the creator movie review embargo

The Creator Movie Reviews: Critics Share Strong First Reactions

Upon its first social media reactions, Gareth Edwards' The Creator is receiving strong reviews among critics.

The original film is produced by 20th Century Studios (owned by Disney ) and stars John David Washington ( Tenet ) and Gemma Chan (Marvel Studios' Eternals ).

This sci-fi flick is inspired by films like Blade Runner , Akira , E.T. , and more. Fans are excited to check out Edwards' latest work as it is a fresh idea being tossed into a sea of sequels and familiar IP in theaters.

The Creator Earns Positive First Reactions

The social media embargo for The Creator officially dropped at midnight ET on Tuesday, September 19. Soon after, a flood of (mostly) glowing reviews was posted on X (formerly Twitter) praising the new film.

Brandon Davis called The Creator "astonishingly good," telling his followers that "[They] have to see this one:"

"#TheCreator is astonishingly good. Best film of the year and best sci-fi film in ages, in my opinion. Gareth Edwards flips expectations really impressively for a visceral, touching, and creative story of humanity. Genuinely loved it. You have to see this one."

Adding onto the praise, Simon Thompson was surprised by how "emotional" the film was and added that "John David Washington turns in an engaging performance:"

"#TheCreator is breathtaking in scale and vision. Very emotional, much more than anticipated. It’s ambitious and mostly hits the targets it shoots for. John David Washington turns in an engaging performance, a blend of strength and empathy. It should be seen on the big screen."

Griffin Schiller was thrilled after seeing The Creator , calling it  "a MASTERFUL piece of original sci-fi" and then exclaimed that it is "Pure cinema baby:"

"#TheCreator is a MASTERFUL piece of original sci-fi. Gareth Edwards is one of our GREAT filmmakers. A soulful, nuanced, Lucas-like interrogation of human beliefs/biases & our insecurity in the face of something greater. Spectacle & heart to the highest order. Pure cinema baby!"

Earning its first reference to the Academy Awards, Joseph Deckelmeier wrote that "Madeleine Yuna Voyles has to be in the conversations for The Oscars:"

"#TheCreator is a masterpiece & one of the year's best movies. It hits on so many levels with AI being such a hot topic. Gareth Edwards does a masterful job of keeping the audience engaged every step of the way. Madeleine Yuna Voyles has to be in the conversations for The Oscars"

Drawing interesting comparisons, Anthony Galiardi said that The Creator "encapsulates the spirit of 80's Anime" while also adding that it's like "Akira meets Spielbergs A.I."

"#TheCreator encapsulates the spirit of 80's Anime and translates it into MESMERIZING live-action cinema. Think Akira meets Spielbergs A.I. While the lore can be dense, the STUNNING VISUALS & IMMERSIVE ATMOSPHERE have me eager for more tales from this VISIONARY UNIVERSE."

The Creator has "identifiable inspirations" according to Courtney Howard , adding that director "Gareth Edwards constructs an immersive world:"

"Though it pulls from identifiable inspirations, #TheCreator is 1 of the best original sci-fi epics in years. Massively entertaining, enthralling & profound on every level. Gareth Edwards constructs an immersive world & fills it with compelling characters. Absolutely radical."

Kristen Maldonado eased a shocking ending, writing, "The third act surprised me, this film WENT THERE!"

"#TheCreator is an ambitious sci-fi odyssey with a profound take on humanity, acceptance & freedom at its core. John David Washington gives a career best performance, while Madeleine Yuna Voyles proves she’s a young actor to watch. The third act surprised me, this film WENT THERE!"

Beyond the fascinating dystopian elements, Tessa Smith's review pointed out the deeper messaging, writing, "Love the important underlying themes of accepting those who are different from you:"

"Not only is The Creator visually stunning, the story is really emotional, too. I was completely captivated pretty early on. Alphie is adorable! I totally fell in love with her! Love the important underlying themes of accepting those who are different from you. #TheCreator"

Will The Creator Win an Oscar?

Gareth Edwards is best known for being the director of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story , arguably one of the best Lucasfilm projects since Disney bought the company.

Rogue One was nominated for Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects at the Academy Awards but did not win. During that time, Edwards won the Best Director award from both the Empire and Saturn Awards.

Following his work in a galaxy far, far away and directing 2014's Godzilla , The Creator gave Edwards much more creative control as he is a writer and producer of the upcoming film.

The expectations are that films like Oppenheimer , Killers of the Flower Moon , and Past Lives could be up for Best Picture at the 96th Academy Awards.

Based on these raving reviews, there may be room for The Creator to get a nomination for the Academy's most recognizable award. However, the film could also be up for awards like Sound Mixing, Original Screenplay, or Best Visual Effects.

Considering the design and impressive CGI look of the AI robots in The Creator and its $80 million budget, rewarding the art and graphics department may be most likely.

The Creator hits theaters on Friday, September 29.

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Movie Reviews

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It’s ironically apt that “The Creator,” about the potential and peril of artificial intelligence, merely resembles profound science fiction.

Rich in atmosphere but short on substance, director and co-writer Gareth Edwards ’ film has the look and tone of a serious, original work of art, but it ends up feeling empty as it recycles images and ideas from many influential predecessors. The movie is always spectacular to watch, thanks to dazzling visuals from cinematographers Greig Fraser (“Dune,” “ The Batman ,” Edwards’ “ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ”) and Oren Soffer . And the first hour or so offers some thrilling moments of action and inspired world-building. But “The Creator” grows increasingly superficial as it lumbers along, and it never delivers the emotional wallop it seeks because the characters and their connections are so flimsily drawn.

Edwards crafted the script with Chris Weitz , who also co-wrote 2016’s “Rogue One,” which would set the stage for “Andor” on Disney+, the most gripping and sophisticated “ Star Wars ” series yet. “The Creator” seems to share those same ambitions of combining excitement and intellectualism but ultimately falls short.

There’s also a matter of timing here: It’s accidentally awkward for a movie to suggest that maybe the use of AI to replace humans in a variety of scenarios isn’t such a terrible idea after all, given that’s exactly what the Writers Guild of America was striking against for the past five months before reaching a tentative agreement. (SAG-AFTRA is still understandably fighting this trend.) In this futuristic setting, the technology comes in the form of a sweet-faced, even-tempered little girl nicknamed Alphie ( Madeleine Yuna Voyles ). But you’ve seen her before, this adorable and all-powerful creature who could be humanity’s savior or its destruction. She’s Baby Yoda. She’s Ellie from “The Last of Us.” She’s John Connor . She’s the kid in Jeff Nichols ’ “ Midnight Special .” Stick her in the middle of a bunch of stuffed animals, and she could even be E.T.

And alongside her, as the obligatory reluctant father figure who must shepherd her to safety, is John David Washington . An introductory montage informs us that artificial intelligence has been a welcome element of our existence for decades, functioning in every capacity, from chefs to track stars to astronauts. But by the time we catch up with Washington’s Joshua in 2065, AI is to blame for a nuclear bomb going off in the middle of Los Angeles, killing a million people (including Joshua’s family) and causing him the loss of a limb. The West is now anti-AI, but the robots remain welcome in a place known as New Asia, an amalgamation of cultures halfway around the world where Joshua has found peace and in a charming beach bungalow with his pregnant wife, Maya ( Gemma Chan ). They cuddle to the strains of bossa nova on the turntable, one of the movie’s many clever examples of mixing old and new technology. The soundtrack choices are inspired throughout, including the wondrous use of Radiohead’s eerie, electronic “Everything in Its Right Place” during a nighttime raid.

But Joshua's reverie is quickly shattered when Maya is taken from him; five years later, he’s forced to join a team searching for a hidden weapon, the work of a shadowy figure known as The Creator. Joshua is an undercover special forces agent who must do the bidding of the American military and its ominous, hovering airship known as NOMAD, with its scouring beams of light that create some of the film’s most startling, searing moments. These swaggering bad-asses are straight out of a James Cameron movie, led by a tough-as-nails Allison Janney , who’s mostly saddled with barking banal orders (although she does enjoy a moment or two of quiet vulnerability). The Americans’ attack on this pan-Asian nation is quite clearly meant to replicate the imagery we saw during the Vietnam War; the result is artful but overly familiar and not the slightest bit subtle. Meanwhile, cramped, neon-drenched urban nightscapes are straight out of “ Blade Runner .”

But soon after Joshua finds his target—young Alphie, whom we first spy in a suspenseful moment watching cartoons, alone in a cavernous room—his feelings for her begin to soften. He nicknames her “Lil Sim” as they head out on the road together, and the film forces a father-daughter bond that's rushed and unearned. The visual effects remain sleek and seamless, but the heart beneath them is missing. Washington’s cool, detached screen persona makes sense for a while here, as his shattered character’s intentions are meant to be mysterious. But the breadth of Joshua’s arc isn’t on the page, so he can only do so much to convince us of his evolution.

Edwards clunkily balances serious notions of what it means to be human with impressive, explosive action sequences, as “The Creator” keeps going and going with multiple endings. By the time Joshua finds himself risking his life amid a massive, climactic set piece, you may find yourself wondering what exactly he’s doing there, so convoluted is the film’s logic. Despite the film's early promise, you might wonder ultimately what you’re doing there, too.

In theaters now.

Christy Lemire

Christy Lemire is a longtime film critic who has written for RogerEbert.com since 2013. Before that, she was the film critic for The Associated Press for nearly 15 years and co-hosted the public television series "Ebert Presents At the Movies" opposite Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, with Roger Ebert serving as managing editor. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Film Credits

The Creator (2023)

Rated PG-13 for violence, some bloody images and strong language.

134 minutes

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

Robbie Tann as Shipley

Ralph Ineson as General Andrews

• Gareth Edwards

Writer (story by)

• Chris Weitz

Cinematographer

• Greig Fraser
• Oren Soffer
• Hank Corwin
• Scott Morris
• Hans Zimmer

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‘The Creator’ Review: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love A.I.

In this hectic, futuristic action film, John David Washington hunts down a threatening artificial intelligence with the baby face of a child.

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By Nicolas Rapold

It’s been a tough year for artificial intelligence. First, industry leaders warn that A.I. poses an extinction-level threat to humanity . Then, screenwriters and actors warn roughly the same thing about artists losing their livelihoods (and art losing its soul). And let’s not forget predictions of vast unemployment and upheaval . What’s a superintelligent, terrifyingly autonomous technology got to do to get back on people’s good sides?

One answer comes in the whirlwind form of “The Creator,” the latest film directed by Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One,” “Godzilla”). We’ve grown accustomed to A.I. playing the role of helper-turned-villain in movies, and here a rapid newsreel-style prologue sets a familiar stage: Robots were invented, did increasingly complex tasks, and then went nuclear (devastating, in this case, Los Angeles). Now the United States is bent on eliminating their threat, while in East Asian countries (dubbed “New Asia”), bots live at peace with humans. Humanlike robots with Roomba-like heads are police officers, workers, even (somewhat jarringly) saffron-robed monks.

One thing stays the same in the future: The movies need a hero. John David Washington plays the reluctant man for the job, Joshua, an ex-undercover soldier who dropped out of sight after a messy raid separated him from his pregnant wife, Maya (Gemma Chan). He is recruited for a U.S. military mission, led by Allison Janney as a no-nonsense colonel, to neutralize a top-secret weapon in New Asia. After a macho fly-in that lightly evokes Vietnam War movies (but with a Radiohead soundtrack), he infiltrates an underground lab only to find a mysterious weapon: an A.I. with the human form of a fairly unflappable 6-year-old girl. Joshua decides to take her on the lam, naming her Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles).

Unlike countless A.I. doomsday scenarios, Alphie is too cute and innocent for Joshua to treat as a military target. He’s drawn to protecting her, though unnerved by her near-telekinetic powers of jamming technology all around her. Her personhood is the sort of conundrum posed with daunting depth in, for example, Spielberg’s millennium masterpiece “A.I.” or more outré films like “Demon Seed.” But here Alphie’s significance functions like a warm-and-fuzzy halo above all the gunfire and explosions: What if A.I. isn’t out to get us? What if it just wants to live and let live?

Posing these questions requires doing a little heavy lifting on behalf of the film, which is busy spurring on the hectic pursuit of Alphie and Joshua (by, among others, Ken Watanabe as a dogged A.I. “simulant”). Edwards (who wrote the screenplay with Chris Weitz) fluently integrates images and ideas from our established cinematic vocabulary for thinking about A.I. But despite the impressively sweeping C.G.I. running battles in Thai fields or seaside settlements, or the gritty “Blade Runner”-lite interludes in crowded metropolises, the story’s engine produces the straightforward momentum of your average action blockbuster — one thing happens, then the next thing, complete with punchy (sometimes tin-eared) one-liners.

Still, tech eye candy can go a long way in science fiction. Humanlike robots like Alphie have elegant circular portals where their ears would be. Nomad, the massive spaceship that the United States uses to hunt down artificial intelligence, scans Earth with blue light, like a colossal photocopier. But Washington feels curiously disconnected from the visual set pieces that Edwards builds out, and his character’s increasingly fraught back story with Maya feels scattered across flashbacks. Above all, the film’s tone is uneven: Edwards pushes the relatable ordinariness of the androids and hybrid “simulants,” but the potential menace of A.I. inescapably looms.

The film’s matter-of-fact acceptance of A.I. as an innocuous (or indifferent) force in the world is reminiscent of Edwards’s 2014 take on “Godzilla.” The monsters in that movie weren’t bad per se; they were just creatures independent of humans. This is more or less the case made for A.I. in “The Creator”: autonomy without tears (or bloodshed). It’s a provocative idea — all A.I. wants from humans is a little love — but that utopia doesn’t compute.

The Creator Rated PG-13 for violent havoc. Running time: 2 hours 13 minutes. In theaters.

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The Creator is next-level sci-fi. So why isn't it being promoted that way?

Hollywood can’t seem to figure out how to sell an epic genre film these days if it's not part of a franchise.

The response from critics who’ve gotten a chance to see The Creator at preview screenings has been overwhelmingly positive (on social media at least, full reviews are still embargoed). The film will probably need that good word of mouth when it opens in theaters on September 29, because the rest of the marketing campaign for the sci-fi epic has been rather lackluster.

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It’s not like New Regency, or its parent company 20th Century Studios, itself now a division of Disney, haven’t made an effort. They previewed the film for exhibitors at CinemaCon in April , introduced it to fans at San Diego Comic-Con in July, and there was that creepy stunt at a Los Angeles Chargers football game . And while it’s true that the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike has prevented the cast from promoting the film, there have been plenty of trailers, ads, and billboards. But none of that has really managed to get casual moviegoers hyped for The Creator in the way they might be for a big franchise release.

Directed by Gareth Edwards, who co-wrote the script with Chris Weitz, The Creator takes place in a future world where the American government has declared war on AI. When a former special- forces operative (John David Washington) learns that his late wife (Gemma Chan) may be alive and well in enemy territory, he signs up for a military mission to infiltrate a research base and destroy a weapon that could end the war for good. The weapon, it turns out, is an extraordinary AI in the form of a little girl (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). It’s not a complicated premise; the beauty of the film is in its depth and execution, something much harder to convey in a two-minute trailer or 60-second TV spot.

Those who don’t follow Hollywood closely may find the effusive praise surprising. The Creator is the kind of film that typically does well in the summer, so its late-September release date could signal a lack of confidence in its ability to draw blockbuster crowds (it was originally scheduled for early October, but was moved up). Now, the two biggest films opening in theaters the same weekend are Saw X and PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie . It might end up doing well against that kind of competition, but the bar didn’t have to be set so low. Unlike those films, The Creator isn’t part of any franchise or based on any existing IP. Although it borrows liberally from iconic sci-fi films like The Terminator , Blade Runner , and The Matrix , it combines them in a way that feels modern and fresh. You wouldn’t know it, though, based on the early trailers that make it look like a generic retread of worn-out futuristic and dystopian tropes.

Those ideas were all new at one time, too. No one could have predicted what a cultural behemoth Star Wars would become when it premiered in 1977. 20th Century Fox took a chance on a young George Lucas, but those were different times, and executives were more willing to take financial and creative risks. Now it’s a struggle to get an original, high-concept sci-fi film greenlit or distributed by any of the major studios. Which makes The Creator a rarity, and also a tougher sell. Maybe that’s why the marketing has been focused on the aspects of the film that feel familiar, rather than what makes it unique.

It doesn’t help that filmmaker Gareth Edwards is hardly a household name. The Creator will be his fourth directing credit, although two of those films have pretty famous names: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Godzilla . The Creator has less in common with those than it does with his debut effort, the cult indie sci-fi thriller Monsters . Edwards used the guerilla techniques he perfected on that production to keep the budget to $80 million, slightly more than average, but quite modest for an effects-driven, sci-fi-action epic. Edwards shot the film on location in Asia using a consumer-grade Sony camera he operated himself, a small crew, and mostly natural lighting. That it looks as spectacular as it does is a testament to Edwards’ ingenuity and the gifted eye of cinematographer Oren Soffer. There are plenty of $300 million films out there that don’t look nearly as good. And though i t may be an impressive achievement, it’s not likely a huge selling point for most potential ticket buyers.

The tricky subject matter might also contribute to the studio being a little hesitant to give the film a major push right now. To be clear, The Creator deals with AI in the classic sci-fi sense—as in, sentient humanoid robots—not “AI” in the way it’s been used of late as a catch-all term for language learning models and generative art. That’s an important distinction, since the film kind of depends on the audience empathizing with its simulant characters. Edwards couldn’t have known when he was developing the film in 2019 that “AI” would become a sticking point in labor relations between unions and the AMPTP, or the subject of multiple lawsuits.

Without any inside knowledge, we can only speculate as to why 20th Century is setting expectations so low for a film that’s been called not just the best sci-fi movie of the year, but the best movie of the year, period . Maybe that’s better than over-hyping it and then labeling it a disappointment when it doesn’t perform as well as a Marvel or Transformers film. The Creator is currently projected to make somewhere between $15 million and $24 million in its opening weekend, with a final domestic total in the range of $40 to $85 million. We don’t know how accurate that is, but we do know that if it doesn’t at least make back its production budget, it may be a while before any studio considers taking a chance on a film like this again.

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The Creator First Reviews: A Timely, Visually Jaw-Dropping Spectacle

Early reviews say gareth edwards' sci-fi adventure boasts stunning visual effects and a standout performance from john david washington, and it could be the start of a new franchise..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , movies , Sci-Fi

Here’s what critics are saying about The Creator :

Do we have a new sci-fi classic on our hands?

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

Can we call it a masterpiece?

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)

How does it look?

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

How realistic is the CGI?

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

Are there any standout performances?

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

How is the script?

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

What about Hans Zimmer’s score?

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

What about Gareth Edwards’ direction?

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

Are there any major criticisms?

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

Could this be the start of a new franchise?

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

Thumbnail image by ©20th Century Studios

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The Creator

Where to watch.

Watch The Creator with a subscription on Hulu, rent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, or buy on Fandango at Home, Prime Video.

What to Know

Visually stunning and packed with spectacular set pieces, The Creator serves up timely, well-acted sci-fi that satisfies in the moment even if it lacks substance.

Excellent performances and fantastic visual effects make The Creator an entertaining watch -- and the questions raised by its thought-provoking story will stay with you after the closing credits roll.

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Gareth Edwards

John David Washington

Ken Watanabe

Sturgill Simpson

Madeleine Yuna Voyles

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Is The Creator the best science fiction movie of 2023 – or is AI controlling the hype?

Gareth Edwards’ battle between mankind and our robot overlords is being touted as a zeitgeist-defining masterpiece – hopefully the promo is under human control

Is Gareth Edwards’ The Creator primed to enter the pantheon of great sci-fi movies? Or should we be wary of all the hype? Because – like our future machine overlords – the hype is coming.

Ahead of any official reviews of the AI-centric piece, studio 20th Century has allowed select critics to tweet their opinions, and the consensus seems to be that this could be the discerning sci-fi fan’s movie of the year. To reach that level for me, Edwards would have to deliver a film on a par with Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (2009), Alex Garland’s Ex-Machina (2014) or Grant Sputore’s I Am Mother (2019). These films were full of vim and verve and imagined future worlds so rich and detailed that you can imagine never-ending sequels spinning off into infinity – perhaps the mark of all great celluloid sci-fi.

In 2010 Edwards announced himself as the coming man of sci-fi with the splendid low-budget effort Monsters. Since then he has hitched his wagon to the studio machine, becoming something of a film-maker for hire on big-budget efforts such as Godzilla in 2014 and 2016’s Rogue One. Neither turned out perfectly, as I discussed in this previous piece . But if all that loyalty to the corporate behemoth has given him licence to deliver something truly esoteric, all will be forgiven.

The Creator is set against the backdrop of a future war between humans and the forces of artificial intelligence, and centres on Joshua ( John David Washington ), who is described as a “hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife … recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of advanced AI who has developed a mysterious weapon with the power to end the war … and mankind itself”.

Here are a few early opinions:

#TheCreator is a bold, fun, sci-fi delight. It has an engrossing story, gorgeous visuals, resonant themes, & epic action. My main problem is it didn't make me cry. It tries. VERY hard. But a tiny lack of connection means it *JUST* misses being a perfect package. But only *just.* pic.twitter.com/rQhPfv6kIu — Germain Lussier (@GermainLussier) September 19, 2023

I’m so impressed with what #GarethEdwards pulled off on #thecreator . He’s made an original sci-fi movie in a time where making original movies on this scale is next to impossible and the film delivers on so many levels. Seek this one out and absolutely see it in a movie theater. pic.twitter.com/sQGSGqImG1 — Steven Weintraub (@colliderfrosty) September 19, 2023

#TheCreator is a MASTERFUL piece of original sci-fi. Gareth Edwards is one of our GREAT filmmakers. A soulful, nuanced, Lucas-like interrogation of human beliefs/biases & our insecurity in the face of something greater. Spectacle & heart to the highest order. Pure cinema baby! pic.twitter.com/XPi6jEp2xb — Griffin Schiller (@griffschiller) September 19, 2023

Visually #TheCreator is PHENOMENAL. If you want a cinematographer on the rise to keep your eye on, it’s Oren Soffer. This movie is one stunning frame after the next. pic.twitter.com/s1swupvGfN — Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) September 19, 2023

#TheCreator is a masterpiece & one of the year's best movies. It hits on so many levels with AI being such a hot topic. Gareth Edwards does a masterful job of keeping the audience engaged every step of the way. Madeleine Yuna Voyles has to be in the conversations for The Oscars pic.twitter.com/n8XSTiNqcm — Joseph Deckelmeier (@joedeckelmeier) September 19, 2023

Of course, it was not so long ago that a similar early release of critical opinions saw Andy Muschietti’s The Flash pegged as one of the greatest superhero movies of all time. While that multiversal adventure hardly deserved to end up as one of the year’s biggest box office bombs (possibly suffering from a sort-of DC fatigue, as well as the Ezra Miller effect), there were plenty of critics who were inexplicably not invited to early screenings, perhaps because they were less likely to deliver a positive opinion.

Are studios using artificial intelligence to handpick journalists who are statistically more likely to provide positive hype? If it’s not happening already, it almost certainly will be soon. In the meantime, let’s hope Edwards’ film really is the zeitgeist-defining AI flick we’ve all been waiting for. If mankind is going down, the least we can expect is to do so while drinking in the finest tech-inspired entertainment human civilisation has ever delivered.

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The Creator Is Worth Catching on a Big Screen

Gareth Edwards’s new movie is wall-to-wall action, set in a future where AI has already failed to save the world.

Gareth Edwards’s new blockbuster, The Creator , couldn’t have picked a better moment to arrive on the big screen. A sci-fi epic from a director who plays best in theaters (his previous films include Rogue One and Godzilla ), The Creator is set in a world where artificial intelligence inhabits its own stratum of society, as a robotic underclass invented to serve humans. When he started co-writing the movie with his Rogue One collaborator Chris Weitz in 2018, “AI was up there with flying cars and living on the moon,” Edwards recently said . Now it’s a topic of constant global discourse, hailed and feared as an innovation that is reshaping societal norms on a daily basis.

The machine intelligence in The Creator is a far cry from the enigmatic chatbots dominating the news in 2023. In the film, AI has evolved into a species unto itself, a cadre of humanoid robots who initially function as part of American society but are eventually forced to leave the country after a cataclysmic incident sparks a global human-AI war. This is all explained in a brief, cable-newsy preamble, before the viewer is plunged into the middle of a conflict that practically never lets up. Here the topicality grows trickier, because The Creator is not really about AI as we currently understand it. Rather, it’s a broader metaphor for every insurgent foe America has fought since World War II.

This is not new for the sci-fi genre: Star Wars was designed by George Lucas, rather explicitly , as a Vietnam War allegory, with its Rebel Alliance imagined as a sort of Viet Cong resisting its larger imperial oppressors. The Creator functions along the same lines, but it boldly underlines how America has become the bad guy, seeking to wipe AI off the planet even though all of the world’s robots have already fled to Asia. Much as in James Cameron’s Avatar films, the U.S. military is presented as fearsome, ruthless, and largely immoral; it creates a terrifying orbital platform named NOMAD that circles the skies, dropping gigantic bombs on targets near and far.

All of this is fascinating—but it’s also largely background noise. The Creator is not too interested in world-building beyond these basics. Its protagonist, Joshua (played by John David Washington), is an undercover operative embedded with a group of robot guerrilla fighters, and the film follows him as he falls in love with a rebel fighter named Maya (Gemma Chan); he eventually deploys to Asia in search of a mysterious superweapon that takes the form of an adorable robot child named Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles). The pace of the movie is relentless, chasing Joshua behind enemy lines; barely five minutes goes by without some massive explosion or exchange of gunfire.

Read: The coming humanist renaissance

This action takes place against many stunning backdrops: The Creator looks tremendous, partly because Edwards shot the film in gorgeous landscapes around the world (mostly in Thailand), taking every advantage of this natural beauty instead of depending on CGI sets. It’s an approach to blockbuster action that’s far more engaging than the empty, grayscale battle zones of several recent superhero films , and it looks just as good or better than Edwards’s previous two blockbusters, despite being made on a far smaller budget .

It’s just unfortunate that the story is overflowing with familiar tropes. Alphie, the well-meaning superweapon who functions as the film’s MacGuffin , descends from a long line of cute-kid characters designed to curry audience sympathy, but she lacks any real personality. Joshua’s love interest, Maya, is off-screen for almost the whole film, confined to a few ethereal flashbacks that leave her feeling like an underdeveloped plot device. Though Washington does his best to infuse Joshua with some real grit and spirit, the spectacle of The Creator is the film’s real star, which isn’t quite enough to sustain a running time of more than two hours.

Even so, The Creator is a high-level craft achievement that is undeniably cool on a big screen. I was intrigued by many of the ideas bubbling away within the movie’s larger world; I wanted to know more about the AI warriors and civilians Joshua encounters, and the society around them. American imperialism has been portrayed as villainous in other movies, but there’s some transgressive thrill to the film’s bluntly negative depiction. Still, the allegory stays thin throughout, light on details but easy for any audience member to recognize. Here, robots are just another Rebel Alliance to rally around. They’re easy to root for, yes, but they’re mere clones of underdogs past.

The Creator Review

29 Sep 2023

The Creator

There is tech to die for in The Creator . On every level. Boasting some of the best sci-fi design in years, there is personality to match each invention — most of which is programmed to kill. We have robot cops, 50 per cent humanoid, 100 per cent total bastards, running amok, stumbling about witlessly when sliced in half. There is the NOMAD, America’s mammoth spaceship, a foreboding, godlike presence, a bird of prey bringing death from the sky. And then, the bomb droids, frenetically waddling towards you like suicidal dustbins before blowing up.

Gareth Edwards’ distinct vision permeates every frame of The Creator , and how exciting it is to see a big genre blast that feels free of interference. Above and beyond all the futurism, this is thoughtful sci-fi, with ethical conundrums and moral mindfucks, a story that asks what it is to be human in a world where robots often have more humanity than people. The plot — in which a formidable AI weapon, a sensitive young ‘Simulant’ kid (played emotively by seven-year-old Madeleine Yuna Voyles), is shepherded through war zones by a conflicted US sergeant (the ever-compelling John David Washington) charged to kill it — twists and turns, beginning more binary before diving into shades of grey. Written by Edwards before further drafts from Chris Weitz, it blends its mechanical explorations with Eastern philosophy, aiming to question and provoke rather than simply dazzle and thrill.

The Creator makes you realise that there really is little excuse for blockbuster dross.

Edwards has said that the reluctant-father-figure narrative was inspired by the 1970s Lone Wolf And Cub manga novels and films, but The Creator wears many influences on its sleeves, drawing from Vietnam classics as well as obvious touchpoints: Apocalypse Now and Platoon are as much a part of the fabric as District 9 , Blade Runner and Akira , while its lived-in environments  teeming with battered, beaten-up vehicles are indebted to 1977’s Star Wars . This cocktail works, though, Edwards massaging it all into his own tactile, earthy vision of the future, which is somewhere between genuinely convincing and also just unapologetically kickass — and never without purpose. As America rains down missiles on New Asia, and its massive , hulking tech tanks indiscriminately mow down villages, the fact that Edwards has managed to get $80 million of financing for an indictment of American militarism feels like a coup.

It’s all visually flawless too, which is all the more surprising, considering that budget — there are movies that cost three times more and look like crap. The Creator makes you realise that there really is little excuse for blockbuster dross. And while this doesn’t quite hit the heights of those that inspired it (it is at times blunter and broader than it needs to be), it’s a big reach, with heart and soul to spare. It’s uplifting on every level.

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First reactions to Gareth Edwards' sci-fi blockbuster The Creator call it one of the year’s best movies

It's been labeled one of the best original sci-fi films in years

Gareth Edwards' new sci-fi blockbuster The Creator has been impressing early viewers as the first reactions have begun trickling in. 

The new movie from the Rogue One director imagines a future where humans are at war with a highly advanced Artificial Intelligence. It stars John David Washington as an ex-special forces agent who is recruited to hunt down the Creator, the mysterious architect of the advanced AI. However, he later finds out the world-ending weapon he's been instructed to destroy is a robot that has taken the form of a young child called Alfie (played by Madeleine Yuna Voyles).

The first reactions to The Creator have praised its originality, with some labeling it as the best original sci-fi in years. Others have called out the performance by Voyles, its cinematography, and its emotional depth. Have a read of some of the reactions from critics below.

Variety critic Courtney Howard wrote on Twitter : "Though it pulls from identifiable inspirations, #TheCreator is one of the best original sci-fi epics in years. Massively entertaining, enthralling, and profound on every level. Gareth Edwards constructs an immersive world and fills it with compelling characters. Absolutely radical."

Film commentator Brandon Davis concluded : "#TheCreator is astonishingly good. Best film of the year and best sci-fi film in ages, in my opinion. Gareth Edwards flips expectations really impressively for a visceral, touching, and creative story of humanity. Genuinely loved it. You have to see this one."

"I’m so impressed with what #GarethEdwards pulled off on #thecreator," tweeted Collider writer Steven Weintraub. "He’s made an original sci-fi movie in a time where making original movies on this scale is next to impossible and the film delivers on so many levels. Seek this one out and absolutely see it in a movie theater."

Though it pulls from identifiable inspirations, #TheCreator is 1 of the best original sci-fi epics in years. Massively entertaining, enthralling & profound on every level. Gareth Edwards constructs an immersive world & fills it with compelling characters. Absolutely radical. pic.twitter.com/fjAwuB0VtR September 19, 2023

Screen Rant’s Joseph Deckelmeier tweeted : "#TheCreator is a masterpiece and one of the year's best movies. It hits on so many levels with AI being such a hot topic. Gareth Edwards does a masterful job of keeping the audience engaged every step of the way. Madeleine Yuna Voyles has to be in the conversations for The Oscars."

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"Not only is The Creator visually stunning, the story is really emotional, too," critic Tessa Smith concluded. "I was completely captivated pretty early on. Alphie is adorable! I totally fell in love with her! Love the important underlying themes of accepting those who are different from you."

"Visually #TheCreator is PHENOMENAL," Collider’s Perri Nemiroff writes . "If you want a cinematographer on the rise to keep your eye on, it’s Oren Soffer. This movie is one stunning frame after the next." However, she did also share some criticisms of the film, adding that it is the final act felt "noticeably rushed and convoluted in comparison".

Gizmodo’s Germain Lussier was also positive , but shared his criticism as well. "#TheCreator is a bold, fun, sci-fi delight," he tweeted. "It has an engrossing story, gorgeous visuals, resonant themes, and epic action. My main problem is it didn't make me cry. It tries. VERY hard. But a tiny lack of connection means it *JUST* misses being a perfect package. But only *just*."

The Creator arrives in theaters on September 29. For more on the new movie, check out our Total Film cover feature , what director Edwards had to say about using guerilla filmmaking methods , and our breakdown of The Creator trailer with the director.

I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.

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The Creator Early Reviews: Critics Call Gareth Edwards' Directorial ‘Best Film Of The Year’

Published By : Dishya Sharma

Trending Desk

Last Updated: September 20, 2023, 13:11 IST

Mumbai, India

The Creator will hit the big screens on September 29. (Photo Credits: Twitter)

The sci-fi film earned praise from critics for its visual excellence and creative storyline.

Film director Gareth Edwards’ much-awaited film The Creator has been keeping the audience on their toes. Starring John David Washington in a titular role, the sci-fi epic gripped movie enthusiasts with anticipation ever since the trailer was dropped in July. Ahead of the film’s release on September 29, a press screening was held in Hollywood on Monday evening, September 18. The film screening was attended by notable critics and journalists who caught an early glimpse of the Gareth Edwards directorial. Safe to say that the first impressions of The Creator are hugely positive with many crediting the filmmaker and cinematographers Grieg Fraser and Oren Soffer for their expertise and technicality.

Let’s take a look at some of the early reviews of The Creator that were dropped on X (formerly known as Twitter).

According to Brandon Davis — host and producer of Phase Zero and The Last of Pods podcast, The Creator was an “astonishingly good” film. “Best film of the year and best sci-fi film in ages, in my opinion. Gareth Edwards flips expectations really impressively for a visceral, touching, and creative story of humanity. Genuinely loved it. You have to see this one,” he wrote.

#TheCreator is astonishingly good. Best film of the year and best sci-fi film in ages, in my opinion.Gareth Edwards flips expectations really impressively for a visceral, touching, and creative story of humanity. Genuinely loved it. You have to see this one. pic.twitter.com/2IH7YTeSFh — BD (@BrandonDavisBD) September 19, 2023

Writer, editor, and producer of the comedy program The Hashtag Show, Hunter Bolding compared the film The Creator with a bunch of other widely acclaimed science-fiction films. He wrote, “Gareth Edwards doesn’t miss with The Creator. The movie takes place alongside Terminator 2, Alien, and Star Wars as absolute smashing examples of how sci-fi can parallel our world. It’s easily among the best films of the year.”

Gareth Edwards doesn't miss with The Creator. The movie takes place alongside Terminator 2, Alien, and Star Wars as absolute smashing examples of how sci-fi can parallel our world. It's easily among the best films of the year. #TheCreatorMovie #TheCreator pic.twitter.com/bWUDxwIhbH — Hunter Bolding (@HunterBVideo) September 19, 2023

Calling Gareth Edward one of the “GREAT filmmakers” Griffin Schiller, the creator and host of FilmSpeak shared, “The Creator is a MASTERFUL piece of original sci-fi. A soulful, nuanced, Lucas-like interrogation of human beliefs/biases & our insecurity in the face of something greater. Spectacle & heart to the highest order. Pure cinema baby.”

#TheCreator is a MASTERFUL piece of original sci-fi. Gareth Edwards is one of our GREAT filmmakers. A soulful, nuanced, Lucas-like interrogation of human beliefs/biases & our insecurity in the face of something greater. Spectacle & heart to the highest order. Pure cinema baby! pic.twitter.com/XPi6jEp2xb — Griffin Schiller (@griffschiller) September 19, 2023

Peri Nerimoff who works with Collider magazine found The Creator to be visually stunning. “Visually, The Creator is PHENOMENAL. If you want a cinematographer on the rise to keep your eye on, it’s Oren Soffer. This movie is one stunning frame after the next,” she reviewed.

Visually #TheCreator is PHENOMENAL. If you want a cinematographer on the rise to keep your eye on, it’s Oren Soffer. This movie is one stunning frame after the next. pic.twitter.com/s1swupvGfN — Perri Nemiroff (@PNemiroff) September 19, 2023

Check out some other reviews below:

#TheCreator is an ambitious sci-fi odyssey with a profound take on humanity, acceptance & freedom at its core. John David Washington gives a career best performance, while Madeleine Yuna Voyles proves she’s a young actor to watch. The third act surprised me, this film WENT THERE! pic.twitter.com/2UODyqmt15 — Kristen Maldonado (@kaymaldo) September 19, 2023

#TheCreator is a massive feat for the sci-fi genre and the all-too-rare original blockbuster.It's the culmination of Gareth Edwards' career so far, and it's the ultimate version of the type of movie he's been making since 2010's 'Monsters.' More of this, please. pic.twitter.com/9gOnEpPa4K — Brian Davids (@PickYourBrian) September 19, 2023

#TheCreator encapsulates the spirit of 80's Anime and translates it into MESMERIZING live-action cinema. Think Akira meets Spielbergs A.I. While the lore can be dense, the STUNNING VISUALS & IMMERSIVE ATMOSPHERE have me eager for more tales from this VISIONARY UNIVERSE. pic.twitter.com/t7aaxUIBFM — Anthony • The Movie Podcast (@AJGaliardi) September 19, 2023

Not only is The Creator visually stunning, the story is really emotional, too. I was completely captivated pretty early on. Alphie is adorable! I totally fell in love with her! Love the important underlying themes of accepting those who are different from you. #TheCreator pic.twitter.com/jnnuMn3teO — Tessa Smith – Mama's Geeky (@MamasGeeky) September 19, 2023

The Creator revolves around an ex-special force agent Joshua (John David Washington) grieving the disappearance of his wife Maya (Gemma Chan). Joshua is recruited to hunt and assassinate someone called “The Creator” responsible for creating a mysterious and powerful weapon through a malicious and supremely advanced AI, wishing to end mankind.

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John David Washington Battles Artificial Intelligence in 'The Creator' Trailer

The sci-fi movie from Gareth Edwards heads to theaters in September.

In this day and age, AI has become more present than ever -- from AI generated art, screenplays made for fun (for now), acting performances , and more. In 20th Century Studios' upcoming feature The Creator , AI takes on an even more dangerous form: technology fully capable of waging war against humanity. So, it's up to one man ( John David Washington ), to find the mind behind the AI. Ahead of the film's release on September 29, 20th Century Studios released the first teaser trailer.

The trailer opens on a vast area surrounded by water and futuristic type buildings. A young child asks Washington's character , Joshua, about heaven , and whether Joshua will ever go there. His answer, "it's a peaceful place in the sky," is starkly contrasted by a raging war, complete with explosions, gunfire, and an intense rendition of Aerosmith 's "Dream On." As the trailer continues, it reveals humanity has been at war with the AI for a decade, and there are no indicators of it slowing down. Eventually, though, Joshua pins down an important weapon, sending him into a crisis of conscience. Despite said weapon being AI, it seems the movie will also beg the question of just how capable AI is of humanity -- and whether it should be destroyed.

As shown in the trailer, The Creator largely centers on Joshua, an ex-special forces agent who's grieving after his wife ( Gemma Chan ) disappeared. In the midst of his grief, Joshua is recruited to track down the elusive mind behind the advanced AI , who's known only as "The Creator." But The Creator didn't only make the war-waging technology , they also have the weapon to end the war for good. So, Joshua and his fellow humans set out to find the weapon, but they quickly discover the weapon they're meant to destory is an AI in the form of a young child.

RELATED: 'The Creator': Cast, Release Date, Plot, and Everything We Know So Far

The Human Team Behind The Creator

The film was written, directed, and produced by Gareth Edwards , who devised the story and co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Weitz . Edwards produced alongside Kiri Hart , Jim Spencer , and Arnon Milchan . Executive producers include Yariv Milchan , Michael Schaefer , Natalie Lehmann , Nick Meyer , and Zev Foreman . Alongside Washington and Chan, the film stars Ken Watanabe , Sturgill Simpson , Allison Janney , and newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles .

The Creator 's release marks another AI-centric project that's become more timely in recent years. While the concept isn't a new one, there has been continued growth with the subject in pop culture. More recently, Peacock debuted their AI-fighting nun series Mrs. Davis . On the film front, Vertical Entertainment released its feature Stimulant in April, with the feature Artifice Girl releasing last year.

The Creator releases in theaters September 29. Watch the first trailer below:

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• While the film explores universal themes, it faces tough competition from iconic sports movies like Rocky and Raging Bull.
• Some surprising omissions from the list, like Moneyball and Bull Durham, raise questions about The Wrestler's claim to the top spot.

Thanks to its definitive – if controversial – collection of the 300 best movies ever made, review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes has finally helped settle the question of " what is the best sports movie ever made ? ". The Rotten Tomatoes " Best Movies Of All Time " list , which appeared on the site in May 2024, has understandably sparked plenty of discussion, with some selections proving particularly divisive. As is the case in every genre, the site's selection for sports movies hasn't satisfied everyone – despite the popularity and enduring legacy of the highest-ranked movie.

What makes the Rotten Tomatoes list particularly interesting is that it is not just a selection of 100%-rated films from down the years. Instead, the site has used a " recommendation formula, which considers a movie’s Tomatometer rating with assistance from its Audience Score, illuminating beloved sentiment from both sides. " This means that all 300 films have been chosen based on a blend of audience and critical popularity, plus some editorial input. While this means that Rotten Tomatoes' selection for the best sports movie of all time has plenty of justification, it doesn't remove all the controversy.

The Wrestler Is Rotten Tomatoes' Best Sports Movie Based On New List

It holds a 98% positive rating.

Sitting at number 44 on the website's list of greatest movies of all time , The Wrestler ranks as Rotten Tomatoes' highest-placed sports movie . By default, this makes Darren Aaronofsky's 98%-rated 2008 hit the best sports movie ever made – at least, according to the Rotten Tomatoes criteria. While no movie will ever completely satisfy every observer, The Wrestler certainly has a stronger claim than many others to the title.

Starring Mickey Rourke as a jaded wrestling star, the movie is as much a melancholy meditation on family, the passage of time, and missed opportunities as it is about sport. However, as with any great sports movie, its power comes from distilling the universal lessons that sports can teach and making it clear how competition can touch every aspect of life. Both Rourke and Marissa Tomei were Oscar-nominated for their performances , while the movie won a slew of other prestigious nominations and awards. It was also positively received by the professional wrestling community, cementing its status and justifying its position on Rotten Tomatoes' list.

Rotten Tomatoes "Best Movies of All Time" list included a controversial number 1 – made even more contentious by the original author.

How The Wrestler's Rotten Tomatoes Score Compares To Other Sports Movies

Other genre movies feature on the list.

Although The Wrestler occupies the number one spot among sports movies, it is not the only genre hit to feature. Other selections include the Rocky sequel Creed (number 167), Ford v Ferrari (number 202), and Raging Bull (number 293). While each of these movies has its merits and justifies its inclusion, The Wrestler boasts a better Rotten Tomatoes score than all three other selected sports movies , with the next-highest sports movie on the list being Creed at 95%. However, while this criteria helps strengthen The Wrestler 's claim to be the greatest sports movie ever, some surprising omissions raise questions about its legitimacy.

For instance, it is surprising that, despite Creed 's inclusion, there is no room for Rocky on the list. A Best Picture winner in 1977, Rocky is widely regarded as a seminal sports movie and holds a 92% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Other surprise Rotten Tomatoes absentees include the 94%-rated Moneyball (itself a Best Picture nominee) and the Kevin Costner baseball movie Bull Durham – which holds an even more impressive 97% rating. The fact that these movies didn't even make the list raises some interesting issues around The Wrestler 's coronation as the best sports movie.

Why The Wrestler Is Not The Best Sports Movie Of All Time

Its achievements are overshadowed by others.

Although The Wrestler sits at the top of Rotten Tomatoes' list, it is difficult to argue that it is the unequivocal " best sports movie ". There's no doubt that the movie does what all great sports films do and uses sport as a metaphor for exploring deeper aspects of the human condition. Randy's desire for personal redemption in the ring is deeply affecting and made all the more powerful by the wider drama in the story. However, while The Wrestler explores these themes effectively, other movies arguably do it better and more originally .

With such strong competition, it's difficult to say that The Wrestler deserves to be ranked so far ahead of its genre peers

Although The Wrestler is more tragic and more subtle, it clearly owes a lot to the redemption arc explored in Rocky . Like Balboa, Randy has been given one more shot at the big time, and struggles to balance his ambition with personal relationships and demons. The movie's darker aspects are also more ably explored in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull , which benefits from being inspired by the true story of boxer Jake LaMotta . With such strong competition, it's difficult to say that The Wrestler deserves to be ranked so far ahead of its genre peers – even if it has a superior Rotten Tomatoes critics' score.

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‘Babes' Review: Humor And Heartfall In An Uneven Journey Through Motherhood

Women are humanities original 3-D printers. We can grow a whole human inside our bodies, but that’s just the beginning of the journey of motherhood as things get much more difficult from there. Who better then to portray the ups and downs of raising children than Better Things creator Pamela Adlon, director of Babes written by half of the Broad City creator duo Ilana Glazer, and co-writer Josh Rabinowitz. The complexities of modern motherdom are mined for both humor and pathos, but despite its noble intentions and moments of insight, the film often veers into the realm of the cringe-worthy rather than crafting the poignant commentary one might hope for from such a talented team.

The story centers on Eden (Glazer) and Dawn (Michelle Buteau), childhood best friends whose lives have diverged yet remain intertwined through their shared experiences of womanhood and growing up in NYC. Dawn, a meticulous dentist and a married mother living with two kids and her husband Marty (Hasan Minhaj) contrasts sharply with Eden, a carefree, single woman who runs a yoga studio out of her Brooklyn condo. The two wealthy girlies who have nothing in common but somehow get along after all these years.

The film's plot is set into motion on Thanksgiving when Dawn’s water breaks during a movie outing. Inexplicably, rather than rushing to the hospital, the duo opts for lunch, (setting a precedent for the film’s often bewildering choices). When Dawn eventually gives birth, the portrayal of motherhood begins to unfold in earnest. This is juxtaposed by Eden’s spontaneous one-night stand with Claude (Stephen James). She’s not worried about an unexpected pregnancy. She doesn’t even think pregnancy is possible because she’s on her period. This lapse in judgement throws Eden’s and Dawn’s world upside down as a notoriously independent and single woman has to learn to be a mom.

The film's treatment of Eden’s unplanned journey into motherhood is where Babes attempts to deliver its core message: the unanticipated, often overwhelming nature of parenthood. Adlon, known for her raw approach to portraying women's lives in Better Things , tries to infuse Babes with a similar sensitivity. However, the execution is muddled by a script that swings wildly between cringe-worthy attempts at humor and genuine emotional depth. The portrayal of Eden learning about her pregnancy under a common misconception about menstruation and conception is intended to be comedic but instead the script wants the audience to believe a yoga instructor specializing in body awareness wouldn't know basic facts about reproduction. Even in a comedic capacity, it doesn’t track.

Glazer and Buteau deliver performances that resonate, however, when they are together on screen, the experience can be grating as banter turns into rambling and inside jokes the audience isn't in on. The film shines brightest in its quieter moments, particularly when Eden and Dawn aren't interacting because that's when the viewer sees the broader societal expectations placed on women, the isolation of motherhood, and the challenge of maintaining one’s identity amidst a major life change. As the film progresses, Eden and Dawn’s relationship strains under the pressures of their evolving roles as mothers, a potentially rich vein of drama that is only superficially mined. The narrative hints at deeper changes in their dynamic, but these developments are either resolved too quickly or not explored with the nuance they deserve.

Babes is a film of contradictions. It presents a series of vignettes on motherhood and female friendship that are at times touching and hilarious but often feel disjointed and unrealistic. The film’s pacing and tone fluctuate widely, and at nearly two hours, it feels both overstuffed and superficial. It does showcase moments of genuine emotion and humor, but it fails to deliver a cohesive or satisfying exploration of its central themes. It is a film that, much like its protagonists, seems still in search of its own identity, caught between the demands of genre expectations and the desire to say something true about the lived experiences of women today.

Title:  Babes

Distributor:  Neon

Release date:  May 17, 2024

Director : Pamela Adlon

Screenwriter:  Ilana Glazer and Josh Rabinowitz

Cast:  Ilana Glazer, Michelle Buteau, Hasan Minhaj, John Carroll Lynch, Oliver Platt, Sandra Bernhard, and Elena Ouspenskaia

Rating:  R

Running time:  1 hr 49 min

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Book Reviews

My octopus teacher's craig foster dives into the ocean again in 'amphibious soul'.

Barbara J. King

The film My Octopus Teacher tells the story of a man who goes diving every day into the underwater South African kelp forest and forms a close relationship there with an octopus. That man — the diver, and also the filmmaker — was Craig Foster, who delighted millions of nature lovers around the world and took home the 2021 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

Now in a new book, Amphibious Soul: Finding the Wild in a Tame World , Foster describes the entire ecosystem of the Great African Seaforest at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and the transforming role it has played in his quest to seek wildness. As the book's amphibious title hints, Foster is as much (maybe more) at home in the ocean as he is on land.

Foster's incredible engagement with seaforest creatures comes through beautifully in this account. Every day for months, he recounts, he "visited the crack in the rock where a huge male clingfish lived," and the fish became quite calm in his presence. "Returning to the same places, watching for subtle changes, and continuing to ask questions replenishes my curiosity," he writes.

Foster's profound tie to place reminds me of birders who closely attend to nature in their own yard or local park. Indeed, Foster underscores that any of us can find wildness where we live: "We can all develop a more playful relationship with nature, whether that means collecting crisp leaves or smooth rocks to use in our artwork or watching the squirrel perform acrobatics outside our window."

Nature's healing power is a focus for Foster and an immensely personal one. Before he had any thoughts of My Octopus Teacher , he was burned out on long grinding hours of film-making work. He found relief in cold immersion, both in the ocean and in a home-made box containing icewater. Later though, after the immense global attention to the octopus film and therefore to him, he suffered from insomnia so pronounced that some nights he managed only 10 minutes of sleep. His body and mind were breaking down and felt a strong pull to find his way back to the wild.

Filmmaker Finds An Unlikely Underwater Friend In 'My Octopus Teacher'

To become fully immersed in the story of his quest for wild healing, it's necessary to go with Foster's flow and accept his constant, near-mystical reverence for "our ancestors." I read with a wild-seeking heart his belief that modern-day humans can recover an ancestral link to wild creatures — but also, inescapably, I read with an anthropologist's sensibilities. Is it possible to replicate "humanity's natural state?" Is there a singular way to describe our ancestors' experiences with animals? Given the long sweep of human evolution, which ancestors exactly?

Might there be a hint of romanticizing the past here? Foster writes of "our nonviolent origins" and adds that it was "only with the advent of agriculture that the reciprocity with the wild that we'd enjoyed for some 300,000 years began to break apart — and with it, our psyches." Yet there's serious anthropological scholarship that argues warfare began 200,000 or 300,000 years ago, far longer ago than the start of agriculture around 12,000 years ago.

A stronger thread in the book is the powerful connection to nature that comes with tracking. At first, I thought Foster meant looking only for animal tracks in the dirt, mud, or snow, but his definition is more comprehensive, and eye-opening: "any clue left by any creature or plant, sand or rock." Running water also may leave a track, or lightning hitting a tree.

For an amphibious soul, the height of joy comes with underwater tracking: Foster taught himself to see tracks of mollusks in the sand atop the back of a stingray, or an octopus's predation marks on a shell. How magnificent to see the undersea universe in such detail! Once again, Foster broadens out from his own experience to encourage the rest of us: "Just start small and chip away," Foster advises. In addition to looking for ground tracks, "seek out marks on plants, trees, rocks, or walls."

Foster's writing is rooted in his own learning from an array of mentors, including Indigenous individuals, and in a wish to share and spread his joy in nature. A spirit of generosity suffuses the book.

It's probably thanks to an octopus that Amphibious Soul is out in the world. Foster invites us now to recognize the intrinsic value of the Great African Seaforest ecosystem as a whole — and of all ecosystems that enshrine wildness.

Barbara J. King is a biological anthropologist emerita at William & Mary. After writing about animal grief and love, and how all of us may bring about greater compassion for animals, she is now writing about cats for her 8th book. Find her on X, formerly Twitter @bjkingape