Visually stunning The Creator is a rare piece of original sci-fi filmmaking

It's rare to get an original piece of science fiction filmmaking not based on existing IP in this era of adaptations and superhero mega-franchises. So The Creator is a welcome offering in the genre, combining elements of District 9, Ex Machina, Blade Runner, and Apocalypse Now, among others, to produce a visually stunning and timely tale of a war between humans and AI. It's directed by Gareth Edwards, best known for 2014's Godzilla and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in 2016.

(Some mild spoilers below but no major reveals.)

The inspiration for The Creator came post-Rogue One, when Edwards took a road trip through the Midwest. He spotted a strange building with a Japanese logo in the middle of one of the endless fields, and his mind instantly jumped to robots. What would a robot built inside that factory think when it encountered the field and broader outside world for the first time? "It felt like the beginning of a movie," Edwards recalled, and locked himself away in a hotel in Thailand to write the screenplay. He also joined a fellow director on a tour across Vietnam. "I started envisioning massive futuristic structures rising out of paddy fields... and I got really excited about the idea of something Blade Runner-esque being set in Vietnam," he said. The end result was The Creator.