It has been seven years since Gareth Edwards directed, for me, the best of the new generation of Star Wars films, Rogue One. Having made Godzilla before that, it’s nice to see him return with a more personal project, a big, bold, beautiful, if flawed sci-fi epic.
It’s still pretty derivative, in an open way, with nods to everything from Terminator, Blade Runner and District 9, to Apocalypse Now, among others, the connecting themes being the confrontation between humankind and technology, American militarism, fear of the other. Usefully, all of this chimes with the current, fiery and fearmongering debate about the advance of artificial intelligence.
Ultimately, Edwards and co-writer Chris Weitz fail to make enough of their scenario’s potential; the script’s not that good. But, visually, the film is another matter entirely, Edwards combining exotic location shooting with seamless CGI, endless invention and flair, to offer a staggering exercise in world-building.
It opens with a speedy prologue introducing the advent of advanced AI, which is handed the keys to America’s defence systems, only for Los Angeles to be nuked by those very protectors, killing millions. So far, so Terminator. But is it?
IMO it was a pretty average, totally fine blockbuster film.
It had some massive plot holes, like the nations of advanced AI being extremely stupid, not networked together and having no surveillance.
It just could have been much more interesting and better written. I wish it took some inspiration from the AI in The Culture books, that’s a much more nuanced take than “humans made of metal and electronic bits”.