With 2024 wrapping up, we're taking stock of the best movies of the year, and cinema was definitely dazzling in the sci-fi/fantasy realm. Whether it was future service bots becoming uniquely attached to wildlife or dystopian orphans playing the savage long game just to get back home, the multiplexes were filled with invigorating imagination. Heck, the stakes didn't have to be on a multiversal, world-ending level. We could be just as invested in the mind of a teenage girl experiencing anxiety for the first time, worried that her future would cave into fear, and we'd still be sobbing in our sodas.
We've combined science fiction with fantasy here, expanding the subject matter to bring us a fuller breadth of picks, each one teeming with creativity and wonder. Some are filled with epic sprawling violence while others nurture the notions of friendship, family, and kindness. To be fair, even the ultra-bloody ones are still about family, so "finding your people" is strongly at the center of most of these films.
In the end, though, one harsh desert landscape won out over Mad Maxtopia and it was all about the ascent of a dangerous, powerful demigod. One who even tried to warn everyone about absolute power, but was hoisted up and given fervent reverence anyway. Here are the Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies of 2024!
Honorable Mentions
Two movies didn't quite crack the official rankings here but they're both exceptional displays of going big with a concept and nailing a quality blockbuster. Both films involved mismatched pairs who grow to care deeply for one another as friends and both also include protecting those in need and an unexpected hero rising up and sacrificing themselves for a greater purpose. Deadpool & Wolverine officially brought the Merc With a (Foul) Mouth into the MCU while also featuring the righteous return of Hugh Jackman in the role of Wolverine, quite possibly the one superhero who, on a pure DNA level, was born to loathe quippy Wade Wilson. Together they raged against each other and also the dying of the light – in this case, Deadpool's own universe, which was targeted by a rogue TVA agent for quick disintegration. It was a hilarious summer blast.
Wicked, which adapted the first half of the acclaimed stage musical, also cleaned up at the box office, proving – just like Moana 2 and even last year's Wonka – that audiences will show up big time for movie musicals that studios are terrified to advertise as actual musicals. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande lit up the screen as Shiz University students Elphaba and Glinda in this clever, revisionist take on The Wizard of Oz and the choice Elphaba makes to become the hated "Wicked Witch of the West." As Alyssa Mora put in her review, Wicked is represents what "modern movie musicals can and should be, embracing its source material while cleverly translating it to screen."
Runner-Up: Inside Out 2
Perhaps more relevant than ever is this, a poignant Pixar film landing at just the right time. Inside Out 2 took us back into the world of Riley Andersen, now 13, as she faces new tough choices after she discovers her childhood friends aren't going to the same high school as her. New emotions make a surprise arrival in her brain factory, upending the old squad. Now Joy, Anger, Fear, Disgust, and Sadness must battle their way back to Riley's cerebral mainframe, which is on the precipice of being overrun by survival mode-obsessed Anxiety. Will Riley ever experience Joy again? Or will her life get hamstrung by crippling concern and worry?
Inside Out 2 broke a billion. Not because it was a Pixar sequel, but because it so acutely and accurately portrayed what so many humans of all ages struggle with when it comes to the dominating presence of anxiety and apprehension. It's a sweet, sentimental sequel that will have you crying buckets.
Runner-Up: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Genius director George Miller returned once more to the mischievous, malicious world of Mad Max for a spinoff prequel to Fury Road, all about Furiosa's journey from paradise to hell. This epic adventure opened up the world of Mad Max like never before, showing us cooperation and governance in the Wasteland and how all of that gets diabolically disrupted by Dementus's Biker Horde. Caught in the middle of the mayhem is Anya Taylor-Joy's younger Furiosa, just trying to survive, first wiggling her way out of becoming one of Immortan Joe's "breeders" and then angling for eventual escape by joining his caravan squad as a War Rig driver.
Furiosa boasts apex action sequences, which Miller always exceeds at, along with a formidably fun turn from Chris Hemsworth as Dementus, a similarly broken soul who's embraced chaos and power in the wake of personal tragedy. It's a magnificent spectacle that further expands the awesome tapestry of this world (while also allowing space — and Easter eggs — for the criminally underrated Mad Max video game from 2015). As Lex Briscuso wrote in her 10 out of 10 review, Furiosa weaves together "top-notch world-building, an emotionally resonant directorial eye, searing performances, sharp cinematography, and a hell-raising score."
Runner-Up: The Wild Robot
One of the biggest surprises of the year was DreamWorks Animation's The Wild Robot, where Lupita Nyong'o voiced a family service droid marooned on a forested island who eventually learns to live with the surrounding animals and care for an orphaned Canada goose, whose runtish size puts him in danger of not being able to migrate with the other geese. Based on the opening book from Peter Brown's beloved series — and featuring voices from Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Catherine O'Hara, and Matt Berry — The Wild Robot is an honest-to-goodness delight. Fantastic family fare with an incredible watercolor style.
As Siddhant Adlakha wrote in his review, The Wild Robot's "dazzling, tear-jerking moments put it metallic-shoulder-to-metallic-shoulder with classics like WALL-E and The Iron Giant." A sleeper hit from the Fall, The Wild Robot has been greenlit for a sequel based on the follow-up book, The Wild Robot Escapes.
Winner: Dune: Part Two
We already knew that director Denis Villeneuve had successfully cracked the previously uncrackable code when it came to bringing Frank Herbert's book to the big screen, but it continues to be a modern marvel that this series has become so accessible to so many people now. Dune: Part Two raised the stakes and entered even trickier territory as Timothée Chalamet's Paul Atreides reluctantly embraced both his destiny to become a leader capable of getting the Fremen to follow him, and exacting revenge on House Harkonnen… but perhaps a leader with too much power and influence, one capable of doing horrific things on a mass scale.
Tom Jorgensen wrote in his review that "Dune: Part Two is an arresting, transportive middle entry," filled with "staggering visuals" and "increasingly dense mythology" — a mythology that Villeneuve trusts the audience with, never diluting or dumbing it down out of fear of confusion. Fear IS the mind-killer, after all.
Dune: Part Two is our top Sci-Fi/Fantasy film of the year. An impressive undertaking filled with eye-popping effects, thought-provoking choices, and ambitious action.
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