I Saw a Movie

I can’t remember the last movie I saw in a theater. It’s been a while. Micha and I used to go quite often too. I remember going twice in a week at least once.

But of course, Covid hit, and we all kind of lost track. Until Tom Cruise came along and said “Top Gun: Maverick is going into theaters,” and we were off again…or at least we thought so. It seemed there was still a bit of life left in the streamers, and we’d gotten used to them. And then there’s the problem that Korea seems to be having – not getting the word out, and not holding onto movies for very long. I remember seeing the new “Mission: Impossible” movie was in town…and then it wasn’t.

Anyway, we’ve been spending a lot of time lately in a rut, so I checked the theaters for the first time in a while a couple of days ago and found something interesting; a movie about AI called The Creator. I remembered years (decades) ago, Steven Spielberg took a crack at it with a movie literally called “AI.” I Remember it vaguely, all wispy and ethereal. Artsy. I don’t remember much else.

But here we have this new deal – The Creator – and it was made a bit closer to the actual possibilities than AI (meaning, we actually have a deeper conception of it all now). So I wonder how it could’ve missed so badly.

Hold on a minute though. I don’t mean to say that the movie is bad. I actually liked it. I liked where it was going and what it was saying. I loved the sound (the theater helped I’m sure) and I hope it gets some recognition in that respect. But it missed badly on continuity and “reality” (that is, inner consistency). Perhaps I missed it. I think I did. I think I got the feel that this was all taking place in an alternate reality, where concepts of AI, how we would react, and the weapons of war were different. I found myself suspending (or trying to suspend) disbelief quite a bit. For example, I couldn’t grasp how a technologically advanced nation that could launch missiles at will from some kind of super-weapon that magically hovers in the upper atmosphere (no, not low-earth orbit) would suddenly resort to some of the primitive means of warfare depicted in the film.

This is only an example, and not a very good one at that. In some spots, it was just one disjointed thing after the next. Here’s what I couldn’t help but thinking: this is all just one special effects shot stacked on another…and another…and another. Almost gratuitously so. Don’t get me wrong, it was beautiful, but it was one of those cases where they would say “how do we transition this shot” and they might come up with “let’s fly a bunch of ships around just to show everyone how cool it looks.” Kind of weak (but pretty).

In the end, though, I liked it plenty. Would I go out of my way to see it again someday? Nah. Not that excited about it. But it was well put-together and thoughtful, even if it was a bit off. I think you should go and enjoy it. Just don’t expect to have your life changed or anything…