10 good sci-fi movies unfairly condemned by critics

It’s been done before. Zero fresh ideas. A pale copy of a genre classic. Often, these are the characteristics of the films presented in today’s article (who would have thought that there are two of them — with Dolph Lundgren and Vincent D’Onofrio). But secondary is not always a measure of bad cinema, and in this article we will try to prove that many projects were simply unlucky, and that tropes and situations that are familiar to us can be as exciting as films that are usually characterized as a “breath of fresh air.” Stories about cyborgs, alien invasions, post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk, dystopia, and even one space opera — everything you love is here.

In fact, there are a lot of underrated science fiction films, as evidenced by our previous articles on the relevant genre 80-х and 90-х years. In order not to repeat ourselves, we did not take into account the paintings from these materials. And yes, we haven’t forgotten about “Starship Troopers,” but it will be more appropriate in one of our future articles (if it happens, of course). In the comments, we invite you to add your favorites, which were unfairly condemned for lack of originality by high-minded reviewers.

“Universal Soldier”

Year of release: 1992
Director: Roland Emmerich
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Ellie Walker, Ed O’Ross, Ralph Meller, Jerry Orbach
IMDb rating: 6,1
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 34%
What was it compared to: “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”

Once upon a time, an ordinary American soldier, Luke Devereaux, and a madman, Sergeant Andrew Scott, served together in the Vietnam War, and it did not end well. Nowadays, both men have been “resurrected” from the missing in action as virtually invulnerable “universal soldiers” — an elite unit ready to follow any order. But the traumas of the distant past are making themselves felt, and the former enemies will face off in a decisive battle, now with all the upgrades available.

Universal Soldier is the debut Hollywood work in the future of the famous master of destruction of the planet Earth Roland Emmerich. The German director’s film was released at the most inopportune time, actually a year after Terminator 2, which ultimately affected its perception (interestingly, both films were released by Carolco). Against the backdrop of Cameron’s masterpiece, which was fresh in the audience’s memory, this rather modest sci-fi action movie looked poor, pale and unconvincing.

This was also emphasized in the media:

• “There’s a plot, a kind of a mix of RoboCop and Terminator, but the movie is inferior to the original RoboCop or any of the films in the Terminator series.” — wrote Robert Rothen in his review;
• “Though the idea is silly enough to be funny, director Roland Emmerich presents The Terminator without much style: two stars clash but never find common ground,” Rolling Stone staff critic Peter Travers noted in his review;
• “The Universal Soldier may flex his muscles every chance he gets, but he’s still a second-rate Schwarzenegger,” concluded Austin Chronicle reviewer Steve Davis.

But if we put aside the now irrelevant comparisons with The Terminator, the film works quite well in its niche of B-category action movies and will definitely appeal to fans of the genre who grew up watching films with Iron Arnie or Van Damme. And even the audience of that time did not listen to the critics and rushed to the theaters: according to Variety, with a budget of $23 million, the global box office was over $100 million.

“Johnny Mnemonic”

Year of release: 1995
Director: Robert Longo
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Dinah Meyer, Ice-T, Takeshi Kitano, Denis Akiyama, Dolph Lundgren, Henry Rollins, Barbara Zukova, Udo Kier
IMDb rating: 5,6
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 20%
What was it compared to: “Blade Runner”, “Total Recall”

• She did not skimp The New York Times writer Caryn James, who characterized the film as “a pathetic imitation of Blade Runner and Total Recall,” adding that “it’s a disaster in every way.”.
• Oven Gleiberman was in solidarity with this young lady, who wrote for Entertainment Weekly is as follows: “Johnny Mnemonic is a sluggish and secondary future thriller (essentially Blade Runner, but without the flavor).”.
• USA Today columnist Mike Clark characterized the film as a parody of Blade Runner.

I am very happy that in 2022 justice was partially done, because Robert Longo was given the opportunity to make a black-and-white version of the film, as he had originally planned, but then the studio refused. Now the film is at least a little closer to the original author’s vision.

“Waterworld”

Year of release: 1995
Director: Kevin Reynolds
Cast: Kevin Costner, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Dennis Hopper, Tina Maggiorino, Michael Jeter, Kim Coates, Jack Black
IMDb rating: 6,3
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 59%
What was it compared to: “Mad Max”

In 2500, almost the entire landmass went underwater as a result of melting glaciers and rapid sea level rise. People settled on makeshift islands called atolls. The story centers on an unnamed lone sailor who reluctantly takes on his trimaran a woman, Helen, and a small, talkative girl, Enola, who are being hunted by the leader of a band of pirates known as the Smokers, the treacherous Deacon. He believes that with the help of the little girl he will be able to find the mythical island, so the sailor will have to enter into a fierce confrontation with a gang of heavily armed thugs.

Director Kevin Reynolds and actor Kevin Costner reunite on the set after working together in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and not just anywhere, but in the most expensive movie in history at the time, not taking into account inflation, with a budget of $175 million. For 1995, this was very cool. On the screen, we can really see what these funds were spent on: even today, the film looks more than decent. And within the genre, The Waterworld is in no way inferior to modern blockbusters, for example, the conventional “Furiosa” (2024).

However, the stuffy critics were not happy:

• In his article for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman noted that “the movie as a whole was a second-rate copy of Mad Max 2, with weaker, slower fight scenes and less impressive villains.”
• “It really does look like Mad Max gone to sea,” Philip Martin wrote in a negative review in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
• “A parody of Mad Max” — repeated The opinions of colleagues Tom Charity from Time Out.

But the authors of numerous retrospective reviews in 2025, timed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film’s release, overwhelmingly spoke warmly of The Waterworld. Having been fed up with today’s “masterpieces” of cinema, they still saw the obvious value of the film, which was not recognized by its contemporaries.

“The Thirteenth Floor”

Year of release: 1999
Director: Joseph Rusnak
Cast: Craig Birko, Armin Muller-Stahl, Gretchen Moll, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dennis Heisbert, Steven Shab
IMDb rating: 7
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 28%
What was it compared to; “The Matrix”, “eXistenZ”

Los Angeles, 1999. The owner of a large computer corporation, Gannon Fuller, and his deputy, Douglas Hall, had been working for 6 years on a virtual simulation of Los Angeles in 1937. After Fuller’s murder, all the evidence points to the fact that it was Hall who did the irreparable. In an effort to get to the truth, he uploads his consciousness to the corresponding virtual reality avatar, bank teller John Ferguson, not yet knowing what discoveries will lie ahead.

“The Thirteenth Floor is a loose adaptation of the science fiction novel Simulacron 3 (1964) by the American writer Daniel F. Galway and is formally a remake of The World on a Wire (1973) by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. One of the film’s producers is the aforementioned Roland Emmerich, and the film was directed by Joseph Rusnak, who worked as a second director on Emmerich’s Godzilla (1998).

If there was ever a worse time to release The Thirteenth Floor, it was this one. The premiere took place literally 2 months after the release of the epoch-making The Matrix, which is basically impossible to compete with. It’s a good movie that was just unlucky to be next to Wachowski’s creation. Cronenberg’s eXistenZ, which premiered between the two, was in the same situation, but Cronenberg’s cinema is a separate universe, and the Canadian had already achieved the status of a living classic, whose films are mostly loved and respected by critics.

• “Most of the surprises in this intriguing idea have already been used in eXistenZ and The Matrix,” concluded an E! Online;
• Dustin Putman opposed this opinion in his review for TheFilmFile, which, however, still gave the movie a negative review: “Even before the release of Joseph Rusnak’s new sci-fi film The Thirteenth Floor, it was already being compared to recent films like The Matrix, Dark City, and eXistenZ, but this comparison doesn’t hold up to scrutiny and is only superficially meaningful.”
• “The movie would have had a better chance if it hadn’t been released in the shadow of The Matrix.” summarized last year Kevin Carr on his Fat Guys at the Movies podcast.

Symbolically, The Thirteenth Floor was nominated for a Saturn Award in the Best Science Fiction Film category, and guess who it lost to.

“Equilibrium”

Year of release: 2002
Director: Kurt Wimmer
Cast: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, Emily Watson, Taye Diggs, Angus McFadyen, Sean Pertwee, William Fichtner
IMDb rating: 7,3
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 40%
What was it compared to: Fahrenheit 451, 1984, Brave New World, Gattaca, The Matrix

The story takes place after the Third World War in the totalitarian city-state of Libria. In order to avoid further conflicts, emotions and everything, including works of art, that could provoke them are banned by law. To remain grim, frowning logs, the population must take daily injections of a special drug. A high-ranking cleric, John Preston, strictly enforces the laws and makes sure that others follow suit, until he himself gradually succumbs to what makes us human.

“Equilibrium was only the second film in Kurt Wimmer’s directorial career, which would later be ruined by the truly mediocre Ultraviolet (2006). But the critics didn’t fall out of love with this worthwhile movie, which, although it looks secondary, entertains and looks great in terms of style, fight choreography and the friendship between the protagonist and the dog, long before these John Wick movies. The fights are in what is known as gang kata, which has its roots in Hong Kong action movies — a martial arts technique that combines hand-to-hand combat with the use of firearms. And Christian Bale’s coolness is off the charts here.

Again, Equilibrium was somewhat unlucky with the timing of its release, because stylistically the film clearly resonates with The Matrix, which was on everyone’s lips at the time (in 2002, the second part of Wachowski’s hit film, subtitled Reboot, premiered). And comparisons not in favor of the much more modest Equilibrium were unavoidable. There is no need to mention the inevitable parallels with classic dystopias.

• Elvis Mitchell from The New York Times wrote: “If someone left 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, Gattaca, and Sylvester Stallone’s hacks Judge Dredd and Demolition Man in the sun and splashed this liquid mess on the screen, the movie would still be better than Equilibrium. The fascist chic wardrobe of the clerics and their ganja will probably make the creators of The Matrix comb every frame for copyright infringement.”
• About the same issued and Observer columnist Philip French: “The film is a mix of Fritz Lang, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Ray Bradbury, to which writer-director Wimmer has not applied any creative approach.”
• The general consensus of critics on Rotten Tomatoes summarizes all these arguments: “Equilibrium is a heated mishmash of other sci-fi movies.”.

On the other hand, as a label said Mike Massey of Gone With The Twins: “If a movie borrows a lot from previous works, it’s better to steal from the best.”.

“The Chronicles of Riddick”

Year of release: 2004
Director: David Tooey
Cast: Vin Diesel, Colm Fiore, Keith David, Alexa Davalos, Karl Urban, Thandie Newton, Judi Dench
IMDb rating: 6,6
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 28%
What was it compared to: cult space operas and outstanding science fiction blockbusters

After the events of The Pitch Black (2000), space criminal Richard Riddick arrives on the planet Helion Prime, where he will face the deadly half-dead Necromongers, who convert everyone to their faith and exterminate the disobedient. A fundamental conflict is brewing, because it is difficult to find a more rebellious person in the galaxy than the rebel Riddick.

After the modest space horror Black Hole, Richard Riddick made a pompous return to the big screen amidst the pompous sets and cool special effects of an expensive blockbuster, and in the status of a real star given the success of “Fast and Furious” (2001) and xXx (2002).

But the audience was simply not ready for a sharp increase in scale. This is evidenced by low box office receipts (a miserable $115 million with about the same budget) and disappointing media reviews that criticized the departure from the original film’s style (which is paradoxical, given that the latter was heavily criticized for imitating its genre predecessors).

To be fair, The Chronicles of Riddick was criticized not so much for being secondary as for being a cumbersome, pretentious, and not very inventive blockbuster that relies more on special effects than on content. Although there were some detractors who blamed the filmmakers for their lack of originality:

• “A mix of The Lord of the Rings, Starship Troopers, and the later Star Wars films,” noted Ty Burr in a negative review for the Boston Globe.
• “Abandoning the claustrophobic minimalism of its predecessor, David Tooey’s mega-budget film The Riddick Chronicles is an extravagant orgy of reused sci-fi movie parts. A pinch of bullet dodging from The Matrix, a pinch of Egyptian fetish from Stargate, a dash of naive hippie spiritual folklore from Dune, and voila — the latest oppressive summer burst of incoherent action and pretentious mythologizing.” — indignant Nick Shager from Slant.

If only you knew, when you wrote these lines back in 2004, what blockbusters of the year 2025 would turn into. Yes, perhaps The Chronicles of Riddick could not be on par with the greatest representatives of the genre, and there are indeed many flaws. But in general, it’s a good sci-fi blockbuster with a claim to epic space opera that definitely doesn’t make you regret the time spent on it. Both 20 years ago and now. Today, at least, there is a lack of such films, “Rebel Moon” will not let you lie.

“Battle: Los Angeles”

Year of release: 2011
Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Will Rothaar, Bridget Moynahan, Jim Perrack, Michael Pena
IMDb rating: 5,7
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 37%
What was it compared to: Independence Day, Black Hawk Down

Staff Sergeant Michael Nantz of the U.S. Marines was just about to retire when aliens decide to attack Los Angeles. Throwing aside all doubts, the brave soldier leads a squad tasked with repelling the alien enemy. The battle for the City of Angels has begun.

After the success of The District 9 (2009) in the first half of the 2010s movies about alien invasions, the year saw a resurgence of films, one sillier and more pretentious than the other, including the budget Skyline (2010), the militaristic Battle: Los Angeles (2011), the western comic book Cowboys vs. Aliens (2011), the pretentious Battleship (2012), and the really cool Edge of Tomorrow (2014), etc. And if we don’t take Tom Cruise movies into account, all of them were shamelessly despised by critics, and some of them failed miserably at the box office.

Among the despised and rejected films, it is Battle: Los Angeles that is the most offensive. Yes, this is a movie without brains, which looks more like a shooter than it does the slightest hint of a plot. And it is designed exclusively for unpretentious entertainment. But it’s a good shooter: dynamic, exciting — everything is as it should be.

Be that as it may, the critics were relentless:

• Brian Eggert from Deep Focus noted: “After the hasty wedding of Black Hawk Down and Independence Day, this film has become an unwanted offspring — an incomprehensible mix of war movies and science fiction that insults the credibility of both genres.”
• He is echoed by Matty Lucas, who wrote in The Dispatch: “Another mediocre alien invasion movie with nothing original to offer.”
• Agrees Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune also disagreed with his colleagues on the secondary, but in a more compromising way: “He’s not original. It’s exciting. This B-movie hybrid of Black Hawk Down and War of the Worlds is a modest but masterful triumph of suspense over common sense and cliché.”.

The latter statement, in my opinion, is closer to the truth. It’s a pity that Aaron Eckhart’s career will later take a wrong turn.

“The Giver”

Year of release: 2014
Director: Phillip Noyce
Cast: Brenton Thwaites, Odea Rush, Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes, Alexander Skashgård, Meryl Streep, Cameron Monegan, Taylor Swift
IMDb rating: 6,4
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 35%
What was it compared to: “Fahrenheit 451”, “Logan’s Run”, “The Hunger Games”, “Divergent”

After a great catastrophe, society decided to abandon the old way of life and built a utopian world where there is no place for human emotions and, as a result, conflicts, envy, discrimination, etc. Young Jonas is chosen to be the next Memory Keeper, who must absorb the previous experience of humanity — both good and bad. But during his training, the boy realizes that the new model of society not only does not work, but has deprived people of the real thing that can make them happy.

Based on the novel The Guardian (1993) by American writer Lois Lowry, the film was released at the height of the popularity of teenage dystopias, and this played a cruel joke on it to some extent. In particular, it went relatively unnoticed against the backdrop of the more expensive, flashier, and larger-scale Hunger Games, Divergent, and The Maze Runner. To give you an idea of the density of these genre brethren, here’s a schedule of their releases: Divergent premiered in March 2014, the hero of our article — in August, and The Maze Runner — in September of the same year.

It is not surprising that critics attacked the rather modest film with the traditional accusation of “the book is better”, supported by accusations of secondary nature:

• “This movie adaptation looks like a cheap mix of The Hunger Games and Divergent.” concluded Mark Kermode in a review for The Guardian;
• Andy Harrison from The List was not far from his colleague in his opinion: “A project that values individuality shouldn’t be so slavishly following the Divergent school of teen drama”.
• “It’s a pity that this children’s version of Fahrenheit 451 is too sweet.” — summarized Peter Canavese in a text for Groucho Reviews.

But in fact, there is much more humanity in The Giver than in its entertainingly mechanical blockbuster neighbors. It’s a simple, somewhat naive and crumpled, but sincere emotional story that reminds us of what matters most. Moreover, it has a nice cast, where there is room for both venerable veterans (for Jeff Bridges, it was a dream project — the script was written back in the days of The Big Lebowski (1998)) and younger stars (Alexander Skashgård is taking a crash course in humanization here long before “Murderbot”), and even a holographic Taylor Swift.

“Life”

Year of release: 2017
Director: Daniel Espinoza
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Rebecca Ferguson, Ryan Reynolds, Hiroyuki Sanada, Erion Bakare
IMDb rating: 6,6
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 67%
What was it compared to: “Alien”

The International Space Station is ready to receive data from an unmanned capsule that arrived from Mars with soil samples. During their study, scientists discover an extraterrestrial life form — a microscopic organism that they decide to name Calvin. But later, this seemingly harmless baby turns into a deadly creature, ready to destroy everyone for its own survival.

In the case of Life, the accusation of secondary nature is as obvious as it is fair. However, it seems that Ridley Scott did not monopolize the space horror genre, and in particular the plot about a dangerous space creature that gives a scolding to frightened astronauts.

However, critics were much more favorable to this film than to the others on our list. And for good reason. Life is an undeniably strong genre example that has all the characteristics necessary for a quality space horror: suspense, mystery, desperate struggle against the unknown, etc. And the scene in which Calvin makes his way down Ryan Reynolds’ throat will be remembered for a long time.

There were many who did not miss the opportunity to see this movie:

• For example, review on Noah Berlatsky’s Everything is Horrible portal is entirely based on a comparison of Life with Scott’s 1979 masterpiece, which I think is an amateurish one-sided approach;
• “Unfortunately, the story is becoming an imitation of the films Alien and The Thing” — sadly stated Luis Fernando Galvan in the Spanish-language media En Filme;
• “Life” turns out to be another version of Alien, albeit without the gritty horror and dark fun. In space, no one can hear you snore,” Joe Morgenstern sarcastically said in review for The Wall Street Journal.

By the way, if you have not yet read our extensive material on the Alien movie series, you can find it at by this link.

“The Tomorrow War”

Year of release: 2021
Director: Chris McKay
Cast: Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski, J.K. Simmons, Betty Gilpin, Edwin Hodge, Sam Richardson, Jasmine Matthews
IMDb rating: 6,6
Critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 51%
What was it compared to: “Independence Day, Starship Troopers, Edge of Tomorrow

December 2022. After another unsuccessful attempt to get a job, former Green Beret Dan Forrester sits down to watch the World Cup final in Qatar — just like the Brazilians (for reference — the prophecy did not come true and their principal rivals, the Argentines, with Lionel Messi as captain, played in the final). Suddenly, right in the middle of the match, cool special forces appear at the stadium and announce to the whole world that in 30 years the Earth will face an apocalypse due to an alien attack. It seems that Dan’s problems with finding a job are no longer a problem.

Interestingly, the film was originally planned for release in theaters, but the effects of Covid-19 made themselves felt: the rights to show it were acquired by Amazon Studios, which is why this lavish movie attraction with a budget of $200 million was forced to the small screens on the Prime Video service.

“The Tomorrow War” belongs to the category of films whose authors not only do not shy away from outright secondary nature and genre clichés, but literally enjoy them. At the same time, they are competent as creators of mindless entertainment content, so all the accusations about the lack of original ideas can be safely ignored. It’s a sane nonsense that will make a great escapist entertainment for two hours. Everything in it looks expensive. At the same time, Chris Pratt will learn from his own experience that destroying space creature — is not the same as taming an almost cute velociraptor.

Let’s turn to our glorious critics:

• “The Tomorrow’s War is like Starship Troopers without Paul Verhovan’s provocative satire, «Edge of Tomorrow» without the irony of Doug Liman killing Tom Cruise, Battle for Los Angeles without Aaron Eckhart’s convincing resilience, or Independence Day without Will Smith’s pleasant mannerisms.” — wrote Roxanne Gadadi for Polygon;
• “The War of Tomorrow unfolds like a collection of alien action movies, shamelessly stealing from all the films of its genre — from Aliens to Starship Troopers — upset by Willamette Week’s Ray Gill Jr;
• Solidarity and colleagues and Mike McGranaghan from Aisle Seat: “It’s a real Frankenstein’s monster. It’s sculpted from fragments of other sci-fi movies, such as War of the Worlds, Aliens, World War Z, Starship Troopers, and The Thing.

The unpretentious but fascinating action ends in the North Land, covered with harsh snows, and where else could those soils have come from if not from russia.