2023-09-27 11:43:00
In theaters this Wednesday, The Creator creates a surprise. That of the big return of Gareth Edwards, of whom we had not heard since the release in 2016 of Rogue One : A Star Wars Storybrilliant prequel to Star Wars to the stormy post-production, which had pushed the director’s nerves to the limit. Obviously frustrated by a first cut, Lucasfilm had ordered substantial retakes by another director (Tony Gilroy), mainly located in the third act, while Gareth Edwards no longer had a say. Exhausted by the experience, Edwards seemed to have retired from Hollywood affairs and, given the talent displayed in his first three feature films (Monsters, Godzilla et Rogue Onetherefore), we can only rejoice at this comeback at the helm of a new sci-fi blockbuster.
Simmered 100% in the neurons of Gareth Edwards and his co-writer Chris Weitz, The Creator also surprises by its synchronism with the spirit of the times polarized around the great fears aroused by artificial intelligence. Opening with a summary-montage of the evolution of the decades preceding the action, in the style of Green Sun by Richard Fleischer and in the tone of a retro advertisement, the film depicts a relatively near future (the 2070s) where humanity experienced a first cataclysm linked to the omnipresence of robots. Following an enigmatic conflict whose causes we will never really understand, the AI took itself for God by devastating Los Angeles with a nuclear attack.
Credible and sumptuous SF universe
Now fought and hunted by Western nations, machines and their consciousness have found refuge in Asia, whose people have instead adopted this new form of life cohabiting with humans. A member of the American special forces, devastated by the failure of an infiltration operation which cost the life of his wife Maya (Gemma Chan) five years earlier, Joshua (John David Washington) returns when his superiors offer him a new mission. Objective: to prevent at all costs the use by the enemy camp of a new weapon of mass destruction. Surprise (again!): Armageddon takes on the appearance of a little robot girl.
The Creator first of all dazzles with the beauty of its visual effects and its general artistic direction. Supported by the fabulous cinematographer Greig Fraser (Zero Dark Thirty, Rogue One, Dune…), Gareth Edwards carves each shot like a master’s canvas, composes futuristic backgrounds shrouded in mist and catapults us into a SF universe as credible as it is sumptuous. Nothing to do with the standard, sloppy computer-generated images of most recent blockbusters, Marvel and DC productions in particular. The design of the hybrid creatures – robots with human faces – seems straight out of a manga and the viewer’s eye is constantly engaged by the visual discoveries of Edwards and his technical team.
We pinch ourselves when we learn that The Creator would have cost less than 100 million dollars, it appears to do double that on screen. The film was also shot in real natural settings throughout South-East Asia and our retinas are in for a treat. What a breath of fresh air after so many blockbusters abusing hideous green backgrounds! Made with, we are told, a manpower-saving method of working on the ground that could point the way forward for blockbusters to come, the result evokes both the styles of Otomo, Blomkamp and Coppola for the unsettling kinship of the whole plot with Apocalypse Now. In the interview he gave us, Gareth Edwards adds that according to him, The Creator could be the fruit of the love affair between James Cameron and Terrence Malick and, in fact, to its graphic abundance, the film grafts a contemplative fascination for earthly splendor beneath the fury of conflict.
A Manichean scenario
Biblical as hell – how could we not be with a hero named Joshua (the man who, after Moses, led the Hebrews to the Promised Land) –, The Creator unfortunately also suffers from too many influences. A volcano of ideas, Gareth Edwards seems overwhelmed by these, but also by his borrowings, which run through the entire story at the speed of incandescent lava flows. The more the plot unfolds and enlarges the scale of the show, the more the story lines become bogged down. The very treatment of artificial intelligence seems incomplete, boiling down to rebellious robots already seen a thousand times since Asimov and Philip K. Dick, while the Manichaeism of a programmatic and crudely Third World script (West = evil aggressor, East = oppressed victim) short-circuits the initial excitement. In the end, it will be difficult to understand the point of view of The Creator on its burning topical subject, if not a binary empathy of the filmmaker towards synthetic beings.
Really a shame, because we would so much like to shower praise on this blockbuster made with heart and a dizzying imagination. Paradoxical film, The Creator does not avoid the sensation of déjà vu while asserting its visual singularity in a Hollywood landscape sanitized in the popcorn aisle. Its bolts would have benefited from being tightened in terms of writing, but the machine, as imperfect as it is, nevertheless immerses us in a bath of images strong enough to prevent our attention from bursting as quickly as a soap bubble . Certainly, Gareth Edwards’ voice must count more in 21st century SF. A creator to follow and defend, the Welsh director is trying to move the lines in Hollywood and despite his bugs, The Creator is worth a look, especially on the biggest screen possible.
“The Creator”, by Gareth Edwards (2:13). In theaters September 27.
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