20 Best Sci-Fi Films Of The 21st Century

You'd be hard to up to find anyone who'd disagree that the 21st century has been... somewhat lacking in certain departments. The economy, international affairs, racism, sexism, the whole war thing, the decay of society and humanity in general. But, hey, we've gotten some killer films out of it! That counts for something, right? Well, we're saying it does because we just made ourselves sad.

In particular, the sci-fi genre has went through something of a renaissance this century. It makes sense though, don't it? After all, 2001 was the year of Stanley Kubrick's space odyssey was supposedly meant to take place.

To be completely fair, we're pretty sure that film wasn't predicting that science fiction movies were going to become absolutely amazing during the 21st century, but, to be fair, we have precisely zero idea what that film was actually about in the first place - and don't try and pretend you do either.

So strap in - be that figuratively or you literally have a spacecraft to strap into, we don't claim to know what you have going on - and prepare for our compilation of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time. And just so you know, there are spoilers for most of these entries.

Primer is by no means an easy watch, but if you stick with it you'll be treated to one of the best - if not the best- time travel films of all time, let alone of this century.

Now what makes Primer a bit of a toughie is the fact that writer/director/producer/editor/composer (We know. Holy hell, right?) Shane Carruth refused to water down the science behind the plot for fear of clunky exposition. Now, to give you an idea of how dense this film is, before becoming a filmmaker Carruth developed flight simulation software and has an undergraduate degree in mathematics. Yeah, now you're getting it.

This is intimidating if you're like us (read: stupid), but the secret to enjoying Primer is to ignore the technical jargon and just let it fly over your head, because luckily Carruth put together a fascinating plot and an altogether entertaining movie. You'll have a blast trying to unravel how, exactly, the rules surrounding Carruth's time travel actually work. Luckily there's also a handy graph on Wikipedia that explains it, just in case you don't manage.

Oh, one last thing, Carruth made this thing on a budget of $7000! Watch Primer and you will see just how impressive that is.