10 Worst Science Fiction Movies, According to Roger Ebert

Science fiction is a major part of Hollywood’s biggest movies, with franchises about space travel, advanced technology, and alien life consistently earning huge amounts at the box office. However, sci-fi has been a part of Hollywood for a long time, going all the way back to early films like George Méliès’s classic, A Trip to the Moon.

Many science fiction movies don’t age well or disappoint audiences when they’re first released, as shown by the harsh reviews many of them receive. The worst offenders abandon the genre’s tradition of exploring complex ideas, opting instead for simple, sensational entertainment instead of meaningful stories about people.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Was a Bad Direction for the Franchise

Throughout his career, director Michael Bay often faced criticism from film reviewers, who felt his over-the-top style and background in music videos were detrimental to traditional Hollywood blockbuster narratives. However, audiences loved his films – movies like Bad Boys II and The Rock were massive hits that significantly influenced the look and feel of summer action movies for years to come.

Michael Bay achieved his greatest financial success with the Transformers franchise, which was a huge hit with audiences despite receiving mostly negative reviews. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was particularly criticized; famed critic Roger Ebert famously called it a painfully long and unpleasant movie, with only a few fleeting moments of humor.

Wing Commander Is a Video Game Adaptation Gone Wrong

For a long time, turning video games into movies or TV shows resulted in disappointing adaptations. However, recent successes like HBO’s The Last of Us, Amazon’s Fallout, and the Sonic the Hedgehog movies suggest filmmakers are finally figuring out how to do it right. Unfortunately, Wing Commander follows the pattern of nearly every previous failed attempt.

This movie, based on a popular series of video games, features Matthew Lillard and Freddie Prinze Jr. working together for the second time. However, it disappointed many fans of the games because it significantly changed the established story and setting. Even film critic Roger Ebert wasn’t a fan, describing it as having a silly script and special effects that looked like an exaggerated version of the games themselves.

Death Race Is a Bad Remake

Paul W.S. Anderson is a director often criticized for his films, including titles like Mortal Kombat, Pompeii, and the Resident Evil series. Critics have long found these movies to be illogical and lacking substance. Roger Ebert, in particular, disliked Anderson’s remake of a 1970s B-movie.

The film Death Race is both a reimagining and a prequel to the 1975 movie Death Race 2000. It’s set in a bleak, futuristic world similar to The Hunger Games, where convicts compete in dangerous car races for public amusement. Roger Ebert wasn’t impressed, famously stating after watching it that he felt like he’d just seen the video game version and was still waiting for the actual movie to begin.

Doom Is a Bad Attempt at Putting a Classic Video Game On-Screen

Doom is a hugely influential video game, considered one of the first and most important first-person shooters. It remains a classic and has inspired many sequels and remakes, with recent games in the series being praised as some of the best single-player shooters released in the last ten years.

Andrzej Bartkowiak’s movie adaptation of Doom—about a team of space marines fighting demons on a lunar rescue mission—was a major failure, both with critics and at the box office. Roger Ebert disliked it, pointing out that the film’s latter half felt more like a video game than a movie, lacking character development and meaningful dialogue.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse Is Another Bad Entry in a Bad Franchise

The Resident Evil movies have been a surprisingly successful film series for a long time. Based on the popular survival horror video game, the films center around heroes and law enforcement trying to contain different zombie outbreaks.

Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the second movie in the series and director Alexander Witt’s first film, centers on a team of heroes trying to prevent the sinister Umbrella Corporation from covering up their role in the zombie outbreak. Film critic Roger Ebert strongly disliked it, calling it uninspired and lacking in entertainment value, even in its action and special effects.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Is the Worst Film in the Franchise (That Ebert Reviewed)

Released as a continuation of the popular Transformers series, Dark of the Moon maintained the franchise’s success in the late 2000s and early 2010s. The movie was a huge hit with audiences, earning over $1.1 billion worldwide and solidifying the series’ reputation as a major summer blockbuster.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon is the third installment in the Transformers series and the final film featuring Shia LaBeouf as the character Sam Witwicky. He’s once again tasked with assisting the Autobots in their battle against the Decepticons, who are attempting to activate powerful, ancient technology hidden on the moon. Film critic Roger Ebert disliked the movie, summarizing it as simply showcasing ‘gigantic and hideous robots hammering one another.’

Dune Was a Failed Attempt at Adapting an Important Novel

Considering the recent loss of filmmaking icon David Lynch and the blockbuster success of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptations – which just received numerous Academy Award nominations – it’s easy to forget that the first Dune movie was a major disappointment. While starring Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, the film has gained a more positive reputation recently, largely because of its…

The film tries to tell the complete story of Paul Atreides, from his beginnings as the optimistic son of a powerful leader to his eventual role as a sorrowful, almost mythical figure. However, it didn’t resonate with audiences when it first came out. Even prominent critic Roger Ebert was disappointed, describing it as a film that seemed troubled from the very beginning.

Jason X Severely Jumped the Shark

Sequels often become overly exaggerated, losing the heart of what made the original story compelling as they try to outdo themselves with each new installment. A prime example is the Friday the 13th series, which quickly moved away from the grounded horror of the first film and became increasingly absurd.

Many fans consider Jason X the weakest entry in the Friday the 13th series. This tenth film bizarrely combines slasher horror with science fiction, featuring Jason Voorhees being revived on a spaceship far in the future. The movie received overwhelmingly negative reviews, with critic Roger Ebert famously noting its self-awareness of its own shortcomings: “This sucks on so many levels.” — a line actually from the movie itself.

Rollerball Got its Director Thrown in Jail

John McTiernan directed some of the most iconic action films of the 1980s and 90s, including Die Hard, Predator, and The Hunt for Red October. However, his career took a dramatic turn when a troubled production led to legal issues and a year-long prison sentence.

The film Rollerball, a reimagining of Norman Jewison’s original, is set in a dark, futuristic world where a brutal form of roller derby has become a globally popular sport. However, it wasn’t a success; critics, including Roger Ebert, widely disliked it, describing it as disorganized and lacking a clear story or purpose.

Battlefield Earth Is a Confusing Mess

Based on a novel by L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, Battlefield Earth is widely considered one of the worst and most confusing science fiction movies ever made. Many believe the film functions more as promotion for Scientology than as a coherent story, and it earned the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Picture of the Decade in 2010.

This film is set almost a thousand years from now, in a world where aliens harshly control Earth. A group of human rebels fights to regain control of the planet. Film critic Roger Ebert strongly disliked the movie, famously comparing watching it to being stuck on a long bus ride with someone who desperately needs a shower – not just bad, but actively unpleasant and irritating.

2026-04-19 17:39