Film review: ‘THE CREATOR’ by Nick Gardener from ‘Built For Speed’

Clever, inventive, visually breathtaking and studded with gritty action sequences, the dystopian adventure, The Creator is one of the stronger cinematic sci fi offerings of recent times.  Still, a few too many conspicuous film references, structural issues and superficial examination of key issues like artificial intelligence and American imperialism lessen its impact.

In scenes reminiscent of the start of District 9, Robocop and writer/director Gareth Edwards’ own Godzilla, the film opens with a newsreel-style prologue charting the rapid ascendancy of AI and robotics to the point where we have robot police and soldiers and major government systems controlled by AI. A subsequent AI malfunction which leads to a nuclear catastrophe, however, upends the geopolitical world with the U.S. banning AI while, in what’s called New Asia, communities consist not only of humans but robots and cyborg’s known as simulants.  As the U.S. conducts covert commando missions to kill off the robots, they discover that a weapon has been developed that can destroy the U.S.’ main defence system, a gigantic spaceship called Nomad.  Sent to neutralise the weapon, special forces agent Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) discovers it is a simulant child he names Alphie (Madeleine Yuna) that has potential links to his past.

On a technical level The Creator is often stunning with realistic looking spaceships, war machines and robots.  The futuristic world building here is seamless and as impressive as anything we’ve seen in a James Cameron film.  Edwards and cinematographers Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer also manage to give the film an expansive look with sprawling vistas of the New Asia landscape that make fine use of the IMAX format.  As big screen sci fi spectacle, The Creator will be hard to top this year.

Still, this film is not as impressive as it might have been.  Its visual impact is diminished a little by choppy editing which too often breaks the movie into fragments.  Also, flashbacks that, confusingly, aren’t signposted, at times leave us unsure if we’re watching something in the film’s past or present.

Additionally, it seems Edwards and co-writer Chris Weitz wanted to cram just a bit too much into the story.  While their ambition is commendable, it means the film doesn’t investigate moral and philosophical issues of AI and warfare as comprehensively as it might have.  Rampant AI is depicted as hazardous but the film doesn’t build on this notion any more than James Cameron did with Skynet in Terminator 2.  Also, while the image of gargantuan US tanks thundering into Asian villages has a powerful visceral impact, the film doesn’t explore the geopolitical complexities of the relationship between the US and new Asia in any depth.

An additional problem is that The Creator often feels derivative and like a patchwork of references to other films such as Terminator, AI: Artificial intelligence, Star Wars, Aliens, Blade Runner, Escape From New York, Avatar, Children of Men, numerous Vietnam War movies and even Martin Scorsese’s Kundun.  This may have been a respectful homage to great filmmakers but its often distracting.

Perhaps most tellingly, the story isn’t as emotionally gripping as it could have been.  The relationship between Joshua and his love interest Maya (Gemma Chan) who has a vital role in proceedings, feels rushed and doesn’t have the heart wrenching impact it needed although one scene comes close.  The proxy father-daughter relationship between Joshua and Alphie is, however, more affecting.  John David Washington delivers an ok performance and the guy can certainly pull off an action scene but (in part because of the cluttered script) he hasn’t created anything close to an indelible lead character here. Madeleine Yuna, though, is terrific as the innocent little simulant messiah and some of her scenes are heartbreaking.

The Creator has an epic scale and dynamic, expertly crafted sci fi action and for some fans of the genre it will probably be a favourite this year but like the Avatar films its execution doesn’t quite match up to its lofty ambitions.

Nick’s rating: ***1/2

Genre: Drama/ Action/ Adventure/ Science Fiction.

Classification: M.

Director(s): Gareth Edwards.

Release date: 28th Sep 2023.

Running time: 135 mins.

Reviewer: Nick Gardener can be heard on “Built For Speed” every Friday night from 8-10pm on 88.3 Southern FM.

 

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