--- title: "The Creator" year: 2023 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/the-creator" fi1m_id: "the-creator" imdb_id: "tt11858890" tmdb_id: 670292 wikidata_id: "Q110617876" fi1m_score: 64 critics_score: 65 critics_reviews: 18 published: "2026-09-12" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:05.180168+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Creator (2023) Directed by Gareth Edwards · 2h 14m · MPA PG-13 · Science Fiction, Action, Adventure ## Identity The Creator - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/the-creator - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** the-creator - **IMDb ID:** tt11858890 - **TMDB ID:** 670292 - **Wikidata ID:** Q110617876 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11858890/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/670292, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110617876 **Fi1m score: 64** · Critics 65 from 18 reviews *In a sentence:* A sad man carries a robot child across rice paddies while a giant cross drops bombs on the extras > Gareth Edwards builds a future that looks worn, lived in and real, then walks a story through it that we have seen many times before. The images are worth the ticket; the script gives them less to carry than they deserve. ## Synopsis Humans and their machines are at war. Joshua (John David Washington) is an American soldier working undercover in a region the film calls New Asia, where robots and people live side by side, and he is married to Maya (Gemma Chan). A raid goes wrong and separates them. Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) later brings him back for one job: find and destroy a new weapon built by the AI’s architect. The weapon turns out to be a child (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). Joshua takes her on the run, hunted by his own side and helped, warily, by hers. Ken Watanabe plays Harun, a leader of the machines. Gareth Edwards directs and co-writes with Chris Weitz. ## Review Gareth Edwards has spent his career putting ordinary people in the foreground and something enormous in the sky behind them. *Monsters* (2010) did it with two travellers and a cordoned-off Mexico; *Godzilla* (2014) did it with a lizard the size of a weather system. *The Creator* does it with an American war against artificial intelligence, fought in the rice fields and temple towns of a place the film calls New Asia, and it is the biggest thing he has built from nothing. The world is remarkable. The story he has walked through it is one we have seen many times, and by the end the pictures are doing nearly all the work. Start with what James Clyne has designed, because it is the reason to see the film. The American weapon hangs in orbit and moves across the sky as a cross of blue light, so that every scene of village life has a slow crucifix crawling above it. The robots come in two kinds: workers with turbines for heads, and simulants with human faces and a neat hole drilled straight through the back of the skull, which the film keeps showing us in profile and which never stopped being unsettling. Monks in saffron have circuitry where their ears should be. Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer shoot all of it in what look like real paddies and real beaches, with haze in the air and grain on the image, and the effects sit inside the frame rather than on top of it. Three editors are credited, Joe Walker, Scott Morris and Hank Corwin, and the film moves like a thing cut by three people. The first hour is brisk and fragmented, with Joshua’s memories of Maya slipping into the present a few frames at a time, and it works; it gives a stock character a grief we can see. The second half stops for a speech, starts again, stops for another. Hans Zimmer and Jo Goldsmith-Eteson score the war with low drones and a distant choir, and they are at their best in the raid on the village, where the music drops almost to nothing and the screaming is left to do it. John David Washington plays Joshua as a man who has closed every door he owns, which is honest and also a problem, because the film asks us to watch him open them and he gives us little to watch. Madeleine Yuna Voyles, as Alphie, is the real lead: solemn, curious, a child who has just learned what a lie is. Ken Watanabe gives Harun a tiredness that suggests he has been fighting this war for longer than the humans have. Allison Janney’s Colonel Howell has a single expression and a short fuse, and the soldiers around her have been written as if the script wanted us to cheer their deaths. Gemma Chan is mostly in flashback, and Sturgill Simpson does a warm ten minutes as Drew. Here is what got to us. In the village a farming robot is ordered to carry a bomb into a building, and it goes, and it counts down out loud, and it is polite about it. Robots put their hands up and are shot anyway. We were horrified, and we were meant to be, and it is the film’s one clear argument: these things ask for nothing and we kill them regardless. Then the last forty minutes arrive, an assault on a very large machine with a great many corridors, and we found ourselves admiring the light on the metal and checking how long was left. The trouble is the script, by Edwards and Chris Weitz. The soldier and the powerful child are borrowed from *Lone Wolf and Cub* and *Children of Men*; the Americans dropping fire on villages are borrowed from every Vietnam film; the robots are good because the film has decided they are good, and nobody on screen makes the case against them well enough to be worth answering. New Asia is a place where things happen to people, and the people are mostly extras. The reviews so far split almost down the middle, and we understand both halves. Edwards is a filmmaker who is best when he is hiding something, and here he has nothing to hide. See it on the biggest screen you can find, for Clyne’s world, for Fraser and Soffer’s light, and for Voyles, and keep your expectations at the level of the pictures rather than the plot. It runs 134 minutes and carries a 12A. *Fi1m score 64, published 12 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews agree on one thing and split on nearly everything else. Almost every critic praises the look of the film: the world-building, the design of the robots and the New Asia setting, the scale Edwards gets from his effects, and the action. Where they part is the story. The warmer reviews find a heartfelt film with something to say about otherness and American violence, and a few call it Edwards’ best work. The cooler ones, and there are many, find a patchwork of familiar science fiction, with several naming the reluctant-guardian-and-powerful-child plot as borrowed goods. John David Washington’s lead performance divides them too; The Wrap singles out him and Madeleine Yuna Voyles for praise, while others call him disconnected. Sight and Sound raises the sharpest objection, that New Asia is a backdrop for Western destruction, and Digital Spy notes some Orientalism. The Times dismisses it as a Star Wars pastiche. The spread is wide. ## Straight answers **Is The Creator worth watching?** *The Creator* is worth watching for the world Gareth Edwards has built, and we scored it 64. James Clyne's design, Greig Fraser and Oren Soffer's hazy, grainy photography and Madeleine Yuna Voyles's solemn child are the reasons to see it, ideally on a large screen. The script is borrowed from films you have seen, and the last forty minutes are corridors. **How long is The Creator, and what is it rated?** *The Creator* runs 2h 14m and is rated PG-13 by the MPA in the US. It is a science fiction and action film. **Where can I watch The Creator in the US?** *The Creator* is not on any streaming or rental service in the US at the moment. It is available in 1 other country; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How violent or frightening is The Creator, and is it suitable for children?** *The Creator* carries a 12A and is a war film, so expect sustained combat, bombings and killings, though nothing graphic enough to trouble the certificate. The scenes that upset us most involve robots: one carries a bomb into a building and counts down politely, others surrender and are shot anyway. Older children and teenagers should manage it; younger ones may find those moments genuinely distressing. **How does The Creator compare to District 9?** *The Creator* is the grander and prettier of the two, while [*District 9*](https://film.one/film/district-9) is the sharper and angrier. Both put a persecuted non-human underclass at the centre and both lose some grip once the shooting starts, but Neill Blomkamp's film has a real argument and a bitter comedy that Edwards's lacks. Choose *The Creator* for spectacle and *District 9* for discomfort. **What should I watch after The Creator?** After *The Creator*, try [*Monsters*](https://film.one/film/monsters-vs-aliens) (2010, Fi1m 63): Edwards’s first film: two people, one border, and the creatures kept mostly out of frame. Then [*District 9*](https://film.one/film/district-9) (2009, Fi1m 81): Aliens as an underclass in Johannesburg, shot like news footage and far angrier than this; and [*Children of Men*](https://film.one/film/children-of-men) (2006, Fi1m 85): A reluctant man escorts a miraculous child through a collapsing Britain; the template done properly. ### Reviews we read (27) - **Vulture** (85/100, inferred): A shockingly good, tenderhearted sci-fi film that uses its AI premise as a symbol for otherness to interrogate American imperialism and violence, while delivering the director's most effective emotional core to date. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-creator-review-shockingly-good-and-tenderhearted.html) - **The AV Club**, Justin Lowe (B+): Edwards delivers a thrilling, thoughtful, and immersive sci-fi epic that reframes AI conflict with an expansive perspective, notable for its resourcefulness, striking visual style, resonant themes, and compelling character dynamics. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-creator-movie-review-gareth-edwards-1850871302) - **Little White Lies**, Leila Latif (2/4/4): The critic praises the film's visually ambitious storytelling and inventive action sequences in a heartfelt sci-fi spectacle about war between humans and AI. They highlight the stunning world-building as a standout element. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/the-creator) - **Time Out**, Lou Thomas (4/5): The review lauds it as Edwards' best film, a lavish action-packed sci-fi with spectacular visuals and chaos that thrills. They single out the gorgeous visual aesthetic and impressive action sequences for praise. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/the-creator-2023) - **Slant Magazine**, Jake Cole (75/100, inferred): Edwards balances arresting images with grounded emotional stakes in a humanist spin on dystopian tropes, emphasizing empathy, connections between characters, and a plea for peace over brutality in its treatment of AI and humanity. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/creator-review-gareth-edwards-john-david-washington/) - **Radio Times**, Dave Golder (3/5): The critic notes spectacular visuals and energetic action sequences but criticizes the generic storytelling and lack of originality or depth in its robot revolution narrative. They single out the cartoonish US military characters and under-explored central relationship as complaints. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movies/scifi/the-creator-review/) - **The New York Times**, Nicolas Rapold (55/100, inferred): The movie offers a provocative take on AI as an innocuous force but suffers from uneven tone, a disconnected lead performance, and straightforward blockbuster momentum rather than deeper insight. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/28/movies/the-creator-review-john-david-washington.html) - **Los Angeles Times**, Glenn Whipp (50/100, inferred): Gorgeous visuals and seamless effects impress, but the story is a sluggish jumble of familiar tropes about a reluctant guardian and powerful child, with underdeveloped characters and unconvincing ideas about humanity. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-09-26/the-creator-review-sci-fi-john-david-washington-allison-janney) - **RogerEbert.com**, Christy Lemire (45/100, inferred): The film looks spectacular with strong visuals and world-building but grows superficial, recycling ideas from predecessors and failing to deliver emotional depth due to flimsy characters. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-creator-movie-review-2023) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, David Rooney (45/100, inferred): The film is an ambitious original sci-fi endeavor with impressive visuals and design, but it feels like a patchwork of familiar movies, with a dull lead performance, ersatz spirituality, and chaotic plotting that undermine its goals. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-creator-review-john-david-washington-gareth-edwards-1235596649/) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (35/100, inferred): Stunning footage of futuristic war cannot salvage a derivative plot recycling old stereotypes and sci-fi tropes, with limited emotional range from the lead and distractingly fake human-faced robots. [Read](https://variety.com/2023/film/reviews/the-creator-review-1235729849/) - **Empire**, Alex Godfrey: Praises the film's distinctive vision, stunning sci-fi design and thoughtful exploration of what it means to be human amid ethical dilemmas. Singles out the heartfelt story and visuals in service of a sensitive narrative as uplifting and enveloping. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/the-creator/) - **Screen Daily**: The review describes it as bombastic sci-fi with determined world-building and reliably visually inventive, though the narrative familiarity makes it feel oddly stale. They single out the visual inventiveness and attractive tech work as positives despite lacking intellectual depth. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/the-creator-review/5186274.article) - **Sight and Sound**: The critic finds the film striking but reductive, diminished by tired Hollywood tropes in its depiction of Asia and AI warfare. They single out the tone-deaf portrayal of New Asia as a mere backdrop for Western destruction as a major complaint. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/creator-striking-sci-fi-diminished-by-tired-hollywood-tropes) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw: The film is an intriguing, stimulating and exhilarating sci-fi actioner that boldly tackles the AI debate with head and heart in vast, impressive visuals. Some narrative focus is lost in the climactic action spectacle. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/sep/26/the-creator-review-sci-fi-actioner-ai-gareth-edwards) - **The Telegraph**: Edwards delivers a visual effects miracle and one of the most affecting sci-fi films in years, with a stunningly realised world and conceptually ambitious story that excels in its mix of gritty realism and digital effects. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/the-creator-review-john-david-washington-gareth-edwards/) - **The Times**: The film is a shallow Star Wars pastiche with no original ideas or storytelling beats, crudely borrowing from superior sources like Star Wars and Avatar in its visually impressive but dramatically incompetent sci-fi epic. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-creator-review-a-shallow-star-wars-pastiche-bl5nwhb9w) - **Total Film**: Calls it a vividly realised snapshot of the future and a terrific achievement even in a crowded AI-movie market. Singles out the blend of spectacle with big themes of otherness and prejudice for creating something hugely original and imaginative, while noting some character dynamics needed more depth. [Read](https://www.gamesradar.com/the-creator-review-2023/) - **Digital Spy**, Mireia Mullor (80/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's stunning visuals and ambitious scale as a retrofuturistic sci-fi epic that redefines blockbusters, while noting flaws like uneven performances, a rushed ending, and some Orientalism. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a45299902/the-creator-review/) - **NME**, Matthew Turner (4/5): The critic hails it as one of the year's best sci-fi films, commending the impressive world-building, thrilling action, provocative script, and emotional climax. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/film-reviews/the-creator-review-sci-fi-john-david-washington-3504521) - **Collider**, Maggie Lovitt (7/10): The film explores moral dilemmas around AI through striking visuals and a strong lead performance from John David Washington, but is undermined by a flawed plot and ambiguous messaging about the US military's role. [Read](https://collider.com/the-creator-review/) - **Consequence**, Clint Worthington (B-): Edwards delivers a visually dazzling original sci-fi world with impressive designs and scale, but the story recycles familiar tropes and offers little that feels new or distinctive. [Read](https://consequence.net/2023/12/the-creator-review-john-david-washington/) - **/Film**, Rafael Motamayor (7/10): The critic finds it visually stunning with big ideas and performances but notes the script simplifies conflicts and lacks emotional resonance, comparing it to Avatar without the heart. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1401759/the-creator-review/) - **The Wrap**, Tomris Laffly (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's original sci-fi world-building and striking visuals as a thrilling, old-school escapade. They single out the strong performances by John David Washington and newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles as the robot child Alphie for particular praise, while critiquing the muddled thematic handling of AI. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/the-creator-review-gareth-edwards/) - **Polygon**, Joshua Rivera (50/100, inferred): The film builds a rich, gorgeous future world full of philosophical potential about creation and humanity, yet it fails to deliver an engaging story or characters to match its visuals and ideas. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23895762/the-creator-review-gareth-edwards-john-david-washington) - **Den of Geek**, David Crow (2.5 out of 5): The critic finds the film ambitious but ultimately artificial and shallow in its story, praising the meticulous world-building and visuals but criticizing the muddled narrative and lack of emotional depth. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-creator-review-star-wars-if-ai-were-rebels/) - **Film Stories**, Ryan Lambie: The critic praises the film's visually awe-inspiring sci-fi thriller that needs to be seen on the biggest screen, highlighting its tangible real world, seamless effects, and soulful storytelling. It is called the best science fiction film of 2023. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/reviews/the-creator-review-the-best-science-fiction-film-of-2023/) ## Details - **Director:** Gareth Edwards - **Director:** Gareth Edwards - **Screenplay:** Chris Weitz, Gareth Edwards - **Story:** Gareth Edwards - **Cinematography:** Oren Soffer, Greig Fraser - **Editor:** Hank Corwin, Joe Walker, Scott Morris - **Music:** Hans Zimmer, Jo Goldsmith-Eteson - **Production design:** James Clyne - **Costume design:** Jeremy Hanna - **Producer:** Gareth Edwards, Arnon Milchan, Jim Spencer - **Cast:** John David Washington as Joshua; Madeleine Yuna Voyles as Alphie; Gemma Chan as Maya; Allison Janney as Colonel Howell; Ken Watanabe as Harun; Sturgill Simpson as Drew; Amar Chadha-Patel as Omni / SEK-ON / Sergeant Bui; Marc Menchaca as McBride - **Runtime:** 2h 14m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG-13 - **Release (the US):** 29 September 2023 - **Genres:** Science Fiction, Action, Adventure - **Budget:** $80 million - **Box office:** $104 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAZuGdi32bk ## Where to watch in the US Not streaming, renting or buying in the US at the last check. Also available in: GB. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 2024: Best Sound (nominated); Best Visual Effects (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Monsters* (2010), Fi1m 63: Edwards’s first film: two people, one border, and the creatures kept mostly out of frame. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/monsters-vs-aliens.md) - *District 9* (2009), Fi1m 81: Aliens as an underclass in Johannesburg, shot like news footage and far angrier than this. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/district-9.md) - *Children of Men* (2006), Fi1m 85: A reluctant man escorts a miraculous child through a collapsing Britain; the template done properly. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/children-of-men.md) - *Ghost in the Shell* (1995), Fi1m 83: Japanese animation asking what a machine with a face owes to the people who built it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ghost-in-the-shell.md) - *After Yang* (2021): A family mourns a broken android; the quiet, domestic version of the same question. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/the-creator