Before you begin reading, know that this article contains themes of spoilers, talk of violence and some big subjects.
“The Creator” is a family friendly, Sci-Fi, futuristic and action-filled movie starring Gemma Chan, John David Washington, Ken Watanabe and Madeleine Yuna Voyles. “The Creator” was directed and produced by Gareth Edwards and co-written by Edwards and Chris Weitz. Edwards also produced the popular film “Rogue One” a Star Wars prologue. It is said that Edwards’ movies are great to watch in theaters; watching a movie on the big screen allows you to get a viewing experience like none other.
The overall theme of the movie was to recognize the pain and misery that we all face and the power that we have to destroy everything that we hold dear. In addition, this movie calls out the ugly parts of war and humanity that we don’t think about every day. For instance, the villagers attacked by soldiers trying to find information and innocent bystanders being killed in acts of violence directed at leaders but with no real target.
The plot of this movie was phenomenal. “The Creator” was filmed in present day Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Although there were great backdrops for the scenes that were filmed, there was also lots of CGI used. This is not surprising–in a futuristic world, you must make some things up because we don’t know what the future will look like. The scenery that Edwards chose to film this movie in was a great choice because it really represents the beauty of Asia and created a sense of calm where there was so much evil taking place throughout the entire movie. When watching movies, some like to imagine the camera man and how he/she gets around to be able to shoot such great scenes. The combination of CGI and the landscape of Asia made the movie seem peaceful and scenic. This is what he intended because underneath the beauty was a whole lot of ugly.
The CGI used, combined with how the world in 2060 looks, the artificial humans and simulants was freakishly like how our world today looks. There are repeating scenes in the movie where the sky machine will go over the Asian terrain in search of AI. When the machine goes over the mountain, you get a glimpse of how beautiful the mountains and valleys and water are. A mix of CGI and makeup plays the biggest role in making the AI/robots look life-like and realistic. The robots have humanistic faces, but the back of their heads are wires and metal; they also have a hole in the side of their heads that goes all the way through their head and is what keeps them running. The creator of the robots, Nirmata, designed them to look like humans but different enough to be able to easily distinguish them from each other. Creating a visible difference between the AI and humans really represents Nirmata’s mindset in that she never wanted violence–she created AI to be helpful and be faithful companions to the humans.
Overall, “The Creator” was a great movie. The sense of compassion, heartbreak, comradery and enemies-to-friends that the viewer experiences when watching this movie is intense and offers an experience unlike any other.