Some neat ideas surrounded by dumb action I've always dug sci-fi. It is an unappreciated genre. It is misunderstood genre.
Good sci-fi, competent sci-fi should be primarily focused on the inner workings of its world.
Here, what would be a world were AI is sentient. Show how people interact with it, how they live with it, how they're lives are different from ours. Here, already a tiny crack: AI, is only represented as bipedal robots. It never shows an AI ala ChatGPT, text-based. There is no Architect as in Matrix or giant orb as in Westworld. Furthermore, there is already a disconnect: human at wars with the AI are still using/relying on futuristic technology, unlike almost every tech in our current world it's apparently not AI powered. You're at war with a intelligence that can hack any computer system so you double down on making everything "smart"?
People see Star Wars and they see space lasers deathstars and x-wings. They think that is what makes the film, yet that is not the case. Star Wars is a film about freedom vs. Tyranny, democracy against barbarism. It can be Vietnam in space, or Nazi Germany, or the Soviet Union. But first and foremost it is what it is, the parralels and allegories are secondary, incidental even.
What makes sci-fi work ultimately is its meaning. That is different from allegorical power, or social commentary. Good sci-fi should stand on its own. It should be a framing for a story, to give it texture, but the motifs should be recognizable. Here, Humanity and AI are pitted against each other. An entity descibed alternatively as The West or America has forbidden AI. It derives that "The West" and New Asia are pitted against each other. So far so good, I think that concept is neat. But that is as far as it goes. The rest of the film is a the dumbest action film.
Contrast that with Starship Troopers which had a similar premise. Indeed, it delivered on the action but it was a unique twisted story and efficient world-building, and arguably that why is it considered a cult classic.
This movie makes wild metaphors. There are multiple references to Vietnam and the Irak War. But it's all told superficially. US special forces raid poor farmer villages and do a My Lai without batting an eye. In addition, the US has built a omniscient, invincible, unstoppable flying missile platform (drone stikes anyone?). Yet, I am not sure it understands any of this or just uses it to make action scenes awesome. There is not one thing in this film that makes sense or is cogent. It's just a bunch of things slapped at the wall to see what sticks. Answer: none of it does.
It is a film that is very reminiscent of Elysium and Looper. Two smart sci-fi premises visually well crafted, but butchered by bone-headed execution. In Elysium, the whole thing revolved around getting healthcare; and Looper repeatedly violated it's premise that murder is unfathomably illegal in the future.