The Creator

The Creator is an original sci-fi movie written, produced and directed by Gareth Edwards (commonly known as director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story).

Lets start with the positives first. The Creator looks visually superb. They have really imagined a interesting future earth and used the production budget wisely, not over extending what is possible, and creating a curious mix of retro and future looking technology. The cinematography and location shots featuring the spaceships and battle scenes are really well done.

On the negative side, the script is not very strong and we are not fully invested in what is going on or the characters involved. We neither see the bigger picture of this post nuclear reality, nor are we given significant smaller details and depth regarding the people and what they are fighting for.

It is a bit of a mish-mash of seeing robots caring for children and animals and dressed as buddhist monks and US style imperialism (think post cold war foreign policy), with marines massacring indiscriminately while looking for 'the weapon'. We are given a nugget of thought when the Human / Neanderthal analogy is dropped in but it is never followed up with any real substance to carry the idea forward. Therefore we don't know who to root for and the viewer is left hanging.

The acting is average and not great, perhaps reflecting the reality of the budget more than the excellent effects do. John David Washington feels out of his depth with the emotional range he is asked to give, and is eclipsed by the child actor playing 'Alfie'.

Overall, it's not awful, it's a bit disappointing as the potential was there and perhaps another draft of the script could have taken it to another level.

6/10.