The Creator (Gareth Edwards, 2023)
The Creator is a quite brilliant, near future science fiction spectacular from British filmmaker Gareth Edwards. It looks like it could be a massive hit.
The movie stars John David Washington (Tenet), as former soldier Joshua Taylor, who over the course of the film forms a solid bond with a robot in the form of a young child, Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).
The Creator is set against the backdrop of a war between, on the one hand, humans and robots, who are basically living in harmony, with, on the other hand, artificial intelligence, which after its prominent role in the latest Mission Impossible movie, is now officially Hollywood’s new Big Bad.
It’s a fifteen year long struggle, taking place around 2050, that started when the AI originally meant to protect humans detonated a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles. Which is actually one of the real life fears of at least some defense specialists.
Thing is, much as Joshua starts to care about Alphie, the ‘little sim’ is also a secret weapon, which can play an important part in ending the war.
At some point Joshua may be forced to choose between saving the human race or saving Alphie. Or can he save the world by saving one personable bot?
This is all revealed early on, but before I get too far ahead of myself, some background. Gareth Edwards directed the features Monsters (2010) and Godzilla (2014), but is probably best known for making the stand alone Star Wars movie Rogue One (2016), which is considered, at least by me, as the best SW-movie in the last couple of decades.
Edwards took his sweet time developing his next project and it looks like it’s paid off: The Creator looks futuristic, but is also very timely and of the moment.
The human element is provided by Joshua (Washington), who begins the movie as a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his pregnant wife.
Still, this tough cookie is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the mysterious architect of advanced AI who also created Alphie.
The movie is engrossing from the get-go and even before the big set-piece at the end of the first act it was clear to me that this two hour plus movie would be totally worth your emotional investment.
The Creator wears its influences on its sleeve. Throughout the movie there are trace of sf-classics like Blade Runner, Akira and E.T., but since it has a pulsating heart of its own, that’s absolutely fine.
I saw it in IMAX and loved every second of it, cause visually it’s so rich and powerful. The acting is also full-on great. John David Washington already proved his chops in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet, but this is the better movie. And as Alphie, young Madeleine Yuna Voyles looks like a true star of tomorrow.
There are also great supporting turns from the likes of Gemma Chan, Allison Janney and Ken Watanabe.
So do yourself a favor and see this magnificent movie on the biggest screen possible!
Note: The Creator is released almost everywhere this week.