We’re very excited about The Creator, which marks director Gareth Edwards’ return to the world of sci-fi after making the widely celebrated Star Wars movie Rogue One. It looks to be an ambitious story packed with ideas about humanity, and we can’t ask for much more than that.
Thanks to Star Wars, Edwards has very real experience of how to make the best science fiction movies with the biggest budgets. That seems to have opened the door for him to make new movies like The Creator, which he also co-wrote with Chris Weitz.
The movie tells the story of a future war between humanity and artificial intelligence. As well as tapping into the existing zeitgeist around AI, it also puts The Creator squarely into the intimidating realm of one of the best movies of all time: The Terminator.
Edwards, of course, is very much aware that there will be inevitable comparisons between his AI-focused story and one of the best action movies ever made. But he told ScreenRant that he was coming at it from a slightly different angle.
“I mean, I love the Terminator,” said Edwards. “And so you’re standing on the shoulders of giants, right? We’re making a film about AI. And so I think the thing I was really interested in doing that felt what we could bring to the table was how human everyone was.”
Edwards said his main direction to his actors was to embrace the fact that even the artificial characters in the movie think they’re humans. He wanted his stars to “pretend it’s not a sci-fi movie”. He added: “I stopped telling people if they were AI or not. I didn’t want them to behave differently. I wanted it to be completely natural.”
Edwards added: “My favorite bits in the film are when there’s a robot that’s just smoking … it’s something that you’d see in a Terrence Malik film, but it’s James Cameron. It’s like the two of them have had a baby or something. That was the holy grail of what we’re trying to achieve.”
If The Creator first reactions are anything to go by, this is a movie we should all be excited about. We think Rogue One is up towards the top of the Star Wars movies ranked, so we’re very intrigued to see what else Edwards has for us.
For more, find out what The Creator copied from Blade Runner and learn more about AI blockbusters with our Mission Impossible 7 review and guide to The Entity.
You can also delve back into the history of great sci-fi as we explain how to watch the Terminator movies in order and how to go through the Star Wars movies in order. You can also look ahead to future alien worlds with our guide to Avatar 3.