Skip to main content

The Creator (2023)


The Creator is a film that once again tries to warn the audience of the dangers of artificial intelligence.

Director, Gareth Edwards, seems to only write movies where it's a band of military folks, freedom fighters, or terrorists who against all odds get the job done see: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Creator, and Monsters. 

John David Washington was quickly becoming a Hollywood go-to actor, but after the mediocre response to Tenant and now the lack of an audience for The Creator his bankability is going down. Sure he was great in the Blackkklansman, but it wasn't his acting that made that movie what it was. He has a hard time showing emotion other than stoicism. This might be why he's leaving the action/sci-fi scene and going back to Oscar bait with his next movie: The Piano Lesson.

The film suffers from victim mentality, hitting you over the head repeatedly for the first fifteen minutes with how the main character is a victim of artificial intelligence. The film suffers from horrendous dialogue. At one point Joshua, the main character, explains to his superiors that he had lost his wife and child like they didn't already know that. The delivery of his lines was really wooden and phoned in. The robots at one point have their guns on Joshua, he grabs a gun and turns over before any of the robots have the chance to react. Why does the AI have such a low response time? Also, how in the world does a self-described "Advanced Sim" (AI) not know where humans come from and why would it be programmed to be curious about something it could just look up? The antagonist even at one point says "See you in Vahalla" at one point. Oh, the level of cringe in the writing.

The film has plenty of not-so-subtle casting choices that promote a leftist ideology. If that's not your thing then you'll probably not enjoy the film. If it is your thing, you'll probably still not enjoy the film as you don't want to see those sorts of scenes and the general bad dialogue and writing. This seems like a film for a basement dweller who spends all day on X (Twitter) promoting propaganda. The production was expensive, the CG was okay, the writing was horrible, and the direction was Edwards' worst so far. Result: D+


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Hope (2026)

Hope is directed by Na Hong-jin , the same director who brought us The Wailing , and it has a similarly interesting approach to suspense. The story itself is intriguing, but the editing desperately needed some work. The pacing can be all over the place, which makes some sections feel much longer than they need to be. The comedy also comes completely out of nowhere, considering most of the movie is built around suspense and action. Some of it works, but the tonal shifts can be pretty jarring. Hwang Jung-min's character has the best arc in the movie. His character actually changes throughout the story, and watching that progression is one of the film's strongest elements. Ho-yeon's character, she was in Squid Game, on the other hand, is great from the beginning and doesn't really have much growth. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it makes the contrast between the two characters' arcs pretty noticeable. Zo In-sung, known from Netflix show  It's Okay,...

Buddy (2026)

Buddy is written and directed by Casper Kelly , who is better known as an Adult Swim writer. That probably explains why this type of film is right up his alley. The movie tries to be funny, but it tries way too hard. At the same time, it tries to be a horror movie but doesn't try nearly hard enough. It feels like the whole premise is being pushed to its extreme primarily to create something that could go viral rather than because the story actually has anywhere meaningful to go. Cristin Milioti is the main actress in the film, and while she's definitely charismatic, her performance feels a bit overdramatic at times. The child actors are all fine with one exception, although none of them really stand out enough to make much of an impression. Topher Grace is another example of the horrible male characters we've gotten in a long line of that particular trope throughout the 2020s. I can't wait to see what comes next in that line of writing. At this point, it's almos...

Onslaught (2026)

Onslaught is a grindhouse action/horror movie, and I had no idea it was going to turn into a slasher until about five minutes in. Adam Wingard , a V/H/S alumni, writes and directs, and while the action can be pretty good at times, it's also flawed in some pretty obvious ways. The biggest problem is the plot armor given to the heroine. Why can these super soldiers hit everyone else just fine, but suddenly can't hit her? It makes some of the action feel less exciting when you know the movie is going to bend the rules to keep her alive. Adria Arjona spends the majority of the movie dressed like she's headed to Walmart, but somehow she doesn't look bad. Few people could probably pull off an outfit like that and still make it work. She does a decent job in the role, even if the character is clearly protected by the script whenever the action gets going. Dan Stevens has a great cameo, and Reginald VelJohnson brings his classic acting chops to the movie. Drew Starkey pla...