Rotten Tomatoes aggregates movie reviews and uses them to give every movie a percentage
rating indicating their agreed-upon quality.
But just because something has a low rating on Rotten Tomatoes doesn't mean you shouldn't
watch it.
This is especially true for genres like science fiction, which tend to get reviewed especially
harshly.
So we've put together a list of sci-fi movies that are rated quite low on Rotten Tomatoes,
but are still worth watching.
Some of them are good but misunderstood, and some of them are bad but interesting.
Either way, don't let the critics dissuade you from giving these movies a look.
Speed Racer
You've probably heard plenty of defenses of the Wachowski siblings' Speed Racer by now.
A bomb upon its 2008 release, it's since become a beloved cult classic.
Based on the American localization of a Japanese anime, the movie rejected realism in favor
of oversaturated futuristic visuals and characters with looks and names right out of the cartoon.
But to the surprise of many, there's no parody or cynicism in Speed Racer.
The characters are played as real people with emotions and believable motivations, and Speed
Racer in particular is a very sincere young man who just wants to be the best at the only
thing he's good at.
The racing scenes are a delightful mix of speed, color, and editing.
Speed Racer isn't just a weird movie worth watching, it's a genuinely great film that
the public just failed to appreciate upon its release.
Last Action Hero
Arnold Schwarzenegger was a megastar in 1993, and Last Action Hero was intended to be a
huge summer blockbuster, but it became a legendary flop.
Critics hated it, and audiences just didn't have time for it.
What's interesting about Last Action Hero is also what ultimately makes it a failure:
it's a parody of over-the-top action films that allows itself to become an over-the-top
action film.
It satirizes overused tropes and then turns around and uses them with barely a wink.
Schwarzenegger plays Jack Slater, the hero of a series of action films who finds his
way into the real world, but he also turns up as himself in the "real world" scenes.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I'll be back.
HAH!
Didn't know I was gonna say that, didn't you?"
"That's what you always say!"
It doesn't all quite hold together, but it's still entertaining, and some excellent performances
along with the grand scale of what it's trying to do narratively make it an interesting watch.
Jupiter Ascending
Jupiter Ascending is the second Wachowski film on this list, and it won't be at all
surprising if it becomes as much of a cult classic as Speed Racer, once a little more
time has passed.
The major flaw of Jupiter Ascending is that it tries to do too much.
Mila Kunis stars as Jupiter Jones, a poor girl from Earth who finds out she's next in
line for a vast inheritance from outer space.
Channing Tatum plays a wolf man from space who's assigned to protect her from the many
forces aligned against her.
Chief among those forces is Eddie Redmayne, who plays an evil alien who's human in appearance
but unmistakably reptilian in demeanor.
There are certainly valid criticisms about the movie: the plot is definitely convoluted,
and some of the dialogue isn't great.
But a lot of the critics that contributed to Jupiter Ascending's low Rotten Tomatoes
score seem to have a problem with the basics of the space opera subgenre.
It may not be a perfect movie, but time will almost certainly be kind to it.
Event Horizon
Despite its bad reviews, Event Horizon might be the most frightening outer space horror
film that doesn't involve facehuggers or xenomorphs.
In fact, there are no aliens in this movie at all, unless you count an unseen and shapeless
evil.
The Event Horizon was a ship equipped with a new kind of inter-dimensional warp drive,
which disappeared on its test flight seven years earlier.
Now it has reappeared near Neptune, and another ship is sent to investigate.
What the crew finds is a ghost ship that seems to have recently returned from Hell itself.
One by one, they encounter manifestations of their dreams and nightmares, and most of
them don't survive.
This is a grisly and disturbing movie that's definitely not for everyone.
But if you like horror, the "haunted house in space" premise is interesting, and the
scares are definitely there.
"What do you think you're doing, Doc?"
"You wanted to know where the ship has been… so now you'll find out!"
Masters of the Universe
Masters of the Universe is a big, glorious mess.
Adapted from the popular line of toys, it probably earned its low Rotten Tomatoes rating,
but it's still pretty fun, especially if you're into that Cannon Films VHS aesthetic.
Dolph Lundgren plays He-Man, the barbarian hero who must defeat Skeletor, played here
by Frank Langella.
"You dare threaten her life?"
"I dare anything!
I am Skeletor."
The film contains very little of the mythology from the Masters of the Universe cartoon and
comics, but it tells a pretty fun action-oriented story about an eternal war in a sci-fi/fantasy
world spilling into 1980s Earth.
Most of the cast is quite good, and Lundgren's physical acting is perfect for the character
of He-Man, even if you can't always understand what he's saying.
"Gwildor, can this device of yours get us to Greyskull?"
"Certainly!"
"To the sorceress?!"
Honestly, that kind of sums up the whole movie: it doesn't always makes sense, but you want
to keep looking at it.
Howard the Duck
Howard the Duck is remembered as one of the biggest bombs of all time.
Based on the Marvel comic by Steve Gerber, it was intended to be an animated film.
However, producer George Lucas owed Universal a big summer release, so he decided to just
have his special effects people build a duck suit and make the film live action.
The movie starts as an off-kilter comedy and then escalates into an action film until it
climaxes with a battle against a giant monster.
Unfortunately it lacks the strong writing and cast of veteran comedians needed to make
that all work.
Nevertheless, Howard the Duck is a worth a watch just for how weird it is.
"Don't shed any tears, toots!"
"You can wallow in your own self-pity!"
"Yeah, right!"