What’s this? A relatively big budget sci-fi movie not based on any IP? I almost forgot we used to make movies like this. Gareth Edwards, the Rogue One director, dives us head first into the AI revolution with The Creator, putting John David Washington in another movie that goes for grandeur and greatness and settles for grandeur. Poor JDW, one of these days he’s gonna be in another great BlackKklansman like film instead of these flawed epics.
The Creator (translated to Nirmata in Asian languages in the future) starts after an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution has split the world into 2. In Asia, AI robots work in concert with humans, evolving together. No such deal in the United States, because the robots dropped a nuclear bomb in Los Angeles, murdering millions. Sergeant Joshua Taylor (Washington) is sent undercover to discover who Nirmata is, forming a relationship with key contact Maya (Gemma Chan) that goes awry right before Taylor discovers Nirmata. Years later, Taylor is brought back into the war by Colonel Howell (Allison Janney), who’s convinced by the US government the AI’s are building a superweapon to take out the US’s space military base, instrumental in the States winning the war at the moment.
Gareth Edwards’s visual effects background makes the movie’s best asset its visual splendor. Edwards has this way of making every sequence feel 10-20% bigger than his other counterparts other than Christopher Nolan. His location scouting is excellent, using South East Asia’s green mountains and waterscapes to great effect. The undulations in the terrain give lots of great perspective changing shots. Plus, planes and tanks roll over all the imposing terrain, making the vehicles more scary looking as a result. The mixture of small rice patty farms and water towns with practical AI creations give the world a specificity that’s wholly Gareth Edwards but still believable as a near future, a tricky feat to pull off. The thing that will make you grip the chair though are the bomb explosions: the Viz effects team found a way to really make you feel how big and devastating bombs can be, to the point that I shuddered a couple times because of Edwards’s visual effectiveness.
All that time spent on making The Creator look great feels a bit at the expense of expanding on the movie’s story. Not all of it is bad: splitting humanity into AI camps was a smart, modern take, and in turn should split the audience into camps to create some interesting discussion. However, the vast majority of this story is cut and paste from better sci-fi movies and ideas: special child, fear and humanity, military influence, east vs. west, etc. A lot of The Creator feels like Edwards is throwing things onscreen to see if any of it works, and when none if it really gelled, just threw together an ending to the best of his ability. As I left The Creator, I realized that I didn’t learn really anything new here, and it made me a little sad because I was enjoying myself during the film, hoping for the big “whoa” moment that just never quite comes with the story.
I still have faith though, Gareth Edwards. You’ve got the visual stuff, you just need to spend a little more time on your stories. Maybe work with Tony Gilroy, or the Marvel Guys Markus and McFeeley, to craft your next script. Because, I can feel it: you’re so close to making the next big thing.