As 2024 draws to a close, we’re taking stock of the best movies of the year, and movies that certainly rocked the sci-fi/fantasy world. Be it futuristic service bots becoming uniquely connected to wildlife or dystopian orphans playing the barbaric long game just to get back home, the multiplexes were brimming with stimulating imagination. Heck, the stakes don’t have to be at a multifaceted, world-ending level. We can be as invested in the mind of a teenage girl experiencing anxiety for the first time, worried that her future will be mired in fear, and we’ll still be crying into our sodas.
We’ve combined science fiction with fantasy here, spanning the subject matter to bring us a fuller selection, each brimming with creativity and wonder. Some are filled with epic sprawling violence while others cherish ideas of friendship, family and kindness. To be fair, even the super-bloody ones are still about family, so “finding your people” is at the center of most of these films.
In the end, though, a harsh desert landscape won out over Mad Maxtopia, and it was about the ascension of a dangerous, powerful demigod. One who even tried to warn everyone about absolute power, but was lifted and given deep respect anyway. Here are the best sci-fi/fantasy movies of 2024!
honorable mention
Two movies did not happen quite Crack the official rankings here but they’re both exceptional displays of growing up with an idea and nailing a quality blockbuster. Both films involve mismatched pairs who grow to care deeply for each other as friends, and both involve protecting those in need and an unexpected hero emerging and sacrificing himself for a greater cause. Deadpool & Wolverine officially brings the Merc with a (Foul) Mouth into the MCU and also marks the righteous return of Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, perhaps a superhero who, on a pure DNA level, was born to hate Coopy Wade. Wilson. Together they rage against each other and the death of the light—in this case, Deadpool’s own universe, which is targeted by a rogue TVA agent for quick disintegration. It was a hilarious summer blast.
Wicked, which adapted the first half of the acclaimed stage musical, also cleaned up at the box office, proving — just like Moana 2 and even last year’s Wonka — that audiences will show up big time for movie musicals that studios are afraid to advertise for actual musicals. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande light up the screen as Shige University students Elphaba and Glinda, the clever, revisionist The Wizard of Oz and Elphaba turned into the loathsome “Wicked Witch of the West.” As Alyssa Mora says in her review, Wicked is “what modern movie musicals can and should be, deftly translating it to the screen while embracing its source material.”
Runner-up: Inside Out 2
Perhaps more relevant than ever, a poignant Pixar film lands at just the right time. Inside Out 2 takes us back to the world of Riley Andersen, now 13 years old, who is faced with new difficult choices when she discovers that her childhood friends are not going to the same high school as her. New passions make a surprising arrival in his brain factory, uprooting the old team. Now joy, anger, fear, disgust, and sadness must be channeled back into Riley’s cerebral mainframe, which is prone to being overrun by survival mode-obsessed anxiety. Will Riley experience victory again? Or will his life be disrupted by crippling anxiety and worry?
Inside Out breaks 2 billion. Not because it was a Pixar sequel, but because it so perfectly and accurately portrayed what many people of all ages go through when they struggle with the overwhelming presence of anxiety and panic. This is a sweet, sentimental sequel that will make you cry in buckets.
Runner-up: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Genius director George Miller returns to the mischievous, corrupt world of Mad Max for the spinoff prequel Fury Road, about Furiosa’s journey from heaven to hell. This epic adventure opens up the world of Mad Max like never before, showing our cooperation and rule in the Wasteland, and how it’s all unpleasantly disrupted by the demented biker horde. Caught in the middle of the mayhem is Anya Taylor-Joy’s younger Furiosa, trying to survive, first by becoming Immortal Zoe’s “breeder” and then eventually escaping by joining his caravan squad as a war rig driver. .
Furiosa boasts the highest action sequences, which Miller always excels at, a fun turn from Chris Hemsworth’s Chris Hemsworth as Dementus, a similarly broken soul who embraces chaos and power in the wake of personal tragedy. It’s a great vision that further expands the magnificent tapestry of this world (while allowing room — and Easter eggs — for the criminally underrated Mad Max video game from 2015). Lex Briscuso wrote in his 10 out of 10 review, Furiosa combines “top-notch world-building, an emotionally resonant directing eye, sharp performances, sharp cinematography, and a hell-raising score.”
Runner-up: The Wild Robot
One of the biggest surprises of the year was DreamWorks Animation’s The Wild Robot, in which Lupita Nyong’o voiced a family service droid on a jungle island who eventually learns to live with the surrounding animals and care for an orphaned Canada goose, which is large. Unable to migrate with other geese, putting him in danger. Based on the opening book of Peter Brown’s beloved series — and featuring the voices of Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O’Hara and Matt Berry — The Wild Robot is an honest-to-goodness delight. Excellent family fare with an incredible watercolor style.
As Siddhant Adlakha wrote in his review, The Wild Robot’s “shining, tear-jerking moments stand metal-to-metal shoulder-to-metal with classics like WALL-E and The Iron Giant.” The Wild Robot has been greenlit for a sequel based on the follow-up book, The Wild Robot Escapes.
Winner: Dune: Part Two
We already knew that director Denis Villeneuve successfully cracked the previously uncrackable code when he brought Frank Herbert’s book to the big screen, but it continues to be a modern wonder that the series has become. so accessible so Many people now. Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides unwittingly accepts both his fate so that the Fremen can follow him and take revenge on House Harkonnen. So much power and influence, capable of doing terrible things on a mass scale.
Tom Jorgensen wrote in his review that “Dune: Part Two is an arresting, transporting middle entry”, filled with “wonderful visuals” and an “increasingly dense mythology” — a mythology that Villeneuve trusts the audience with, never watering it down or dumbing it down. no From fear of confusion. After all, fear is the killer of the mind.
Tune: Part Two is our sci-fi/fantasy film of the year. An impressive venture filled with eye-popping effects, thought-provoking choices and ambitious action.
