Gareth Edwards’ The Creator is a feat in modern sci-fi filmmaking

20th Century Studios

The singular way that Gareth Edward’s (Godzilla, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) newest original studio sci-fi film The Creator is full-stop revolutionary in its design and execution in today’s special effects landscape.

The year is 2055. Following the nuclear obliteration of Los Angeles detonated by Artificial Intelligence, The U.S. declares war on all forces of Artificial Intelligence in coexistence. As New Asia refuses to ban or reform the coexistence of A.I., it’s immediately victim of American invasion. Years pass. With a new super weapon N.O.M.A.D. (North American Orbital Mobile Aerospace Defense), the States believes to have hit a turning point in the war against A.I. 

The story is seen through the eyes of Joshua Taylor (John David Washington), a scarred ex-special forces soldier, who is tapped to hunt down and kill ‘The Creator,’ the mother of enemy Artificial Intelligence. Top information suggests it to be somewhere hidden deep in a mountain village in continent New Asia. Upon discovering the weapon to be a child, Joshua embarks on a globetrotting mission to transport them to safety.

20th Century Studios

Pre-production began with Edwards carving out months at a time for location scouting. He satcheled his 35mm camera with an anamorphic lens and backpacked to Vietnam, Japan, Nepal, Thailand, and Indonesia to location after location to get inspired. 

“Our whole plan was just to go to the greatest locations in the world, because the cost of a flight is way less than the cost of building a set,” Edwards shared at Fantastic Fest 2023. “We were going to hopscotch around the world and shoot this film, then layer in the science-fiction on top afterwards.”

Shot guerrilla style with a small crew in over 80 locations around the world, The Creator achieves a large sense of present scale, without the large production. It’s shot tight and cheap and blown up on 2.76:1 ultra-wide, the widest format possible. From the start, Edwards wanted to shoot entirely on-location and weave envisioned futuristic infrastructure in post. The film was shot entirely on a Sony FX3, which is fucking insane. The film is cover-to-cover large and gorgeous. For a camera so tactile and accessible, but obviously not lacking in juice, it feels like a feat for this kind of film. Release the full ‘Creating The Creator’ or whatever documentary with the blu-ray? Are we still doing that?

So much has clearly gone into the language of the picture here, and it’s beaming how the story is molded around it. It feels like there is as much natural in the picture as there is artificial. The symbiosis is a fresh wonder. To be so dramatic, it is an atmosphere to bathe in. Scenes primarily taking place in the deep azure of dusk and dawn, landscapes feel lush and lived in. The natural world and technology woven together. The design work compels as every other scene features a set piece twice as stunning as the last. Technological monoliths in green mountains against a dark blue sky. A towering futuristic city shining in night’s rain. A new hazy orange L.A in the ashes of the old city of angels. The crater of the old city of angels against the monolith skyrises erected in its ashes. 

Take this for what you will, and really not trying to be reductive here, but its visual daftness and shockingly realized near-future dystopia feels in very close quarters to Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 and Elysium. It’s the most gorgeous sci-fi that’s played in the metroplex in ages, and shot for like $20 million cheaper than the most recent EXPENDABLES film, EXPEND4BLES. 

It feels important to the filmmakers to fully realize this near-future version of our world, the things that led us to this bleak reality of American man vs. universal machine. The film is quite optimistic about the relationship between humanity being replaced by A.I., asking the audience what kind of relationship we want to foster with our world and what we create out of it. It's playful but sincere, and earnestly moving in the end.

It kind of all boils down to this, though: In the moment, everything in frame—most frames—looks cool as fuck. These painted urban and natural landscapes, objects, designs, colors, characters, costumes, were clearly made from the same seeds of inspiration. Nothing about the artistic design registered as leftover or trivial.

From a storytelling perspective, the setup itself is pretty traditional here as a desperate and scarred hot ex-military man feels compelled to go on a personal mission. The Creator has an optimism of A.I. and man’s coexistence, grounded in its portrayal of Americans and the uglies of human impulses. The behavior of America’s “future“ military in New Asia is unflinchingly depicted. Raiding villages, violent threats, innocent civilian deaths in the name of freedom and humanity, no catharsis.

However, the story feels rushed—even choppy—from the start. It conveniently leaps forward between major plot points, and doesn’t feel too compelled to pour too much into explanations for some huge world-building concepts presented. Honestly, it felt hard not to forgive of a lot of it. The film is a tailor-made blockbuster shot with in a rage of inspiration and efficiency. Even When the story flaws and shallow characters glare , it still  feels earnest and not forced. Choppy and undeveloped, maybe, not shallow, unlike a many Star Wars project in years, save for last year’s Andor.

This writer will happily take a project that totally go-for-broke and messy but compelling narrative over the risk-averse, the airtight, boring. The Creator’s sleek, humble in the face of the seemingly inevitable transformation of humanity on Earth. Something we haven’t seen in a very long time, and hopefully a blueprint for modern sci-fi to come. It achieves spectacle and compassion and a sense of true wonder, with endlessly evocative imagery to the heavens. I was so, so hungry for it. It’s genuinely transportive, and felt rare in the heat of the experience. The natural world and technology woven together, from the ground up.