Time: 133 Minutes
Age Rating: M – Violence & offensive language
Cast:
John David Washington as Joshua Taylor
Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alpha-O/”Alphie”
Gemma Chan as Maya Fey-Taylor
Allison Janney as Howell
Ken Watanabe as Harun
Sturgill Simpson as Drew
Director: Gareth Edwards

As a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence rages on, ex-special forces agent Joshua is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI. The Creator has developed a mysterious weapon that has the power to end the war and all of mankind. As Joshua and his team of elite operatives venture into enemy-occupied territory, they soon discover the world-ending weapon is actually an AI in the form of a young child.

I was really looking forward to The Creator, largely because it’s the latest movie from Gareth Edwards, who hasn’t directed a movie since 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Plus, it looked good from the trailers, and its rare for new original sci-fi films that aren’t part of a franchise or based on any pre-existing source material to be released nowadays. While I wouldn’t agree with some of the early reactions calling it a masterpiece, I do think it’s a good movie.

The worldbuilding for the movie is quite good; it’s easy to buy into the setting and the war against AI at the center of the movie. The setting of the futuristic world is believable and plausible, and the conflicts and tensions are established well. The movie is on a large scale with it being about a massive global conflict, and it spans various locations and settings. Despite this, the story is personal, with the smaller scale emotional core at the centre of the film. It feels grand without losing touch with the individuals of the story. That said, the script isn’t as carefully crafted as it could’ve been. Some of the dialogue is clunky, and much of the mysteries and intrigues (which the movie is built around) are very easy to figure out, so the suspense falls flat. Also, it is telling such a big story, and while its already long at around 130 minutes, I think it needed another 20 minutes or so. Some moments could’ve been lingered on more, and it occasionally moves on from story beats a bit too quickly. Additionally, the third act has a notable shift with its new direction and felt a little rushed and abrupt. Pretty early on, you’ll probably pick up that despite not being based on any source material, it isn’t that original. It definitely pulls from a lot of other sci-fi movies in some ways, whether it be Terminator, The Matrix, or Avatar, and it wears its influences on its sleeve. Lack of originality isn’t a big mark against it necessarily, to me it pulled bits and pieces from various movies and blended it together to make its own movie. While it does feel a little familiar, it isn’t a big issue for me.

The actors are a little let down by the writing for their characters, but the acting is pretty good on the whole. John David Washington gives a great and emotional performance in the lead role, and this is possibly the best I’ve seen from him. Madeleine Yuna Voyles was the standout as the robot child that JDW is protecting. While the dynamic of the morally complicated protagonist protecting a young child has been seen many times over, both actors help you buy into it and get invested in that relationship so the cliche doesn’t really bother you. The supporting cast including Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Allison Janney and Ralph Ineson also perform their parts well.

Gareth Edwards directs this incredibly well, and it’s worth watching The Creator for the visuals alone. One thing that’s been pointed out is that this movie has been made on a $80 million dollar budget, and this is notable considering that multiple blockbusters from this year had budgets that were 2-3 times larger than that of The Creator, yet look considerably worse. It’s visually stunning, the cinematography is fantastic with spectacular imagery. You can really tell that this movie is shot on location and that adds a lot. Even within this futuristic setting, it feels grounded and very lived in. The use of locations and production designs are great, especially with the interesting technology touches they added here. The advanced Earth as shown in the movie is plausible, and the great VFX help to enhance and create this believable world. The set pieces are great, especially with the large battle sequences. One technical knock against the movie is that Hans Zimmer’s score is competent but rather underwhelming and forgettable outside of some moments in the third act. There are also some very out of place needledrops, one Radiohead song particularly took me out of it.

While it is derivative of other similar movies and its script could’ve been a little better, The Creator is a really good sci fi film, with solid world building, and fantastic visuals and direction. For its faults, I think its well worth checking out in the cinemas.