The 8 Most Anticipated Sci-fi Movies of 2013

Coming after a year when there weren’t that many great science fiction films, with the exception of Looper and to some extent Dredd, 2013 has a lot of potentially excellent titles to look forward to. These include new films by Neill Blomkamp, M. Night Shyamalan, and Guillmero del Toro, as well as the latest installment in J.J. Abrams’ rebooting of the Star Trek universe. It’s worth looking what’s coming up in more detail, then, while considering how they might fare.

8. Ender’s Game (Gavin Hood)

This adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s cult novel has been in development for a long time, and is finally going to see the light of day later in 2013; the film explores a gifted teenager who becomes crucial to a war between humans and an alien race. Comparisons to The Hunger Games, which also has a sequel out this year, don’t seem too amiss.

7. Oblivion (Joseph Kosinski)

Another post apocalyptic film in what’s becoming a theme for this year’s sci-fi releases, Tom Cruise plays Jack Harper, an engineer dealing with aliens on a nearly destroyed future Earth – Oblivion has a decent trailer, but will have to do something special to stand out in this year’s crowded market for sci-fi releases.

6. The Host (Andrew Niccol)

Your taste in the Twilight series may affect your decision to see The Host, which is also adapted from Twilight author Stephenie Meyer’s book; this one could be a little more widely appealing, though, with Saoirse Ronan playing a girl who has to fight to keep her personality alive when her body is infected by an alien life form.

5. After Earth (M. Night Shyamalan)

The recent track record of Shyamalan has not been great, with Avatar: The Last Airbender mangling an excellent animated series. The director returns with After Earth, where Will Smith and son Jaden Smith play explorers who crash land on a post-apocalyptic Earth, and have to fend off a series of crises. After Earth could be a return to form for Shyalaman, who has perhaps wisely partnered with Stephen Gaghan for the screenplay.

4. Elysium (Neill Blomkamp)

District 9, Blomkampf’s South African set alien film, was a welcome piece of imaginary science fiction that featured some real world crises. Elysium seems to follow the same approach, focusing on an overcrowded future Earth where the wealthy have fled to space stations above the planet. Matt Damon heads up a great cast as a soldier who has to deal with a rising conflict. It’ll be intriguing to see whether Blomkampf can follow up the promise of District 9 on a bigger stage, and so far things look promising.

3. Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)

Responsible for Children of Men, one of the best sci-fi films of the 2000s, Alfonso Cuaron returns with the high concept Gravity – George Clooney and Sandra Bullock play astronauts stranded in space after a station explodes, leaving them to try to survive. Just on its ambitious concept alone, and some positive early press, this could be one of the most inventive sci-fi films of the year.

2. Pacific Rim (Guillermo del Toro)

It hasn’t been an easy few years for del Toro, who had to drop out of The Hobbit before production, and has seen a number of projects get put on hold. Pacific Rim is a big challenge, then, a $200 million actioner that sees monsters from the ocean fight giant robots. One of the big summer blockbusters, Pacific Rim will arguably have to be pretty bad to mess up that concept.

1. Star Trek: Into Darkness (J.J. Abrams)

Since rebooting Star Trek with a younger Enterprise crew, Abrams has become attached to the new Star Wars films; whether he can maintain his recent run of success will depend on Into Darkness’ ability to expand the world that the 2009 Star Trek teased, with Benedict Cumberbatch reportedly playing Khan, the villain from the second film in the original series.

Rob James is an avid TV and Movie fan. When not at the cinema he is at home watching the free shows online from Time for Telly. Rob can be found blogging about TV, Films, and the latest DVD releases.

What’s your most expected sci-fi movies of 2013?

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