10 Best Sci-Fi Movies Of 2017

There's no doubt about it: we're living in a golden age of sci-fi. Gone are the days where this complex genre was embraced by only nerds and scientists - now pretty much everyone on the planet is keen to welcome everything this endlessly fascinating corner of cinema has to offer, whatever their tastes may be.

Sci-fi is taken seriously now, of course, and so it's possible for writers and directors to push this genre into the boldest territories imaginable. What's great about the modern sci-fi scene, however, is that audiences are also willing to embrace the silliness of the genre at the same time. Which means that we get the best of both worlds - a sentiment never truer than it was in 2017.

So whether we're talking about a long-awaited sequel to some of the best sci-fi pictures ever, or the bold and original works that outright blew our minds, gathered here are the most impressive of last year's sci-fi offerings, considered in detail now that the dust has settled.

If you're even remotely interested in the genre, there's no way in hell that you should have missed any one of the following pictures...

Alien: Covenant is by no means perfect, but as a relentlessly entertaining throwback to sci-fi horror - helmed by Ridley Scott himself, who pretty much reinvented the genre in the '70s with the original Alien - it makes for one hell of a ride.

Something of a follow-up to 2012's gorgeously baffling semi-Alien sequel, Prometheus, Covenant shoots for a less ambiguous experience overall, with more hardcore violence and Xenomorph-based stalking in the place of muddled philosophising. That doesn't mean the film lacks ideas, exactly - it's just way more interested in piling on the gruesome deaths and overblown fight sequences.

No, the characters aren't particularly well-developed, and the story isn't anything much to write home about, but this is a film all about the atmosphere. And Scott creates a truly eerie one as the crew of the titular ship find themselves stranded on a seemingly abandoned paradise planet, before slowly succumbing to the infamous Xenomorphs.

Michael Fassbender plays dual roles here, as androids David and Walter, and whilst Katherine Waterston makes for a worthwhile lead, it's Fassbender's presence that really drives the film and keeps the surprises coming.