‘THE Creator’ is a sci-fi movie set in the not too distant future. The first thing you’ll notice about it is that it is visually stunning, with spectacular effects and production values.

It’s co-written and directed by Gareth Edwards, the British filmmaker best known for the “Godzilla 1 & 2” movies and ‘Rogue One’ and “Last Jedi” from “Star Wars”.

“The Creator” in the film is the “nirmata”, an Indian word that refers to the lead producer of all Artificial Intelligence. The main character is an undercover soldier, Joshua Taylor, played by John David Washington, the son of Denzel who is better here than in the movie he did with Christopher Nolan, “Tenet”. Here, he surely succeeds in making his character truly relatable to us viewers.

Joshua has lost one arm and one leg in a nuclear explosion in Los Angeles allegedly caused by an A.I. His mission is to infiltrate the lair of the A.I.s who now occupy what is called the New Asia. He must locate the Nirmata to annihilate all A.I.’s who have become a threat to humans.

He has fallen in love with Maya (Gemma Chan), who is pregnant with their baby. NOMAD (North American Orbital Mobile Aerospace Defense) forces led by Howell, a U.S. colonel played Allyson Janney, attack their island. Joshua is revealed to be an undercover operative and Maya is shocked, accusing him of just using her to locate the Nirmata.

She runs away from him but a bomb from the NOMAD aircraft bombs her. Joshua is crushed by her and their baby’s death. A few years later, U.S. authorities ask his help to find the Nirmata anew as it has allegedly made a new deadly weapon that is a threat to humankind.

At first, he refuses to cooperate, but they make him watch a video footage that shows Maya is still alive. He agrees to participate in the hope that he might be reunited with his wife who he thought is dead.

In New Asia, he meets a little girl who he calls Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). She’s an A.I. robot who turns out later to be very powerful as she can control appliances, weapons and, in general, all kinds of technology.

Howell orders Joshua to kill the girl but he has grown fond of Alphie and protects her. They meet New Asian soldiers led by Harun (Ken Watanabe), a robotic soldier, who tells Joshua that the bombing of L.A. was caused by human error but the U.S. government used A.I. as their escape goat.

He says A.I.s only want to be left on their own to co-exist peacefully with humans, which will be difficult to do since humans already find it hard to co-exist peacefully among themselves with racial hatred and prejudices.

The action escalates when Joshua and Alphie are captured by U.S. soldiers and taken to L.A. while all remaining A.I. enclaves in New Asia are attacked to decimate all A.I.s.

No doubt this thought-provoking movie addresses a very relevant issue of our times: man vs. computers or A.I.

There are those who fear that A.I. will eventually overtake human intelligence, with robots or computer achieving what it means to be human: feeling, thinking, having free will and even creativity, then replacing us, subjugating us or eventually, even destroying us.

We don’t want to go into the intricacies of such thoughts. All we know is that we are created by God and A.I. or androids was created by scientists, by man. So we don’t know if our Creator will ever let His creation be overruled by machines, as was also previously shown in the “Blade Runner” and “Terminator” series of films.

As it is, the movie does make us think about our existence alongside with computers, treating us to endlessly awesome visuals and jawdropping imagery that can get an Oscar nomination for best visual effects.

Its world-building is immersive and convincing in telling a fantastic but compelling, heartfelt story that advocates the voluntary acceptance of A.I. instead of summarily treating them as menacing adversaries.

The CGI is exceptional as seen in the big hole in the heads of the robotic characters, specially that of the little girl who is persuasive in her role as she brings out the tito or tita in us, with us wanting to protect her.

It’s just too bad that “The Creator” is not a smash hit at the box office. It’s said that the writers and actors guild strikes prevented their stars from promoting it.