Road to the Oscars, 2024. This movie is nominated in 2 categories, being Sound and visual effects.
What a waste of a movie in the worst way possible. The Creator has so much going for it, being one of the most distinct Sci-fi movies I've seen in a while, feeling and looking highly original. This is sadly moshed by clichés, tropes, poorly developed characters and problems with tone. I actually think there is an incredible movie in here and I want that to be the reality, but I had too many issues with the movie to really fall in love of it. Know that the elements it is praised for are legit, the visual and world building aspects are the best part, but other than that it's a huge disappointment.
After losing his wife while being undercover. Joshua retires from being a soldier in the war against AI. He is drawn back after learning his wife is alive and is tasked to eliminate a new weapon developed in new Asia by humans and AI. Joshua hesitates to destroy the new weapon, though, as it is a small AI girl.
The acting here is not the best. I found most of the performances too Stoic or too over the top. This is not helped by the way too stale dialogue that the actors are given. I think the best performance was by Madeleine Voyles as Alphie. They delivered the best and most emotional performance of the entire movie.
They made me feel like there was some character to the relationship this movie is trying to develop, but sadly that is the biggest problems of the movie. It's tempo and focus. The movie goes way too fast and has way too many side quests and things it wants to show that it forgets to tell a story. The characters are barely characters here and one of the most important aspects, what the movie is entirely reliant on, is the relationship between Joshua and Alphie and the movie really doesn't give them enough time as a duo to make me feel anything when it's time for the big emotions. The movie wants to do too many things at the same time, having a million potline's having a million characters, having a million things it wants to put into the lore, show as many locations as possible, it's simply too much, and it takes away from actually telling a good story and having any attachments to the characters. I barely felt anything when characters died, when twists were revealed, it's a whole lot of flashy empty calories.
If it should work better it should have been longer and that says a lot since the movie is long enough as it is, but I was entertained, I liked the world, the characters have potential, the action is fun, the locations and effects are incredible. It has everything ready and set up to be a great movie, but doesn't really utilize it.
It's fun to have a movie where the Americans are the bad guys. They are the war hungry people in the wrong, and I don't know, it's rarely I see that depicted in a what, I assume, is American produced.
The visual effects here are absolutely amazing. I still don't know how they did the head hole thing, and the robot's and background looks absolutely amazing. Hearing more and seeing some behind the scenes makes the movie look even more impressive and while there are a few scenes where it's obvious the actors are on a green screen set, the movie really immersed me into it's world, locations, vehicles and robots and absolutely stunning achievement in visual effects.
This also leads into the great world building there is. The war, the definition of AI, the war machine by the US, the different cities and robots and jobs, lore and technology. The movie feels like its own, and that means a lot in a world where sci-fi can feel overdone at times.
Another problem the movie had, was it's tonal issues. It felt like it was written by 3 different people with 3 different visions. It was only written by 2 people, but alas. The movie was either dead serious, comedy action or pure action and these 3 tones never really mixed well at any point. While I understand why the creators went for the different tones at different times. It made the movie feel like it wasn't even the same movie by the end.
The movie is full of tropes and clichés, and that is actually really sad, since it has such an original feeling to its setting. Seeing a movie relying on so much cliché and tropey storytelling also hurts the movie and makes it feel like any other instead of its own.
I really wanted to like The Creator, it had so much good going for it, and in another world I could imagen it so much better than it is. It really has the potential to be the next big Sci-fi, but turns into a cliché rushed mess with too many storytelling problems going against it, to the point where the movie loses all interest from a viewer like me. I need a remake down the line.
Oscar predictions: I feel the 2 awards it has been nominated for, it deserves. It is a masterful movie in terms of its visual effects and the many different sound effects makes it sound like its own. I think it has tough competition in the sound category, and don't see it winning over movies like The Zone of Interest (2023) or maybe even Oppenheimer (2023). In terms of visual effects, I actually think this has a chance to win, and it would be a well deserved one. It has some good competition, but I think it is stand.
What a waste of a movie in the worst way possible. The Creator has so much going for it, being one of the most distinct Sci-fi movies I've seen in a while, feeling and looking highly original. This is sadly moshed by clichés, tropes, poorly developed characters and problems with tone. I actually think there is an incredible movie in here and I want that to be the reality, but I had too many issues with the movie to really fall in love of it. Know that the elements it is praised for are legit, the visual and world building aspects are the best part, but other than that it's a huge disappointment.
After losing his wife while being undercover. Joshua retires from being a soldier in the war against AI. He is drawn back after learning his wife is alive and is tasked to eliminate a new weapon developed in new Asia by humans and AI. Joshua hesitates to destroy the new weapon, though, as it is a small AI girl.
The acting here is not the best. I found most of the performances too Stoic or too over the top. This is not helped by the way too stale dialogue that the actors are given. I think the best performance was by Madeleine Voyles as Alphie. They delivered the best and most emotional performance of the entire movie.
They made me feel like there was some character to the relationship this movie is trying to develop, but sadly that is the biggest problems of the movie. It's tempo and focus. The movie goes way too fast and has way too many side quests and things it wants to show that it forgets to tell a story. The characters are barely characters here and one of the most important aspects, what the movie is entirely reliant on, is the relationship between Joshua and Alphie and the movie really doesn't give them enough time as a duo to make me feel anything when it's time for the big emotions. The movie wants to do too many things at the same time, having a million potline's having a million characters, having a million things it wants to put into the lore, show as many locations as possible, it's simply too much, and it takes away from actually telling a good story and having any attachments to the characters. I barely felt anything when characters died, when twists were revealed, it's a whole lot of flashy empty calories.
If it should work better it should have been longer and that says a lot since the movie is long enough as it is, but I was entertained, I liked the world, the characters have potential, the action is fun, the locations and effects are incredible. It has everything ready and set up to be a great movie, but doesn't really utilize it.
It's fun to have a movie where the Americans are the bad guys. They are the war hungry people in the wrong, and I don't know, it's rarely I see that depicted in a what, I assume, is American produced.
The visual effects here are absolutely amazing. I still don't know how they did the head hole thing, and the robot's and background looks absolutely amazing. Hearing more and seeing some behind the scenes makes the movie look even more impressive and while there are a few scenes where it's obvious the actors are on a green screen set, the movie really immersed me into it's world, locations, vehicles and robots and absolutely stunning achievement in visual effects.
This also leads into the great world building there is. The war, the definition of AI, the war machine by the US, the different cities and robots and jobs, lore and technology. The movie feels like its own, and that means a lot in a world where sci-fi can feel overdone at times.
Another problem the movie had, was it's tonal issues. It felt like it was written by 3 different people with 3 different visions. It was only written by 2 people, but alas. The movie was either dead serious, comedy action or pure action and these 3 tones never really mixed well at any point. While I understand why the creators went for the different tones at different times. It made the movie feel like it wasn't even the same movie by the end.
The movie is full of tropes and clichés, and that is actually really sad, since it has such an original feeling to its setting. Seeing a movie relying on so much cliché and tropey storytelling also hurts the movie and makes it feel like any other instead of its own.
I really wanted to like The Creator, it had so much good going for it, and in another world I could imagen it so much better than it is. It really has the potential to be the next big Sci-fi, but turns into a cliché rushed mess with too many storytelling problems going against it, to the point where the movie loses all interest from a viewer like me. I need a remake down the line.
Oscar predictions: I feel the 2 awards it has been nominated for, it deserves. It is a masterful movie in terms of its visual effects and the many different sound effects makes it sound like its own. I think it has tough competition in the sound category, and don't see it winning over movies like The Zone of Interest (2023) or maybe even Oppenheimer (2023). In terms of visual effects, I actually think this has a chance to win, and it would be a well deserved one. It has some good competition, but I think it is stand.