While this is not the worst film of the year - that title belongs to the intolerably pretentious "Beau is Afraid" - "The Creator" is a horribly patchy pastiche of dozens of SciFi classics, and if "Tenet" was not testimony to John David Washington's complete lack of acting skills, then this mindless drivel is. Having Denzel's genes doesn't mean having talent, and it's time for Washington to finally realize that and enjoy his football money on some island retreat. He walks through the film like one of the robots, and I for one will never put myself through watching anything with him in it ever again.
The almost non-existing story centers around the relationship between a merc and his mark, and a director can either downplay this as much as possible by blowing things up every two minutes, or one can use an actor who can carry emotions through explosions - which Denzel Washington can, but his son most definitely cannot. Unfortunately, Edwards does both, so the film meanders between brainless shootouts and incoherent encounters. If you use your brain for a second while watching this, you will inevitably experience the searing pain of intelligence insult since nothing makes sense.
The tidbit narrative is a constant reminder how much better the films that inspired it are. Most annoyingly, the film makes zero use of its underlying theme of a fascist white American society persecuting an Asian culture. And while that is a tired and simplistic approach to begin with, going all the way with a "bad white people vs. Good Asian hybrids" would at least have been edgy given US-Chinese relations. Yet this is just one of the many missed opportunities here. A genuinely bad film is easier to watch than one full of wasted potential, and "The Creator" is a prime example.
The almost non-existing story centers around the relationship between a merc and his mark, and a director can either downplay this as much as possible by blowing things up every two minutes, or one can use an actor who can carry emotions through explosions - which Denzel Washington can, but his son most definitely cannot. Unfortunately, Edwards does both, so the film meanders between brainless shootouts and incoherent encounters. If you use your brain for a second while watching this, you will inevitably experience the searing pain of intelligence insult since nothing makes sense.
The tidbit narrative is a constant reminder how much better the films that inspired it are. Most annoyingly, the film makes zero use of its underlying theme of a fascist white American society persecuting an Asian culture. And while that is a tired and simplistic approach to begin with, going all the way with a "bad white people vs. Good Asian hybrids" would at least have been edgy given US-Chinese relations. Yet this is just one of the many missed opportunities here. A genuinely bad film is easier to watch than one full of wasted potential, and "The Creator" is a prime example.