Took time to gather my thoughts after a sneak preview of ‘The Creator’ – this gorgeous, action-packed movie is SO much more than the reviews are saying. I’m still an anxiety-ridden mess so I don’t go out, but thanks to a friend I got to see ‘The Creator’ anyway.
Make no mistake – we’ve left the ‘hater therapy’ portion of sci-fi, where we try to make movies and stories for the haters to ‘bring them along.’ The Creator just goes all-out to tell an fun, interesting science fiction story and it doesn’t care whether /r/scifi likes it or not. THAT, my friends, is makes it great.
But wait, Jackson – you say – nothing about this movie is ORIGINAL. The script sounds like it was generated by an AI! Yes, yes – we’ll get to the complaints in a few moments. Let’s set the stage correctly. The Creator is the celebration of original scifi we needed – it feels like what great science fiction used to feel like – unshackled by public opinion, content to let you figure out what’s going on.
It reminded me in some ways of ‘La La Land’ when it came out. Before you ask ‘What on Earth are you talking about?’ Let me explain: A movie review of ‘La La Land’ calls it ‘a gorgeously photographed, unashamedly nostalgic, bittersweet marriage of the modern and the traditional’ which, if you think about it, is a perfect description of ‘The Creator.’ It, too, is a gorgeously photographed, unashamedly nostalgic, bittersweet marriage of the modern and the traditional science fiction.
Just as Casablanca works because it’s a collection of tropes told in a way that people can relate to on a human level, The Creator doesn’t attempt to be THE MOST ORIGINAL SCIFI IN THE WORLD. Rather, it’s trying to be the best science fiction story for the most people. It’s trying to bring people together. That’s why I loved it and that’s why I recommend it. It’s also why I think the sci-fi community is doing a massive disservice to itself if it doesn’t support this original, well-told science fiction story. But this isn’t ‘hater therapy’ time – it’s time to talk about The Creator. Here are some quick notes: https://inkican.com/the-creator-scifi-thats-so-much-more/