With concerns about the destructive potential of AI currently making headlines, The Creator could hardly have arrived at a more pertinent time. Set in a not-too-preposterous future, the latest from sci-fi supremo Gareth Edwards (the Brit behind Monsters, Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) finds humans and robots locked in a brutal conflict.

John David Washington plays special forces operative Joshua, tasked with tracking down an influential but enigmatic AI designer in the Republic Of New Asia, where AI and humans continue to co-exist peacefully, to the horror of the US. Gemma Chan is Joshua’s wife Maya, apparently killed at the outset, who he comes to believe is still alive. Young Madeleine Yuna Voyles plays an ultra-sophisticated AI creation with the knowledge to reunite the couple, but who may also have the power to destroy humanity.

The actors keep you hooked, with the charismatic Washington’s gruff heroism pleasingly contrasted by a wide-eyed innocence of his companion Voyles, while Allison Janney is a fine fit as the world-weary colonel. District 9 and Aliens are evoked, though The Creator comes wrapped in glossier packaging; but the seductiveness of the film’s richly realised visuals is too often undermined by its hastily unpacked narrative.

Unlike, say, Ex Machina, the film doesn’t offer anything substantial to the artificial intelligence debate, leaning instead towards crowd-pleasing, even cute. This sometimes thrilling sci-fi delivers a fairly simplistic spin on complex issues, and yet it so evidently means well. The Creator takes aim at American recklessness, bombast and the desire to obliterate anything they can’t control, while its compassion for life of all stripes is to be applauded.

The Creator is in cinemas from Thursday 28 September.