MOVIE REVIEW
‘The Creator’ – one of the best movies of the year so far
Published:Monday | October 2, 2023 | 12:08 AMDamian Levy/Gleaner Writer
As a fan of the films District 9, Blade Runner and other dystopian science fiction, I was acutely excited to see The Creator. Then again, having enjoyed Logan and The Last of Us in recent years, Gareth Edwards’ story of a rugged soldier escorting a young woman across dangerous terrain seemed to hit a few familiar notes. Still, the look of the film and its commitment to a grounded yet expansive world gave me hope for a film worthy of investment. Thankfully, I was not disappointed.
Largely in part to its breathtaking cinematography, The Creator is a thrill to look at. It captures the beauty of a future where artificial intelligence (AI) and humanity struggle for survival, with each faction trying their hardest not to be wiped out by the other. The world they inhabit is teeming with details that puts The Creator in the upper echelon of cinematic world building.
As gorgeous as the film is, it’s also entrenched in depravity. As the war between robots and humans escalates, the fighting becomes more akin to savagery. The tools they use are highly advanced, but their deplorable acts are no better than apes fighting with boulders and sticks. Humans in The Creator violently opposite their supplanting by artificial intelligence, but that violence begs the question of if they deserve to survive at all.
The Creator has no heroes. It’s main protagonist moves through the world for selfish reasons, and the artificial intelligence fighting for liberation do so at the cost of the moral high ground. The world seems to be not worth saving, but for the hope of a child and the promise of peace. Madeleine Yuna Voyles plays the child in question, and has the tremendous responsibility of making all this work. Voyles does so with aplomb, delivering a performance that is quite literally the film’s heart and soul.
The Creator may be derivative but it wears its references on its sleeve and uses them as a foundation to build upon. The tapestry of emotion present in The Creator is punctuated by a bombastic score by Hans Zimmer, and its lived in performances and world. It’s a breath of fresh air for science fiction and one of the best of the year so far.
Rating: Big Screen Watch
Damian Levy is a film critic and podcaster for Damian Michael Movies.