Spoiler Alert: The following review contains mild spoilers.

The creator of “The Creator,” Gareth Edwards, started his filmmaking career teaching himself VFX at home. He’s an innovator on that front, devising ways to generate creepy CG monsters for “Monsters” more than a dozen years ago, then overseeing deceptively massive blockbusters, like “Godzilla,” ever since (deceptive because much of that stunning scale comes from virtual detail added in post). Edwards’ problem all along has been with the human side of his stories — “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” being the lone exception — as the characters often feel like an afterthought and the acting ruptures the reality he’s trying to establish.

“The Creator” introduces an elaborate sci-fi future in which the U.S. Army wages a second war in Vietnam, this time against the perceived threat of artificial intelligence — a timely premise, given the panic over AI getting so much press attention these days.