A brief survey of ratings around the Internet have a mix of perspectives which vary widely. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a fair to middling 78%. Yet the headlines of every reviewer I came across lauded The Creator as a dynamic new film of non-franchise speculative fiction. These were sentences written with enthusiasm.
How can their views be this far apart? Critics, usually pan and discredit science fiction films and when I want a review, I normally have to go to the fan enthusiast websites like SCIFI.radio or Gizmodo, because their audiences KNOW the material and have a degree of enthusiasm the regular critics can’t match.
They review for the geek in us, where normal critics are using much more sophisticated algorithms to determine if a film has artistic merit, creative writing, unusual cinematography and has a novel thematic arc not looked for, or considered relevant, in genre fiction.
Okay, all of that is my opinion. Based on what I see when I read a review from the New York Times and say… Polygon.com, for example. The reviews may be of the same length but the Polygon review will touch things the audience cares about, where the New York Times critic will talk about how they perceived the film and why it matters to them. If you like it, they are indifferent to that fact. Their film review is about them sharing their opinion.
Frankly, I am not surprised. The movie challenges a number of perspectives which affect the worldview of people in this nation and possibly around the world and are likely to polarize anyone who sees it. For the record, I welcome challenging films. I seek out anything which can shake up my worldview and keep me engaged with learning more about the world.
Such challenging ideas may include:
With nothing but the trailer at hand, I can see a tale of environmental collapse, a humanity on the brink of war as they struggle with their society breaking down around them.
I can see a MacGuffin chase following a defending hero, escorting a precocious child, and a challenging moral quandary where humanity has to contend with the creation of a thinking machine and what to do when that machine decides to think for itself.
It has everything a two hour movie needs to be successful. A dynamic lead, strong cinematography, excellent special effects visuals, coupled with great robot designs. It would take a master of incompetence to screw up such fertile ground. It has the potential to be really great if it is executed with any degree of sophistication.
I can’t wait to see it.
“As a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence rages on, ex-special forces agent Joshua is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI.
“The Creator has developed a mysterious weapon that has the power to end the war and all of mankind. As Joshua and his team of elite operatives venture into enemy-occupied territory, they soon discover the world-ending weapon is actually an AI in the form of a young child.”
The film stars John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Sturgill Simpson, and Allison Janney. Gareth Edwards directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Weitz.
The Creator releases September 29, 2023 (USA).
-30-
Thaddeus Howze is an award-winning writer, editor, podcaster and activist creating speculative fiction, scientific, political and cultural commentary from his office in Hayward, California.
Thaddeus’ speculative fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals. He has published two books, ‘Hayward’s Reach’ (2011), a collection of short stories and ‘Broken Glass’ (2013) an urban fantasy novella starring his favorite paranormal investigator, Clifford Engram.
Many of us had imaginary friends as children. But what happens when children grow up,…
Microsoft corporate goes after Bethesda developers with a battle axe, closing Arcane Austin, Tango Gameworks,…
British Actor Ian Gelder of Game of Thrones, Torchwood and Doctor Who has succumbed to…
SONY, distributor of Helldivers 2, by Arrowhead Games, has taken the ‘L’ in their conflict…
Now fully revealed as the ultimate threat to existence, the ANTI-MONITOR wages an unrelenting attack…
After a seven year break from the main Despicable Me storyline, Illumination is back with…
This website uses cookies.