The Creator
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind
Directed by Gareth Edwards
United States, 2023
Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch once said: “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination.” Nowhere is this more true than in the world of science fiction; whether it’s classic sci-fi blockbusters, the oversaturated streaming market, or the 910 episodes of Star Trek that have aired since the franchise launched in 1968. It is imply the case that if you have an idea of what the future might look like, someone, somewhere has already made a film about it.
All this to say that great science fiction, in the opinion of ReidsonFilm, is not contingent on original concepts, but on using these concepts to provoke original ideas, to challenge our understanding of the world: past, present, and future. Gareth Edward’s The Creator is a film which brings a number of familiar concepts to the table, including – but by no means limited to – an A.I. revolution, a superchild with the power to change the world, and a large, all-powerful space-weapon that floats around blowing things up. Does it use these concepts effectively? Does it push them in new and innovative directions? Well...not really.
The film begins by setting the scene of a geopolitical conflict. The West has outlawed artificial intelligence after it detonated a nuclear weapon in Los Angeles, killing hundreds of thousands of people. In ‘New Asia’ (a large, amorphous territory devised presumably for narrative and political simplicity) however, this ban is ignored and humanoid A.I. robots live in peaceful coexistence with humans.
We are then introduced to our protagonist Joshua (John David Washington), an undercover American agent who has been tasked with tracking down the A.I. mastermind known as Nirmata. Nirmata is supposedly creating a ‘superweapon’ that would be too dangerous for anyone but the Americans to control. The mission leads Joshua to infiltrate a secret organisation of human and A.I. rebels (the New Asia government’s role in any of this is never discussed). Unfortunately for the Americans, Joshua has gone native and now lives among the rebels with his heavily pregnant wife, Maya (Gemma Chan).
After Joshua’s cover is blown (a classic case of the Americans botching yet another covert mission) he is forced to flee, leaving his wife and child behind, believing that they are dead. It isn’t until five years later that the whereabouts of his wife and the weapon are rediscovered. Joshua’s expertise is recruited by the cartoonishly evil Colonel Howell (Allison Janey) and grizzly General Andrews (Ralph Ineson) to track down Nirmata once again.
After yet another supposedly covert mission in which the Americans hack and slash their way through New Asian farmlands (with heavy allusions to the Vietnam War), Joshua locates the weapon and discovers it is, in fact…a small robot child. We soon learn why the Americans fear this superweapon so much - putting her palms together in prayer-like fashion, the child is able to manipulate technology and bend it to her will. Oh, and like all psychic children in movies, she of course has to be bald.
Joshua quickly gains an affinity for his young Padawan, Alphie, and decides that she must be protected from both sides of the conflict. For the remainder of the film, we follow Joshua and his ward as they adventure through New Asia, avoiding detection by the Americans and seeking answers from Nirmata: the mysterious and eponymous ‘Creator’.
Edwards’ film does have a refreshing authenticity about it. While a lot of recent sci-fi is drowned in pristine visual effects, The Creator blends its modernity with a grit and grubbiness that makes the world feel lived-in: think the dystopian Los Angeles of Blade Runner or Star Wars’ desert planet Tatooine. Make no mistake however, beneath the aesthetic veneer, under any degree of scrutiny the integrity of the world and the story begin to collapse. All in all, ReidsonFilm felt this continued to be the film’s primary issue; don’t look too closely else you may stop enjoying yourself.
We could spend time highlighting the film’s countless plot holes: how could a Black American go on the run in New Asia for any longer than five minutes without being detected? Why put so much effort into making the robots look identical to humans but still have giant holes in the backs of their heads? But there are far more interesting criticisms to be laid at the door of The Creator. For one thing, yes, nothing is wholly original but The Creator seemed to throw more derivative tropes at us than even Edwards himself could keep track of. Occasionally alluding to something interesting, such as the ethical implications of the mass killing of potentially sentient A.I., or downloading a dying brain’s signals into a robot, these ideas are all too quickly abandoned for the sake of progressing the plot.
I really wanted to enjoy it, but it just felt so rushed. All this fantastic CGI, it felt like the film didn't really pay attention to it - the main concern was moving the plot along - N
This leads us to the issue of the script. Edwards wrote The Creator himself, whereas his previous blockbuster hit Rogue One had a lot of input from Tony Gilroy who came up with the screenplays for Michael Clayton and the Bourne trilogy. ReidsonFilm found themselves wishing Gilroy had gotten the call up once again, as while the plot was sometimes engaging, Edwards was clearly leaning heavily on the Rogue One storyline. A jaded hero in search of reunion with a loved one, who at the end finds redemption in a dramatic final scene. Among a plethora of other Star Wars references, Edwards even includes an ‘Easter Egg’ on an airport Lunar Departures board towards the end of the film, where ‘Scarif’, the name of a planet featured in Rogue One, is on display. It would have been better if Edwards had either tried harder to distinguish this film from his previous work, or simply thrown in a couple of lightsabers and gone for official recognition as a Lucasfilm production.
ReidsonFilm were divided on the performances of the cast. For some of us, John David Washington as the lead makes the best of a bad script, conjuring some genuinely emotive scenes while navigating the minefield of overdramatic lines which could have come from a Michael Bay movie:
Execute her or we go extinct!
Madeleine Yuna Voyles as the superchild, Alpha-O, also has some powerful moments as far as child actors go, but for us this wasn’t enough to salvage The Creator from the trash compactor.
Edward’s characters added nothing new to the well-worn theme of the grizzled anti-hero who has lost everything then learns to care again when they are forced to protect a small child: The Road, The Last of Us, The Mandalorian, The Witcher, Logan and we could go on. Again, there’s nothing wrong with using these tropes, but where are you going with them?
The Creator is a film rich in images and ideas, which undoubtedly showed huge promise in its concept art with shots like the above. But the design and world-building seem wasted on such a poorly written script. Edwards gave none of these ideas enough room to breathe and the result is a film which ultimately disappoints. Maybe feed the script to ChatGPT and see what improvements it can make - hopefully it doesn't get any crazy ideas.
Kami: What do you want, sweetie?
Alphie: For robots to be free.
Kami: Oh. We don't have that in the fridge. How about ice cream?
Like father, like son: returning to the grizzled anti-hero who has lost everything storyline, John David Washington is the son of Denzel Washington, the star of Ridley Scott’s thriller, Man on Fire. Ex-CIA agent seeks redemption through saving a little girl, and sacrifices his life in the end. Some of the lines are almost word for word: he is never going to heaven because you have to be a good person to go to heaven.
And the clincher? The Creator closes with Debussy’s Clair de Lune, a recurrent theme that plays as Creasy (Denzel) comes close to death in Man on Fire - S
Reids’ Results (out of 100)
C - 62
T - 58
N - 55
S - 65
Thank you for reading Reids on Film. If you enjoyed our review please share with a friend and do leave a comment.
Coming next… our final film of ReidsonFilm’s third season: Les Misérables(1934).
No, not that one.
Glad you're about to look at the most famous work of a seriously overlooked/underrated filmmaker.
I kind of liked this movie haha. I would guess if I was ranking it, I would have given it a 75. You're analysis of the plot is spot on, but I typically give a lot of grace to plot failures. That being said, I had not thought about this movie for one second until reading your article, which clearly says something about it.