The Creator

For me it was a ‘wow’ …but with caveats.

The Vietnamese-meets-Cyberpunk production design is superb - i loved the integration of the tech to the traditional Asian culture and environments.

It’s riddled with sci-fi tropes that you’ve seen before, but they’re presented in a visually different way here. Story wise, the last third is where it goes a bit awry - having trotted along for the first two thirds, it’s like they suddenly remembered it needed to end at some point, so it suddenly takes some big leaps in narrative, locations and action which feel so quick that it’s like a highlights package… I’ve since read that this is allegedly due to Edwards’ first cut being 5hrs long before editing it down to just over 2.

With more judicious editing and a little more central story focus rather than some of the side quest characters there must be a more solid and sensibly paced 3hr directors cut in there.

As I said though, I’ll forgive it a bunch just for the look and feel of it which really felt refreshingly different - almost like a live action original Manga