The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Films of the 2010s
According to critics AND fans
Everyone has their personal favorites and anti-favorites. Opinions about the super-hero genre are especially polarised. Some can’t stand them and some can’t get enough. In this story, I triangulate the views of critics and fans to determine the wisdom of the hive mind — as well as scouring the data for hidden gems.
The critics’ view
For the critics’ view I looked at two sources — Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes. Although they both aggregate many movie reviews to determine a combined score for each movie, there can be significant differences.
The Metacritic top 20 is a pretty solid list. Gravity is a clear leader. In the second tier is Mad Max: Fury Road, Her and Hard to Be a God. I liked Mad Max and loved Her. Good to see some of my personal favorites there — Her, Snowpiercer, A Quiet Place, Blade Runner 2049, Arrival. Two Marvels and two Star Wars — I’m OK with that.
I had never heard of Hard to Be a God, which came in fourth. So I watched it last night. What a trip! A Russian film — it could probably never be made in a…
