The Creator
Year: 2023
Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: John David Washington & Madeline Yuna Voyles
Runtime: 133 mins
BBFC: 12
Director: Gareth Edwards
Starring: John David Washington & Madeline Yuna Voyles
Runtime: 133 mins
BBFC: 12
I think I’m one of the only people who walked out of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story feeling distinctly disappointed and underwhelmed. The film looked great, but the story and characters were significantly lacking. A lot of this seemed to be out of the control of director Gareth Edwards though, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt and I can at least see the potential that he was trying to crack of a mature, grittier Star Wars.
So, when I found out about The Creator, and could see the DNA of this being the Star Wars film he always wanted to make I must say I was quite excited. It looked the part, and the trailer promised a film that looked like Blade Runner meets Apocalypse Now. It looks stunning too, so I snapped up an IMAX ticket, and the lesson I have learned is that perhaps Edwards really does just struggle to follow through on promising material.
After decades of development humanity has finally created a true artificial intelligence, however in 2035 the intelligence drops a nuclear bomb on Los Angeles, prompting the United States to declare war on all artificial life. Meanwhile the nation of New Asia allies with the machines and seeks to protect them.
Fifteen years later, Joshua (John David Washington), a former undercover agent for the United States discovers a new weapon in the form of a child, Alphie (Madeline Yuna Voyles), that may have information about Josh’s ex-wife, Maya (Gemma Chan). Defecting from the States to protect Alphie, the pair go on a journey to find Maya, and discover Alphie’s true purpose.
So, when I found out about The Creator, and could see the DNA of this being the Star Wars film he always wanted to make I must say I was quite excited. It looked the part, and the trailer promised a film that looked like Blade Runner meets Apocalypse Now. It looks stunning too, so I snapped up an IMAX ticket, and the lesson I have learned is that perhaps Edwards really does just struggle to follow through on promising material.
After decades of development humanity has finally created a true artificial intelligence, however in 2035 the intelligence drops a nuclear bomb on Los Angeles, prompting the United States to declare war on all artificial life. Meanwhile the nation of New Asia allies with the machines and seeks to protect them.
Fifteen years later, Joshua (John David Washington), a former undercover agent for the United States discovers a new weapon in the form of a child, Alphie (Madeline Yuna Voyles), that may have information about Josh’s ex-wife, Maya (Gemma Chan). Defecting from the States to protect Alphie, the pair go on a journey to find Maya, and discover Alphie’s true purpose.
First things first. Do not see this film in IMAX. Had I done a bit more research I would have realised that the film was shot in an aspect ratio of 2:76:1, or ultra-wide. This creates a very narrow picture, and so the added height of IMAX was pointless. I’m sure it’ll look great in a Dolby Cinema though so if you are a premium format hog like me then maybe opt for something other than IMAX. That’s not a negative towards the film as such, but I do find it strange that a film shot with an ultra-wide aspect ratio is being marketed as a film to be seen in IMAX.
It is a stunning film to witness though. I loved the extensive use of film grain, the soft colour palettes, the art direction for the machinery. It all came together beautifully for a film that should undoubtably be considered for Best Cinematography awards when awards season rolls around.
As I previously stated, I was expecting a film that combined the gritty and philosophical sci-fi of Blade Runner with the scale, visual spectacle, and anti-war message of Apocalypse Now, because that’s what the trailer showed me. Instead, The Creator airs more on the side of a quippy pulp sci-fi like Independence Day, with the kind of writing quality seen in Avatar. It’s heavy handed, unsubtle, only traces over the surface of the issues its dealing with, and ultimately feels superficial. This is an extremely well-worn genre, robots vs humans, both in terms of action and the harder more contemplative sci-fi, and The Creator doesn’t really satisfy either criteria when compared to what has come before.
When looking at the ‘killer AI’ trope, Terminator 2 practically perfected that formula in the eighties, but even then, there are countless films that have done a much better job than The Creator of handling that subject matter. It’s riddled with clichés, and you can see all of the major plot twists coming a mile off. I’d practically guessed the ending to the film by the end of the first act, and my predictions were almost spot on.
As for the more philosophical aspect, such as what it really means to be alive, and is an intelligent machine’s life as sacred as a human life, The Creator never actually digs into them. It barely even brings them up, but the way the dialogue is often framed makes it seem as though that’s what they’re talking about.
It is a stunning film to witness though. I loved the extensive use of film grain, the soft colour palettes, the art direction for the machinery. It all came together beautifully for a film that should undoubtably be considered for Best Cinematography awards when awards season rolls around.
As I previously stated, I was expecting a film that combined the gritty and philosophical sci-fi of Blade Runner with the scale, visual spectacle, and anti-war message of Apocalypse Now, because that’s what the trailer showed me. Instead, The Creator airs more on the side of a quippy pulp sci-fi like Independence Day, with the kind of writing quality seen in Avatar. It’s heavy handed, unsubtle, only traces over the surface of the issues its dealing with, and ultimately feels superficial. This is an extremely well-worn genre, robots vs humans, both in terms of action and the harder more contemplative sci-fi, and The Creator doesn’t really satisfy either criteria when compared to what has come before.
When looking at the ‘killer AI’ trope, Terminator 2 practically perfected that formula in the eighties, but even then, there are countless films that have done a much better job than The Creator of handling that subject matter. It’s riddled with clichés, and you can see all of the major plot twists coming a mile off. I’d practically guessed the ending to the film by the end of the first act, and my predictions were almost spot on.
As for the more philosophical aspect, such as what it really means to be alive, and is an intelligent machine’s life as sacred as a human life, The Creator never actually digs into them. It barely even brings them up, but the way the dialogue is often framed makes it seem as though that’s what they’re talking about.
Washington’s performance also felt phoned in. His character isn’t exactly interesting anyway because we learn so little about him (and what we do learn is just generic military bullshit), but the performance he gives is like he didn’t believe in the project or didn’t want to be there. I understand that his character is meant to see the robots as just hardware, no life inside there, and so he doesn’t talk to them as though they are people. But the problem is that he spends the entire film talking to robots, so we get no emotion from him whatsoever.
On the flipside I thought that Voyles was great. For such a young actress she really brings the heart and soul to the film with a powerful and at times moving performance. I really hope that this is a launchpad for her career because she’s got so much potential, and had she been given a better script to work with then she’d probably be in the running for my best supporting actress award this year.
The supporting characters move in and out of the film so fast you have no time to actually get attached to them. It is often a case of them being introduced in one scene because they are important for one specific thing, and then the next scene they die or are just never seen again once their use has been fulfilled. The film even goes so far as having two antagonists, Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) and General Andrews (Ralph Ineson) because it seems Edwards just got bored with one character and introduced the other in the third act to do exactly the same thing.
I think a lot of The Creator’s problems could have been helped by going for a higher age rating. As it stands it’s a MPAA PG-13 or a BBFC 12 rating, and had the mature content been pushed just a bit more to an R rating or 15, then I think The Creator could have explored some of the darker elements of its story further without alienating the audience. This feels like it was initially written to be a thought provoking and poignant sci-fi about the very essence of humanity, but instead was morphed into a blockbuster action movie because money. There’s a lot of MCU and Star Wars style comedy awkwardly forced into it, and you can tell it doesn’t work because during my screening it was either dead silence, or just an awkward chuckle from a handful of attendees because whatever caused it was just so out of place in the film.
This had the potential to be a great film based on the trailer, but not only is this not the film the trailers promised, but it’s not a particularly interesting film in general. Whilst it may be a visual tour de force, there is absolutely nothing of substance to make use of that.
It’s not offensively bad, but it doesn’t do anything that warrants actively seeking it out. This is not going to be the next big sci-fi franchise, nor do I think it’ll carry enough weight to be seen as a cult classic down the line. I have a feeling that The Creator is going to fade away out of memory because it just doesn’t know what it wants to be.
On the flipside I thought that Voyles was great. For such a young actress she really brings the heart and soul to the film with a powerful and at times moving performance. I really hope that this is a launchpad for her career because she’s got so much potential, and had she been given a better script to work with then she’d probably be in the running for my best supporting actress award this year.
The supporting characters move in and out of the film so fast you have no time to actually get attached to them. It is often a case of them being introduced in one scene because they are important for one specific thing, and then the next scene they die or are just never seen again once their use has been fulfilled. The film even goes so far as having two antagonists, Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) and General Andrews (Ralph Ineson) because it seems Edwards just got bored with one character and introduced the other in the third act to do exactly the same thing.
I think a lot of The Creator’s problems could have been helped by going for a higher age rating. As it stands it’s a MPAA PG-13 or a BBFC 12 rating, and had the mature content been pushed just a bit more to an R rating or 15, then I think The Creator could have explored some of the darker elements of its story further without alienating the audience. This feels like it was initially written to be a thought provoking and poignant sci-fi about the very essence of humanity, but instead was morphed into a blockbuster action movie because money. There’s a lot of MCU and Star Wars style comedy awkwardly forced into it, and you can tell it doesn’t work because during my screening it was either dead silence, or just an awkward chuckle from a handful of attendees because whatever caused it was just so out of place in the film.
This had the potential to be a great film based on the trailer, but not only is this not the film the trailers promised, but it’s not a particularly interesting film in general. Whilst it may be a visual tour de force, there is absolutely nothing of substance to make use of that.
It’s not offensively bad, but it doesn’t do anything that warrants actively seeking it out. This is not going to be the next big sci-fi franchise, nor do I think it’ll carry enough weight to be seen as a cult classic down the line. I have a feeling that The Creator is going to fade away out of memory because it just doesn’t know what it wants to be.