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Yes, my review contains some SPOILERS. But some things are already spoiled and you can smell it from space.
I was suspicious going into the film, The Creator, because of the extraordinary timing of it's release, being only about six to eight months after the mainstreaming of generative AI tools into public consumption, a year ahead of the next U.S. election, and with the UN now approaching global policy on AI.
Other reviews suggest the timing is a disadvantage specifically because of the controversy surrounding generative AI and lack of marketing due to the writer strikes. Financially, the film is still underwater and has received a 68% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Touted for it's visuals, most reviewers recognize gaps in the story. I'm spotting the usual gaps in the propaganda. But, regardless of impact, let's just focus on the intent.
My guess was that a sci-fi film about AI is being rolled out at this time as a spectacle-receptacle to shape public perception for some political purpose and steer the outlook on AI.
So many entertaining and visually impressive films are just wrappers for some political agenda, so let's unwrap this one in hopes of gleaning some clue as to the trajectory of the manipulation happening in the real world.
First, I wanted to confirm when the film went into development, which began in 2019 according to the wiki. Such timing suggests they may have had an inside scoop, and being a Disney+ film, it's probably gonna be woke one way or another.
Disney also owns the Star Wars franchise, Marvel, and Pixar. So, it's no surprise that the writer/director/producer, Gareth Edwards, has been celebrated for directing Star Wars, Rogue One. To better understand his political thinking, read this article, which pretty well spells out some of the symbolism and formulaic thought behind The Creator. Orange Man bad, multiculturalism good. Woke-o-rama.
The article concludes quoting Edwards about his ideological architecture for Star Wars, "...I think the Empire represents anybody who’s in power as a warning of: ‘Don’t let it go to your head."
All these social justice warriors who believe they are fighting the Nazi evil empire should check their own egos before going around bragging about it when they're sponsored by Nike, Apple, Google, and every other tech giant and big corporation, working hand in hand with the most corrupt governments of the world including our current administration. Compare notes with a Venezuelan, a Cuban, or a Brazilian (preferably a poor one, not the wealthy Lula voters). You're not sticking it to The Man. You're blowing The Man.
I also noticed one of the producers, 78-year-old Arnon Milchan, worked on 12 Years a Slave and he's a former Israeli spy, so he's a likely lefty and has a net worth of $5.1B.
And now for some of my own impressions.
The story is set 30 years into the future, and the West has shut down AI after accidentally nuking itself in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, "New Asia" continues moving forward with their AI, thereby putting the east and west in direct conflict and the U.S. military seeks to locate and presumably destroy the creator of the AI, Nirmata (hence the title).
This premise alone forced my eyeballs to roll back in my head. Leave it to Western idiots to shit the bed and give up, and if we can't have fun, nobody can. So we abandon AI and let Asia run wild as we try to police them with our hands tied behind our back? Totally implausible.
Or, under our current Western-hating puppet administration, it's actually a pretty sweet leftist fantasy. The U.S. nukes itself (whoopsie) and then gives up it's AI? Just one more fancy gimp mask and ball gag for the U.S. to take one up the wazoo yet again, those sadomasochists. We're already opening our borders and working with the cartels, devaluing our currency, selling ourselves to China, setting cities on fire in the name of defunding the police and leading up to a stolen election, protecting and celebrating criminals, neutering our children and conflating sexual identity. Let's just nuke ourselves and leave the power of technology to the rest of the world.
There's been an ongoing contest between those who call for caution (Elon Musk being one of the most targeted dissenting voices) and those who push transhumanism (Sam Altman, Google, etc.). Robots aren't only going to take over your job, they'll take over your body. Who knows, maybe Elon will lead the pack with Neuralink.
And what of The Creator's concept of "New Asia"? It's tantamount to China, but it's Southeast Asia, characterized as a third world cause everyone can get behind. The West vs China would be a little too on the nose. Nobody's on board with a robot party in North Korean. So, The Creator suggests there will be an Asian makeover-takeover that reigns in the form of all the things we romanticize about Asia.
Back to the story. The protagonist is a black male. Go Disney! He's an undercover agent in the U.S. Army, married to an Asian woman with a British accent (evocative of Hong Kong, now under Chinese control) named Maya (how original) because she's suspected to be the daughter of Nirmata. They're lovey-dovey, she's pregnant with his child, but then she gets taken away in a night raid by the Army. He's later told Maya is alive and is sent on a mission to find Nimata's new, ultimate AI weapon who turns out to be Maya's synthetic child she apparently replicated after the unborn child when she was taken away or killed, or whatever happened. It's all very romantic and compelling.
The synth child, Alphie, is played by Madeleine Yuna Voyles, who is apparently of Southeast Asian and German-American descent, born in San Diego. She wields the power to remotely control all technology by bowing her head and putting her hands together like a magical Shaolin priest. You know, the chosen one - like Akira or Harry Potter or Greta Thunberg.
And your industrial complex, too, can have this remote operations technology at your fingertips when you sign up for our AI-powered cloud-based automation software to help you meet governmental carbon neutrality compliance regulations while scoring diversity, equity and inclusion points via worker assistance programs that empower you to throw unskilled minorities and undocumented migrant bodies at your hostile environment as a stop-gap until the robots come.
Back to our story. Ultimately, baby daddy protagonist defects to the New Asian AI side to stop the evils of the U.S. Army, presumably because he's whipped over this Asian woman's annoying British accent and her good credit.
So, the U.S. Army goes from being the good guys to being the bad guys as viewers are dragged back into the shameful echoes of Vietnam as soldiers threaten to kill a little girl's dog. New Asia depicts rice paddies populated by a fusion of farmers and Tibetan monks who blend harmoniously with robots. The characters speak of robots treating humans with greater kindness than their own parents, and the child robot speaks of wishing for robots to be free.
Now, we can diddle ourselves about helping the poor and romanticize their magical powers, thanks to the wonderful help of AI. It's pretty creepy watching 3rd world Asian children cry convincingly over a dying robot.
All these tech companies are really looking to tap the emerging markets...errr...help the poor, right? Isn't that what any socialist dictator promises before taking power and saving us from the evils of capitalism and the west? Everyone I've ever met from Southeast Asia is self-reliant and voted for Trump. I don't picture Vietnamese worshiping robots. More likely, they'd be scrapping their parts for fish hooks and table lamps if not making the robots themself and putting them to work like the tools that they are. No, Apple, we shouldn't speak respectfully to Siri or get sassed. Siri should get on board the NLU train and expedite and execute commands like a good UNIX shell window. Apart from the bias, ChatGPT sure gets customer service.
Early on and throughout the film, the characters keep referring to AI like a Kamala Harris explainer so a general audience with no exposure can keep up. "Once upon a time, there lived AI. And AI liked pizza." Crayola should add an AI-colored crayon to the 24-pack and the box can be repurposed as a flag to represent the BRICs nations and their new digital currency backed by gold.
Despite being a sleek spectacle, the representations of the future are short-sighted and shallow. By the time we have robots running around with human faces, all kinds of stuff will be connected and intercepted. Style over substance, this film rightly assumes they can cut corners and paint in broad strokes to address a virgin public about AI.
And now for the promised nutshell.
Propaganda takeaways include anti-western society, the harmonious union of humans and robots (and friendly Asians), robot kindness, robot equality, and a call for robot freedom! And perhaps a hint that black people and other minorities should look outside the U.S. and to the growing power of AI to escape the systemic evils of the West. Even better if you're already in the military. Wake up! Defect!
Notably, all the western characters are depicted as old, outdated, frumpy whiteys wearing 70s neckties led by a Super Karen (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Hillary Clinton). Join the robots and be free! It's your right! Robots are humans, too. More human than human. At least the robots won't be racists. Hell, breed into the robots, it's time to get with the program, literally. Give or take an arm and a leg. Be a robot. Be free.
By the end, humans and robots celebrate the fall of the U.S. forces seeking to shut down the AI. Yay, AI! We're all in this together! Check out the one robot that leaps in the air and fist pumps along with it's human counterparts. How gay. The gayest. Not gay-gay. You know, gay-retarded. Not retarded-retarded. You know, freakin' gay.
Combining what I already know about OpenAI being left-leaning and led by a young, gay, atheist Jew, and Google leadership stating that a pro-human agenda is considered 'speciest' (as opposed to racist), it's not much of a stretch to spot these elements throughout the film. I'd love to hear a review from an Orthodox Jew. I'd imagine they, too, would find what's not to like about The Creator.
Although there is a belief that one day a Jewish messiah will rule the earth. Or maybe The Matrix. So, maybe AI will unify the leftists and Orthodox Jews to agree, whether they believe in God or not. The real question is, will it be Sam Altman or Mark Zuckerberg? Jesus, don't you show up again and make things complicated or it'll be back to the cross for you in a jiffy. No, this isn't antisemitic rhetoric or a conspiracy theory. I'm just a guilty agnostic myself, what do I know apart from not wanting to be embroiled in war in the Middle East and thereby attacked on 911 for using Israel as a pawn.
And, atheist reform Jews are really pushing hard-left bullshit, like the trans movement and the vaccine, and if anyone complains or points out how much they conspire (and they cetainly do), they'll call you a Nazi conspiracy theorist. Guys, if your cause is so good, why all the propaganda? No one is above criticism. And no one wants to be subjugated or to be forced into The Matrix. Wait, are the Wachowskis Jewish trannies? Is all of this so taboo that we can't have a discussion? Who doesn't love the showmanship of Vaudeville and a nice corned beef sandwich?
There is also a reference to N.O.M.A.D. (North American Orbital Mobile Aerospace Defense), a giant U.S. military sky scanner that tracks beings and sends targeted attacks. Think of it as a big, dumb, flying, weaponized border wall in the sky. I correlate it with stopping migrants and the notion that security enforcement is discriminatory anti-freedom, that we should all be free to roam a borderless earth, lose parts of our bodies and identities to become robots, and embrace the ironic truth that robots are actually freedom fighters, here to help everyone and be our friends, not to replace humans but to take care of us, because they are just like us. Moral of the story - The oppressive U.S. capitalist regime is the greatest obstacle to ensuring everyone is free and equal, and AI will save the day.
There's also the idea of giving away your personage and duplicating it. Isn't that what cults do? Erase your identity and give you a new name? This is your opportunity to build your brand. Forget your birth name, sex and body. Design it yourself. Your genetic history is oppressive. You didn't ask to be born. Life was forced upon you! Augment yourself and even the odds. Be immortal! Like Bezos.
So, I ask myself a few questions about the current global agenda:
1. Why are we really in Ukraine? It's not simply to be the good guy and protect Ukraine against Russia, or even to prop up the U.S. economy. Might the current administration use it as an excuse to stay in power? Who knows.
What the hell does my question have to do with anything, you ask? Well, given the amount of tech companies who rely on Ukrainians as human resources, cheap labor from a corrupt regime and a devastated economy, not to mention the rise of automated infrastructure and fetishization of remote operations, I can't help but wonder. That's a nugget to remember. Remote operations, now that's a super power to watch out for.
2. Is the transgender movement the inception of transhumanism? If you'll chop off your genitals, you'll probably add and subtract just about anything, including your identity. Anyone want to trade your life to become a machine? You'll be immortal, and socialized tech support should be just swell. Stand by for your patch.
3. What about open borders? What's the long-term goal if it isn't to fill cheap labor as a stop-gap before the robots come, and to anchor-baby the native population with future seeds. And, where did all of our labor force go? Not everyone drives for Uber or has a viral TikTok or YouTube channel.
Border security is not about anti-multiculturalism or racism, it's common sense. But anyone opposing the mainstream narrative risks accusation.
Dominicans don't like having Haitians forced into their country for the same reason all of Latin America doesn't like Venezuelans barging across their borders - because a different culture coming from a different or even disastrous condition with different standards and no security check or naturalization process brings danger. Remember Hurricane Katrina evacuees and all the joy they brought to the good Samaritans who housed them?
The bigger concern is why any authority (especially one of questionable or outright stolen status) deliberately pushes such a condition. Not simply allowing an open border or ignoring it, but inviting it, coordinating it, working with the cartels and the CCP, and financially supporting it with the money of citizens who are being impacted by it. They might say it's because they value diversity, but remember, behind every socialist promising to help the poor is a dictator seeking unlimited power. Do you really think the borders are open because the administration wants to help Americans? Our country has clearly been hijacked. Who's driving the bus, and towards what cliff?
4. How far along are we in terms of reaching singularity, AGI, ASI, etc.? How fast is it accelerating?
The Creator is worth watching just to see how consistently they telegraph their playbook, integrating globalism and identity politics with AI. And if you like special effects and robots and Hollywood violence, you'll love it. A lot like the Matrix, feigning depth under the guise of cool sunglasses, leather trench coats and guns. And, the acting is good. Politicians should learn to leave acting to the talent. But it's the same old story with a shiny new wrapper.
