Story: Joshua and Maya are in love, and living their life on a remote desert island that seems perfect in every way. Yet, outside their perfect world, a fight for the future of humanity rages. AI has been upgraded to nearly human levels of sentience, and after a nuclear warhead is released in downtown LA? Well, let’s just say America isn’t keen on robotics, and will go anywhere and do anything to eliminate them. Yep, you guessed it; the fight comes to Joshua and Maya’s island, and soon Joshua becomes ensnared in a plot to capture “the ultimate AI weapon” created by the mysterious Nirmata…which means creator in Nepalese. Title drop, y’all!
Genre I’d put it in: Message-y Sci-Fi With Heart
Release Date: 2023
Remake, Sequel, Based-On, or Original: Original, though there are definitely homages to other stories.
Gotta say: Sorry for the on the nose alliteration in this title’s review. But I couldn’t seem to string together more poignant words at that moment, so here I am, running with it. If you got the good-chills watching Rogue One, The Creator is gonna be your favorite thing to watch this year. Creator is a mashup of Blade Runner, The Golden Child, and Dune‘s Butlerian Jihad. It’s incredible, and I loved every second. I’m not blowing things out of proportion. In fact, I’m kinda trying to keep things low-key and cool-like, so as not to scare the newbies here. Hey. What’s up, you. Welcome.
Granted, I was predisposed to like this. Ken Watanabe in a major role, a hefty amount of Asian rep, and lots of heartstring-tugging throughout the run-time. What’s not to love? The soundtrack? Nothing but love. Hans Zimmer, enough said. Fine; it’s the usual Zimmer awesomeness, and much like the film, it pulls back exactly when it needs to, and gives the film an extra layer of what I thought of as nostalgic futurism in both the diegetic and non-diegetic beats. Production design? Sorry, no hate here; James Clyne and Lek Chaiyan lead teams that develop a technologically surprising, understandable, and believable near-future. Heck, I even love the costuming and hair here.
As the events in Creator are happening sixty-ish years in “our future”? There’s an interesting sloppiness in the look and feel of the big cities, as if the tech is coming too fast, and is literally piling up. Meanwhile, the gorgeous shots of the countryside (Thailand, IRL) are shot with a focus on the beautiful difference between the blue and black grittiness of cities and the rest of the world’s stunning greenery. Thank you, Greig Graser and Oren Soffer, for your cinematographic (IT’S A WORD NOW) touches. And, of course, the performances are stellar. As Joshua, John David Washington has quite the resume of heavy-hitting performances, and he brings his A-Game here. And, of course, I’ll watch anything Gemma Chan is in. (Yes, I’ll even re-watch The Eternals. But I might fast-forward here and there.) Here Maya’s open-hearted acceptance of all life is the yin to Joshua’s at-first hostile to AI yang. Special shout-out to the star of the show, Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alpha, aka Alfie. Her age belies the magnitude of talent this young lady has, and shoulders the emotional burden of being The MacGuffin with ease.
Yeah, I just called Alfie/The Weapon a MacGuffin. Because while Creator‘s overall plot is Get Alfie To Safety, she’s just a symbol of how society has broken under the weight of hate. The real hope by the end of the film is that humans and AI can live in harmony, even though Americans – and yep, we’re at it again y’all – feel the need to pull an Avatar and decimate what they don’t understand. There’s no subtlety, yet I was entranced, thanks to a cast that works well together and brings out the best in what could have otherwise been yet another “we’re bad” narrative. And yeah, that message? Hits particularly hard at this time in our lives. *sighs sadly*
So. Does Creator slam you in the head with its message and sometimes tug your heartstrings so hard they feel like they might literally rip out of your chest cavity? Yep. And I’m okay with that, because the screenplay by writer/director Gareth Edwards and Chris Weitz manages to pull back before things get too bombastic. It’s that sweet spot where you know they’re doing whatever they can to pull emotion outta you, but you’re loving it anyway. What can I say, I’m a simp for a good emotional pull.
#Protip: The Creator‘s trailer notoriously had included images of the Beirut bombing as a voiceover talks about the LA bombing in the film’s story. However it got there, it was good to see that Edwards did make good on his comments; those images are not in the film.
