THE CREATOR (2023) – Creative set designs in a future concept that is oversimplified and marginalized

At a technical level, The Creator is a remarkable achievement by director Gareth Edwards who was responsible for the outstanding standalone Star Wars movie Rogue One in 2016. It was reported that the film was shot using a SONY FX3 which contributed to the film’s relatively lower cost. As with Rogue One, The Creator’s creative sets designs and locations were visually distinctive and interesting. It also boosts of an original story which is refreshing when most movies today are either sequels, remakes or an expansion of some familiar universe in a comic book fantasy series.

The film’s version of the future has AI become so advanced that they replace much of what humans do. But their evolution was cut short by what appeared to a malfunction in the AI system which resulted in a nuclear destruction of Los Angeles. After that incident Asia continued to adopt AI in society in contradiction to the United States which decreed all AI’s as dangerous and enemy. This fed into the war mongering nature of Americans and the premise used to depict a world at war with the Americans determined to wipe out AI existence in Asia. Their purpose was further fueled by talks of an AI architect and creator whom they target to kill. The Asia of the future depicted is surprisingly underdeveloped despite the advancement of AI! The battle is fought over farmlands and countryside as if we are back in the Vietnam war again! The humans behave like they are uneducated villagers. This vision is very stereotypical and stale representation of Asia and quite surprising coming from someone like Gareth. While Gareth has of course the freedom to express himself however he likes, I find his oversimplification of society unbelievable and a distraction from my enjoyment of the film as a pure sci-fi event.

John David Washington is well cast in the lead as the only American who has the empathy for the Asians. He is undoubtedly very talented and can make any role standout from his sensitive portrayal of his character. The same sadly cannot be said for the rest of the cast whose characters all come across as very one dimensional and predictable. Child performer Madeleine Yuva Voyles is cast in the pivotal role as the ultimate AI robot who is deemed as a treat due to its high intelligence and ability to be used as a weapon against humans. Sadly, Madeleine is able to come up with a very limited range of emotions and ends up merely looking cute, while failing to evoke any sense of superior intelligence that we are asked to believe she possesses. There was little chemistry between her and her protector as played by John’s character, unlike the strong and emotional chemistry that we get with Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in The Last of Us.

I really wanted to like this movie but ultimately the film’s story (written also by Gareth) and vision of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) dominated world in an unrealistic depiction of a futuristic Asia simply failed to provide the foundation of a quality science fiction.