The Creator

The Creator is a great technical achievement considering its budget of "only" 80 million dollars, because its magnificent visuals and production design put all those overpriced and computer-artificial sci-fi films of recent years to shame. Unfortunately, the same enthusiasm cannot be shared on the part of the script, the skeleton of which is a tired scheme that relies on so many coincidences and convenient strange decisions by the characters that it makes your head spin if you give it some thought. And it's a great pity, I would like to root for it. (21/11/2023)

And the bubble has definitely burst, so if anyone thought that Gareth Edwards was a directorial genius who was forced out of Rogue One by the evil Disney, and Tony Gilroy only “finished his job for him”, they're in for a nasty clash with reality. The Creator is a beautiful looking film. Physical, full of cool gizmos, gadgets, robots, tanks, rockets, and generally beautiful to look at. It looks very decent in motion too, Edwards is quite adept at war action, and at some points his latest film is reminiscent of Terminator or Avatar; and also of the film we've been looking forward to since the trailers. But then there's a lot of things he can't do. Edwards is a brilliant designer, a decent executor and a lousy storyteller. The longer I watched The Creator, the more I actually felt sorry for him, because behind that veneer of great production design is a woefully banal story, told in an unimaginative and uninteresting way. All the clichés you can think of are there, even the ones that you'll think would be a bit embarrassing if someone used them. Besides, The Creator tries desperately to pretend to be something more and offer some philosophizing in addition to the simple story, but Edwards is woefully unable to work with it. And the more he tries to look clever and multi-layered, the more it becomes apparent how superficial and boring this film is as the running time progresses. Nice, but... shitty, I guess not, but just not very good, either. (28/09/2023)

An audiovisual feast... A beautiful setting in an underdeveloped Asia that is being destroyed by imperialist (American) scum with their ruthless missiles. Add to that a roaring Zimmer and maybe Radiohead. Unfortunately, though, with a stupid, unlikeable hero who doesn't know what he wants and betrays everyone who comes in contact with him. John David Washington is cruelly out of place here, and even the little girl is better than him, but that's the least of the problems. The narrative structure is fine, though I was expecting a more interesting twist, but the bigger problem is when some things contradict each other, failing to follow the given rules of the imagined world, which itself works rather oddly. They must have left a lot out in, and it often feels like stroking against the grain. There’s a good film buried in there somewhere, but Gareth Edwards has badly mishandled it and I can't work out if it was already on paper or later in the editing room. (30/09/2023)

The Creator is a surprisingly average sci-fi flick that neither draws in nor surprises the viewer, let alone impress anyone with its production design. The film largely takes place in huts in Asian fields and, what’s more, in the dark. And when it comes to the futuristic city…well, that looks exactly like Blade Runner. And the heavy machines plowing through the jungle look exactly like something out of a Cameron movie. Another problem is John David Washington and his limited abilities as an actor – it’s impossible to believe him either as a conscientious refugee on the side of the rebels or as a protector of children’s innocence. And the repetitive grieving for his former wife, which doesn’t even elicit any emotion, becomes annoying over time. The only acting element that brings a bit of life to this film is young Madeleine Yuna Voyles. Two and a half stars. (02/10/2023)

I would never cast young Washington in a leading role again, his acting bad (and I'm taking off one star for that). Otherwise I found this film terribly rich, both visually and emotionally. Gareth Edwards takes us through several locations with a succession of gorgeous images, whether it's a city with dozens of glowing neon signs like in Blade Runner, an Asian landscape where ancient Buddhist culture clashes interestingly with modern sci-fi elements, or the Nomad super spacecraft that Kosinski seems to have invented for Oblivion. I was especially impressed with Asia and how thoughtfully and seamlessly the modern architecture builds on the old buildings, creating such an interesting contrast, and the viewer immersion is incredible. I'm not a fan of AI, but I still didn't mind that Edwards relativizes it and actually puts it in the position of a positive element, just like Blade Runner did 40 years ago, the story thus gets a charge that kept my attention throughout and the few logical lapses didn't ruin it for me. Unfortunately, Edwards is a misunderstood filmmaker. Whether it is with Godzilla, which was a clever homage to the TOHO's films, or here, with the heavy-duty sci-fi that isn't being made much these days. I can only be comforted by the fact that Blade Runner was also critically panned and rejected by audiences in its day, so .... maybe it'll come out in a few decades too, Gareth. (26/11/2023)