I just got back from seeing THE CREATOR, the new sci-fi action film by Gareth Edwards. who directed MONSTERS (which is fantastic), GODZILLA (Meh.. it’s OK) and then later mostly-directed ROGUE ONE (with a lot of behind-the-scenes shenanigans). I am profoundly conflicted by my feelings for this new film. It’s a real odd mix of astounding visual worldbuilding and well-directed action sequences but wrapped around a really weak and generic story that makes less and less sense from a logic perspective the more you think about it.
But at the same time, I would kind of recommend it. It really is kind of amazing in many ways. It’s got probably the best, most seamless VFX i’ve seen in a film in many, many years. It looks and sounds beautiful, with incredible production design, gorgeous cinematography by Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer, and a score by Hans Zimmer which is – while maybe not up there with his all-time bests – is still a great one. The world-building little details were fantastic. I will almost certainly be buying the art book for this one. I loved little details, like the future “us army” branding literally being a lower-case font logo (haha – you can imagine it being focus-tested to present a friendlier public image!!)
There’s a gritty, believable sense of real-ness to the world that Edwards has created here. Unfortunately it’s always slightly undermined by the niggling sense that it doesn’t really add up logically. It’s a world where AI exists, but it’s only human-level – not superintelligence. I wish they’d addressed that in the opening prologue – even if it meant resorting to some technobabble hand-waving explanation as to why machines weren’t smarter than people. As I said, it’s frustrating. But that’s also not he only problem with the film. In some a bigger one lies literally at the heart of it. And that problem is its lead. I really didn’t rate John David Washington in TENET. And he’s not any better here. The dude sounds like he’s dead bored half the time, there’s no energy and drive to his performance. And as a result he doesn’t make for a sympathetic protagonist. The onscreen relationship with his wife and the mysterious child he adopts, a crucial part of the story, never quite felt genuine and earned. Fortunately the rest of the cast are solid, and some are great. I really liked Alison Janney’s cheerfully brutal mission leader. I just wish they’d found a better leading man. Or woman.
But there’s one thing I think has to be talked about when it comes to this film. And that’s the budget. Because from that point, this really is a potentially ground-breaking movie. This is a film that creates a completely visually coherent science-fiction world with utterly flawless VFX work. It looks like a movie that cost more than $200 Million to make. But the actual budget? $80 Million. Not chump change, but a remarkably cost-effective production. When Gareth Edwards made MONSTERS all the way back in 2010, it suggested a revolution was possible in making modestly-budgeted sci-fi films that still delivered epic spectacle. After that he got sucked into making big-budget studio pictures the traditional way. But with this new film it feels like he’s trying to kick of the next phase of the process started in 2010. Admittedly, this time with a budget about a 100 times that of MONSTERS. But still a fraction of a typical Studio sci-fi action blockbuster. I can’t wait to see the behind-the-scenes documentaries about the making of this film. And the techniques he used to do it. What’s interesting is that the VFX credits for it are surprisingly short compared to the average Marvel or Star Wars movie.
So… at the end of the day, is it worth seeing? Well…. yes. With some caveats. If you like visually rich sci-fi movies – especially with cool robots and hardware – haha, then yes for sure. I guess I feel similar feelings to it as I did when I saw Neil Blomkampf’s ELYSIUM. Another film that had amazing world building, cool design, but was undermined by a weak script with big honking logic holes. But if you’re a low-budget filmmaker, it’s almost worth seeing just to see this evolution of Gareth Edwards’ rewriting of the rules of how to make a blockbuster on non-blockbuster budgets. I hope I get to see a Q&A with him again some time soon. He’s a fascinating filmmaker and I just hope he gets a better script together next time (and finds a better actor to be the lead)
