 Ah, Gareth, we meet again. Ooh, that's a hot mug, guys. Hey guys, this is my review for the creator. I had intentions to see in theaters, but I just never got to. But I also had some hesitation with seeing this because it's Gareth Edwards. I know that he directed Rogue One, which is a phenomenal Star Wars film. If anything, it's probably the best thing that Disney's produced since acquiring it. But that movie did also go through some troubles, some turmoil and some mishmash and some saving. And I do understand why, because as great of a visual director and a world-building director that Gareth Edwards is, the guy sometimes really fucking sucks when it comes to story. That's a bit harsh, I know, but my example's being that of monsters. I love the visual element of monsters, but I didn't give a crap about the story between the two. I think he's not that great at directing actors either because that is clearly shown in Godzilla. Cranston is acting too like a T, but that's because it's Cranston. And then Aaron Taylor Johnson's character was a cardboard, a literal piece of cardboard. Also that movie like blue-balled you and kept on focusing on shit that you didn't care about. The creator does take a lot of the faults that he's done in the past and does improve on them, but there's still room for him to improve. This whole movie takes place in an alternate future where AI has coalesced with humanity. In some regard, in the West, it absolutely has not to the point where there was a nuke that went off in Los Angeles and that basically started a blood war. All of Western society wanted to kill all of AI, whereas AI found solitude, peace, and harmony with humanity in the East. And this movie does have a lot of moral kind of ambiguity, who is in the right, who's in the wrong and that party nail. Something that was in the back of my mind quite a bit is how much this movie feels like it's a Neil Blumkamp film. And I don't really think that's far out of the realm that these two, Gareth Edwards and Neil Blumkamp would make this kind of movie. And admittedly Neil would probably make it a lot more gritty, a lot more grounded in terms of how he would film it, whereas Gareth is very much about cinematic kind of style. And he has Greg Fraser as his DOP. Also, if you haven't seen any of the documentaries or any of the little informational things about how this was filmed with a Sony camera that you can go out and buy yourself. And the fact that this movie was made entirely on that is phenomenal and a very great note to Gareth. And he proved that with monsters. He made monsters off of like peanut butter. And that movie looked pretty darn good. And this film also looks pretty good. But again, kind of going onto that part about Blumkamp, Blumkamp can really delve into that moral gray zone. He knows how to get into it. This movie does it visually with the world building. But when it comes to the story itself, it's not so much. Blumkamp could do that better, especially with District 9 and Elysium, which I cannot lie, this movie did borrow a lot from Elysium. Not just in terms of the overall setting, but also just how the plot goes. Like the movies end almost the same way. It's kind of fucking baffling. The parts that I liked about this movie was the world building. Absolutely, from the tech to how AI is integrated into society in the East, this kind of harmony, this coalition, whereas the West used them as a tool and eventually the tool revolted. Whereas in Asia and Vietnam and Thailand where this movie's filmed, it has figured out this way to work with humanity and adopt humanity's ideologies to the point where you're wondering who is actually more human. The actual humans are the AI who have tried to find means of peace, albeit protecting themselves in certain circumstances. But America's attack, America's want to just eradicate the AI and how they invade just kind of nonchalantly. It's akin to that of the Vietnam War, of course. And everything that's going on in the background is just making you think. It's making you question who's right, who's wrong. If the idea of living in a society where we don't rely on AI but we work and live with AI is a possibility. But then notice how I haven't talked a lot about the main story, like the story between Joshua and the kid, the kind of the prodigy kid. It's because this story does suffer a lot from Gareth Edwards writing and there is a ton of MacGuffin, there is a ton of plot conveniences. There are a bunch of moments in this movie where Gareth is basically just hoping you don't think too hard about how the story is progressing. And unfortunately, these moments don't really come up until about a third of the way through the film. Then they slowly start to become more and more numerous. They start to become more and more frequent. Your illusion of disbelief is starting to break. There are some moments where the movie does hit you. There are some moments where the movie does have some good elements, some cool world-building and some basis for good character and good storytelling. It just suffers from Gareth just not knowing how to actually finish the fucking job. This movie has more disappointment to me than it does have actual faults. That's something I should clarify. I think that this is a pretty well-made movie. It could have been so much better if I think that someone who had better storytelling ability than Gareth did wrote the script. Going back to Rogue One, John Gilroy did come in, do rewrites and reshoots, and John Gilroy is one of the best screenwriters in recent time. Hell, he's the one who made Andor. And that's why everyone talks about how good that show is because he's a great writer. Gareth is not. He really, really tries to be. And he's not as obnoxious about it as JJ is. He just can never knock it out of the park. I still feel that the creator should be watched. It does have some cool philosophical elements and questions to it. The world-building is fascinating, so well done. Him and Blomkamp both know how to do world-building, but it just falls quite a bit short of what it could have been. So in the end, I'm gonna give the creator a four out of seven. I had a feeling that this would have been my conclusion had I gotten to see the movie in theaters. And I am actually upset. I kind of wish I had because visually seeing this on a big screen would have been incredible. It would have been great. Anyways, guys, those are my thoughts about this movie. Let me know what you thought. I'd be very interested to see what you guys think of this film. Have you guys seen it? What did you think about it? And do you also see what I mean about the similarities to Elysium? Let me know in the comments below. Hope you guys liked the review. If you did, leave a like, and if you're interested in more, subscribe. Until then, see you guys next time.