The Creator - Movie Review
0I was able to somewhat enjoy "The Creator" (2023) directed by Gareth Edwards but I don't think it was all that great to be honest. It starts off promising with an interesting social commentary and then devolves into standard sci-fi action film territory as it progresses.
The year is 2070, and the development of AI has reached the point where they are able to practically blend in as humans. America was allegedly nuked by a rogue A.I. (This turns out to be false later) which led them to outlawing them and going to war against New Asia who harbors A.I. and continues their development and creation. We follow Joshua (John David Washington), a military sergeant who's directive was to uncover the location of the leader of the A.I. resistance, but he ends up falling in love with an A.I. sympathizer named Maya (Gemma Chan) whom he marries and is about to have a child with. Joshua accepts a new mission to locate a new superweapon of the A.I. but instead meets a pacifist child he calls Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).
What I can say good about The Creator is it's visuals, world design, location choices, and overall high standard of quality and budget. It also began with some interesting themes and messages. This is a rare Hollywood film in which the Americans are the definitive bad guys and are portrayed particularly and intentionally poorly, which is a good thing since it strays away from the standard formula. Another reason to come and see the film is it's bountiful amount of explosions.
Where The Creator fails miserably is that it completely abandons any sense of seriousness or impact it was going for. The potential messages and themes of the film get dropped in favor of switching to a more standard audience pleasing popcorn flick. The tone of the film is straight up weird in my opinion, going from scenes of threatening to execute animals and blowing up children to nursey rhyme soundtracks and jarring humor choices. The last issue for me is the uncountable amount of "deus ex machinas," which is a plot device where a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly resolved by an unexpected and unlikely occurrence.
I kind of enjoyed The Creator but I would argue it's not even above average as a film. Any and all agency from the story is ripped away once the second half commences and it becomes a popcorn ride rather than an interesting intellectual / morality question asker it started as.
Video by Rainy Nights.
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