The Creator

My first review in a long while! I have been teaching and thus have lost the time to even work on these. Luckily, as I return back to reviews, my creative juice is reinspired and I feel motivated to continue these. This is my review of the new sci-fi film, "The Creator"! What could've been a trite narrative about "AI versus humanity" winds up having an interesting message of neither side truly being perfect and instead embracing traits of humanity in those who have it.

Small addendum as I finish up the review: The trailer for the film used the Beirut explosion as a composition for an explosion. This incident resulted in actual deaths and was absolutely a point against me wanting to go see the movie. However, I decided to support it anyways and it appears they removed the scene after the feedback. Good on them, but the fact that it was used to begin with was despicable. Hold people accountable! Anyways, here's the review!

PLOT: Poorly paced and kinda dragged out.

This should be the simplest part of a sci-fi story if you're looking to introduce people into your world. For starters, this film really needed to be paced more cleanly. There's two falling actions and they both feel out of place as the film barely gets an hour in before it starts shifting into final gear. This sucks because I was really well-gripped by the first act where the narrative focuses on this interesting dude with no real love for himself seeing the humanity in artificial intelligence.

CHARACTERS: The second strongest part of the film.

If not for the characters feeling real and endearing, the plot would fall through. John David Washington sells himself in this role and feels like someone you really want to survive throughout everything he goes through. His facial acting is terrific and his body language really sells his performance. The young girl acting against him is terrific as well, although she is flat in certain areas as most child actors are. The standouts are Ken Watanabe and Gemma Chan who really deliver solid performances despite 10 minutes of screentime each. You feel their characters shine through what little they get.

SHOTS: The strongest part of the film.

This film was made by the directing strength of Gareth Edwards and the cinematographical wondery of Greig Fraser. These two worked on Rogue One together and separately Edwards did Godzilla and Monsters while Greig Fraser did Dune, The Batman, and Foxcatcher. Both are incredible separate, but, when mixed, create movie magic that delivers beautiful shot after beautiful shot combined with digital effects that are absolutely bonkers for the relatively-low budget of this flick. With a third of the budget of their film Rogue One, they create a film that, in my opinion, looks just as good. It pulls you in as well with its realism and stunning images that evoke wartime photos while also building the haunting reality of this world. It absolutely pulls you in.

SOUND: Mmm... good sound design...

Sound design is a critically underrated part of the filmmaking experience as sound alone can evoke a reaction out of just about anyone. Dead Space is a game series that uses sound wonderfully; the game uses simple tricks like constant whispers, distant noises, and squishy fleshy sounds to build a constant sense of dread and anxiety. In a similar way, this movie uses sound to oppress the viewer and build the feeling of constantly needing to hide or run. Even the music, as supressed as it can be, only serves to build the story's constant sense of urgency. It's good stuff.

WRITING: Strong, but not always.

While the writing can be quite strong in certain areas, there is a specific area it REALLY lacks in. Its attempts to inject humor into the script, especially for how bleak it is, really fall flat. They feel like they're trying to relieve tension, but instead distract from the movie as a whole. This really sucks because of how annoying the humor can be. While writing in the emotional scenes can be quite great, it really does show the weakness of the plot and not making something more accessible. While I like it being unaccessible for most audiences, generally people want science fiction to be easily understood as much of the concept is hard to reach to begin with. That being said, it's not a glaring con.

CONS: Really, just too long.

This film does not justify 2 hours and 13 minutes. This isn't an issue where the film is too long either or has specific scenes that need to be cut, it's an issue where the film needed to be reworked. They should've gone straight from the temple to the spaceship, it would've cut down on some serious fat in the movie. These issues stick out like a sore thumb and made my watching annoying as I was sitting there an hour and a half in wondering how we still had 40 minutes more.

LITTLE THINGS: The VFX!

Man, this picture has some incredible effects work! Some of the robots, especially for the budget, are flawless. It helps that they're meant to look inhuman, but the ones with digital addons are especially impressive. This film really shows off its budget and should be praised for that.

VERDICT: A flawed yet intriguing flick.

Despite my issues, this film did have some great moments. The message of "Do robots go to Heaven?" was a thoughtful one and takes on new meaning as the second act rolls in. There's a legitimate twist that caught me off-guard that pulls these theme in closely and ends up being the unsung hero of this flick. While I dislike the flow of the film, its ideas are by far stronger than the weakest points. It's visually impressive, engaging, and holds you until it starts throwing in action for no real reason.

SCORE: 6.5/10