The Top 10 Sci-Fi Flicks We’ve Reviewed… So Far

J.J. Abrams built Super 8 from the spare parts of the movies that made a generation fall in love with aliens and kids on bicycles: a small town, a secret military operation, a homemade movie and a group of young friends who are far more capable than the adults. The result lands somewhere between Spielberg wonder, creature-feature suspense and one spectacularly bad night beside the railroad tracks.

Don gave it 4.00, calling it a soundly made, fun movie he would absolutely watch again. Jon thought Abrams did a strong job blending kid adventure, alien mystery, horror and humor, but only three of the children fully connected with him and repeated grief beats slowed the momentum. He still praised the movie-within-the-movie and the thought given to a creature that wants more than random destruction, landing at 3.75.

Ken also gave 3.75. He liked the gradual reveal, the choice to keep the creature hidden and the central bond between Joe and Alice. The late shift into action provides a satisfying close, even if the movie never becomes quite rewarding enough to join his personal must-rewatch rotation.

At 3.83, Super 8 earns the final berth because its nostalgia has a pulse. It remembers that the camera, the friendships and the grief matter as much as the thing tearing through town.

Arrival proves an alien invasion movie does not need dogfights, collapsing landmarks or Will Smith punching anything. Denis Villeneuve makes language the most important technology in the room and asks whether understanding another species might also change the way we understand time, grief and choice.

Ken found the Earthbound setting refreshing and praised the complex story for remaining followable. The circular language, mournful score and message that humanity survives through cooperation made the film feel hopeful when the real world often does not. He gave 4.00.

Jon called it thought-provoking, emotionally deep and beautifully shot. Amy Adams carries the audience from fear and suspense to excitement and heartbreak, while the music intensifies every turn. The heavy philosophy, limited alien interaction and deliberately ambiguous ideas can be a lot for viewers expecting a lighter movie, keeping him at 3.75.

Don appreciated Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, the refreshing refusal to become an alien-attack spectacle and a twist that transforms what appeared to be memory. At 3.92 overall, Arrival makes the list because its biggest special effect is an idea that keeps expanding after the credits.

Edge of Tomorrow turns dying repeatedly into a training montage. Tom Cruise begins as a cowardly public-relations officer, Emily Blunt arrives as the battle-hardened Angel of Verdun, and Doug Liman keeps resetting the day until panic becomes competence and repetition becomes both the joke and the engine.

The Guys landed in rare total agreement. The casting works, the action is cleanly edited and paced, and Cruise’s transformation gives the loop structure somewhere to go beyond clever repetition. Blunt supplies the steel, physical credibility and emotional stakes that keep the story from becoming a one-man video game.

Don acknowledged the flaws but said they never stopped the fun; if he catches the movie without commercials, he will stop and watch. Jon and Ken likewise found enough humor, momentum and inventive variation to make the familiar reset feel fresh rather than mechanical.

Three matching 4.00 scores put it at number eight. Plenty of movies make their hero save the world. Edge of Tomorrow makes him fail at it long enough to become worth rooting for.

Luc Besson’s The Fifth Element looks like somebody emptied a European comic book, a fashion runway, an opera house and a Bruce Willis action movie into the same flying taxi. Logic is optional. Color, velocity and personality are mandatory.

The Guys embraced the cast and the unapologetically strange world. Bruce Willis provides the exhausted everyman at the center, Milla Jovovich gives Leeloo innocence and physical force, Gary Oldman makes Zorg a magnificently odd villain and Chris Tucker commits to Ruby Rhod at a volume capable of reaching another solar system.

Ken’s 4.25 leads the group, with Don and Jon at 4.00. The production design, costumes, music and practical-meets-digital spectacle create a future that still feels distinct. The tonal swings and broad comedy will never work for everyone, but sanding them down would remove the reason the movie has endured.

The 4.08 average rewards a sci-fi film that does not resemble anything else. It is messy, loud, romantic, absurd and, yes, super green.

Armageddon is what happens when Michael Bay hears “extinction-level asteroid” and responds, “Fine, but can it have more explosions?” The science is busted, the emotions are enormous and the solution requires NASA to teach oil drillers how to be astronauts in just 12 days.

Jon gave 4.25. He admitted the broken science, goofs and ridiculous moments, but the memorable cast, quotable characters and wall-to-wall needle drops still make it endlessly rewatchable. Ken, seeing it for the first time, called it a fun summer watch packed with terrific actors. The length, excessive Bay-ness and nonstop catastrophes kept him at 4.00.

Don’s nostalgia powered a 4.75. The movie should collapse under its inaccuracies and eye-rolling excess, yet the cast makes it work. He does not care about sound or fire in space. Bruce Willis and his team save the world, and that is apparently all the science required.

The 4.33 average launches Armageddon to number six. Subtle it is not. Effective? Against all known laws of physics, absolutely.

The Matrix did not merely predict a digital prison. It convinced an entire generation to buy black coats, squint at green computer text and wonder whether a spoon actually exists. The Wachowskis fused cyberpunk, philosophy, anime and martial arts into an action movie whose ideas became as iconic as its bullet time.

Jon and Ken both awarded cinematic gold. They loved the mythology, the training, the visual language and action set pieces that changed what audiences expected from studio science fiction. Keanu Reeves gives Neo the right searching stillness, Laurence Fishburne makes every explanation feel like scripture and Hugo Weaving turns Agent Smith into software with a grudge.

Don’s 3.00 created the largest score split in the Top 10. He respected its craft and influence but found parts of the effects and action dated and had no problem interrogating the logic, especially the innocent security guards vaporized during the celebrated lobby sequence.

That disagreement is why the episode, and the film, remain fun to revisit. At 4.33, The Matrix takes number five because even its skeptic had to engage with the world it built. Red pill or blue pill, the movie changed the system.

James Cameron took Ridley Scott’s haunted house in space and turned the sequel into a combat drop. Somehow, the bigger guns and larger body count never bury the character at its center. Ripley is not simply surviving again; she is confronting trauma, protecting Newt and becoming one of cinema’s defining heroes.

Jon called it the greatest sci-fi horror film ever made, praising its balance of gore, scares, comedy, drama and “pure badassery.” Sigourney Weaver owns every scene, Bill Paxton supplies perfectly timed comic panic and Paul Reiser is magnificently slimy. That is an easy 5.00.

Ken also gave 5.00. He loved the Marines because their confidence and superior firepower fail, and he ranked Ripley at the top of movie heroines. Her bond with Newt gives all that tension and roller-coaster action a human core. Don’s 4.75 was barely less enthusiastic; he called it an endurance movie that starts, refuses to stop and then starts again, with only the extra queen showdown on the Sulaco holding it below perfection.

At 4.92, Aliens proves a sequel can change genres, expand everything and still deepen what mattered in the original. Game over, other sequels.

Before it was A New Hope, it was simply Star Wars, a strange space adventure that borrowed from mythology, samurai movies and Saturday serials, then rearranged pop culture around itself. George Lucas gave audiences a galaxy that felt ancient, battered and instantly bigger than the frame.

Jon gave 5.00, praising John Williams’s score as the force that elevates every scene. Mark Hamill brings wide-eyed sincerity, Harrison Ford oozes sarcastic charisma, Carrie Fisher makes Leia fierce and sharp-witted, and James Earl Jones turns Vader into one of film’s defining villains. Ken joined him at cinematic gold.

Don’s 4.75 reflects love rather than resistance. He called it the film that started everything, changed movies and toys, and can still transport viewers for two hours. It is simply not his favorite entry in the saga, which is about to become relevant.

At 4.92, Star Wars takes third because its legacy is not just sequels and merchandise. It taught blockbusters how to build a world, then invited everyone to live there.

The Empire Strikes Back takes the clean victory of Star Wars and spends two hours dismantling it. The Rebels run, Luke discovers how little he understands, Han and Leia turn combativeness into chemistry, and Darth Vader graduates from intimidating enforcer to the dark center of the saga.

All three Guys gave it 5.00. Irvin Kershner slows down just enough to deepen the characters while delivering Hoth, Dagobah and Cloud City as three completely distinct worlds. Yoda expands the Force without draining it of mystery. Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher make the romance spark, and the carbon-freezing chamber turns lighting, production design and performance into pure iconography.

The film also has the courage to end without handing the heroes a conventional win. Han is frozen, Luke loses a hand and gains a devastating truth, and the Empire remains very much in business. That darkness makes every friendship, joke and narrow escape matter more.

Its perfect average earns number two only because the tie had to be placed in some order. This is the sequel that showed a blockbuster universe could become richer, stranger and more emotionally dangerous.

Back to the Future made us believe you could make a time machine out of a DeLorean. Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale make every photograph, line, character flaw and background gag part of a setup that will pay off, often while a teenager tries to stop his mother from falling in love with him. Time travel has rarely been this complicated or this clean.

Jon acknowledged pieces that age awkwardly, including the handling of Biff’s assault and a few effects that reveal their era. None of it erased the feeling of seeing the movie for the first time: a great script, a fun story, terrific performances and a timeless rush. He gave 5.00.

Ken praised the stellar cast, iconic Alan Silvestri theme, tight story, camerawork and editing before declaring an easy cinematic gold. Don entered the rewatch looking for a reason to deny perfection. He could not find one. Story, music and technical execution all lock together.

Three perfect scores make Back to the Future our number-one sci-fi flick reviewed so far. It blends science fiction, comedy, romance, family drama and a clock-tower thriller into one relentlessly entertaining machine. Where this movie is going, it does not need excuses.