Science fiction films have the capacity to push our imaginations beyond reality, but that only happens only if we're in for the ride. Anything that ruins the illusion, can take us out of the moment quickly. Bad science fiction can forget what it means to tell a massive story. It might add unnecessary characters, chaotic worldbuilding, and plots that just don't make sense. Terrible science fiction movies forget to be entertaining. They forget how to make us ponder, and worst of all, they make us question our love for the genre. Here are the worst sci-fi movies of the 21st century so far.
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00:00Which Saturday Night Live breakout starred in an abysmal mafia movie on the moon?
00:05What classic board game was adapted into a bizarre alien adventure?
00:08These are just a few of the worst sci-fi movies of the 21st century, so far.
00:13Nepotism is an unavoidable facet of Hollywood, but that's not entirely a bad thing. Some actors,
00:19like Robert Downey Jr. and Laura Dern, have enough genuine talent to let us see past their
00:24famous parents when they're in a role. Jaden Smith is not one of these actors.
00:28Three years after making a play for movie stardom with the 2010 remake of The Karate Kid,
00:32Jaden teamed up with his father Will for M. Night Shyamalan's painfully bland After Earth.
00:38In this decaying slice of pulp science fiction, the two Smiths play a father and son duo who feel
00:43like they've never met before. The plot is brutally basic, filled to the brim with outdated science
00:48fiction tropes and bad character names. Yes, Will's character is named Cipher Rage. Yes,
00:53that sounds like it's from a role-playing game. And yes, it's funny every time he says it.
00:59"...General Cipher Rage. This is a message for my wife."
01:05M. Night Shyamalan can be accused of many things, but phoning in his work typically isn't one of
01:10them. He's dedicated to his premises, and he excels at creating a sense of moody atmosphere.
01:16Unfortunately, After Earth is an exception. The director's seat here could have been filled by
01:20a body pillow. Check out 1985's Enemy Mine instead. All the same survivalist tropes,
01:26but with an actual point to make about cultural empathy.
01:29If you know what a JRPG is, you know what Final Fantasy is. In the years since its humble
01:34beginnings on the NES in 1990, Final Fantasy has become one of the best-selling role-playing
01:40franchises in the world, second only to Pokemon. That's why it wasn't a massive surprise when
01:45developer Squaresoft announced that they were branching into the movie world,
01:49with their debut feature, Final Fantasy The Spirits Within.
01:52Unlike earlier video game movies like Super Mario Bros. and Mortal Kombat,
01:57Squaresoft decided that their film would be animated entirely in CGI. It was a bold idea,
02:03but it meant that every character in the film was stuck deep in the uncanny valley.
02:07While the animation style might work for short segments, watching it for an hour and 45 minutes
02:11straight is just a chore. Plus, the movie barely has anything to do with the Final Fantasy games
02:16anyway. The Spirits Within ended up being a box office bomb, and Square Pictures was
02:21quietly absorbed by the VisionWorks cutscene studio soon after its release.
02:25There's been a couple more CGI Final Fantasy films released since, but their improved animation and
02:30actual connections to the games makes them much more bearable to sit through.
02:35In 1986, Hasbro made its first mistake with regard to the Transformers franchise,
02:40when it slaughtered everyone's favorite robots on the big screen. Gen X kids have a slew of
02:44traumatic movie memories to choose from, but watching Optimus Prime slowly fade away is
02:50definitely up there. Then, over 30 years later, Michael Bay released Transformers The Last Knight,
02:56proving once again that people refuse to learn from the mistakes of others.
03:00By this point, the Transformers franchise was in decline, and the ongoing character assassination
03:04of Optimus Prime hurt more than his actual death. A Transformer can be resurrected by clever writing
03:10or an all-spark ex machina, but taking away Optimus Prime's unshakeable faith
03:14was a truly baffling decision.
03:17What have I done?
03:21The Last Knight certainly doesn't improve matters with its medieval theme.
03:25King Arthur's knights are involved, Morgan the Fae is reimagined as a robot sorceress named
03:29Quintessa, and whoever greenlit the Order of Witwickens should probably reconsider their
03:34career choices.
03:36There was an outbreak of eye-straining blue cinematography going on in the early 2010s,
03:40but only Skyline turned it into a plot point. Icy beams are the first sign that something's
03:45gone wrong, hypnotizing and abducting Los Angeles residents as dawn breaks.
03:49It's up to a group of plucky survivors to...hide out in a condo for 90 minutes.
03:55Skyline is an unapologetic retread of zombie outbreak tropes, with a science fiction exterior.
04:00There's nothing interesting or intelligent about this movie, and none of the characters
04:04are actually worth caring about. The indoor environments are samey and stale. It's no
04:09surprise that the condo building it takes place in was chosen because one of the directors
04:13already lived there. It just doesn't feel like anyone involved in the production was actually
04:17trying, making for a rather forgettable experience.
04:20It's another blue-tinted science fiction movie, and this time it's based on a classic board game
04:25that's been around in one form or another since before World War I. It's 2012's Battleship,
04:30and as absurd as its existence might seem, it's a genuine feature film. It's not a very good one,
04:35though. First things first, there are aliens in this movie. In case you didn't know,
04:40the original game does not have aliens. There's no reason for them to be here, really,
04:44other than to give the titular battleship something to fight. Rihanna is in this movie,
04:49which is shameless stunt casting of the highest order. Liam Neeson is also in this movie,
04:53but he doesn't really get to do much. The movie bridges stupidity and brilliance with how it
04:57acknowledges the original game, by using warning buoys to figure out where and how to sink the
05:02otherwise untraceable enemy ships. It's interesting, but not nearly interesting enough to warrant the
05:07$209 million budget it received. It's not enough to make the movie worth it.
05:12If you asked George Lucas about his inspirations for Star Wars,
05:16he'd probably mention Valerian and Laureline. The acclaimed comic by Pierre Christine and
05:22Jean-Claude Mezier ran from 1967 to 2010, and stars the titular temporal agents as they travel
05:28the cosmos in their trusty astroship. Fans of the long-running comic were delighted to learn
05:33that Luc Besson would be adapting the story to the silver screen in 2017, but many were singing a
05:38different tune once the movie actually released. Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets might
05:43look nice. It looks great, actually, but it's like a shiny coat of paint on a spaceship that doesn't
05:48fly. The first five minutes are excellent, but things get worse the more people start talking.
05:53The biggest issue is the chemistry between Valerian and Laureline, or the lack thereof.
05:57Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne act like they've only met minutes prior,
06:01even though their characters are partners with some major history.
06:05"'Will you marry me?'
06:07"'Not funny.'"
06:09Without the central dynamic that's present in the comic, the film just doesn't work.
06:13It makes about as much sense as taking away Deadpool's mouth.
06:16Will Smith has had trouble finding science fiction stories that fit him ever since Men in Black,
06:21a point truly hammered home by his double participation in 2019's Gemini Man.
06:26This flop isn't Smith's fault, though. The problems lie in the overworked script,
06:30a wet noodle of an action screenplay that shares little DNA with its original writer's work.
06:35A good story shouldn't be created like a game of telephone, yet that's what happened to the
06:39brainchild of writer Darren Lemke. His pitch floated around Hollywood for two decades,
06:43attracting big-name stars like Dandruff. All of them shook free over the years,
06:47until only Will Smith and Ang Lee remained.
06:51"'You are obviously not the best.'"
06:55There's something touching buried inside Gemini Man, the idea that a clone could
06:59change the course of their destiny and become a person in their own right. That's not what's
07:03explored, though. Instead, it's an epilogue tag that's cut off before anything meaningful happens.
07:09With a new century came a renewed sense of hope,
07:11as we all looked for signs as to what our future would hold. In May 2000, we received a clue.
07:16If only we had understood the warnings. That's when Battlefield Earth was unleashed,
07:20and with it came an omen about how badly this 21st century was going to go.
07:24Based on the first half of the novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard,
07:28John Travolta's project is centered around a bog-standard Chosen One leading a rebellion.
07:32It features more Dutch angles than you can shake a copy of Dianetics at,
07:36and every single one is pointless. The evil cyclos look misshapen and bizarre.
07:40They're brought low by their arrogance, fatally underestimating the walking slice
07:44of Wonder Bread known as Johnny Goodboy Tyler. That name isn't a crime, but it probably should be.
07:50From The Matrix to Cyberpunk 2077, the works on Keanu Reeves' science fiction
07:55resume aren't limited to one medium or subgenre. Unfortunately, they're not
07:59limited in their quality, either, and the worst of the bunch is undoubtedly 2019's replicas.
08:04Yes, this snoozefest makes Johnny Mnemonic look good. It starts by touching on the ethical
08:09implications of cloning, which is a fine foundation. But unfortunately, the plot itself
08:14ends up being Sophie's Choice slapped together with RoboCop 2. That might sound like an
08:18exaggeration, but it's really not. Keanu's family dies in an accident, and, brilliant neuroscientist
08:24that Keanu is, he uploads his family's neural maps into cloned bodies. If that wasn't enough,
08:29there's also a plot about uploading brains to android super-soldier bodies, but they tear
08:34themselves apart once they wake up from the procedure. It all somehow leads to a cynically
08:38happy finale. Stop the movie after the car accident. We want to get off.
08:43Most people don't remember the adventures of Pluto Nash. Eddie Murphy probably wishes he was
08:47one of them. Murphy is the centerpiece of an all-star cast, riding high on a career shift
08:52that saw him go from Saturday Night Live actor and edgy stand-up comic to the lead in crowd-pleasing
08:58family flicks. Director Ron Underwood had previously proven his worth with Tremors and
09:02City Slickers, but Pluto Nash was not destined for cult classic status. It's hard to put a finger on
09:08where the problems started, but the biggest issue is that the film is about as hilarious as Saving
09:12Private Ryan. On paper, the premise is a wacky winner. It has a space mafia and real estate
09:18shenanigans on the moon. It has Murphy as a crook who's turning over a new leaf. It has John Cleese,
09:23Randy Quaid, and Rosario Dawson. It also has a 4% on Rotten Tomatoes, and frankly, that's too high.
09:29The movie has no thematic heart and strands great actors in inexplicable places. The twist,
09:34which features a clone of Pluto Nash, is possibly the most nonsensical part of all.
09:39Why do so many of these lousy movies involve cloning?
09:42When Christopher Nolan's Inception came out in 2010, it was a massive deal. Some people got it,
09:48a lot of people didn't get it, but said they did, and a whole lot more just didn't get it at all.
09:52I didn't get Inception. I didn't get Inception. Ohhhh."
10:01Nevertheless, Inception's success proved that mind-bending movies could still be blockbusters,
10:06something that Nolan apparently took as a challenge. In 2020, he released his most
10:10incomprehensible and inscrutable film yet, the time travel thriller Tenet.
10:15In Tenet, John David Washington plays the protagonist. What's his name again?
10:20I'm the protagonist.
10:21Right. John David Washington plays the protagonist,
10:24a man who suddenly finds himself involved in a temporal conspiracy.
10:28Washington and his co-star Robert Pattinson both do admirable jobs with what they're given,
10:33but this script is just too convoluted for their performances to shine.
10:36Plus, half of what they say can barely even be heard. The overblown soundtrack drowns
10:40out a good amount of important conversations. With its complex structure and obtuse dialogue,
10:45Tenet is definitely an idea that works better on paper than in practice.
10:50In 1983, Jaws star Roy Scheider starred in Blue Thunder, a film about a cutting-edge
10:54helicopter designed for urban pacification. John Battam's thoughtful thriller set the
10:59bar for action-packed stories about political corruption and military overreach. By contrast,
11:04in 2005, some generically good-looking people were involved in testing an
11:08AI-controlled craft in stealth, and no one learned anything useful.
11:12Stealth doesn't have the courage to indict anyone for the failures of an abusive military program.
11:16No, this malevolent aircraft goes AWOL after being struck by a bolt of lightning.
11:21Not only is that plot device stolen from Short Circuit, but anyone who's taken high
11:25school physics should know that's nowhere close to the way lightning actually works.
11:28Regardless, that's the least of this movie's problems. Lousy acting and a love story that
11:33feels shoehorned in, among other things, makes this a miserable film experience from beginning
11:37to end. There's a reason Blue Thunder pops up on cable, but stealth pops up in Walmart bargain bins.