Prime Video subscribers have plenty of new titles every month. Amazon’s streaming platform has grown its content catalog with recent additions like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Mad Max, and the platform has recently also become the only place to stream an underrated 2023 sci-fi movie that was shrouded in controversy even before its theatrical release.
That movie is The Creator, director Gareth Edwards’s sci-fi action movie set in a futuristic Los Angeles amid a raging war between humans and AI. The film started streaming on Prime Video on December 20th and stars John David Washington as Sergeant Joshua Taylor, a former special forces agent recruited to hunt down and kill the architect of advanced AI.
The Creator Controversy Explained
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The Creator stirred controversy pretty much from the get-go with the release of its first official trailer in July 2023. Meant to spark excitement for the film and show off its action-packed and special effects-laden story, the trailer quickly sparked upset after it used real footage from the 2020 Beirut explosion, one of the largest industrial disasters that left more than 200 people dead and over 6,000 injured, to capture a war-torn Los Angeles devastated by a nuclear explosion.
After an eagle-eyed Reddit user first noticed the footage and the controversy gained steam when popular YouTube channel Corridor Crew pointed it out on their “VFX Artists React” series, leading to social media slamming use of the footage as “unethical” as others even called for a boycott of the film, Edwards addressed the controversy. In a Reddit AMA, the director said that the Beirut explosion footage “was never meant to be included in the trailer and never appears in the actual movie” and explained that “archival footage is commonly used as reference for temporary VFX.” The archival footage used in The Creator’s trailer was never removed or replaced prior to its release.
The Creator’s troubles didn’t end there. The film spurred further controversy upon its release for its seemingly pro-AI message at a time when creatives are actively pushing back against the rapid, unregulated adoption of AI. Despite the controversies, The Creator still debuted to mostly positive reviews, earning fresh 67% and 75% critic and audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes. While the AI plot is up for debut, it was a completely fresh premise, and the entire movie is a visual spectacle of ambitious world-building and stunning visuals.
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