress to the next scene.

I wish “The Creator” was able to stick the landing a bit better or had more insightful commentary on the state of A.I., but the attention to detail and refusal to submit an unfinished project still make this a solid film worth checking out on the big screen. It starts to spin the wheels a bit after a while but I was never bored, and I can see a world where this gets a critical reappraisal in 20 years akin to “Blade Runner” (itself met with a mixed reception in 1982). I still think that Hollywood has already run out of things to say on the topic of artificial intelligence, but if all the films about it are going to be as well-crafted as this or “Mission: Impossible,” then I’m willing to sit through the lesson a few more times.

Critics Rating: 6/10