‘Rogue One’ Director’s 2023 Sci-Fi Disappointment Is Making a Comeback on Streaming

One of the most visually remarkable sci-fi action movies ever made is shooting up the streaming charts. Given the futuristic and advanced nature of the sci-fi genre, a lot of visual effects and CGI are often required to bring the enhanced (or post-apocalyptic) worlds to life. In 2023, audiences bore witness to one of the most cinematically stunning sci-fi films ever made, even if it’s far from a flawless movie overall. Fresh off the back of Tenet, John David Washington embarked on another sci-fi adventure, this time re-imagining the Vietnam War with AI robots and world-ending tech. If that didn’t give it away, the movie in question is The Creator, and it’s currently trending on streaming.

The Creator is currently streaming on Prime Video, and users are obsessed with the sci-fi action movie. The Creator is currently the eighth most popular movie on the streamer’s US weekly chart. The Second World War movie, The Tank, currently holds the top spot, with Liam Neeson’s The Naked Gun reboot in second, and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners in third. The Creator was directed by Rogue One and Godzilla‘s Gareth Edwards, which should already clue you in to how impressive the movie looks. Unsurprisingly, it was nominated for Best Visual Effects at the 2024 Oscars.

Years after robots cause a nuclear detonation in the US, humanity has declared war on all artificial life. With the war waging on, a mercenary is tasked with tracking down the mysterious Creator, the architect behind a potentially world-ending AI. John David Washington leads as the mercenary Joshua, alongside Gemma Chan, Ken Watanabe, Allison Janney, Ralph Ineson, Benedict Wong, and Amar Chadha-Patel. The official synopsis reads:

“From writer/director Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One,” “Godzilla”) comes an epic sci-fi action thriller set amidst a future war between the human race and the forces of artificial intelligence. Joshua (John David Washington, “Tenet”), a hardened ex-special forces agent grieving the disappearance of his wife (Gemma Chan, “Eternals”), is 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. Joshua and his team of elite operatives journey across enemy lines, into the dark heart of AI-occupied territory… only to discover the world-ending weapon he’s been instructed to destroy is an AI in the form of a young child (newcomer Madeleine Yuna Voyles).”

‘The Creator’ Bombed at the Box Office

On paper, The Creator should have been a massive hit. Gareth Edwards proved his penchant for sci-fi with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. John David Washington was a rising star. And, sci-fi fans will never say no to an original concept story. But the film completely flopped at the box office. The movie grossed just $104 million against an estimated budget of $80 million. When you account for marketing expenditure, Regency Enterprises and Entertainment One likely wrote the movie off as a financial failure.

But, despite a poor turnout, The Creator managed to earn decent reviews. It holds a decent 67% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and boasts a much stronger audience score of 75%. Many gave the movie three and four-out-of-five star reviews. But there were some who labeled it as a 5/5 masterpiece. “This movie was very well done. Definitely was not expecting the level of emotion in an action-packed movie,” wrote one user, while another said, “An absolute must-see for sure! I had never heard of this movie till today. I’m such a big Sci-Fi movie fan and this is literally my number one best movie I have ever seen.”