TAGGED AS: First Reviews, movies, Sci-Fi
Here’s what critics are saying about The Creator:
The Creator is the next leap forward in sci-fi.
– Shahbaz Siddiqui, The Movie Podcast
Like the best science fiction, The Creator is more about us than about The Other.
– Jim Slotek, Original Cin
The Creator is a major new sci-fi adventure. If you’re partial to such things, Edwards’ ambitious, immersive film should prompt the intoxicating awe that you might have got from The Matrix and Avatar – the feeling that you’re seeing a rich vision of the future unlike any that has been on the big screen before.
– Nicholas Barber, BBC.com
You’ve never seen anything quite like this movie, which is a saying that gets bandied about a lot, but is pretty apt here… There was potential for an instant classic movie. We’re not quite there, but what we’ve got is still damn good.
– Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
I hope and believe that it has the potential to change the movies forever in some very good ways.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
The Creator was built to last, and it delivers.
– Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment
This is a masterful piece of original sci-fi that despite its obvious inspiration still manages to be hugely impressive in every single way.
– Linda Marric, The Jewish Chronicle
While The Creator is far from a masterpiece, it is a very impressive film to debut in 2023… a truly remarkable piece of original science fiction storytelling.
– Maggie Lovitt, Collider
The Creator isn’t a masterpiece of the A.I. genre, if there’s such a thing yet, but it’s a good start.
– Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic
The Creator lacks the intellectual depth or ambition of the films it references – from Apocalypse Now to Blade Runner, The Terminator, Star Wars and beyond to the imagery of Kundun.
– Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
The Creator is one of the most visually impressive science fiction movies I have ever seen.
– Michael Walsh, Nerdist
The Creator is one of the most visually exhilarating spectacles of the year.
– Mireia Mullor, Digital Spy
This movie looks f–king incredible. To a degree that shames most blockbusters that cost three times its budget.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
With Greig Fraser (The Batman, Dune) as the film’s cinematographer, there was never a question about whether or not The Creator would be visually stunning—in fact, it exceeds expectations at every turn.
– Maggie Lovitt, Collider
As pure spectacle, The Creator is often jaw-dropping in its imagery.
– A.A. Dowd, IGN Movies
Stunning visuals.
– Shahbaz Siddiqui, The Movie Podcast
After years of Hollywood giving us rushed, incomplete, unconvincing CGI, the film delivers an absolute special effects knockout. The movie’s artificial intelligence robots look completely real.
– Michael Walsh, Nerdist
The robots, which run a stylistic range from logical extrapolations of present-day models by companies like Boston Dynamics to the not-quite-perfect human simulacra of A.I. Artificial Intelligence, all look not only plausible but physically present.
– Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
The futuristic CGI is incorporated so seamlessly that the spell is never broken. Even when robots, simulants and armored hovercraft are on screen, you can’t see the joins between the physical and the digital.
– Nicholas Barber, BBC.com
It’s probably already the Visual Effects [Oscar] frontrunner.
– Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
Washington’s performance is a consistent highlight. Whether he’s dangling off missiles, mourning his dead wife, or forging a bond with an AI child, he rises to meet each challenge with the full breadth of emotional range at his command.
– Maggie Lovitt, Collider
Washington delivers his finest work since Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman, but manages also to traverse both the necessary action and emotion needed to make complex Joshua tick.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Washington shows us some more of that distinctive self-possession and even slight hauteur as a performer.
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
For her part, Voyles’ is a lovely debut performance, all robotic withdrawal until she grows sufficiently close to Joshua. She does most of the film’s emotional heavy lifting in those final minutes.
– Clint Worthington, Consequence
Allison Janney also stands out as an aggrieved mother and soldier intent on destroying A.I. forever.
– Michael Walsh, Nerdist
It is one of the most thought-provoking movies in some time.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Edwards and [Chris] Weitz’s script is fascinating for its take on a future in which people have programmed A.I. to maintain the compassion that our own species has lost somewhere along the way; a future in which technology might be a vessel for humanity rather than a replacement for it; a future in which computers might complement our movies rather than replace our cameras.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Edwards brings a lot of intriguing ideas to his script, but some of the best components are undermined by the rules that he establishes moments before they’re introduced.
– Maggie Lovitt, Collider
The familiarity of the narrative can make it feel oddly stale… The script, by Edwards and Chris Weitz, doesn’t have much time for human emotions past the superficial (love, revenge).
– Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
Far too often The Creator suffers from dialogue that is heavy-handed, cliché, or downright hokey. Eye-rolling lines constantly ruin the film’s immersive qualities.
– Michael Walsh, Nerdist
The Creator can hardly even keep its premise straight.
– Peter Debruge, Variety
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
It not only matches the ever-changing action perfectly but ranks with the very best of this veteran composer.
– Pete Hammond, Deadline Hollywood Daily
Hans Zimmer’s score is appropriately booming and Zimmeresque, though it doesn’t quite escape the wall-of-sound feel of many of his previous blockbuster works.
– Clint Worthington, Consequence
Edwards knows how to compose each shot for maximum effect… [and he] finally finds the balance between arresting images and grounded emotional stakes.
– Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
The director has a classic eye for staging action [and] he gives his movies room to breathe.
– David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Further evidence of what Edwards can bring by way of spectacle to help him continue to stand out.
– Aaron Neuwirth, We Live Entertainment
Edwards has established himself as the rare blockbuster orchestrator with a genuine sense of scale and poetry, restoring some spooky majesty to big-budget event cinema.
– A.A. Dowd, IGN Movies
(Photo by ©20th Century Studios)
The splurge of action spectacle towards the very end means that some of the narrative tendons slacken a bit and the film loses focus on specific jeopardy.
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
The upfront presentation of Joshua’s empathy does rob the film of any real suspense as to whether he will turn on Alfie, which weighs down the film’s middle section as it treats this as an open question.
– Jake Cole, Slant Magazine
It can be hard to find The Creator’s heart, which only flashes to life intermittently… The human parts that are missing are still keenly felt.
– Fionnuala Halligan, Screen International
It all builds to a big ending, which is very exciting, if slightly less thought-provoking than what’s come before… The final act feels a bit rushed.
– Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
For a movie that combines so many inherently rich storytelling genres, The Creator plays it frustratingly safe.
– Michael Walsh, Nerdist
Its tactile and timely take on A.I. has us eager for more tales from this universe.
– Shahbaz Siddiqui, The Movie Podcast
There’s a tremendous boldness here and a readiness to conjure up an entire created universe.
– Peter Bradshaw, Guardian
The Creator is a vivid new sci-fi world to play in.
– Joey Magidson, Awards Radar
68%
The Creator
(2023)
opens in theaters on September 29, 2023.
Thumbnail image by ©20th Century Studios
