The big ideas swirling at the center of The Creator are about human heartlessness versus AI compassion, man’s coldness versus robot warmth. Unfortunately, the movie winds up being an unwitting example of the former: visual effects take precedence over emotion here, meaning you rarely feel any of the intended poignancy of this story about a soldier driven between warring sides by love.

Part of that effect might be because the premise is an iffy one to swallow, as The Creator drops during a time when the once-theoretical threats posed by AI start to become disconcertingly real. But mostly, the sterile feeling of the film is a product of the writing, as a shallow script prevents most of the cast from ever making their characters compelling. Though its lifelike effects are something to marvel at, The Creator never quite convinces us that any of its humans are real — a pretty gaping flaw for a movie that wants to sell us on the idea that robots might one day be sentient.

Despite its flaws, The Creator is stunning to look at. Director Gareth Edwards got his filmmaking start in visual effects, which is perhaps why the movie is so impressive on this front: it’s full of striking spectacle and images of colossal scale (standouts include the AI’s part-human, part-robot design and some sickeningly real-looking explosion scenes). That only makes it more of a shame that, even with a lengthy runtime to work with, The Creator can’t make its emotional beats feel as equally authentic.