The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Show reviews
    • Interviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
  • Music
    • Live music
    • Album reviews
    • Interviews
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
    • Fringe
    • Vault Festival
    • Interviews
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Interviews
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join the team
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

Culture Cinema & Tv Movie reviews

The Creator

The Creator | Movie review
26th September 2023
Avatar photo
Musanna Ahmed
Avatar
Musanna Ahmed
26 September 2023

Movie and show review

Musanna Ahmed

The Creator

★★★★★

Release date

28th September 2023

Gareth Edwards goes back to his roots with The Creator, an $80 million sci-fi spectacle that has more in common with his $500,000 debut Monsters than even his two other blockbusters, Godzilla and Rogue One. Though budgeted manyfold higher than Monsters, what this new feature shares, in addition to a real visual invention, is a strong socio-political handle, Trojan Horsed through an action film veneer.

The Creator is a futuristic thriller about an American special forces agent, Joshua (Tenet star John David Washington, continually proving his leading man credentials), who is outfitted in a post in New Asia (an area imagined as a unity between various Asian countries) when a war between the US and advanced artificial intelligence is raging. In his mission to end it, he embeds himself in the life of robot scientist Maya (Gemma Chan). Their relationship manifests as real love, with her imminently expecting their child when the film begins.

Sadly, the storytelling of The Creator isn’t as advanced as the AI within it, and therefore it succumbs to some unappealing tropes, including “fridging”, which is when a character is introduced only for them to quickly die, for the purpose of furthering another plot. It’s a particularly bad trope as female characters are often subject to it – that’s the case here too, as Maya is shortly dispatched. Years later, her death is the impetus for Joshua to guide a young robot girl whom the Americans are chasing, believing her to be a weapon required to end the war.

Through this plot, Edwards boldly declares his intentions upfront, delivering a narrative of Western imperialism, allegorising his film with America’s rationale for the invasion of Iraq and concluding the futility of war all the same, including the hopelessly long search for weapons of mass destruction and the trail of collateral damage left behind.

The messaging is powered by the top-tier craft, with some of the year’s best production design and cinematography giving the feature a searing personal intensity to Joshua and Alfie’s journey. This was expected from Edwards, really, with Monsters and Rogue One both standing out for their beautiful character work and sense of intimacy against an epic backdrop. Given its faults, Edwards’s masterpiece may still be to come, but The Creator is his best film yet, showcasing his love for political drama and action entertainment to the most thrilling extent so far.

★★★★★

Musanna Ahmed

The Creator is released nationwide on 28th September 2023.

Watch the trailer for The Creator here:

Related ItemsfeaturedfilmmoviereviewThe Creator

More in Movie reviews

Earth Mama

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Candy Cane Lane

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Geni

★★★★★
Mersa Auda
Read More

Eileen

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Wish

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Girl

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More

Maestro

★★★★★
Filippo L'Astorina, the Editor
Read More

The Eternal Daughter

★★★★★
Selina Sondermann
Read More

Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge of Everything

★★★★★
Umar Ali
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Musanna Ahmed

The Creator

★★★★★

Release date

28th September 2023

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Candy Cane Lane
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The House of Bernarda Alba at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • “It’s super important to put attention on childhood, it shapes who children become”: Lila Avilés on Tótem at the Belfast Film Festival
    Culture
  • Earth Mama
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Peter Pan Goes Wrong at Lyric Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Earth Mama
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Candy Cane Lane
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • The Doll Factory
    ★★★★★
    Show review
  • Geni
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story at Alexandra Palace
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Earth Mama
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Fallen Leaves
    ★★★★★
    Uncategorised
  • The Doll Factory
    ★★★★★
    Show review
  • Tom A Smith at Camden Assembly
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story at Alexandra Palace
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
  • Contact us
  • Join the team
  • Subscribe to the mailing list
  • Support us
  • Writing for The Upcoming

Copyright © 2011-2023 FL Media