“The Creator” was written and directed by Gareth Edwards and stars John David Washington as Joshua, Gemma Chan as Maya, Ken Watanabe as Harun, Allison Janney as Colonel Howell, Sturgill Simpson as Drew, Marc Menchaca as McBride, Amar Chadha-Patel as Simulants, Ian Verdun as Daniels and Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alphie.
The film takes place during a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence. The story follows a former special forces agent named Joshua, while grieving over the loss of his wife, gets recruited to track down and eliminate an advanced AI. The mysterious AI is one that not only holds the power to end the ongoing war, but mankind itself.
The best aspect of the film for me was just how massive it was in not only the visual side, but on a story level as well. When it came to the visuals for the film, they were not only stunning to look at, but also remarkable with the tight budget the VFX team got of $80 million.
Compared to other 2023 films such as “The Flash” and “Expend4bles” that had between $100-$300-million-dollar budgets, those films’ CGI looked significantly worse– even with larger budgets. This film solidified to me that a bigger budget doesn’t always equate to higher quality.
Experiencing this film in a Dolby theater was an incredible experience.. It felt as if I was actually transported into the film itself, and every action sequence and visual queue was truly mesmerizing. Every single shot of the movie looked incredible from beginning to end, both with the CGI used, as well as the actual locations shown in the film itself. For the Academy Awards next year, I would be shocked if this film didn’t get nominated for best visual effects or cinematography.
On a story level, the film does feature a massive global conflict between humans and AI that has all the battle sequences that you would expect from a movie like this, but what I wasn’t expecting was how personal the actual plot of the film was. With John David Washington’s character in the lead role, his relationship to the ongoing war and AI all has deeper meanings to him, showing what all of those things have cost him over the journey he goes on in the film.
The movie was also a lot more emotional than I was expecting, in particular the relationship between John David Washington’s character and Madeleine Yuna Voyles’ character. Both of them form a bond with each other as the story unfolds that brought a tear to my eye in ways I wasn’t expecting.
For the movie’s messaging, the film had many themes surrounding the existence of artificial intelligence and how powerful the technology can be. Even though the film is more centered on the robotic side of AI to make it more Sci-Fi, the themes surrounding the creation of the technology and how the rest of the world responds to it are very similar to how people in the modern world are responding to AI. I also really appreciated that the film didn’t hammer its message down the audience’s throats by stating it constantly, instead telling it all through the story by showing the power of AI and the crudeness of war.
While the visuals and messaging were really the highlights of the film for me, the actual plot itself felt pretty familiar. The film wears its influences on its shoulder, and at times it did feel like the plot of “The Terminator” mixed with the production design of “Blade Runner”. I didn’t have a problem with the blending of different concepts together for the film, but I can see why some people would critique the film for it.
Also, with the massive scale of the war taking place in the film, I feel like the movie could have been at least 20 minutes longer to tie everything up a little more. The film clocks in at right around 2 hours, and I felt that the film could have gone on to be around two and half hours to give some more depth into the war and everything else taking place.
With a few minor nitpicks here and there, I thought the film was incredible overall. I loved the ambition that was on display throughout, both with the visuals, the journey of each of the individual characters and even having a message that is very relevant to a real-world issue with conflicting viewpoints on artificial intelligence.
I really appreciated that 20th Century Studios trusted Gareth Edwards to tell an original story, and I definitely think that more studios should consider giving their filmmakers more creative freedom in the future. Especially in today’s world where every movie that comes out now is either a sequel, prequel or a remake, this film was a breath of fresh air seeing an original concept on the big screen.
I don’t think the film will become the next Sci-Fi classic, but it was everything I hoped it would be from the trailers, and I definitely think people should check this film out on the biggest screen possible.
