5 Worst Sci-Fi Movies Of All Time, According To Letterboxd Users

Gaze upon the highest rated sci-fi movies on Letterboxd (arranged by average user ratings) and one witnesses the endless variety and artistry lying within this cinematic space. Whether it's "Children of Men," "2001: A Space Odyssey," or "Paprika" (among countless other masterpieces), sci-fi cinema can both leave a profound impact on moviegoers and manifest in many forms. Sometimes, it's a tender romance like "WALL-E." Other times, it's a terrifying exercise destined to induce nightmares, like "The Thing." There is no one way to make a sci-fi motion picture. The possibilities are limitless, which is why this genre has fascinated filmmakers dating back to the days of "A Trip to the Moon."

Unfortunately, those possibilities also mean that wayward forays into sci-fi movies also exist. Throughout the history of filmmaking, these dire examples have unfortunately found ways old (theatrical) and new (streaming) to inflict themselves on audiences. For the worst examples of these titles, look no further than the five lowest rated sci-fi movies on Letterboxd. How bad are these motion pictures? Two of them are the lowest rated movies in any genre on the entire Letterboxd site. Sci-fi can house beautiful visions, but also untold cinematic horrors.

Still, there is something fascinating in unpacking these five movies (ranked below from "highest" to lowest average Letterboxd user score) and what went wrong with them. If nothing else, contrasting these five dismal features to something like "The Iron Giant" emphasizes how ceaselessly varied sci-fi cinema is.

Natural disasters destroying Earth. Encounters with the biggest superheroes of 2008. Chaos reigning down on civilians. Sounds like all the ingredients for a sci-fi movie. "Disaster Movie" qualifies as being a part of this genre, but it sure doesn't qualify as a remotely functioning movie.

In the 2000s, writer/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer pumped out parody movies that became the worst comedy movies ever made. These titles functioned like precursors to A.I. slop: regurgitations of what other people already made but devoid of soul. Much like how every fascist leader in history has one especially despicable atrocity under their belt, "Disaster Movie" is Friedberg and Seltzer's artistic nadir in a career that includes "Meet the Spartans" and "Epic Movie."

Nobody on Letterboxd was going to reject this artistic consensus, as the film currently has a lowly 1.2 out of 5 rating on the site from its users. While other infamous "bad" movies have ardent defenders (like "Glen or Glenda" or even the Michael Bay "Transformers" features), none exist on the "Disaster Movie" Letterboxd page. Instead, this site's denizens register mostly aghast responses over one movie being this bad and incompetent. "Literally the 2008 equivalent of TikTok brain rot," declares user Evasive, while user Oliviathebi remarked, "this felt painful to watch." 

"Disaster Movie" offers nothing to viewers or the world of art beyond name-checking various 2007 and 2008 pop culture properties. Devoid of wit or craftsmanship, it demonstrates the worst tendencies of cinema entire. Not just sci-fi.

"Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate" had IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes users united in the worst way possible. This straight-to-Peacock "Megamind" sequel (which served as a launchpad for the Peacock TV show "Megamind Rules!") was reviled on both websites, with users bemoaning its cheap animation and how much of a step down it was from its predecessor. Inevitably, Letterboxd users weren't going to deviate from this norm. With a pitiful 1.2 average rating on the site, "Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate" is a far cry from the ratings of middling direct-to-video animated fare like "The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea."

Part of the problem was that this wasn't just a cheap streaming sequel. "Megamind" has grown an enormous and passionate cult following since its November 2010 debut. These characters and this world have become quite precious to people, which makes the existence of something like "The Doom Syndicate" extra insulting to them. There isn't even pervasive disdain dripping off the Letterboxd "Doom Syndicate" reviews, just frustrated disappointment and weariness at seeing the characters contorted into this drab form. 

The lackluster replacements for the original film's voice actors (including Keith Ferguson's stab at a Will Ferrell impression while playing Megamind) and the underwhelming animation only exacerbated the immense dismay surrounding this title. From Letterboxd to every other corner of the internet, "Megamind vs. the Doom Syndicate" was an animated sci-fi yarn plagued by criticism.

More grounded examples of sci-fi storytelling can allow for thoughtful commentary on the modern world, such as Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451". Unfortunately, just as soap can both clean dishes and poison people, this realm of sci-fi artistry can also house creative visions riddled with incompetency. So it is with "2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus," a piece of fear-mongering cinema that delivers a vision of 2025 Germany where Christianity is outlawed and the Commies have taken over everything. In other words, "2025" is like if "Divergent" was taken over by the "God's Not Dead" creative team.

With a measly 1.1 average rating on Letterboxd, "2025" clearly has a spot amongst the worst movies ever made. The only entertainments one can derive from a movie this detached from reality are the negative Letterboxd reviews. "Jesus would crucify himself if he saw this," user Joseph declares in one of the many hysterical reviews chastising "2025." These reviews also constantly mention the way "2025" frames an inability to access ice cream as the ultimate microcosm of living under fascism. There's no end to the anemic qualities here that this site's denizens amusingly mock.

"It is as bad as you'll ever see, just like everyone says," writes one Letterboxd user in an especially apt summation of "2025: The World Enslaved by a Virus." There's nary a trace of effective artistry here. You'll starve looking for it, just like how the "2025" characters are deprived of ice cream. But worse.

How could the 2025 take on "War of the Worlds" not have made this list? Not only is it one of the 10 worst movies of 2025, it's also a staggeringly miscalculated sci-fi enterprise regardless of what year it released. This attempt at further evolving the ScreenLife genre (in which all the action happens on a computer screen) boiled down to Ice Cube playing a Homeland Security employee who sits at a computer and sometimes reacts to things. There was also Amazon Prime delivery product placement and overqualified character actors like Clark Gregg and Michael O'Neill occasionally popping in for cameos.

There's a sense of awe over "War of the Worlds" in its Letterboxd reviews, albeit not the reverent or positive kind. Instead, this site's users have delivered countless reviews expressing astonishment at how or why this movie even exists. Ice Cube's stilted performance, the flagrantly low-budget filmmaking choices, the tepid dialogue ("I see no other option but to initiate this war of the worlds to save us all"), everything in this movie was spectacularly haywire even before its finale that hinges on Amazon product placement. 

"It wasn't released it has breached containment," Letterboxd user J aptly declared about this woe-begotten incarnation of "War of the Worlds." Original "War of the Worlds" author H.G. Wells is a seminal name in sci-fi storytelling. Now this 2025 adaptation of his "Worlds" novel is a landmark in sci-fi cinema for all the wrong (and hilariously bad) reasons.

Lots of attention is correctly placed on how and why Disney's live-actions remakes are so bad. However, let's not ignore another terrible similar strain of cinema: American live-action remakes of anime. For every masterpiece like "Speed Racer," there's a cringe-inducing embarrassment like "Death Note" or "Ghost in the Shell." None of them, though, come as close to being as reviled as 2009's "Dragonball: Evolution." Part of the untold truth of "Dragon Ball Z" is that this entire saga is incredibly popular in every corner of the globe. The expansive saga of Goku, Piccolo, and the other Dragon Ball characters means so much to people ... except when it manifests in a movie as bad as "Dragonball: Evolution."

The Letterboxd community's response to "Dragonball: Evolution" is a microcosm of this feature's universal derision. As of this writing, "Dragonball: Evolution" is the only feature length Letterboxd entry to have an average rating below 1.0 with a 0.9 user score. The lowest rated movie on the entire website, the Letterboxd user reviews for "Dragonball: Evolution" are a cavalcade of despair-riddled and darkly humorous takedowns. Whether it's the extreme deviations from the source material, the poor writing of the women characters, or the clumsy execution of the fight scenes, "Dragonball: Evolution" had no shortage of flaws to highlight.

Above all else, this 2009 disaster is the antithesis of everything good sci-fi cinema can accomplish. On the opposite end of Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker" or Hiroshi Teshigahara's "The Face of Another" lies "Dragonball: Evolution."