Top 10 End of the World movies of the past 20 years (From worst to best)

In celebration of some misguided notion that today May 21^st 2011 is the apocalypse, comes this obligatory post about the end of the world. Whether be it an alien invasion, a zombie apocalypse, a robot uprising or a natural disaster, here are the best and worst.

10: Knowing.

Nicholas Cage is an actor consistent in his inconsistencies. His film resume is a mixture of cult classics and poo-bombs. Knowing falls under the latter, and oh does it fall. This sci-fi horror about a man who discovers a mathematical code in a vast sequence of random numbers, soon learns that the world will end when those numbers run out. What ensues after this revelation is a lot of running back and forth, driving back and forth, and more running back and forth, that all eventually amounts to nothing.  1/10

9: Dawn of the Dead.

Zack Snyder elevated himself to cult status with his hit comic book movie 300 based on Alan Moore’s graphic novel of the same name. Alan Moore quickly disassociated himself from the movie saying it was 'sublimely stupid'. Many can also say the same for Snyder’s re-envisioning of the 70s apocalyptic zombie satire Dawn of the Dead. Here Snyder manages to take a highly intelligent and funny critique of 70s consumer society and turn it into a dumbed down music-esque video, very high on style but very low on substance. 4/10

8: Vanishing on 7th Street.

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This high concept horror about the planet being consumed by a literal living darkness - zapping its inhabitants into the unknown, had the potential of being a cult classic. However the originality of its premise and the excellent performances of Thandi Newton, John Leguizamo and newcomers Jacob Latimore and a very talented Taylor Groothuis, could not save Vanishing on 7th Street from being a train wreck. Not only were the shadow/creature effects weak, but the story is further hampered by a distinct lack of tension and atmosphere and an ultimately unsatisfactory and rushed conclusion.  4/10

7: The Happening

Hated by many people, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening was actually a decent, yet quirky movie. Its story about nature turning against man through the releasing of some unknown toxin into the air transforming anyone within distance into a suicidal drone, was both entertaining and disturbing. My only criticism of this feature is that for a film that is meant to be 'apocalyptic', it does not actually feel apocalyptic. If you are going to make a movie about the apocalypse, than this is one element you are going to try and get right.  5/10

6: Armageddon

You know when you have the words 'Michael' 'Bay' and 'Armageddon' in the same sentence; the end result is going to be loud, flashy and slick. This classic piece of pre-9/11 patriotic schmaltz, pits Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck up against a meteor heading towards Earth, while Aerosmith provide appropriate mood music in the background. Yes it lacks the substance, meaning and depth of its counterpart Deep Impact, but who cares? The story is tight and fluidic while the special effects are literally out of this world. 6/10

5: War of the Worlds

Perhaps Spielberg’s darkest movie to date, this underrated feature takes the 1898 source material of the same name to deliver an altogether more grim retelling of the HG Wells’ classic, while making a clever but veiled stab at its mid 90s version, Independence Day.  This epic movie smoothly bounces between sci-fi and horror, detailing the brief war between the Earth’s armies and those seemingly indestructible giant tripods. 7/10

4:  Terminator: Rise of the Machines

While Terminator 1 and 2 were about the fear of communism, corporate and military irresponsibility and the rapid progression of technology, Terminator 3 was just about making money at the box office. However its lack of gravitas compared to its previous films does not stop it from being a quality movie. Although its bleak ending (world nuclear destruction) is an obvious set up for future movies, Terminator 3 is well aware of its status as the 3^rd chapter in an ongoing franchise, and thus does not endeavor to take itself too seriously, often even making humorous fun of itself. 7/10

3: The Day After Tomorrow

Roland Emmerich has a thing for epic movies of the apocalyptic kind. Stargate, 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow are all movies showing humanity enslaved by both natural or other worldly forces and how we may choose to rise to these challenges. What elevates The Day After Tomorrow above his other features (and just about nearly every other film on this list), is its scientific plausibility. Although exaggerated for Hollywood effect, the issues of global warming and climate change are bought to the table and demonstrated in full CGI glory, screaming at the audience that we need to take action now, before it’s too late. Ignoring the redundant secondary plot concerning Denis Quad searching for his son, The Day After Tomorrow is Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, tripped out on acid. 7/10

2:  The Matrix

In essence The Matrix is about what happened after the robot apocalypse of Terminator and similar films have occurred. It poses an interesting question to its audience, asking ‘What if the apocalypse has already happened, but we just don’t know it?’ Here is the basis for this classic piece of cinema, rife with pre-millennial apocalyptic fears about technology and authority. The Wachowski's takes elements of Marxist philosophy to its furthest extremes by utilising’s Jean Baudrillard’s Simulation and Simulacre to critique the way individuals in society have allowed themselves to become enslaved to the distractional tools of work and entertainment, in order for it to remain operational. It’s a shame the studio messed up this entire premise with their lackluster sequels four years later. 9/10

1: 28 Days Later

Even with the eventual release of World War Z, and Dawn of the Dead 2, 28 Days Later will still likely remain the zombie movie to end all other zombie movies. Its director Danny Boyle has a tendency to make movies that despite being overly dark, grim and gritty are all also about the power of hope and courage.  His ‘glass is half full’ view of the world evident in Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours is also present in 28 Days Later… his grimmest film to date, making a refreshing change to the now tired zombie genre.

Here his main character played by Cillian Murphy wakes up a month after an apocalypse has occurred, where he finds himself in a living hell populated by zombies. However the strength of this film is not in its horror premise, nor its gore and violence, but in how its characters face the unrelenting horror of everyday existence. Despite the destruction of their world, they choose to hold onto hope and not become the thing they fear the most: violent cannibalistic creatures with no sense of humanity, both in a literal and figurative sense. Here the end of the world has already happened, so the choice becomes, do they give up? Or do they hold on to hope and each other to fight another day and ultimately survive? 9/10