When it comes to movie releases from year to year, it’s always safe to assume that every genre of film under the sun is going to have its big hits, major misses, and everywhere in between. And although science fiction is a genre that has its ebbs and flows of popularity, it seems like sci-fi flicks have been having a bit of a renaissance lately. Their popularity is booming, and last year had a particularly strong showing of science fiction movies.
2018 may have been a good year for science fiction films, but which movies stood out as the tip top offerings of the year? The top science fiction movies of 2018 are actually astoundingly diverse, and range anywhere from independent horror style movies to some of the biggest blockbusters in film history. So, here are the 10 best science fiction movies of 2018.
Pacific Rim: Uprising
For anyone who is looking for a classic robot versus monster showdown movie franchise, then it’s hard to top the Pacific Rim series. The films are exactly how they sound, but they also give their audience exactly what they’re looking for.
Five years after the original Pacific Rim was released, the sequel, Pacific Rim: Uprising, finally arrived on screens. This film operates on a very similar premise to the first one but features an almost entirely new cast of characters, and once again it focuses on the seemingly never ending battle of Jaegers and their pilots versus the alien Kaijus.
Venom
After the astounding success of the seemingly never ending list of comic book films that have been coming out for the last decade, it seemed like only a matter of time until these comic book franchises expanded to cover a wider variety of characters beyond the classic comic book heroes.
Venom is one such film. The movie is the classic love story of a man and his symbiote, who unfortunately find themselves occupying the same life form. Eddie Brock is the journalist who becomes the host of this symbiote, and Venom is the alien lifeform that intends to invade and conquer earth.
Bumblebee
Let’s be honest, the first Transformers film was pretty awesome. Then we got the endless string of sequels that were completely forgettable cash grabs. Yet they inexplicably continued to make hundreds of millions of dollars. Alas, then came Bumblebee.
Bumblebee was intended to be a bit of a reboot of this tired franchise, and the movie was actually far better than most people would have expected any sixth installment into a series to be. The movie acts as a prequel to the original franchise, with a teenager stumbling on to the titular Transformer and finding herself in the middle of the endless Autobots vs. Decepticons war.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Once Disney finally acquired the rights to Star Wars, it was only a matter of time before they started churning out Star Wars films with lightning fast speed. Their 2018 Star Wars film was a bit of a surprise though, with Solo: A Star Wars Story telling the tale of Han Solo before he met up with Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia.
It was fascinating to see a glimpse into who Han Solo was before the world first met him, and although people were understandably skeptical about anyone besides Harrison Ford being able to pull the role off, Alden Ehrenreich did a fine job.
Isle Of Dogs
On paper the film Isle of Dogs sounds like some kind of movie mad lib. A stop motion animation film directed by Wes Anderson about a dystopian future Japan where dogs have been quarantined to a lonely island is a wild amalgam of ideas. But, the results are actually spectacular.
Anderson is always reliably excellent and it’s safe to assume any movie he bothers to make is going to be great, but this tale about man’s best friend is bizarre, moving, and hilarious all at the same time. It’s also a great reminder of how much animals truly can contribute to the lives of humans.
Avengers: Infinity War
The Marvel Cinematic Universe really had its work cut out for them when it came to creating Avengers: Infinity War. Infinity War was more than just a sequel or another installment into a series that seems to never end. It was the culmination of half a dozen stories and what seems like about a hundred different characters, all in one movie.
Honestly given how much the Marvel films have accomplished in the past dozen years, it was borderline impossible to pull together everything that had ever happened in the MCU into one film, but that doesn’t mean that the entire cast and crew of Infinity War weren’t going to try.
Black Panther
The MCU has gotten a lot of accolades for what it’s done, but has fielded a lot of criticism for what it hasn’t. And one of its most glaring oversights for years is that the vast majority of their films were light on diversity.
However, after quite a lot of backlash for their lack of representation, they finally came out with Black Panther. Black Panther wound up becoming one of the most successful films in the entire franchise, and beyond that, it is really one of the MCU’s best offerings yet.
Annihilation
Although some people might not be entirely familiar with the name Alex Garland, it’s pretty much a guarantee that you’re familiar with his work if you consider yourself to be a fan of science fiction movies. With movies like Ex Machina, Sunshine, and 28 Days Later under his belt, his credibility when it comes to the sci-fi/horror genres of movies is unimpeachable.
Annihilation is a bizarre and psychedelic science fiction film where a crew of scientists enter into something called “the shimmer”. The shimmer is some sort of alien presence that is causing the life forms within it to mutate, with some bizarre and horrifying results.
A Quiet Place
Who knew Jim Halpert had it in him? John Krasinski started off his directorial career with a bang when he co-wrote and directed A Quiet Place. This science fiction horror film is about a family who is trying to survive in the world after it’s been invaded by some sort of alien life form with exceptional hearing.
Luckily the oldest daughter in the family was born deaf, so everyone can communicate with sign language already. The tension in the film is high and never lets up, but what really drives the narrative is the emotional bonds between this family.
Sorry To Bother You
A Quiet Place is a science fiction movie whose quality and entertainment value is pretty hard to top, but the beyond bizarre dark comedy Sorry To Bother You is just so unique and inventive that it has to take the top spot for the 2018 sci-fi releases.
This movie focuses on a black telemarketer who decides to adopt an accent in order to perform his job more successfully. As the main character rises up in the ranks of his corporation, he makes disturbing discoveries that are so insane that they have to be seen to be believed.
