Sci-fi is a genre with a wide range of variations, from hard science fiction to action-adventure-based sci-fi movies, and some of the better sci-fi films are better than their Rotten Tomatoes scores might indicate. Sci-fi is a genre where it’s hard to trust critics, because different reviewers look at success with different expectations.
Some of the most acclaimed sci-fi movies challenge viewers, with Blade Runner as a good example. However, other fans want to see action and space opera from Star Wars and Star Trek films. However, several sci-fi films are based in both worlds, and those often find a wider fanbase, even if they don’t impress the critics.
10
Pitch Black (2000)
Pitch Black was a horror movie, but with strong sci-fi leanings, and the franchise that resulted is more sci-fi than horror. Vin Diesel stars as a man with eye implants that allow him to see in pitch black environments, and this comes in handy when a prison ship he is aboard crashes on a planet with nocturnal aliens.
Directed by David Twohy, Pitch Black is primarily a horror film featuring alien bug creatures that kill people from the crashed ship one by one, as the planet they landed on plunges into complete darkness. Critics were not as impressed when it came out, awarding it a low 59% Rotten Tomatoes score.
However, there is a lot to love about the movie. The atmosphere and scares were on target, and Vin Diesel was the perfect star to carry the franchise. The sequel showed how great this first movie was, and when the third movie returned to this template, fans were happy for good reason. Pitch Black is a great sci-fi horror movie.
9
Equilibrium (2002)
Equilibrium was a sci-fi movie from 2002 that received mostly negative reviews when it came out. However, that was mostly because it came out in the middle of The Matrix trilogy, and the two movies were unfavorably compared. That is thanks to the gun-fu action scenes in Equilibrium.
Like The Matrix, this is a futuristic sci-fi tale, but it is set in the real world. In this film, all forms of emotion have been banned, which also means that things like art and books have been banned. Officers are hired to seek out books and art to burn, and to ensure that all citizens are taking emotion-suppressing drugs.
Christian Bale and Taye Diggs star in the movie as the officers ensuring everyone follows the law. Sean Bean is a former officer who realizes the error of their ways. The sci-fi film does what the genre promises, making people question society’s restrictions on freedom, and is better than Rotten Tomatoes suggests.
8
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
The Alita: Battle Angel Rotten Tomatoes score is a mᴀssive miss for critics. Based on the manga, directed by Robert Rodriguez, and co-written by James Cameron, the film was a lot of fun with big ideas and incredible visuals. Alita is a cyborg who wakes up in a new body, with no memories of her past, seeking her destiny.
Alita: Battle Angel was supposed to start a new franchise, and it still could, although James Cameron’s schedule is keeping him busy at the moment. Regardless, the work they did on this first movie shows that it deserves a sequel. With the great cyborgs and the high-octane racing action, this has everything sci-fi fans could want.
It is also a good story about the ideas behind intelligent sci-fi, as it explores what it means to be a real person and the freedom that can be taken from cyborgs by a society that views them as inferior. It is similar to Blade Runner, but with a lot more action scenes.
7
Logan’s Run (1976)
Logan’s Run is a movie with a good reputation among sci-fi fans, and, surprisingly, its Rotten Tomatoes score is a low 58%. Released in 1976, it beat Star Wars to theaters by one year, but critics were not ready for what this movie had to say. Logan’s Run presents a utopian world that is soon proven to be dystopian.
Society survives on limited resources by killing all citizens when they turn 30. People are told they will be “reborn” once killed, and anyone who runs ends up being hunted down by Sandmen before they escape. Logan is one of the Sandmen and is tasked with finding the “Sanctuary” the runners seek and destroying it.
However, when Logan decides to become a runner, he realizes the truth about the society they live in. This movie explores dystopian themes, particularly the notion of people voluntarily dying to maintain the status quo, as well as the idea of bowing to a controlling government, which is needed for people’s survival.
6
Oblivion (2015)
Before he starred in the critically acclaimed Edge of Tomorrow, Tom Cruise was in a very different sci-fi movie the previous year called Oblivion. Both sci-fi movies shared similar themes. Cruise portrays a character who frequently questions his purpose in the futuristic world. However, while Edge of Tomorrow has a 91% RT score, Oblivion sits at 53%.
Oblivion is criminally underrated. Edge of Tomorrow is action-packed, with great time-loop action. However, Oblivion is a quiet and more introspective movie about an Earth that has been destroyed and one couple’s place on the planet in its dying days. Cruise has to sell his character’s moral dilemma here.
There is a lot to unpack from Oblivion, including the always prevalent theme that people shouldn’t trust everything they are being told. Cruise is in fine form in the movie, and the more nuanced storytelling is great here, making Oblivion a nice companion movie to Edge of Tomorrow for sci-fi fans.
5
Cube (1997)
Cube is another horror movie with sci-fi leanings. Years before Saw made torture porn popular and escape room movies were a popular thing, Cube mixed the two genres into what might be the grandfather of both ideas. A group of people woke up in a room with no apparent means of escape.
They soon learn that if they make the wrong decisions, they will die. Much like Saw, it seems these people have specific reasons from their past for why they were chosen, and it comes down to being a morality tale. However, critics were not impressed, and it has a 63% Rotten Tomatoes score.
With that said, the movie has since become a cult favorite, and it did what Saw later attempted to great effect, with all the rooms offering maximum tension and interesting moral implications. While more of a horror movie like Saw, the sense of dread and psychological look at nihilism blends it into the sci-fi realm.
4
Chaos Walking (2021)
What hurt Chaos Walking above all else was that it was unfairly compared to other young adult novel adaptations that were flooding the market after the success of The Hunger Games and similar films. Based on the novel series by Patrick Ness, Chaos Walking takes place in an apocalyptic future.
In this world, men have been affected by the Noise, which means they can hear other people’s thoughts. During a war, almost all women were killed, and only the men survived. However, when one young man meets a young woman who crash-lands on the planet, they both find themselves in danger from the paranoid men.
Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley star in the lead roles, and the movie has a lot of good ideas concerning the role of women in society and the difficulties men have in understanding their place in the world. Critics complained about the lack of character development, but the film was intended to build a franchise, which ended with one movie.
3
The Faculty (1998)
Released in 1998, The Faculty was the only studio movie that Robert Rodriguez made before he moved back to his own studio and indie filmmaking world. Shockingly, despite the movie being full of future stars and delivering great sci-fi horror, critics negatively reviewed it.
The Faculty is a take on Invasion of the Body Snatchers, with an alien species replacing people in a local high school. The cast was amazing, with young stars like Josh Hartnee and Clea DuVall joined by adult stars like Robert Patrick and Famke Janssen. However, it struggled at the box office.
Since its release, fans have reappraised the movie, and it has become a cult classic. The horror is great, the young stars all proved why they would one day become major Hollywood players, and it never treats the audience like idiots. The Faculty remains one of the 90s’ best sci-fi horror movies.
2
The Tomorrow War (2021)
The Tomorrow War might have been affected by what is ultimately the public getting tired of seeing Chris Pratt in everything. In this case, it was a Prime Video sci-fi action movie that saw Pratt in the lead role as a former Green Beret soldier sent into the future to fight in a war for humanity’s survival.
Critics mostly dismissed the movie, awarding it a 51% Rotten Tomatoes score. Among the negative reviews were comments that it was too preoccupied with doing what other time travel movies from the past did better. However, the movie did try something different and deserves credit for that.
The acting is universally great across the board, with Chris Pratt delivering a great performance in his role, and the special effects and action are all top-notch, especially for a streaming release. The action scenes are better than many theatrical releases lately, and The Tomorrow War outperforms its reviews.
1
Event Horizon (1997)
Before Paul W.S. Anderson went down the rabbit hole of making non-stop video game adaptations, he broke out with the sci-fi horror movie Event Horizon. The cast was solid, with Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Jason Isaacs, Kathleen Quinlan, and more. The setup was out of the Alien playbook.
While Alien was a straight monster-based sci-fi horror movie, Event Horizon was much more terrifying. Instead of monsters, the crew of this spaceship found the Event Horizon, a craft that houses demonic forces that soon overpowers and destroys them all before they know what is happening.
Critics blasted the movie when it was released with a 36% Rotten Tomatoes score, but it has since become a cult classic and is Anderson’s best-directed movie. Many of the complaints stemmed from excessive gore, but this excess is what makes Event Horizon such a great, overlooked sci-fi movie.
