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The Creator is a much-hyped new sci-fi concept movie from Gareth Edwards, who in the past decade brought us the great Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but the poor 2014 variant of Godzilla.
This time round, we’re in New Asia, 2065, soon learning that the film is split into four chapters, starting with “The Creator“, showing us how AI-meets-humans in what looks like an alternate 1960s, and all of which is overseen by a big boss called the Nirmata, which is the creator, itself.
Joshua (John David Washington – Tenet, Beckett) is an undercover cop, married to Maya (Gemma Chan – Don’t Worry Darling), and expecting their first child. But nothing ever goes to plan, and thanks to the detonation of a huge bomb, our lead has lost an arm and a leg, as well as Maya, while Los Angeles was declared Ground Zero.
Five years on, we meet him again, and we learn how the huge USS Nomad spaceship was created to save humanity. It patrols the skies, looks down the grond and does away with anyone it doesn’t like, a bit like the Tory party. But… is Maya still alive? Or has she been recreated in AI? Those are questions which need answers, none of which seem plausible, when you experience the explosion.
Like US Marines, the cops are going in, looking for a deadly weapon known as AO, since that could destroy the Nomad, thus helping AI succeed, since it’s a war between us and them. Once located, they must all an air strike and leave, but is Gemma amongst all the hullabaloo?
As the trailer confirms, AO is the AI-based child who’s hanging around, known as Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). Plus, in this world, there are robot cops (robocops?) who look similar to the baddies from Terminator 2, except not so skull-like; and once it’s your time to leave this world, you can donate your likeness to AI, so you sort-of live on forever.
Basically, The Creator turns into a long-winded chase movie as Joshua and Alphie try to evade the authorities, while the former tries to find out the truth about Maya; and being on the run, makes it feel like Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence from 2001.
Elsewhere, since the robots just want to be free, this rips off the videogame Detroit: Become Human; another time, some men are ejected out of an airlock on the Nomad, with that scene moment in silence, so, like 2001: A Space Odyssey, courtesy of HAL; plus, when he’s trying to get from down on the ground, up to the Nomad in the sky, it’s like Matt Damon’s quest in Elysium.
As an aside, one thing that was crazy from the off, is that Mr Edwards insisted on using a very tight 2.76:1 widescreen aspect ratio. Given that 2.39:1 is the default, these days, making it wider doesn’t actually extend the cinema screen. It just narrows the field of vision for us to see. So, it really is a dumb choice.
And one point that might be a spoiler…
The Creator is in cinemas now, and isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can buy The Art of The Creator (Hardcover).
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 133 minutes
Release date: September 29th 2023
Studio: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Aspect Ratio: 2.76:1 (Anamorphic Atlas Scope, Anamorphic Kowa Scope)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 5/10
Director: Gareth Edwards
Producers: Gareth Edwards, Kiri Hart, Arnon Milchan, Galileo Mondol, Jim Spencer
Screenplay: Gareth Edwards, Chris Weitz
Music: Hans Zimmer
Cast:
Joshua: John David Washington
Alphie: Madeleine Yuna Voyles
Maya: Gemma Chan
Colonel Howell: Allison Janney
Harun: Ken Watanabe
Drew: Sturgill Simpson
Omni / Sek-on / Sergeant Bui: Amar Chadha-Patel
McBride: Marc Menchaca
Shipley: Robbie Tann
General Andrews: Ralph Ineson
Captain Cotton: Michael Esper
Kami: Veronica Ngo
Daniels: Ian Verdun
Hardwick: Daniel Ray Rodriguez
Lambert: Rad Pereira
Bradbury: Syd Skidmore
Dr. Thankey: Karen Aldridge
Boonmee: Teerawat Mulvilai
Commander Daw: Leanna Chea
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.