2023, in all facets of the film industry, is likely to be remembered as ‘The Year Of AI’. Production-wise, Hollywood has seen a once-in-a-generation workers’ strike (partly) out of fears of artificial intelligence threatening the livelihood of creatives. Narratively, stories about the looming threat of replacement by machines have reached a point of relevance that, even considering sci-fi’s rich history of prescience, is still kind of bizarre to contemplate at this point in time. And on the critical side of things, it seems like every goddamn person who writes about movies has uttered some variation of “it’s as if an A.I./ChatGPT/an algorithm made/wrote this film” as a go-to criticism for films that feel assembly-line or generic. Yes, I resorted to this very thing during the year-end lists for 2022, but the extent to which it has since mushroomed into a genuine cliché is… getting kind of irritating.
At any rate, alongside films like Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, The Creator feels like one of those emblematic releases that help define a year as a pop culture moment. That it’s one of a shrinking minority of tentpole sci-fi flicks that aren’t based on pre-existing material (directly, at least, but we’ll get to that…) adds to that battlefront mentality. What can I say, this is the kind of metanarrative shit I crave in media.
And just from the presentation, it makes a hell of an argument for there being more films like this. Not just because of the visuals either, although with DP Greig Fraser once again making the frame feel gi-friggin’-gantic, that’s certainly part of it. No, the ‘argument’ side of things comes from how, much like Babylon earlier this year, this has about a third of the budget of the average modern blockbuster, and yet it looks at least three times as good as they end up being. Following the synergy that led to them managing to find gold in the Disney-era Star Wars wonk with Rogue One, Fraser and director Gareth Edwards stick to a similar tangible aesthetic with an emphasis on location shooting over green-screens or even all that much in the way of building sets.
Not only that, but it’s primarily filmed using Sony FX3s, a relatively cheap and kind of adorable little digital film camera which… I mean, the sheer idea that a device that small and (compared to most modern industry standards) relatively cheap is capable of something like this is pretty damn cool. It’s a big-time blockbuster, but it’s made with the sensibilities of an indie production, which I totally respect.
I wish I could be as glowing about the script for this, though. Edwards and Chris Weitz set up an interesting world where ‘Western civilization’ is at war with AI and its allies in New Asia, but the actual story is both rudimentary and rather predictable. We follow Sgt. Joshua Taylor (John David Washington) as he tries to find the head AI architect Nirmata, encountering their ultimate weapon: A child simulant called Alpha O (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) who can control technology remotely.
A lot of the story feels like an excuse just to string the still-impressive-looking set pieces together, and most of that is made up of familiar parts. Along with the Disney-era Star Wars production aesthetic, there’s the robot designs that are like a mix of Steven Spielberg’s A.I. and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (with effects realisation that looks quite a bit like something out of Ex Machina), the use of naturally-framed high-concept sci-fi to comment on Western militarism and racism is reminiscent of early Neill Blomkamp, the Asian-centric world-building is very Blade Runner, and of course, the central idea of machines vs. humans is about as textbook sci-fi as it gets.
And yet, even though the story did leave me a bit cold, there’s still quite a bit of emotional impact to it despite that. All the work grounding the sci-fi elements and world-building in tangible reality not only makes the parent/child allegory at the heart of the main drama ring true, but there’s a decent sense of humour to this as well. It doesn’t let the bleakness of the setting overwhelm the humanity of the characters, and Washington’s got some pretty good wisecracks throughout. Then there’s the more emotional moments, involving Joshua’s reasons for being involved in this operation, his growing connection with ‘Alfie’, not to mention the traumas inflicted on so many of the androids and simulants. Even with how thin the plot itself is, there are points where I was genuinely moved by what was going on.
This feels like what a lot more studio films should be aiming for nowadays, in intent if not so much in execution. It’s a striking example of how easily skill can outclass raw finances, looking proper incredible without letting any of its behind-the-scenes cost-cutting interfere with the movie magic. If anything, it being this technically proficient while not costing 100s of millions to make should be seen as a new standard for an industry that has just seen such a colossal foundational shift due to COVID. As a film, it’s quite enjoyable if underbaked, but as a production, I have an unexpected amount of respect for its existence.
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