Artificial Intelligence has occupied the zeitgeist for some time now but its dominance seems to have skyrocketed of late. One can’t turn on the news, the media, or even open one’s company’s intranet without being bombarded by AI-related content. Of course, movies about humans vs machines are nothing new. AI and aliens are common villains in movies, but the threat of AI specifically is becoming less and less abstract given our increasing reliance on digital technology.

I’m especially intrigued by The Creator as it’s an original story from director Gareth Edwards, it’s rare these days to see a project that is not based on an original IP, whether it’s a short story or book or worse, a remake of movies from another country.

Amid a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence, Joshua, a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife, is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war-and mankind itself.

Whoever has that kid wins the war.

At the start of the trailer, Maya is shown being sympathetic to the robots, that they protected her better than humans would. But just like the Battlestar Galactica’s Cylons, the machines that were created to help humanity ended up going rogue, even detonating a nuclear warhead in Los Angeles, leading to a ‘fight for our very existence.’ Joshua’s mission is to retrieve the Creator which is building a super weapon. Simple enough right? Apparently not when the AI mastermind looks like a cute little kid.

This is the kind of movie where I’m more intrigued by the um, creators, and the premise more so than the cast. That said, I like that there are no huge stars here, John David Washington and Gemma Chan aren’t quite A-listers yet but they’re both talented actors. There’s almost an Eternals reunion as Benedict Wong was originally cast but replaced by Ken Watanabe. I’m thrilled to see Allison Janney looking like some bad-ass military leader. As the AI kid, they’ve surely done an arduous talent search to find Madeleine Yuna Voyles who’s making her on-screen debut.

It’s been seven years since Rogue One came out in 2016 and this project has been in development since 2019. Well, it seems Edwards had been preoccupied with his passion project, he also wrote the screenplay with his Rogue One collaborator Chris Weitz. Per Wikipedia, Edwards went location scouting with his 1970s anamorphic lens in various East Asian countries, including my homeland Indonesia and ended up shooting parts of the movie in Thailand.

The visuals look amazing based on the trailer, there’s an earthy, organic feel to the look instead of having everything be done on sets with extensive CGI. There are two DPs on this project, Greig Fraser (who also shot Rogue One) and Oren Soffer. I’m a huge fan of Fraser’s work and he could be double-nominated next year for his work here and Dune: Part Two.

It’s billed as a motion picture event which is usually reserved for Summer blockbusters, but it’s set to be released on September 29, 2023. This one looks very promising, it’s definitely one of my most-anticipated Fall movies!

What do you think of The Creator trailer?

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