A(I)pocolypse Now.

With such a large portion of today’s blockbuster landscape landing somewhere within the sphere of science fiction, it’s hard to argue that the genre isn’t in rude health right now.

From Marvel movies to Dune adaptations and every galaxy-hopping, alien-invading, multiverse-bothering thing in between, sci-fi feels as dominant now as it has ever been. Take a closer look, however, and things aren’t quite as rosy as they may appear.

Sure, big budget science fiction cinema has been doing big business for some time now, yet, with the majority of these box office botherers being adaptations, long running franchise entries, and titles riding high on the popularity of known IP, the viability of lower budgeted, original sci-fi appears unclear.

Last year things were certainly looking up, as the modestly assembled, ultra-creative Everything Everywhere All at Once bucked expectations with a weird, wonderful, multiverse-traversing story that hit big with both audiences and critics. Positive though that film’s story was for the genre, the question of whether original science fiction cinema had a viable future remained. A question that The Creator could go a long way to answering.

As a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence rages on, ex-special forces agent Joshua (John David Washington) is recruited to hunt down and kill The Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a weapon that holds the power to end both the war and all mankind. As Joshua and his team of elite operatives venture into enemy-occupied territory, they soon discover the world-ending weapon isn’t quite what they’d anticipated.

It certainly says something about the current state of science fiction that, when the trailer for Gareth Edwards’ The Creator appeared out of nowhere, the shock and awe that it not only had nothing to do with a franchise or a previously known IP, but cost a mere $80 million to make, was palpable. Since then, anticipation has been high that this could, potentially, pave the way for a boom in original, ambitious, moderately budgeted sci-fi cinema.

Whether The Creator will, ultimately, win over an audience seemingly hooked on a high calorie, franchise-heavy sci-fi diet, or whether it will, in any way, open the floodgates for likeminded titles returning to cinemas remains to be seen. However, if it doesn’t, it certainly won’t be due to a lack of effort.

Visually arresting, thematically pertinent, and emotionally engaging, The Creator has an awful lot going for it. The very fact that all of this has been achieved on such a relatively meagre budget really is the icing on the cake, and no matter the film’s eventual box office outcome or what it accomplishes for the science fiction genre, Gareth Edwards should be exceptionally proud of what he has achieved here.

Judged purely on an aesthetic level, Edwards has worked minor miracles, as The Creator offers a seamless, boldly imagined, thoroughly lived-in sci-fi world that in turns feels both fantastical and all too real. Melding together organic scenery, shiny advanced technology, and endearingly rustic AI robotics, Edwards has crafted a truly unique visual experience without ever overplaying his hand.

The result is a true breath of fresh air within a modern sci-fi climate absolutely obsessed with drowning the screen in bland, overblown, muddy CGI. Of course, The Creator certainly has its fair share of visual effects liberally peppered throughout, however, there’s something so appealingly natural about the way it’s all stitched together that you neither notice nor care.

It’s an organic visual flair that truly allows Gareth Edwards’ film to stand out from the crowd, and one that does a fair job of distracting us from just how familiar The Creator’s narrative feels. With elements lifted from an array of similarly themed movies - both science fiction and otherwise - The Creator wears its influences on its sleeve, and while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, it does make for highly derivative viewing.

With a dash of Apocalypse Now here, a dollop of Blade Runner there, and a sprinkling of Rogue One throughout, it doesn’t take much scratching beneath The Creator’s surface to see that, despite being an original work, the film is not quite as fresh as it’s been sold to us as. Of course, robots, AI, and the topic of imperialism have all been sci-fi mainstays for some time, so some repetition is always likely to happen, yet there are so many familiar story beats and character moments throughout that you can’t help but feel a little disappointed that Edwards wasn’t able to push the narrative boat out as much as his visual one.

The topic of AI and humanity’s approach to it is certainly a relevant one, yet The Creator never quite engages with the topic in a wholly satisfying way. Somewhat paradoxically, despite artificial intelligence playing a key role in the film’s plot, The Creator never feels like it has a life of its own, ultimately functioning better as a war movie than an astute comment on AI; although, again, one that we have seen done many times before.

It's certainly a shame that we’re not treated to a narrative or to characters that quite match the film’s lofty visual ambitions, however, this reliance on derivative elements is far from a dealbreaker. For all its plot, character, and thematic familiarity - and it has to be said, it’s rather shaky approach to, and depiction of, Asia - The Creator is exceptionally executed.

Led well by John David Washington delivering his best performance since BlacKkKlansman and backed by a fine Hans Zimmer score, Gareth Edwards just gets it, following up his fine work on Monsters, Godzilla, and Rogue One with another smartly put together helping of blockbuster genre cinema. Squeezing every penny out of his $80 million production budget, Edwards knows what it takes to get the job done within such restrictions, offering a thoroughly entertaining piece of science fiction that delivers on visual style and world building, if not entirely on originality.

A refreshing slice of original sci-fi that’s not quite as original as it likes to think it is, The Creator is a thoroughly welcome piece of satisfying, visually arresting, mid-budget genre cinema. Highly derivative though it may feel at times, The Creator is nevertheless an excellently executed piece of science fiction action that works wonders on a relative shoestring to offer a potential lifeline for modestly budgeted, non-franchise genre movies everywhere.

The Creator is in cinemas now.