Gareth Edwards is a director who I was wondering what happened to for a while.
Growing up I was a big Godzilla fan, so I enjoyed his 2014 movie.
Edwards also directed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which is probably my favourite Star Wars movie Disney has put out since they started making them.
However, after Rogue One, Edwards did not direct another film for a number of years.
So, when I was amazed by the spectacle of the trailer for The Creator, and saw that it was written and directed by Edwards, I knew I had to see it.
The Creator is a movie that is by no means original, but it still handles its familiar tropes well and with impressive effects.
The film follows Joshua Taylor (John David Washington), a soldier who lost an arm and a leg during a nuclear attack on Los Angeles directed by AI.
After going undercover in New Asia to find and eliminate Nirmata, the one behind AI advancements, Taylor falls in love with and marries Maya (Gemma Chan), a pro-AI fighter, only to tragically lose both her and their unborn child when the mission ends.
Years later, Taylor is recruited by the army again upon learning that Maya is alive and that Nirmata is about to release their ultimate weapon, which is capable of winning the war for the AI.
And so Taylor goes back to New Asia with the goal of finding Maya and eliminating the weapon, only to find that said weapon is a young child, who he names Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).
Disobeying orders to destroy her, Taylor takes the girl with him to try and find Maya, with a growing bond quickly emerging between the two.
As I have said, the story of The Creator is nothing new.
Humanity fighting AI and that AI supposedly using our weapons against us has been a concept since The Terminator.
Along with this, a man protecting a little girl in a dystopian world, with a father-daughter bond slowly emerging between the two, has been a big trend in all kinds of media ever since The Last of Us.
Despite The Creator’s familiarity, the story is still solid with a few twists on the trends to keep things interesting, like that the AI is supported by an entire country, which the United States is fighting against.
As for the growing bond between Taylor and Alphie, it is very well done with both Washington and Voyles giving great performances.
Where this movie truly shines, though, is in its visuals.
The Creator was made with only a budget of eighty million dollars and that is incredibly impressive when you compare it to many hundred million plus movies, which have much weaker effects.
While watching The Creator, there was only point where I consciously thought, yeah, that’s CGI.
Otherwise, ever single effect in this movie looked real to me, especially the AI’s.
These spectacular visuals alone make the film worth seeing, even if the storyline is nothing original.
Overall, The Creator is a solid film backed by spectacular sci-fi visuals.
I look forward to seeing what Gareth Edwards does next.
THE REVIEW MONSTER 