First Take: The Creator - and they thought there was no demand for intelligent sci-fi…

SYNOPSIS: Against the backdrop of a war between humans and robots with artificial intelligence, a former soldier finds the secret weapon, a robot in the form of a young child.

$80 million budget. Those three words on their own for an original science fiction film are genuinely mind boggling to utter. But with Gareth Edwards, you kind of expect this. This is the man who took a road trip around Mexico and turned it into 2010’s low budget smash Monsters after all. So following his adventures in a galaxy far far away to make Rogue One, it is so good to see him back making original stuff again.

And what Edwards does in a relatively well paced 2 hours 13 minutes is pretty damn bold - having co-written a script with Chris Weitz, he tells a bold story with AI at its core, which is quite prophetic as the film opened on the day after the WGA strike was brought to an end. Sure, this is a heavy, difficult plot to follow, even if it felt a bit predictable in its final act, but on a visual level, this is quite the film to take in, something aided by the efforts of Oren Soffer as the on-set DOP (with Greig Fraser also getting the cinematography credit too) and some of the best use of CG for a while on a major Hollywood project like this. Add some Hans Zimmer spice to proceedings on the score, and you have a mighty fine technical team behind this film- but what of the cast?

That cast is mighty. John David Washington is a fantastic lead, Gemma Chan is on fine form, Allison Janney is great, and with Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, and Ralph Ineson rounding out the big name talent, it is safe to say that this is a proper ensemble effort- but the real standout talent is the introduction of Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alphie (the AI robot who has been all over the posters for the film, one of which only went up at the local cinema last night). Young talent of her nature is not easy to find, and for a role like that, she absolutely nailed it and arguably carries this film on her back. It isn’t to everyone’s taste, but my god is it good to see original stories playing in cinemas.

THE VERDICT

The Creator is one of those films which will gain a cult following amongst the die hard cineastes- sure, the situation with the strike has hit it’s marketing to mainstream audiences, but for those after some original sci-fi on the big screen, look no further.

RATING: 4/5