10 Most Divisive Sci-Fi Films Of The 21st Century
8. Annihilation
A film that was genuinely considered "too intellectual" for audiences by a higher up at the studio, Annihilation was only released in selected cinemas before being dumped on Netflix when the producers got cold feet.
Alex Garland's brand of intellectual sci-fi often addresses existential debates ranging from the ethics surrounding artificial intelligence in Ex Machina to the role of determinism and free will in Devs. While critics and a large portion of the audience have been won over by this highbrow sci-fi there have been just as many that have been alienated by the more slow moving and less action heavy storytelling.
Annihilation may have alienated some viewers due to its sudden transition into the surreal with a mind-bending finale and its refusal to spoon feed an audience the answers to all the challenging questions it brings up. While it is unfair to judge its divisiveness on its poor box office - considering it was only allowed to open in the United States, Canada and China - the lukewarm audience score of 66% compared to the outstanding 88% among critics speaks to this divide between an audience and critics.