Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alphie in THE CREATOR from 20th Century Studios. Photo by Oren Soffer. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
The concept of artificial intelligence has always inspired great cinema and The creatornew film from Gareth Edwards which can be seen in cinemas from September 28th with The Walt Disney Company Italia, wants to fit into this storytelling tradition. Out of 2001: A Space Odyssey To Terminators, go through Blade Runner and more recently for She And Ex MachinaThe story of how an intelligent machine becomes conscious has always fascinated storytellers, who have described its infinite possibilities in various tones and genres. Therefore, in 2023, when artificial intelligence actually exists and its use actually changes the way humans exist in the world, the film presented by Edwards seems much more possible and realistic than its famous predecessors may have seemed. Without losing the charm of science fiction, which increasingly resembles reality.
The Creator, the Story
In the Creator’s world, artificial intelligences have evolved to the point where they pose a threat to humans, so much so that they have begun a global war to destroy all active synthetic beings and prevent them from destroying humanity in turn. In a last desperate mission to win the conflict, Joshua (John David Washington), a former special forces agent grieving the loss of his wife (Gemma Chan) is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI known as Nirmata, who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end war and humanity itself. So Joshua crosses enemy lines, but discovers that the apocalyptic weapon he was tasked with destroying is an AI in the form of a little girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).
A believable imagery
Filmed in real locations that were later enriched with futuristic sets, “The Creator” immediately stands out among the blockbusters of the last few months that have visually excited our cinema crowds. The work of Gareth Edwardsalways the carrier of a rich and specific imagery, a solid world-building and a vision as epic as it is attentive to the core of the narrative, proves once again crucial in the creation of a believable and structured universe.
John David Washington as Joshua in THE CREATOR from 20th Century Studios. Photo by Oren Soffer. © 2023 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
The reality depicted in the film is plausible, especially since it is about a heated and bloody conflict between humans and artificial intelligences. As mentioned above in this review The creatorThe comparison between man and machine can be seen as fundamental to a certain type of science fiction that compares creators with their creatures.
And Edwards’ references are clearly to his own taste in film. war of stars Firstly, this mixture of technology and dust, of different ethnic groups mixing in harmony (in this case the alien ethnicity is that of the synthetic creatures), but also the staging of certain entities as menacing as the Black Death and a taste for the classic Narrative in which the hero, although supported by a resistance against evil, overcomes the final battle alone.
Machines more humane than people
In Edwards’ case, the film is about ancestors of the caliber of Blade Runner, in which synthetic beings have developed not only intellectual abilities but also their own feelings and affections, ambitions and desires. This discovery will be crucial to Joshua’s “hero’s journey” as he goes through an entire parable. The work of Gareth Edwards is therefore completed in an all-encompassing journey that manages to draw inspiration from different stories, many visual imaginations, an immediate and visceral humanity, mixing everything that gives his film a depth unusual for a contemporary blockbuster.
And the entire ethical path that seeks to define what humanity consists of culminates in the moment when the creature returns life to its Creator in a new, more evolved, perhaps even perfected form. The creator Ultimately, it offers an authentic moment of reflection on existence and identity, on what it means to be truly present in your time. The ending, explosive and exciting, is entrusted to the visual effects, the action, the desire for spectacularity that perhaps deprives the film of a pinch of intimacy.
© 2023 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
Aside from some flimsy plot implications, The creator stands out for its originality, managing to create a coherent puzzle of influences and pushing a discourse that, if not innovative, is at least in line with the development of the main character. Joshua is transported into a reality he initially refused to accept and becomes an instrument at the service of the machines he hated so much, fulfilling a destiny the consequences of which he was unaware of.