20 Best Science Fiction Movies Released Since 2000

5. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Steven Spielberg’s work has spanned genres across his six-decades-and-counting career, and while his name has been linked with the summer blockbuster, the action-adventurer and the family film across this period, it’s his science fiction features that set him apart. During this past quarter century, Spielberg has done some iconic work in the genre, including pre-crime thriller Minority Report and video game actioner Ready Player One, but the film that sits head and shoulders above the rest is A.I.: Artificial Intelligence.

Before the technology was anything like a reality, A.I. presented us with a vision of Earth that feels eerily accurate – and should have served as a warning of things to come. Haley Joel Osment is David, an android child living in a future where climate change has devastated the planet, human populations are waning, and humanoid mechas are used to fill the gaps in a society that has lost itself. Created for wealthy parents who ultimately don’t want him, David is cast out into the big, bad world, and embarks on a journey to find the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio, whom he hopes can turn him human.

Built from the ashes of a Stanley Kubrick project, Spielberg balances hope and despair in an affecting and ultimately heartbreaking narrative, while presenting a rich, sinister future world that, unlike other near(ish)-future sci-fi films feels authentic. It’s one of the most beautiful films in the genre, and still to this day doesn’t get the love it deserves. 

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