Have You Been Watching...? The Creator (2023)

 

I was looking forward to the Creator, directed and co-written by Welsh director Gareth Edwards. He also directed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (one of the best Star Wars movies) and co-wrote and directed Monsters (2007).  The trailer looked great and the pedigree good. Can the movie live up to the hype?

The cast is led by ex-American footballer and son of Denzel, John David Washington (“Ballers” TV Series and BlacKKKlansman), as Joshua Taylor and tells the story of the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) and how it goes wrong, leading to the destruction of Los Angeles in a nuclear explosion. While the US abandons AI and actively destroys all AI forms, the rest of the world disagrees and continues to co-exist with AI forms, as police and numerous other forms.

It's an interesting story and certainly plays to current concerns around the rise of AI, and indeed the opening sequence is a fantastic potted-history of what leads up to the movie. However, from this point on, the storey devolves into a generic “golden child” trope.

The American troops are hunting Nirmata, the creator of the AI, and believe she has created a weapon. Josh is undercover as they believe his wife is the daughter of Nirmata. Josh genuinely falls in love with Maya (Gemma Chan from British dramas Bedlam and Dr Who) and she is pregnant with their child. After a botched US army operation, Josh’s cover is blown and Maya is believed to be dead with her unborn baby.

Fast-fowarding five years, Josh is recruited again to hunt down Nirmata and a weapon they are believed to have created. Josh eventually finds out the “weapon” is, in fact, a cyborg-child called “Alpha-O”, with technology far in advance of what’s already known and accepted. Alpha (renamed “Alphie” by Josh) exhibits the ability to control technology, seemingly by her mind. Thus the plot becomes one of keeping the Golden Child away from the baddies.

This is a shame as the movie suggests a wonderful backstory and attempts as world-building, but it feels like it’s being skimmed over. Some of the plot threads don’t join together and there’s a lot of things happening that seem to happen for plot’s sake than genuine development. Characters appear to say something relevant to the plot then are killed off with no development and simply there as exposition. In spite of this, the effects and cinematography are absolutely excellent. I expected this as I can apply the same to Rogue One, but this is the movies only saving grace. The characters are simply cyphers with little to no characterisation or development. I found myself literally not caring about any of them and this meant that despite looking great,t he movie is a chore to watch and lacking in originality. With a running time of over two hours, there’s a lot that could have been excised and told the same story. That excised time could’ve been spent developing the main characters. This is so bad that I can’t even recall any characters name beyond the core three (Josh, Maya and Alphie). The ending of the movie involves so much bizarre decision making that I couldn’t believe what was actually happening on screen and it removed me from investing in the story.

Alphie is played by a young actress called Madeline Yuna Voyles and she is very good with the material provided, and the rest of the cast (including Ralph Ineson who is utterly wasted in this movie) play their roles adequately.

Very much a case of style over substance, The Creator is a bit of a dud, unfortunately.

Year: 2023

Rating: 3/10

Availability: Currently available to rent or buy digitally through the usual outlets.