2021 saw its fair share of great movie releases. Audiences were treated to all manner of genres on both the big and small screen. Streaming services continued to provide access to new releases either on the day of release or shortly after and productions and release schedules started to get back on track. Unfortunately for every Pig, there was an Apex disappointing audiences with their flat performances and contrived storylines.
Looking back at the 2021 releases, there were plenty of new sci-fi features released to keep audiences entertained. While some fantastic movies were offering fresh and fun takes on robot uprisings, anti-hero carnage, and anime endings, many fell short of the mark. This list looks back at the 5 worst sci-fi releases of the year according to Rotten Tomatoes featuring lackluster demonic possessions, bored Bruce Willis, and contrived romances.
Bliss (28%)
Directed by Mike Cahill and starring Owen Wilson as Greg and Salma Hayek as Isabel, Bliss follows recently divorced, Greg who happens to meet the strange and enigmatic Isabel at a bar. Isabel seems to know Greg and believes that the world they inhabit is a simulation. What follows is a messy mix of attempted mind-bending as Greg and Isabel begin to lose sight of what is real and what is fantasy. Bliss misses the mark with both its sci-fi and romance elements, leaving viewers wishing for an escape back to reality.
The Tomatometer score for Bliss is currently 28%, while the audience score is 45% The critic's consensus on the film was that "When it comes to building an entertaining sci-fi drama around some cool ideas, this Bliss is largely ignorant." An A-list cast unfortunately couldn't save this derivative and contrived story.
Chaos Walking (21%)
Chaos Walking was released in February and starred Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley. Directed by Doug Limon, the film had been in development limbo since 2011. Tom Holland plays Todd, a man living in a dystopian future where there are no women and everyone on his planet is afflicted with a condition called the Noise. The affliction leaves everyone able to see and hear each other's thoughts. When Viola (Daisy Ridley) crash lands on the planet, it becomes a race against time to save her and find out the truth about what happened to all the women. Critics panned the film for uneven pacing, poor character development, and missing its potential.
The Tomatometer score for Chaos Walking is 21% while the audience score is higher at 71%, with many fans citing the cast as a saving grace. The critic's consensus said, "Chaos Walking sets out on a potentially interesting path, but this dystopian adventure badly bungles its premise and limps toward the finish."
Infinite (16%)
Mark Wahlberg plays Evan McCauley, a schizophrenic plagued by hallucinations of places he's never been and things he shouldn't know. The story takes elements from The Davinci Code and the Assassin's Creed series and smashes them together to create a mess of a film about reincarnation and a centuries-long battle of different factions to obtain 'the Egg', a device that can stop the cycle of reincarnation and the world. Insensitvely portraying mental illness as being some fantasy gateway to past lives, the film fell flat with critics and audiences alike.
The Tomatometer score sits at 16% with the audience score at 34%. The critic's consensus of the film was that it was "An initially intriguing sci-fi thriller that quickly veers into incoherence, Infinite is as inane as it is inconsequential."
Demonic (15%)
Directed by Neill Blomkamp and starring Carly Pope as Carly, Demonic tells the story of a woman whose mother has been in jail for the last 20 years after going on a murder spree. After not seeing her mother at that time Carly finds out that her mother has fallen into a coma and is now part of a medical study. The facility her mother is at can put someone into the mind of a locked-in person to try and gather information and Carly reluctantly goes into her mother's mind. What follows is a battle against a demon that has been possessing her mother for the last 20 years and now wants to inhabit Carly. What sounds like a promising story is let down by flat performances, poor character development, and a badly paced story.
The Tomatometer score for Demonic is 15% while the audience score is 18%. The critic's consensus on Demonic was that "Neill Blomkamp's return to low-budget, high-concept filmmaking bungles some interesting ideas, adding up to another Demonic waste of the writer-directors once-promising talent."
Cosmic Sin (3%)
Set in a derivative future where humans have colonized the outer planets, Cosmic Sin stars Bruce Willis and Frank Grillo as space soldiers who have to lead the charge in a battle against alien invaders, the Sigea, who can infect and control people. To stop the invasion, they have to collapse a gateway between Sigea space and their own. What ensues is a tired and redundant retread of many films that have come before it. The movie has largely been considered the worst movie of 2021, with many marking Bruce Willis' sleepy performance as a huge contributor.
The Tomatometer score for Cosmic Sin is 3% while the audience score is 57%. The critic's consensus on the film was "Let he who is without Cosmic Sin cast the first stone -- and possibly use it to rouse Bruce Willis from the slumber he seems to be in throughout this dreadful sci-fi blunder."