Directed by:
Gareth EdwardsComposer:
Hans ZimmerCast:
John David Washington, Madeleine Yuna Voyles, Gemma Chan, Allison Janney, Ken Watanabe, Ralph Ineson, Marc Menchaca, Sturgill Simpson, Amar Chadha-Patel (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
Amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua (Washington), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Chan), is recruited to hunt down and kill The Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war… and mankind itself. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory… only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child. (20th Century Studios)
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Reviews (12)
A film whose creators stutter, can’t remember the beginning of a sentence and constantly run the gamut from “original sci-fi” to clichés and desperate banalities that mask one thing: The Creator says nothing relevant about the phenomenon of AI, which is merely another spectacular decorative element in a film that’s completely dependent on design. Neither the plot nor the world of the film makes sense; given how much space The Creator has, it never creates a coherent and comprehensible world. By comparison, even the didactic Elysium comes across as an engrossing fictional world. Edwards’ directing tries to go in depth, but it rather unconvincingly jumps from details to the big picture, from the present to the past. Some of the actors’ lines really could have been written only by Chris Weitz... Washington plays an utterly two-dimensional character who, through his suffering, only reinforces the impression that The Creator demands grand emotions, to which he is absolutely not entitled. Instead, it has the same feelings of emptiness and lifelessness as Godzilla and Rogue One.
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The Creator is a great technical achievement considering its budget of "only" 80 million dollars, because its magnificent visuals and production design put all those overpriced and computer-artificial sci-fi films of recent years to shame. Unfortunately, the same enthusiasm cannot be shared on the part of the script, the skeleton of which is a tired scheme that relies on so many coincidences and convenient strange decisions by the characters that it makes your head spin if you give it some thought. And it's a great pity, I would like to root for it.
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An audiovisual feast... A beautiful setting in an underdeveloped Asia that is being destroyed by imperialist (American) scum with their ruthless missiles. Add to that a roaring Zimmer and maybe Radiohead. Unfortunately, though, with a stupid, unlikeable hero who doesn't know what he wants and betrays everyone who comes in contact with him. John David Washington is cruelly out of place here, and even the little girl is better than him, but that's the least of the problems. The narrative structure is fine, though I was expecting a more interesting twist, but the bigger problem is when some things contradict each other, failing to follow the given rules of the imagined world, which itself works rather oddly. They must have left a lot out in, and it often feels like stroking against the grain. There’s a good film buried in there somewhere, but Gareth Edwards has badly mishandled it and I can't work out if it was already on paper or later in the editing room.
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The first blockbuster with a script entirely written by AI, The Creator certainly stands out with its impressive visuals, captivating locations, and occasionally excellent cinematography. However, story-wise, it's a mix of various sci-fi tropes and elements (think District 9, Chappie, Short Circuit, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Avatar: The Way of Water, etc.), making it feel like there's not a single original idea in sight. The first half-hour is fantastic, but it quickly devolves into an endless cat-and-mouse chase filled with clichés and stagnant plot points, ultimately leading to a predictable conclusion. The film tries to be emotional, but it didn't move me at all. Lately, I get easily hooked by father/child relationship dramas, but this one missed the mark. Despite its flaws, I still consider it an above-average entry in the otherwise weak sci-fi landscape of recent years. I highly recommend watching it on the big screen – IMAX especially enhances its visual appeal, ensuring a satisfying viewing experience, even if the memory of it fades a bit more each day after watching.
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And the bubble has definitely burst, so if anyone thought that Gareth Edwards was a directorial genius who was forced out of Rogue One by the evil Disney, and Tony Gilroy only “finished his job for him”, they're in for a nasty clash with reality. The Creator is a beautiful looking film. Physical, full of cool gizmos, gadgets, robots, tanks, rockets, and generally beautiful to look at. It looks very decent in motion too, Edwards is quite adept at war action, and at some points his latest film is reminiscent of Terminator or Avatar; and also of the film we've been looking forward to since the trailers. But then there's a lot of things he can't do. Edwards is a brilliant designer, a decent executor and a lousy storyteller. The longer I watched The Creator, the more I actually felt sorry for him, because behind that veneer of great production design is a woefully banal story, told in an unimaginative and uninteresting way. All the clichés you can think of are there, even the ones that you'll think would be a bit embarrassing if someone used them. Besides, The Creator tries desperately to pretend to be something more and offer some philosophizing in addition to the simple story, but Edwards is woefully unable to work with it. And the more he tries to look clever and multi-layered, the more it becomes apparent how superficial and boring this film is as the running time progresses. Nice, but... shitty, I guess not, but just not very good, either.
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