The Creator Review

The Creator does something not many other films have done in the recent past - it is an original, stand-alone story that is not based on another movie, or a comic book, or a video game (but it is derivative of the sci-fi genre, including its sub-genre cyberpunk.) Further, it does not have any plans for a sequel or continuation - this fact alone makes it a movie that pushes the envelope.

The Creator is conceptualised by director Gareth Edwards who gave us arguably the best Star Wars movie since the originals, and before that the fun if outlandish 2014 Godzilla reboot. Oh, did we mention that Edwards also produced, and wrote both the story and the screenplay (with Chris Weitz) for, The Creator? Much like his first feature film, the 2010 sci-fi horror flick Monsters - where he was the writer, director, cinematographer, production designer, and a visual effects artist.

In the year 2070, humankind is entrenched in an ever-escalating struggle against artificial intelligence - against robots, and AI lookalikes of humans known as simulants. Sergeant Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) is an undercover human agent in search of Nirmata or The Creator - a man who is said to have created the perfect weapon to destroy the US Army's magnum opus, the USS NOMAD, a large mobile airship that is the bane of the simulants' existence. Just as he is about to reach Nirmata, Joshua ends up being in the epicentre of a military strike where he gets grievously wounded, and loses his near and dear ones.

Joshua is reluctantly brought back into action by Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) who hints that his wife Maya (Gemma Chan), thought to be previously dead, might be alive. Once again deployed deep into New Asia (the part of the world where robots and simulants live in peace with humans), Joshua must race against time to reach the Nirmata once again - and to ensure that the Creator's creation, a simulant child named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles), does not fall into the wrong hands.

The debate surrounding artificial intelligence has loomed large on the public consciousness in the past year or two with the rise of AI assistants like ChatGPT. Anyone with the slightest bit of technical know-how can now write scripts, edit copy, create art, brush up their résumés, and even help refine coding. There have been strikes against AI usage in the media, the impact of AI has been discussed in the parliaments of several countries, and there is a general fear that many kinds of human jobs will soon be extinct due to how efficiently AI will replace them. The Creator turns this fear on its head in an interesting manner - humanity is now actively fighting for survival against artificial intelligence.

Despite taking inspiration from several classics before it, be it the Terminator franchise or the Bladerunner series, The Creator manages to carve out its own place and evokes a sense of excitement and wonder. Unlike in the big budget sci-fi flicks with their towering CGI cities and improbable locations, most of the battles in The Creator take place on actual locations - lush green fields, sprawling isles, and snowy mountains in southeast Asia. It is easy to draw parallels with films that portray real-world human conflict, bringing a rather unusual (for sci-fi, anyway) sense of gravitas to some of these scenes.

John David Washington and Madeleine Yuna Voyles are the heart and soul of The Creator, and they do not disappoint. Washington as the grieving veteran and Voyles as the optimistic Alpha-Omega AI build an unspoken bond in the first half that progresses to a genuine human connection by the end of the movie. Gemma Chan is mostly seen in flashbacks or in glimpses, and has only a few dialogues. Allison Janney's hard-as-nails act almost ends in enlightenment, and the rest of the cast ably supports them all.

A revolutionary new filming technique has been employed by Edwards and his co-cinematographers Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer, where they opt to use an enthusiast-grade consumer camera instead of the extremely expensive equipment one would expect from Hollywood films. They shot on locations with small crews, and layered on the special effects only after the final edit was done. As a result, The Creator has breathtaking visuals that wouldn't feel out of place in any big budget sci-fi film, at almost a quarter of the cost. Hans Zimmer's music further elevates the already stellar production.

That's not to say The Creator is a perfect movie - far from it. It has its predictable parts, and a few glaring visual inconsistencies. The first half is mostly nighttime scenes, and can get a little too dark (visually, not thematically) for comfort. The biggest issue we had, however, was with NOMAD. It is an airship that is massive enough to be visible from both the US and Asia - but when it actually hovers over a location it feels pretty undersized. Worse, still, the protagonists manage to traverse a significant portion of it on foot in a matter of minutes, which breaks immersion in a very pivotal scene in the movie.

What ultimately made The Creator special for us is the way it marries mainstream sci-fi action movie elements with its nuanced message. While it is very much a blockbuster sci-fi thriller replete with huge spacecrafts, massive tanks, lasers, missiles, robots, you name it, it is also a dark, bittersweet film that leaves you pondering over the futility of war and the meaning of sentience. Finally, despite a few mostly situational scattered laughs, The Creator does not try to inject any forced humour or have unnecessary comic relief characters, ensuring that its narrative tone rarely falters.

Watch it for the spectacle, or its audacity to try something new in this day and age, or its hopeful take on artificial intelligence. Either way, it is a treat to experience The Creator's vision of the future - and to maybe ponder on it.