The Creator

This weekend, The Creator, an original Sci-Fi film from the director of Rogue One and 2014's Godzilla, was released into theaters. The Creator introduces us to a world where the USA is at war with an advanced species of AI. The movie follows former US soldier Joshua as he is sent on a mission to destroy the AI's newest weapon. When he discovers that the weapon is a child, he must make the choice of whether to save his country or protect the child. This movie was my most anticipated movie of the fall as it is an original blockbuster sci-fi epic which is something we rarely get these days. I was very excited and so badly wanted the movie to be good and successful so Hollywood is motivated to make more of them.

On the whole, I was not disappointed. This movie delivered a big sci-fi action film with a great story and stunning visuals. The best thing about this movie is that it is completely original. It is not tied down to any franchise like a majority of films are. It takes the best things from The Terminator franchise, Steven Spielberg's AI film, and Blade Runner and creates an original story. The world-building in this film is so well done. The movie gives a huge lived-in world where the USA is at war with AI where we get to see so many different aspects of life and how both humans and AI live. The movie takes the familiar idea of humans vs. AI that so many movies these days have been doing, and takes it in a new direction that is still extremely interesting. The movie also does a great job of giving a more complex conflict where both sides are not completely in the right and both have motivation for the actions they take. I think John David Washington does a great job in this film. He can deliver the perfect level of emotion needed and also creates a great dynamic with the child AI character. The movie also has many emotional moments from both the child and John David Washington. You get invested in the characters and feel sad when certain things happen to them. I also really liked the soundtrack of this film. It included some older songs that I felt did a great job fitting the tone of the scenes they were in. In terms of tone, the movie does a great job of remaining consistent. It doesn't undercut tense or emotional moments and always knows the right time to break the tension. Finally, the visuals in this movie were absolutely fantastic. This is probably one of the best-looking movies of the year. The color and way the scenes were shot was just so well done. The images are clear but not so clear that it is off-putting. The style is just so unique to director Gareth Edwards. The CGI also looks great. It is refreshing to see naturally looking CGI after seeing so many bad examples recently. This movie only cost about $ 80 million and somehow still looked better than the $250 million superhero movies that have come out recently.

While I am obviously very positive about this movie. There are a couple of things that keep the movie from a higher score. Firstly, I thought the addition of chapter headers was a bit odd. The movie isn't really grouped into chapters so adding these headers didn't add much for me. The other issue is that the transition between the second and third acts felt a bit rushed. After that transition, the film just feels a little off until the end of the film. Not super rushed but just a little off and probably just needed a little more fine-tuning.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and hope to see more movies like this. This film is proof that Hollywood can still make big blockbuster films that don't cost an arm and a leg and still look very good.

Score: 9/10 Grade: A Recommendation: Please go see this movie and support original stories.