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Gareth Edwards is an interesting filmmaker. He's played in the big leagues with Godzilla and Rogue One, but his heart really seems to be in smaller, scrappier productions, The Creator feels like a very personal creation, and Edward's vision hangs thick over the whole picture. And boy, it sure LOOKS f**king great!
Shot on a $4,000 camera that anyone can buy at B&H, the movies visuals are beyond reproach. Lush South Asia locations are doctored up with CGI buildings and other sci-fi trappings, but the beauty of the landscape still shines through. It also looks like it was largely shot with available light, and while that can make it quite dark, it also adds a high degree of naturalism to everything. The CGI is mostly top shelf, with only a few dodgy explosions marring the work.
Edwards hired the Transformers sound guys (Ethan Van Der Ryn and Erik Aadahl) and they did what they do best: fill the movie with eerie, robotic sound collages that edge close to being musical. Hans Zimmer pops up to compose the score, but the results aren't all that memorable and usually get buried under the weight of the visuals.
Acting usually gets the short end of the stick in a movie like this, but here the cast manages to stay afloat. Allison Janney in particular seems to be having a lot of fun playing a butch squad commander.
All these plusses doesn't mean the movie is great though. It feels like a lot was cut in editing, leading to the story lurching from scenario to scenario without much explanation or motivation. It also seems to be at war with itself. On one hand it's trying to be a thoughtful essay on loss, the difference between AI and human life, and other "big ideas", but then it throws in random action scenes and a few over sized explosions because it needs to satisfy the Marvel crowd too. This movie probably should've been a miniseries.
Unfortunately, it's pretty much bombed at the box office. It's not a masterpiece, but it deserved better. If anything, it blows a lot of holes in the idea that blockbuster sized movies need to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. This little marvel cost *only* $80 million, and it's visual effects work is every bit as good, and in many cases, better, than Marvel's last $300 million sinkhole.
Shot on a $4,000 camera that anyone can buy at B&H, the movies visuals are beyond reproach. Lush South Asia locations are doctored up with CGI buildings and other sci-fi trappings, but the beauty of the landscape still shines through. It also looks like it was largely shot with available light, and while that can make it quite dark, it also adds a high degree of naturalism to everything. The CGI is mostly top shelf, with only a few dodgy explosions marring the work.
Edwards hired the Transformers sound guys (Ethan Van Der Ryn and Erik Aadahl) and they did what they do best: fill the movie with eerie, robotic sound collages that edge close to being musical. Hans Zimmer pops up to compose the score, but the results aren't all that memorable and usually get buried under the weight of the visuals.
Acting usually gets the short end of the stick in a movie like this, but here the cast manages to stay afloat. Allison Janney in particular seems to be having a lot of fun playing a butch squad commander.
All these plusses doesn't mean the movie is great though. It feels like a lot was cut in editing, leading to the story lurching from scenario to scenario without much explanation or motivation. It also seems to be at war with itself. On one hand it's trying to be a thoughtful essay on loss, the difference between AI and human life, and other "big ideas", but then it throws in random action scenes and a few over sized explosions because it needs to satisfy the Marvel crowd too. This movie probably should've been a miniseries.
Unfortunately, it's pretty much bombed at the box office. It's not a masterpiece, but it deserved better. If anything, it blows a lot of holes in the idea that blockbuster sized movies need to cost hundreds of millions of dollars. This little marvel cost *only* $80 million, and it's visual effects work is every bit as good, and in many cases, better, than Marvel's last $300 million sinkhole.
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