When carried out proper, science fiction can produce a few of cinema’s greatest wonders. However, as a rule, it is carried out very, very improper. In spite of everything, sci-fi is a difficult style to sort out, largely due to its distinctive nature and the probabilities it opens, which could finally be too daunting for any inexperienced creative. With this in thoughts, this record seems at absolutely the worst films the style has provided over the past century.
Some are overblown self-importance initiatives, others are shameless knockoffs, and some are so inept they’ve earned an odd kind of cult immortality. The ten movies beneath characterize essentially the most spectacular misfires the style has seen prior to now century. They vary from misguided star automobiles to cosmic catastrophes that really feel like they have been edited with a blindfold on. Some have ironic leisure worth, however most are simply plain terrible.
10
‘Wing Commander’ (1999)
“I’ve seen all of it. I’ve seen all of it twice. And it nonetheless do not make sense.” Wing Commander is a relic from the awkward transitional section between sensible results and full-on CGI. It tried to deliver the favored online game collection to the massive display screen and as a substitute wound up being a joyless, murky slog. The house battles are drowned in muddy visuals, the dialogue appears like first-draft placeholder traces, and the forged (together with Freddie Prinze Jr. and Matthew Lillard) appears misplaced. They evidently do not get pleasure from delivering the movie’s piles of exposition.
Certainly, the script is fairly tough. Wing Commander errors jargon for world-building, endlessly throwing out nonsense phrases as if that may distract from the skinny plot. Worst of all, it commits the cardinal sin of unhealthy sci-fi: it is boring. For a franchise constructed on house dogfights and adrenaline, Wing Commander by some means makes outer house really feel like a protracted, uneventful layover.
9
‘The Apple’ (1980)
“First you promote it, THEN you make it. That is advertising!” Few movies have so completely baffled audiences as sci-fi musical The Apple. The script appears like somebody learn a half-page abstract of the Bible, skimmed a disco trend catalog, after which determined to rewrite 1984 after three margaritas. The film takes place within the futuristic “1994” the place a robust music company controls the plenty by catchy, soul-crushing pop anthems. On this bizarro timeline, our supposed heroes, a candy people duo named Alphie (George Gilmour) and Bibi (Catherine Mary Stewart), stumble into fame.
Alongside the best way, there’s a collection of more and more surreal musical numbers; the aesthetic is “rejected Eurovision act.” But what makes The Apple so infamous is not simply its dreadful songwriting, incoherent plot, or nightmarish manufacturing design however the sheer confidence with which it barrels ahead. Each scene is drenched in glitter and unearned self-importance. Camp followers might discover it endearingly terrible, however make no mistake: as sci-fi, it is an unmitigated catastrophe.
8
‘Supernova’ (2000)
“There’s a variety of house on the market for accidents to occur in.” Supernova is a sci-fi story set aboard a rescue vessel responding to a misery name in deep house. There’s nothing improper with the premise; the problems stem from the tortured manufacturing course of. Supernova went by so many administrators, edits, and reshoots that it is a miracle something coherent made it to theaters in any respect. Even Francis Ford Coppola was brought on at one level to do some enhancing! Sadly, the completed product remains to be an undercooked hodgepodge.
The flick awkwardly blends house opera, physique horror, and a chemistry-free romantic subplot. The forged, together with actual skills like James Spader and Angela Bassett, does their finest, however the tonal shifts are whiplash-inducing. Particular results vary from satisfactory to laughably unhealthy, particularly within the botched finale. In the end, whereas Supernova had the bones of a lean sci-fi thriller, studio meddling and creative clashes turned it into a Frankenstein’s monster of mismatched concepts.
7
‘The Adventures of Pluto Nash’ (2002)
“You’ll be able to take the person out of the ghetto, however you’ll be able to’t take the ghetto out of the person.” The Adventures of Pluto Nash stars Eddie Murphy as a nightclub proprietor on the moon, caught in a plot involving cloning, mobsters, and lunar politics. On paper, it’s a breezy sci-fi comedy; on-screen, it’s a joke-free mess. The units are lavish and the results serviceable, however the script is so inert that nothing pops. Murphy, usually a stay wire, is fairly boring right here; maybe salvaging this wreck was past even his formidable comedic skills.
The humor is dated even by early-2000s requirements, counting on drained gags and broad slapstick that by no means lands. To not point out, the pacing is glacial, stretching skinny materials over a bloated runtime. Regardless of costing upwards of $100 million, Pluto Nash feels small, like a halfhearted sitcom episode with an enormous results price range. It was a thermonuclear field workplace bomb, grossing simply $7.1 million.
6
‘Highlander II: The Quickening’ (1991)
“Most individuals have a full measure of life, and most of the people simply watch it slowly drip away.” The unique Highlander was a scrappy cult hit; the sequel is a baffling act of franchise self-sabotage, notorious for jettisoning the unique’s mythology. Few sequels have so completely torched their legacy. Particularly, it abandons the paranormal, time-spanning sword-and-sorcery vibe, turning the Immortals into alien freedom fighters from the planet Zeist, immediately alienating followers. Sadly, that is solely the place the issues start.
The Quickening‘s plot is incoherent, characters contradict themselves from scene to scene, and the tone swings wildly between camp and useless seriousness. Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery return, however each appear as confused because the viewers. The particular results are low-cost, the motion sequences sloppy, and the world-building nonsensical. Director Russell Mulcahy later disowned the movie, and for good cause. It’s a textbook instance of learn how to misunderstand your franchise.
5
‘After Earth’ (2013)
“Worry just isn’t actual. It’s a product of ideas you create.” Will Smith teaming up with M. Night time Shyamalan for a sci-fi survival epic ought to have been an occasion. As an alternative, After Earth grew to become a case research in misjudged star automobiles. The premise is pulpy, however strong: humanity has deserted Earth, and a father and son should survive its advanced risks after a crash touchdown. It had potential. Nonetheless, the movie itself is stilted, hobbled by an ungainly resolution to sideline Will Smith and middle his inexperienced son, Jaden, in a job that requires each charisma and dramatic heft.
Shyamalan’s route is surprisingly flat, and the motion is limp. Add to {that a} unusual, half-baked pseudo-accent for the characters, and you’ve got a movie that feels alien in all of the improper methods. Reasonably than the thrilling father-son journey it aspired to be, After Earth is a cautionary tale about ego, miscasting, and the perils of constructing a blockbuster round household branding.
4
‘Mac and Me’ (1988)
“It is okay, I am a physician. I can deal with it.” On the floor, Mac and Me is an E.T. knockoff. Beneath, it is a 90-minute corporate commercial masquerading as a household movie. The plot follows a boy (Jade Calegory) in a wheelchair who befriends a bug-eyed alien named MAC (brief for “Mysterious Alien Creature”, one of many most unsubtle product references ever). Certainly, practically each scene is undercut by blatant promoting, most notoriously an prolonged, weird dance sequence inside a McDonald’s. The alien design is off-putting fairly than endearing, and the particular results are low-cost even by the requirements of late-’80s knockoffs.
Mac and Me‘s saccharine tone clashes with its industrial cynicism, leaving it feeling hole and unintentionally creepy. Through the years, it is discovered an ironic cult following, helped alongside by Paul Rudd‘s long-running gag of exhibiting its notorious cliff-fall scene on late-night TV. As an precise film, although, Mac and Me is likely one of the extra shameless examples of brand name over story.
3
‘Robotic Monster’ (1953)
“I can not, but I need to. How do you calculate that? At what level on the graph do should and can not meet?” Even within the low-budget world of Nineteen Fifties B-movies, Robotic Monster stands out for its sheer, unpolished absurdity. The titular “robotic” is definitely only a man in a gorilla swimsuit carrying an area helmet, tasked with destroying the final remnants of humanity. The story is paper-thin, the performances picket, and the results are decidedly shaky, however what actually cements its popularity is its weird sincerity.
Regardless of its virtually non-existent price range (and being shot in simply 4 days), Robotic Monster makes an attempt grand themes about love, survival, and alienation, solely to undercut them with campy visuals and incomprehensible dialogue. For these causes, Robotic Monster has change into a cult traditional for many who get pleasure from their sci-fi as uncooked, earnest nonsense. (It was memorably lampooned on Mystery Science Theater 3000.) That does not imply it is good, although.
2
‘Plan 9 from Outer Area’ (1957)
“Future occasions resembling these will have an effect on you sooner or later.” Usually dubbed “the worst film ever made,” Ed Wooden‘s Plan 9 from Outer Area has change into the gold normal for cinematic ineptitude. The plot is pure pulp: aliens resurrecting the useless to cease humanity from making a doomsday weapon. It combines essentially the most overdone tropes of two completely different subgenres. Nonetheless, Wooden’s execution is the actual killer right here.
The film is riddled with continuity errors, flimsy units, and ludicrous particular results (together with seen strings on alien craft). Scenes are stitched along with inventory footage, and Bela Lugosi‘s look is cobbled from unrelated, pre-existing photographs and a stand-in who doesn’t remotely resemble him. But for all its faults, Plan 9 has an undeniable charm. Its sincerity is sort of endearing, and its full lack of self-awareness makes it an unintentional comedy masterpiece. It is horrible, sure, nevertheless it’s horrible in a means that is oddly joyous.
1
‘Battlefield Earth’ (2000)
“When you have been nonetheless studying learn how to spell your identify, I used to be being educated to overcome galaxies!” There’s “so-bad-it’s-good,” after which there’s “so-bad-it’s-physically-painful;” John Travolta‘s passion project adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard‘s novel very a lot falls within the latter class. Set in a post-apocalyptic future the place Earth is dominated by large alien Psychlos, the movie is a disorienting barrage of canted digital camera angles and hammy performances. Travolta, buried beneath prosthetics, delivers each line like a cartoon villain, whereas the remainder of the forged flounders in a sea of overblown dialogue.
The pacing lurches from sluggish to frantic, and the manufacturing design is an unholy mixture of muddy browns and industrial grunge. And people weird titled angles! Worse nonetheless, the movie is lethal severe about its pulp nonsense, providing no camp reduction. It is actually type of exhausting to look at. Battlefield Earth has since change into a go-to instance in discussions of Hollywood hubris, the dark-matter inversion of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
