My elevator pitch for the Creator is Children of Men meets A.I, two films I really like so going in I am setting a pretty high bar. The Creator tells the story of a world where humanity has developed true artificial intelligence. A.I. that presents itself in the forms of conventional robots and more human-like synthetic machines. For a time there seems to have been consonance between the machines and mankind but after a nuclear weapon is detonated in L.A. everything crumbles. This eventually leads to a war of extermination and vengeance against the machines, one that sees Joshua, played by John David Washington, start to question his beliefs and place in the world.

A more in-depth summary of the film sees America and her allies ban the use and development of Artificial Intelligence. This in turn leaves the fictional nation of New Asia, which seems to be composed of several South East Asian nations, isolated because not only is this nation still producing A.I but the people of this nation are living in harmony with the A.I. Joshua was an undercover operative who fell in love with someone deeply tied to the cause of Artificial life and we spend most of our time with him after his life has suffered many disasters. He is a tired and broken man and that brings me onto one of my favourite themes for this movie.

The Creator never glorifies violence or warfare, at times it may make it exciting, and others it is practically clinical, but it is never glorious. Personally I think that is important. An interesting juxtaposition would be a film like Top Gun Maverick (which I loved) where we see attack runs on an enemy compound and we as the audience cheer on the heroes, while here there were moments I felt generally tense seeing missiles being sent by America against New Asia targets.

I am not saying the film was specifically anti-war, just that it chose not to glorify it. What the film was most likely against was American Imperialism, and if you ask me probably more precisely Western Imperialism. Now I am not going to use an article about a film to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of American Imperialism but the fact that nations think they have the right to send soldiers and drones to other nations to kill someone and not call it an act of war is not something I can support. And yes, I am well aware that numerous nations do that and not just the USA, to think otherwise is ludicrous. Nevertheless, the Creator uses its platform to discuss the topic.

The Creator also shows a possible future where humans and artificial intelligence live together happily and this is a future I would most definitely like to see. I just love that there is hope that humanity could choose to treat its creations as equals, it is highly unlikely but still something I’d want. Finally, the film touches on family, those we build and those we find. And for a film about machines and men killing each other, it is those themes of family that broke me, I was sitting there in the cinema trying not to cry and I am happy to admit that.

In my introduction I mention that this film fell somewhere between A.I and Children of Men but it is so much more than that. The look of the world and machines really made me think of Blizzard Entertainments Iconic Overwatch, but a much more realistic take on it. And The creator as a whole drew me back to the classic science fiction stories of old like Planet of the Apes, 2001 a Space Odyssey and 12 Monkeys.

The film also chose to eschew exposition dumps by filling the void with news reals and dialogue. In this I really find joy, for instance we are introduced to someone who was once fighting against the machines but is now living with and possibly in love with one and nothing is ever explained by it, but you get a glimpse into this person’s life and it makes you wonder. Also when you finally find out what led to the bombing of L.A it is given to us as a minor piece of dialogue that never even affects the overall story.

As casts go this film has a pretty stacked cast, not only do you have the wonderful John David Washington in the lead but you also have a severally underused Gemma Chan bringing a tender yet loving touch to the film. In support we also have Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, Veronica Ngo and a surprisingly brutal and intimidating Allison Janney.

Special shout out to Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alpha-O / “Alphie, she managed to make a machine truly adorable.

And to further augment everything was the stunning visuals. Two of Gareth Edwards inspirations for the is film where Akira and Baraka two films that could not be further from each other. On one hand Akira is one of the most widely celebrated Cyberpunk films ever created, which shows us an all to possible future, while on the other hand you have Baraka (and by extension its sequel Samara) is just one of the most beautiful films ever made, a film that truly captures the beauty of this earth. Baraka lacks a narrative but it explores themes via a compilation of natural events, life, human activities and technological phenomena shot in 24 countries on six continents over a 14-month period, it is something that just has to be seen.

Capping all this is off was a pitch perfect soundtrack. Featuring 12 tracks from the film’s score composed by Hans Zimmer, the album was released by Hollywood Records alongside the film on September 29, 2023, with Zimmer at the helm what else could we expect?

A great cast, stunning visuals and a sound track that will resonate with your soul. The only thing holding this back is for lack of a better word it is a tad derivative. But at the same time as we move closer and closer towards the day when we develop true A.I. The futures we predict become more and more similar and this is probably down to the fact that we as a species now have an idea of what Artificial Intelligence will look like. So for me I loved the film and want to see more from this fictional world. Definitely a must see production that truly encapsulates the cinema experience.