The Creator

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Creator is set in a world in which AI and synthetic humans are widespread yet reside chiefly in the Eastern world. The Western world (specifically America) is waging an all out war on the machines after the detonation of a nuclear warhead destroyed Los Angeles and is blamed upon AI. The plot follows Joshua, an American undercover soldier who is in love with a member of the enemy resistance. After becoming separated from here he leaps at the chance to rediscover her when offered an infiltration mission. However, his quest sees him discovering the next AI superweapon: a synthetic child with the ability to control machines. 

This is a film with a very rich sense of worldbuilding, right from the montage conceptualising the alternate Earth we would be watching I found myself being pulled in. This film does a fantastic job of positioning AI/synthetics as their own functioning society. It then goes a step further by co-ordinating how that society might relate to humans. We see a society co-dependent on one another in the Asian settings; while the American setting showcased AI as an Other figure that threatened the status quo. I was really impressed by the serious commentary through world building over an inter-societal conflict motivated by a specific resource or faction. There's a lot of lens you can really look at this through, America's past actions in the Vietnam War really sprung to mind for me personally.

The real triumph of The Creator is how it looks, which if you've seen a Gareth Edwards film will not surprise you at all. The cinematography has these expansive beautiful shots that have the world look so vibrant and rich, blending the visual effects with the live action components in a very realistic way. This feels like one of Edwards' grandest films to date visually, there's no part of this film that feels confined or unexplored. The visual nods to Japanese media and culture are very masterfully done too. I thought the visual effects are the best I have seen this year, with the designs for the various machines or Nomad being absolute standouts. The score for the film also is a wonderfully tragic ballad of sound which could be crafted by the maestro that is Hans Zimmer.

Ralph Ineson, who played General Andrews, has the deep gravelly voice to really command your attention and leave a sense of mystery; Ineson sells that shadowy quality to a side of the military you do not want to mess with. Veronica Ngo, who played Kami, is one of the few performances that actually feels authetically like someone who lives in this world; Ngo has a real kind presence and the scene in which she tries to win Voyles' character over is one of my favourites.

However, the best performance came from Madeleine Yuna Voyles, who played Alphie. The entire film became something I actually wanted to watch the moment Voyles came on-screen, there was something to this performance that really stood out from the wider cast. What was that quality? Personality. As a character Alphie is easy to love because she shines out a lot more from the rest of the stoic, angry or downright selfish wider cast of characters. Voyles has this wide-eyed wonder to her that amkes you more invested in the world. But more than that her character has a sort of certainty that crafts a moral compass, something that put the film back on track in a big way. I loved the heart that comes from this role, how genuine and compassionate she is. Ultimately, seeing her grapple with grief and a strong sense of justice in those last fifteen minutes really was a moment that blew me away. The youngest in this cast but the biggest talent, no competition.

While I was so impressed by the scale of the world before me, both visually and in terms of the writing, I felt like there was something off the whole film. What The Creator lacks in a big way is a reason why I should even care as a viewer, in a script where most of the characters are so inexpressive or difficult to like it became harder to engage with this feature. The basic premise of the film is a trope that Hollywood is loving to milk at the moment: stoic single Dad figure safeguards younger child figure who is important to saving the day. This concept is already familiar ground but there have been some good stories told through this, where The Creator missteps is with central protagonist: Joshua. Joshua is so difficult to like as a protagonist, he spends nearly the entire runtime of the feature being quite selfishly motivated by his own interests. The times where he 'bonds' with Alphie are very quick and don't really endear me to him or their relationship. Right up until the end of the film I really felt like Joshua uses Alphie more than he comes to support her and see her as a sort of surrogate child figure. The whole film really lacks characters who make me care about what would otherwise be a pretty interesting world to play around in. I've seen the film in which AI isn't so bad, it's the humans who are wrong played out so many times; this feature feels like it's ripping off better films like Blade Runner, I,Robot, Elysium and Chappie constantly. There is also a part of me that felt like this film pumping extremely pro-AI messages as a theme in the current world climate might just make this one of the more tone deaf films of the year.

John David Washington, who played Joshua, is one of the main reasons I really struggled with the film; Washington has no issues playing his character as a jerk or as cruel but he never wins me over come redemption arc time. Gemma Chan, who played Maya, is absolutely wasted in this film; Chan is here to be more of a romantic thought than an actually developed character. Allison Janney, who played Colonel Howell, has found one of her most forgettable roles in recent years; Janney stoically mumbling her lines the whole film made for a weak antagonist. Ken Watanabe, who played Harun, was a bit too impassive for my liking; Watanabe really put no expression into his role which becomes frustrating as he is the main resistance figure we associate with. Sturgill Simpson, who played Drew, is wildly all over the place in this film; I really struggled to buy into the friendship dynamic between him and Washington. Marc Menchaca, who played McBride, wasn't capable of lifting his military antagonist to more than dumb grunt; Menchaca shouting dumb quips all the time felt extremely out of place. Robbie Tann, who played Shipley, was in this film a lot more than his character really needed to be; watching Tann oversell a dying person for nearly twenty minutes was a bit much.

One of the nicest looking sci-fi films of 2023 but can't really escape a bland cast and a script about AI that has been done to death many times before. I would give The Creator a 6/10.