After the amazing tale that was Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, you probably figured director Gareth Edwards would be carving his name in Hollywood.  For whatever reason, it’s been seven years of… crickets.  He’s returning to science fiction this year as writer-director of The Creator, a post-apocalypse story with an official poster meant to evoke Rogue One, and a trailer that feels a lot like a Neill Blomkamp film.  In fact The Creator looks like a revisit to Elysium and District 9 in the same movie.  It also has much in common–at first blush at least–with James Cameron’s Alita: Battle Angel and The Terminator franchise.

But it’s not that it’s derivative that’s the problem.  History has taught us the enemy uses tricks and disguises, and they’ve done it since even before the Trojan horse.  Why are the humans in the trailer flinching at all to eliminate the threat?  It’s a robot that sort of looks like a kid.  But it’s clearly not.  It’s a cleverly designed robot.  It’s not even a cyborg.  So why treat it like a kid?  If that’s believable, then maybe AI stands a chance against humanity.  We sure hope not.

See if you agree.  Here’s the trailer for Gareth Edwards’ The Creator:

The Creator stars John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, and Ralph Ineson.  Much of the crew consists of film people in their roles for the first time.  An exception is Oscar-winning cinematographer Greig Fraser, known for Dune, The Mandalorian, and Rogue One.  Look for The Creator in theaters September 29, 2023.

C.J. Bunce / Editor / borg