The Creator Movie Review

The Creator movie review

Gareth Edwards creates good but not great original sci fi action thriller.

The Creator is a solid and entertaining sci fi action movie that is not part of a franchise IP that mixes elements of past sci fi movies you have seen before. The problem with the film at times is it feels too familiar with other films like terminator, Star Wars, and aliens. The plot and character motivations at times feel contrived and convenient for the story to work and keep the film from being as great as it could be along with the characters and their relationships not being developed as much as they could be. The big positive of the film is the CGI, the practical effects, and the visuals of the film look incredible especially because the films budget is 80 million and looks better than a lot of big budget movies that have 200 sometimes 300 million budgets which makes me hope that this will inspire more blockbuster movies to follow suit.

Amid a future war between humanity and the forces of artificial intelligence, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, 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. I liked this movie, and one of the main reasons is John David Washington is great in this movie he really anchors the film bringing humanity and charm to the character even if the script doesn’t flush him out that much. Madeleine Yuna Voyles who plays Alphie is also great and has good chemistry with Washington and their dynamic as the film goes along is entertaining and carries the film. However, with the other cast in the film while none of them are bad acting wise the script for their characters is so undercooked that they don’t shine as much as they should and come off as 2 dimensional characters rather than as real fully flesh out people or AI beings. Two of the big victims of this is Ken Watanabe as one of the leaders of the AI resistance and Alison Janney as Colonel Howell who is leading the army to wipe all of AI.

The big positive of this film is the visuals dear god how Gareth Edwards, cinematographer Greg Fraser, production designer James Clyne, and the VFX team were able to make this film look as good as it does with only an 80-million-dollar budget is amazing. They can do what other blockbusters that have 200 to 300 million dollars don’t do so often and look like crap the mix of shooting on location with CGI is so seamless and has a large scale that does not look cheap that has you wondering why more movies can’t do the same. The production design is fantastic they really enhance the immersion of the film and help blend the CGI, so you are not taken out of the film.

The big negative that keeps me from loving this movie like I want to is the script particularly how surface level the characters and the themes are I cant get invested as much as Gareth Edwards wants you to. They are presented fine but there is much more that could have been delved into like the backstories of the supporting characters just enough so you can get invested but as is so frustrating they come off as one note. Thematically what is presented is great and makes it unfortunate that the script does not explore them more deeply they are just said in brief exchanges or just implied which is not enough for me because it makes the film feel thin and not rich enough when it could be.

Final thoughts on the film is overall I did like this movie and love the fact that Gareth Edwards was able to bring an original blockbuster to the big screen and was able to make it for only 80 million dollars should be a blueprint for Hollywood on how to make blockbuster movies going forward even if I have criticisms of the script character and thematically wise I would happily encourage you to seek it out and watch it I give it 3 and half out of 5.