mhorg2018 Review of The Creator

The Creator (2023)

Poor pacing, major plotholes lead to a dull, forgettable movie.

[1/10 · 21 December 2023]

First, I must again question the veracity of some reviews posted on IMDB. 10? Really? No self-respecting SF fan would ever give this derivative, dull story a 10. If I could, I'd give it a zero, but IMDB won't allow that...yet. Gareth Edwards, was Rogue One his lone great movie? Godzilla was just OK and this, well, its terrible. John David Washington has as little a screen presence here as he did in Tenet. Unlike some, I found some of the visuals in this fine. But when Washington is carrying Alphie around, it's clear that's a doll. The entire story is silly. Once again, a white director/writer damns white people for the evils of the world. Sorry to tell you this, but all the weeping and hand wringing in the world, the constant damning of one segment of society isn't going to undo the past, nor is this the way to heal. But onto the movie. So there's a war between the US (Europe is barely mentioned) who have this giant space platform called NOMAD, which strikes with impunity wherever they wish. They constantly tout they're not at war with the people of New Asia (which sounds suspiciously like Japan's WW2 idea of the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere), only with the AI, who didn't really nuke Los Angeles, that was a human error blamed on AI. OK, so if Japan is part of this silliness, am I expected to believe that, with their technology, Japan couldn't stop NOMAD? How does Washington's character come to love this little robot kid? And is Gemma Chan making a career out of playing robots/androids? The story itself is dull the American soldiers are like robots themselves, totally given in to fighting the AI menace, only one questioning anything, and that's five years later, and he's dying. So his white guilt makes him give up the info. Alphie is based on John and Gemma's unborn child, a total tear jerker idea. Really not too many original ideas in this. The robot cops and soldiers appear to be lifted from about 100 different Animes. NOMAD is sort of original looking, but also, from the size of it, looks to be too low in earth orbit to not get pulled down. The movie ends abruptly, like Edwards ran out of money, time or ideas. This is one I'll never watch again. Want to see good AI movies? Colossus the Forbin Project, Terminator 1 and 2, Upgrade are all better than this.