The 15 best sci-fi films of 2022

Moonfall is not good in any traditional sense. What it is, though, is a bonkers, bizarre sci-fi disaster film. It's a Roland Emmerich film, and if you aren't familiar, he's the guy who did movies like Independence Day and Day After Tomorrow. Anyway, it's about the moon falling toward Earth.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a lot, and that's intentional. Sometimes, it's great. Sometimes, the film seems incredibly self-satisfied to the point of grating. Ultimately, though, it's a worthwhile watch, owing mainly to the cast headlined by the excellent Michelle Yeoh (and Ke Huy Quan).

Perhaps this is a bit of a stretch, but Richard Linklater's film has a science fiction element. The hook is that NASA secretly recruits a kid to go into space basically as a test run before the launch of Apollo 11, hence the name. That part is definitely sci-fi. The only thing is that half of the movie is just remembering stuff from being a kid in the 1960s.

Hey, Sonic is a talking hedgehog who can run really fast. That's not based on scientific fact. Dr. Robotik's presence makes Sonic the Hedgehog 2 more definitively a sci-fi film. It was a big blockbuster, and this time with no freaky teeth.

Doctor Strange is magic, but magic in the MCU is often akin to science fiction. Plus, there's the whole multiverse thing. That's sci-fi, if anything is. While this film sometimes feels ready to fall apart, Multiverse of Madness keeps it together, and it's fun that Sam Raimi returned to directing.

Talking animals don't automatically qualify this movie as science fiction. It's mostly a comedy film, but again, this was not necessarily the best year for sci-fi. There's a storyline running through Chip 'n Dale that cartoon characters are being "bootlegged," and that is a sci-fi element that is key to the story. Anyway, this movie is fun, sci-fi or not.

Look, Jurassic Park Dominion is a mess. However, it's a fun mess. It was worth it to see Sam Neill, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum back together. This is a stuffed film, and not everything packed in is good. Still, if you were watching the series unfold, watching it all culminate is worth it.

In Toy Story, Buzz Lightyear is a toy. Here, he's no toy. Also, he's voiced by Chris Evans. Lightyear is an outer-space adventure built off the backstory of Buzz. Maybe that feels a little muddled, but it's still a fun adventure flick.

You can't deny the popularity of the Minions. These films make a ton of cash, and the Minions truly captured the zeitgeist. The comedy isn't always a home run, but if you consider Despicable Me a sci-fi franchise, which is fair, it's one of the most popular ones out there.

We return to the MCU, and Thor and company are traveling through space instead of traveling the multiverse. While this is a step down from Ragnarok, Love and Thunder is still a good adventure. Having Christian Bale playing a villain named Gorr the God Butcher helps.

Jordan Peele's first two films were domestic horror. Nope is sci-fi horror that sees Peele turn to the world of the monster movie. Nope doesn't feel like most monster movies because that's not how Peele operates. Maybe that's why this film was a little polarizing, but it worked for us.

Speaking of sci-fi horror, the Predator franchise is at the forefront of that (especially since the Alien franchise drifted toward action even more than Predator did). Prey is a prequel set hundreds of years before the first film. That gives the movie enough freshness, and it's also just a well-crafted horror movie.

Perhaps this is more fantasy than sci-fi, but this movie threads the needle. In the wake of Fury Road , George Miller made a movie that is a romantic drama about a genie and a professor. The guy does what he wants, and there's nobody with a filmography like Miller. It helps that Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba star.

Once more into the MCU. The Black Panther  films are more dedicated to sci-fi than other avenues of this world. Wakanda's whole thing is technological advancement. Sadly, the death of Chadwick Boseman complicated Wakanda Forever, but Ryan Coogler managed to make a worthy sequel, nevertheless.

With animation, you can let your imagination run wild. Strange World is the heaviest sci-fi of 2022. It's rife with strange lifeforms and fantastical planets. This is a classic mysterious planet adventure, and if you like sci-fi and animation, Strange World will scratch that itch big time.