Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show and this episode we're breaking down The Creator.
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The new sci-fi epic is easily one of my favourite films of the year and throughout this video
we're gonna be discussing what happens in it, our thoughts on it and also the ending.
Heavy Spoilers ahead and this is definitely one of those films I recommend that you go
and support in the cinema.
If youre one of those people who says hollywood doesnt do anything original anymore then please
stop the video and go and check it out.
I think its that good but if youre still here then thanks for clicking this, now let's get
into The Creator.
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Now the movie opens with with a block of text that discusses the word Nirmata.
This is an important name throughout the film and the name loosely translates to mean the
creator.
It has other meanings like manufacturer or an architect but just boiled down to it's
usage here it of course fits in with the movies title.
Now Nirmata is said to be a man who managed to create the incredibly advanced AI that
we meet throughout the film.
In the opening we get a brief history of what happened with the technology and learn that
humanity integrated AI into every aspect of our life.
Whether it was the jobs we didn't want to do, riot control or just acting as a companion,
our reliance on AI became almost like a characteristic of the speices.
There were things called Simulants created and these even took on the faces of living
people giving comfort and a friendly face to those in need.
As we get into the movie we discover that humanity actually developed a way to copy
someones brain and then upload this into a simulant which we'll talk about more later
on.
Either way it was agood time until one day AI launched a Nuke from an orbital weapons
platform named NOMAD.
Completely destroying central LA this plunged the west into a war against AI in which they've
attempted to wipe out all forms of it throughout the world.
However, the east have harboured them and given sanctuary to the machines in a domain
now known as New Asia.
Now we pick up in the year 2065 with our protagonist Joshua and his wife Maya.
Joshua is a double amputee but he ended up going to Maya who fixed him up and gave him
two artificial limbs.
The pair fell in love, Maya got pregnant and theyre now living out on an island with the
rest of her AI family.
Things go awry though during a botched operation involving Nomad and we learn that Josh is
actually an undercover agent.
Maya discovers this too and as she flees she's nuked from orbit by Nomad and Josh returns
to the US.
Now it turns out he'd been tasked with getting close to Maya due to her dad apparently being
Nirmata.
The government thought that if they took them out that they could end the war and finally
stop AI from developing as fast as it did.
Now as we learn throughout the film Maya ended up taking on this role and in secret shes
created the most advanced AI ever.
Scanning her own embryo she built a child based on her and Josh's baby which also comes
with the ability to change and grow.
Known as Alpha-O this is a reference to the Alpha and Omega aka the beginning and end.
Alpha-O or rather Alfie for short, she can interact with all electronic items and once
she grows powerful enough she'll be able to turn the tide and destroy Nomad.
Now Josh has been living a solitary life with him regularly being interrogated about what
he actually knows.
He's constantly downplayed what went on with Maya and we discover his backstory through
the film.
Now though he's taken a step back from army life he's pulled back into it upon being shown
footage that Maya's still alive.
Tasked with destroying a facility that houses Alpha-O he realises that there's something
different about her and over the film the pair start to bond.
In hindsight we know that this is the embodiment of his daughter and though he's tasked with
killing her he finds it difficult to do.
He catches Alfie drawing a picture of a tattoo Maya had and he basically wants her to lead
him to his wife.
Now what's great about the creator is that you have so many sides in it that constantly
try and get their hands on the pair.
Youve got the americans who think Josh has done a runner and then the AI who hate him
because his mission is to kill her.
In the wests eyes Alfies seen as a weapon and thus must be taken out which Josh almost
does.
At it's heart though this is a father and daughter movie about him trying to get back
to his wife.
Unaware this will create a family but things unfortunately don't turn out that way.
Upon finally reaching Maya we see she's in a comatose state and has been on life support
since that first strike.
Simulants are unable to harm Nirmata and thus they've been waiting for someone like Josh
to complete the task.
Copying her brain he turns off the machines and all this happens as the US arrive.
I think what the film does is excellently is that it holds a mirror up to man and shows
all the evil things that we're capable of.
We actually learn that the attack on LA was down to a coding error and that the AI actually
had nothing to do with it.
You will end up feeling for these machines as you see them scream in agony and act in
a way that truly makes them human.
Even some of the people we come across plead out for Josh not to kill their bots but he
constantly says that theyre not real.
At the heart of the creator is him learning that they are and its a theme thats at the
heart of a lot of sci-fi films.
Blade Runner asked the question whether if a human was replicated perfectly if that would
make them a human or not.
If everything from bones, to tissue, to personality was the same but the difference was that they
had a serial number somewhere, would that make them something that wasnt considered
real.
The creative team do a great job of making us go back and forth on that and questioning
whether we ourselves should sympathise with the AI.
It's a movie that will also have you asking 'are we the baddies' cos humans kill both
man and machine without prejudice.
However I think come the final act even the most hardened Ai hating character come to
realise that it's not all black and white.
In the movie Josh's boss is Colonel Howell whos played brilliantly by Allison Janney.
We discover that she had two sons who died due to the machines with one being tortured
for hours and hours.
Howell makes it to Nirmata and asks for Alfie handed over but in this moment she's shot
at by Ken Watanabes Harun.
This attaches an explosive directly to her back which detonates after a certain time
period.
However in this moment Alfie disables it and I think you can see that she truly understands.
Unfortunately this doesnt last long as Alfie and Josh are forced to flee which reactivates
it and kills her and her men.
During this time he grabs a copy of Mayas brain which becomes important in his final
few moments.
Throughout the film he's constantly said he'd give up everything to have another moment
with her and not only has he freed her in death but he's also retained a copy.
Maya was seen as someone who was stuck in limbo and unable to go to heaven due to her
vegatative state.
Heaven is another idea laced throughout the film with characters constantly questioning
whether they'll get to go.
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Now due to the lack of intelligence on the mission, Josh's true goals aren't known and
he's lauded as a hero.
They just see him as someone who brought in the weapon and theyre now free to launch attacks
across New Asia.
It's said that Alfie wont let them shut her down though and thus Josh is sent in to be
the one to deal the killing blow.
However all he does is put her on standby and as her bodies taken across LA they make
their final move.
Boarding a flight they hijack it and go to Nomad where Alfie is sent to the centre to
shut the thing down.
On the outside Josh scales the satellite and places an explosive onto one of the nukes.
Now inside Alfie comes across a model based on her mother which she activates by putting
the brain scan into.
Unfortunately for her this doesnt start up immediately and thus she heads out to Josh
where the pair both head for an escape pod.
Now josh is caught and has to sacrifice himself in order for her to make it back to Earth.
He talks about how he never thought that he'd get into heaven but him helping Alfie i what
sguaranteed he will.
Now in someways we symbolically see this play out as Josh walks through the station and
gets into the garden.
Here he sees Maya and the pair run towards each other which obviously echoes images of
the afterlife.
Most of us, when we imagine something like heaven its us being reunited with our loved
ones that have passed away.
This garden surrounding and just the pair running to each other is of course symbolic
of that on a number of levels.
Nomad itself is in the quote unquote heavens with it hanging above the earth and looking
down on all.
It's very much like a gods eye unable to be touched with it being a banevolent entity
that reigns down on all.
The idea of God now is a more abstact thing as humans themselves have learned how to create
artificial life.
Thus the idea of gods something we've managed to match and I love this subtext thats laced
throughout
the film.
Also I know there's some back and forth over whether Josh should have died but due to how
he acted I think the guy kinda needed to.
Lets not beat around the bush, he wasnt a good dude all the time and this movie was
very much about his redemption.
Now his sacrifice isn't in vein as we see on Earth that Nomad comes crashing down.
Both humanity and Ai celebrate side by side with us getting several shots of machines
and people hugging.
I think throughout the film it's shown that AI isnt as bad as its made out to be and that
it doesnt have the desire to kill that humans possess.
We of course evolved during a time when it was a necessity to survive whereas the AI
were created where there wasn't that need as much.
Thus they dont have our violent past and history and would rather co-exist alongside us.
Now thats something that a lot of humans share with them clearly seeing souls inside the
machines.
Even a soldier that Josh worked with at the start of the movie ends up falling in love
with a simulant woman.
So yeah there are definitely these themes which the creator itself hammers home.
In the end we close out with Maya smiling seeing a world where the AI can now be free.
They'll no longer be targeted from the skies and stamped out by the west and the war will
finally end with us all co-existing.
harun at one point talks about what would happen if the machines won and he just says
'nothing.'
Humanity will be given the same rights that the machines have and I feel...feel a bit
bad for slagging off the secret invasion title sequence now.
No...no...you know what I'm saying and I actually really like the idea of co-existence rather
than extermination.
That's something that AI films are often painting out with the terminator and matrix being the
key contenders.
In the latter though even machines and humans have to learn to live together and I think
thats the main message the movies driving home.
We've very much opened pandoras box in creating technology that is smarter, faster and starting
to surpass us.
I have to admit, it's worrying when even the creative things we do are being copied by
machines and put out at a faster rate than we could ever do.
I think the creator has a more opptomistic message though instead of giving us the nihilism
we've had.
The movies about someone who was taught to hunt machines learning to love and see them
as human.
That's the true message that I take from the film with it saying that artificial life is
still life.
Now as for my thoughts on the movie, I thought it was an incredible achievement with it being
one of my favourite movies of the year.
I think at some points the pacing may have been a bit too fast and I wouldve liked to
have remained in certain moments longer.
For example there a couple cuts where we see Josh coming across copies of Maya but we dont
really see the emotional impact that that has.
This has been the man mission in hte movie but it just goes by quickly and doesnt give
us a gut punch.
Just little things like that are laced throughout the film but they're very minor nitpicks in
an increidble achievement.
The creator is such a well made and thought out film that its difficult not feeling like
youre seeing an instant classic unfold.
Whether it's the chapter titles, art design or lived in world, it all feels like something
that has a unique style of it's own.
It's incredible that this was done for an $80 million budget when we've got $300 million
dollar movies that look like they've got playstation graphics.
I think this entire movie can be almost like an expose on hollywood that slams it for it's
bad cgi and unoriginal films.
This is an incredible piece and I really hope that those constantly screaminng theres nothing
good anymore go out and see it.
It's something that deserves all the support it can get and obviously I'm sure you can
tell that I loved it.
Now a movie like this that is based around the human condition is of course also reliant
on it's performances.
Everyone feels like they're really bringing their all with Alphies actress especially
being a standout role.
Played by Madeleine Yuna Voyles this is her first film and she handles every emotion expertly
and gives a cracking performance.
John David Washingtons at his best too delivering whats his most ranged performance.
I thought in Tenet he was a bit subdued but here he shows his great acting skills.
The side characters work really well too and all in all its an incredible film.
I think that movies like this should definitely be supported so make sure you go out and check
out this film.
Send that message to hollywood we want more original works likle this where theyve clearly
put in effort to make something special.
All in all I loved the film and that's why it's getting a
9/10.
Now obvio
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