The Worst Sci-fi Movies of All Time
- 2012 (2009): I've written extensively about the unfounded 2012 Doomsday scenarios, so it came is no surprise to me to find this movie on the list. The scientific premise of the movie borders on the ridiculous. However, the action sequences and visuals are exciting so it can be a decent movie to watch... just so long as you shut the brain off for certain parts.
- The Core (2003): Let me put it this way: this is a science fiction movie about the end of the world that doesn't even bother to, you know, consult any science.
- Armageddon (1998): When I first saw this movie, as a senior in high school, I thought it was entertaining. Then over the years I began to think more and more about it. Big mistake. Kind of ruined it for me. The sheer number of scientific gaffs has given rise to a armada of websites dedicated to pointing out and discussing all the errors. In fact, NASA uses the movie as part of the management training program. How? The game, if you will, is to see how many of the 168 (168!) impossibilities they can find in the film. And by impossibilities I mean things that directly violate some law of physics or other scientific law. (And that 168 doesn't even include things that are extremely unlikely, it's only the things that are strictly impossible.)
- Volcano (1997): This film only begins to make sense if everything we know about geology is wrong.
- Chain Reaction (1996): When people think fusion they think massive energy and nuclear weapons. This sounds like a recipe for an exciting movie. Only the science used in the movie is way off base, and the descriptions of fusion, reactor designs and their dangers are, well, off. Interesting note: Bubble fusion (which is highly speculative, and probably impossible) wouldn't involve any sort of chain reaction at all.
- The 6th Day (2000): In the movie Gattaca, which made the "best" list above, the understanding and use of genetic knowledge was insightful and realistic. Where as the notions put forth about cloning abilities in this flick are neither of those things. I haven't checked to see if anyone has done this, but an interesting study would be to count how many physical and biological laws were violated in the plot of this movie. I can think of several off the top of my head, and I haven't seen the movie in a decade.
- What the Bleep Do We Know? (2004): I actually thought the concept of the movie was ingenious: create a documentary style film to explore the connections between science and consciousness. And it could have been good, except that they tried to draw conclusions based on science that our current understanding doesn't warrant, and in some cases flat out misrepresents the truth. Honestly I'm not convinced that they were trying to get the science right, but rather just create an entertaining movie that, unless you were scientifically trained, you might not know it was hokum. Or perhaps someone was trying to push their pseudoscientific agenda. Who knows. Either way, it definitely makes the list.
So there you have it; the best and the worst as determined by a group of scientists who probably had better things to do. Do you agree? Disagree?
