Film Review - The Creator (2023)

The Creator is directed and co-written by Gareth Edwards and stars John David Washington as Sgt Taylor who is mourning the loss of his wife Maya (Gemma Chan) when he is asked by a US Army commander (Alison Janney) to find a mysterious weapon in the Republic of New Asia which unlike the West has embraced AI in everyday life but when he finds the weapon he begins to question his loyalties to both the mission and his country.

The Creator is a very enjoyable Sci-Fi film and firstly the look of the film is fantastic and worth seeing the film on a big cinema screen, Dune cinematographer Greig Fraser along with Oren Soffer have helped to create a real world here in terms of how man and machine live alongside each other in New Asia but also how the US forces use the powerful Nomad sky station to help win the war in their favour and that station is an dominant presence in the film.

Also the look of New Asia is really good as well with the numerous wetlands, the coastal towns, the ancient temples there’s this great mix of the old and the new here that I found very interesting and the artificial humans look almost indistinguishable from the real ones, if this film does not win Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards next year it will be a tragic mistake.

Also the performances are very good as well, John David Washington is very much his fathers son but sadly it seems he will not get quite the same opportunities that Denzel got when he started out to prove his movie star quality as it is here, he’s soft hearted, charming, good at action and very charismatic as he was in Tenet and BlackKlansmen, Janney is very good as the US Army Commander as is Sam Watanabe in his role while little Madeliene Voyles almost steals the entire film as Alphie the young child who may be the key to the wars end.

But where the film isn’t as strong sadly is its storytelling and it isn’t awful here not in the least but I found its messaging regarding AI to not sit as well with me and that is mainly due to the rise of AI and the need for very strict guardrails to be put on it in the real world and here the film has almost a very pro AI message and that didn’t really sit well with me like I mentioned above especially given the strikes going on in the movie industry which AI is a big reason for them happening and for those strict guardrails to be put in place.

And so that was the Creator and despite some messy messaging I really enjoyed this movie and feel it is definitely worth a watch, 3 and a half out of 5.