A familiar mélange and pastiche of sci-fi-tropes you’ve seen and felt before, filmmaker Gareth Edwards’ science-fiction drama, “The Creator,” is recognizable but, nonetheless, largely compelling— skillfully understanding the crucial balance of blockbuster scale and grounding character intimacy. Its intriguing examination of what constitutes a sentient being—coupled with its aesthetic mix of lo-fi, gritty, and grimy tech blended with sleeker, cleaner, and austerely traditional visual references to the future— makes for an engaging experience clearly designed for the big screen.
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There are plenty of ways to enter “The Creator” conversation. While imperfect results and opinions will vary on its originality, after the debacle that was “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”— a film that was reportedly taken from Edwards in reshoots and post-production by Lucasfilm and control given over to filmmaker Tony Gilroy (who would eventually make the ‘Rogue One’ spin-off “Andor”)— the new film should prove to be sweet redemption for Edwards, especially in terms of size, grandeur and storytelling. It’s more than adeptly told, and in terms of its skillful handing of enormous scope, it’s the type of film that—perhaps set in a different timeline—would force audience and studio execs to say, “Man, this guy should be given a ‘Star Wars’ movie to direct.”
Edwards has described the drama as “Blade Runner” meets “Apocalypse Now,” and that’s accurate, especially considering it’s essentially a sci-fi war movie and action thriller (and in that regard, similar in tone to ‘Rogue One’ as well). The comparisons are doubly apt when one considers the movie’s thoughtful contemplation of artificial intelligence and the humanity and dignity it deserves juxtaposed with the guerilla warfare milieu being fought in the Eastern part of the world.
“The Creator” begins in the aftermath of a cataclysmic disaster and future world war between humans and the forces of artificial intelligence. Once fully integrated into society, when a nuclear weapon goes off in Los Angeles, killing millions of innocent people—seemingly at the hands of A.I. leaders—the United States declares war on A.I., banning their tech and threatening to extinguish their kind from the Earth. Reflecting on tensions and differences with the China that we have today, the Eastern nations, indifferent to the perils of the West, continue to develop the technology to such a degree that A.I. robots are super life-like, have developed emotions and are embraced as equals. This conflict set into motion a war of epic proportions between the East and West.
In this vast backdrop set in Asia—which certainly looks like a blend of Francis Ford Coppola’s aforementioned battle movie and the scuzzy, rainy noir setting of Ridley Scott’s Androids classic— Edwards and his co-writer Chris Weitz (also a co-writer of ‘Rogue One’) find a human-sized story to personalize and ground the narrative in emotion.
John David Washington stars as Joshua, a hard-bitten ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Gemma Chan). Seemingly having left his life behind when a covert mission imploded, going sideways, Joshua is pulled back in again, recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon rumored to have the power to supposedly end the war and mankind itself. Further teased in this offer by the canny, no-nonsense military Colonel Jean Howell (Allison Janney) is the surprise disclosure that Joshua’s wife, Maya, may still be alive despite the long-held belief that she is dead. Traumatized by his past, Joshua reluctantly agrees to the mission, the potential of finding his wife, a tantalizing carrot to motivate. And then complicating it all when Joshua and his team of elite operatives’ journey across enemy lines into the heart of A.I. darkness is the second revelation that the alleged world-ending weapon is a first-of-its-kind six-year-old A.I. child and little girl eventually known as Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).
Thus begins a sprawling war story, both intimate and voluminous, that expands into an empathetic “Lone Wolf And Cub” dynamic (hell, even “Paper Moon”) where Joshua—initially trying to kill the weapon—begins to sympathize with it and discovers its humanity, protect it, and want to understand what its aims are before simply following orders to execute. Rather than assassinate his target, the soldier takes Alphie with him along for the ride, hoping to find Maya, and perhaps change the course of human history in these vital moments where the end of one or another civilizations feels imminent.
Meanwhile, as they try and hide and evade discovery in this AI-occupied territory, another weapon of mass destruction, NOMAD, is closing in—a gigantic U.S.-made satellite space-station weapon hovering over Asia that uncovers rebel cell targets and wipes them out with atomic weapons from above. And as the clock ticks, Joshua has to figure out what to do with Alphie, while the massive NOMAD station grows closer and closer to uncovering the whereabouts of the main rebel A.I. base and blowing it out of existence.
And yes, it’s a lot like “Star Wars: A New Hope” in this regard; NOMAD is essentially a stand-in for the Death Star and arguably a little derivative when you see it all come together on paper. As an aside, I’d even overheard at my screening a rumor that “The Creator” was Edwards’ original pitch to Lucasfilm, which they turned down, but the company offered him ‘Rogue One’ instead. Now, there’s no evidence to support that claim, but given all the tonal and narrative similarities, it’s a provocative thought.
While different, more personal with a greater consideration of humanity, and more mature and adult-like, “The Creator” certainly has many plot and thematic parallels to “Star Wars,” Perhaps there’s just no escaping that influence for Edwards (it probably doesn’t help that “The Mandalorian” recently refamiliarized the watching culture with the ‘Lone Wolf And Cub’ dynamic). There’s a big bad imposing Empire at work (the imperialistic and invading U.S. forces), and there are many bands of outsider rebels trying to stay alive and fight the good fight despite the impossible odds.
So yes, grab-bag sci-fi movie sensibilities— including “The Terminator” and little “District 9,” in its cultural commentary, social construct, and sympathetic affinities for the enemy— pervades Edwards’ movie. And, like the best of those movies—that function as more than just humans vs. the non-human antagonists—“The Creator” asks us to consider if we ourselves are the problem, the true aggressors, the ones incapable of evolving and wonder. Do androids dream of electric sheep, and do they have a humanity worth considering? The film ponders it all while still racing ahead forwards as a thriller.
If “The Creator” feels too bluntly obvious about all its aforementioned cinematic influences—and it might to some audiences—there are still many compelling elements worth aweing over on top of its scale/ a brilliantly engaging score by composer Hans Zimmer, and beautifully grimy and lo-lit photography by Greig Fraser (“The Batman,” ‘Rogue One,’ “Dune”) and his apprentice Oren Soffe. Fraser left the project midway because of his obligations to “Dune: Part Two,” and in truth, was only present during pre-production, but the film unquestionably smacks of his distinct chiaroscuro style.
If there’s some work to be done throughout, it’s maybe a little bit more focus on the cast. “The Creator” looks the part, but Washington and Chan are a little wooden, perhaps distancing you slightly from the story.
If “The Creator” manages to balance the idea of A.I. dignity and inalienable rights of sympathetic beings, living or otherwise, and its aspiring notions of monumental magnitude and scope, it almost inarguably begins to fall apart and overplay its hand in the final and grand third act. It’s here where “The Creator” not only gets a little melodramatic, but the sheer volume of the movie means the movie’s core warmly human values start to get lost in the noise of escalating blockbusterism. Still, as imitative as Edward’s movie can be, it’s an undeniably impressive piece of work. Its concept and plot are easily identifiable, but the grand sci-fi dimension works well with a personal tale of love, heartache, parenthood, surrogate children, and consideration of humanity for all things living, breathing, or connecting data points with something that may even resemble a soul. [B]
 sci-fi epic that doesn't forget human intimacy.){kind=link}