The Creator
20th Century Studios | Release Date: September 29, 2023 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 54 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
16
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldSep 28, 2023
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. Read full review
60
CNNBrian LowrySep 28, 2023
While the film traffics in thoughtful ideas as well as spectacle, it doesn’t complete the vital emotional connections between its head and its heart. Read full review
60
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganSep 26, 2023
Rogue One’s Edwards delivers a film which is reliably visually inventive even when the familiarity of the narrative can make it feel oddly stale. Read full review
60
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerSep 26, 2023
For a designated last great hope of original sci-fi, this is a surprisingly programmatic picture. Read full review
58
The Film StageEthan VestbySep 28, 2023
There’s a point where the world-building comes to feel more like hitting marks of influence than imagination. For already amalgamating various sci-fi pictures of the past, you do get the sense of Edwards’ ideas running out by the end. Read full review
50
Rolling StoneDavid FearSep 29, 2023
There is the slightly conspiratorial sense that the team behind this trip down movie-memory lane simply fed the scripts of various canonized sci-fi epics into an AI program and waited to see what sort of composite it spit out. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireSep 29, 2023
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. Read full review
50
ABC NewsPeter TraversSep 29, 2023
Technically amazing but conceptually old-hat, this sci-fi epic from Gareth Edwards makes a case for artificial intelligence through a bond between a protective human (John David Washington) and a dangerous human simulant packaged as an insanely adorable six-year-old girl. Discuss Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesGlenn WhippSep 26, 2023
The Creator itself eventually tries one’s patience with its incessant demands that you feel for characters and relationships that it hasn’t taken the care to develop. Read full review
50
The Film VerdictAlonso DuraldeSep 26, 2023
On a pure craft level, The Creator delivers as a sweeping, big-screen science-fiction experience. What dazzles the eye, unfortunately, fails to connect with either the head or the heart. Read full review
50
VarietyPeter DebrugeSep 26, 2023
The emotional core of The Creator rests on the shoulders of a star who has just one gear: angry. The rest wants to be “Blade Runner,” but plays more like a cross between “Elysium” (with its floating futuristic fortress and specious political message) and “The Golden Child” (about an all-powerful Asian kiddo in desperate need of protecting). Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 26, 2023
This is a movie that, its many strengths notwithstanding, seems split between the desire to do something original and an imagination tethered to better movies from the past. That makes it a nostalgic patchwork, not the bold new vision it aims to be. Read full review
50
Washington PostMark JenkinsSep 26, 2023
Overloaded with incidents, effects and explosions, “The Creator” fails to develop the personalities and relationships that would give its central characters an affecting humanity. The movie’s attempt to touch the heart comes off as, well, artificial. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithSep 28, 2023
The more the film trumpets its thematic seriousness, the sillier it gets. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleSep 27, 2023
For each of the film’s visual achievements, there are narrative and developmental issues. As much as Edwards’ world invites us in, we are constantly befuddled by the way his characters move through their environments. Read full review
40
The Daily BeastNick SchagerSep 26, 2023
A visually striking but shoddily written and crushingly derivative amalgam of assorted genre forefathers. Read full review
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