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The Top 15 Virus Outbreak and Pandemic Films by Metacritic Score
Another week, another round of movies, movies, movies — hey, who’s complaining? Last week, we ranked the Top 10 virus outbreak and pandemic films by box office numbers. This week, we’re ranking viral outbreak and pandemic films by critic reviews via Metacritic. Are your faves the same as the critics? Check out the list. The number next to the movie title is the movie’s critic rating on Metacritic.
Top 15 Virus / Outbreak Films by Critic Reviews
15. Resident Evil – Metacritic score 33
Resident Evil is a huge franchise, starting with the video game and then the series of movies created from it. Unfortunately, the movies didn’t quite become the fan favorites they had hoped. Although the flicks have earned more than $1B (yes, that’s billion) at the box office, they scored low on Metacritic. Like all movies, you’re going to find some critics who love a movie while some trash it. For Resident Evil, most of the comments weren’t favorable. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert said, “The movie is “Dawn of the Dead” crossed with “John Carpenter’s “Ghosts of Mars,” with zombies not as ghoulish as the first and trains not as big as the second. The movie does however have Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez.”
14. Blindness – Metacritic score 45
This 2008 film stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo and if you can’t get the premise from the title, let me fill you in. One professional suddenly goes blind. He sees a doctor and then the doctor loses his sight. See where it’s going? No pun intended. The movie made $25 million at the box office. Anthony Lane at The New Yorker had this to say about Blindness, “The trouble with Blindness is that it’s so preoccupied with shouldering this symbolic weight that it gradually forgets to tell a story–to keep faith with the directives of common sense.”
13. Only – Metacritic score 53
Leslie Odom stars in this 2019 too-close-to-home movie that focuses on a mysterious virus released by a comet. It begins to kill all the women in the world, so a couple hides out in their over-sterilized apartment. Will they survive? Roger Moore of Movie Nation wrote, “It is a sci-fi parable with performances that click and situations — tried and true as they are — that pop. We can only hope that “It’s only a movie” will be the way we look back on it.”
12. The Omega Man – Metacritic score 56
Don’t mess with Charlton Heston, who stars in The Omega Man, a 1971 movie about American anti-ballistic missiles that break up warheads carrying biological warfare material, killing most of the world’s population. That is, except for U.S. Army Col. Robert Neville, M.D., a scientist based in Los Angeles, who injects himself with an experimental vaccine, rendering himself immune. Chicago Reader’s Dave Kehr put it simply, “Not bad, but far from a classic.”
11. Night of the Comet – Metacritic score 59
Again, a comet wipes out most of life on Earth, except for two Valley Girls who fight cannibal zombies. I may never look for comets again. This 1984 movie stars Catherine Mary Stewart, Kelli Maroney, and Robert Beltran. TV Guide reviewed it and had this to say, “This is a terrifically witty, refreshingly unpretentious science-fiction film with the least likely and most likable heroines in memory. All the performers are excellent, especially Maroney, who can veer from petulant to heroic in the blink of an eye.”
10. The Andromeda Strain – Metacritic score 60
Based on the 1969 book of the same name by Michael Crichton, the film stars Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne. Now it’s a deadly organism of extraterrestrial origin. The movie was nominated for two Academy Awards. Chicago Sun-Times’ Roger Ebert wrote, “The Andromeda Strain is a splendid entertainment that will get you worried about whether they’ll be able to contain that strange blob of alien green crystal.”
9. World War Z – Metacritic score 63
Inching up on the critic charts, the film World War Z debuted in 2013 and grossed an incredible $540 million at the box office. Brad Pitt plays Gerry Lane, a United Nations investigator who must stop a zombie pandemic. Film.com’s William Goss wrote, “An efficient and effectively exciting globe-spanning zombie thriller.”
8. Outbreak – Metacritic score 64
The 1995 film Outbreak includes Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kevin Spacey and Patrick Dempsey. It’s based on a fictional Ebola-like virus that comes to the United States. The Washington Post’s Rita Kempley wrote, “Outbreak is an absolute hoot thanks primarily to director Wolfgang Petersen’s rabid pacing and the great care he brings to setting up the story and its probability.”
7. I Am Legend – Metacritic score 65
This is one of Will Smith’s best movies. It is based on a novel by Richard Matheson, which had multiple adaptations. It’s New York City and there’s a virus running rampant which wiped out so many people. Of course, Will Smith’s is immune to it so it’s up to him to develop a cure. The Village Voice reviewer wrote, “In what has been a pretty remarkable career up to now, it’s this performance that fully affirms Smith as one of the great leading men of his generation.”
6. Light of My Life – Metacritic score 67
Casey Affleck wrote and directed Light of My Life, a 2019 movie about a mysterious pandemic that wiped out most of the female population. Screen Daily’s Fionnuala Halligan wrote, “A superb performance by Affleck, who constructs a touching and believable rapport with his 11 year-old co-star, grounds his low-key directorial and feature-writing debut.”
5. Contagion – Metacritic score 70
A good movie with a great cast of actors, including Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet, Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Ehle, and Sanaa Lathan. It focuses on a disease that turns into a pandemic and a vaccine is needed to stop it. Sound familiar? The Village Voice wrote, “If Contagion truly is the first leg of Soderbergh’s retirement victory lap, this harrowing film is a potent reminder of what we stand to lose.”
4. Train to Busan – Metacritic score 72
Heading up to the top of the chart, Train to Busan is a 2016 South Korean horror film about a zombie apocalypse. Variety’s Maggie Lee writes, “Train to Busan pulses with relentless locomotive momentum. As an allegory of class rebellion and moral polarization, it proves just as biting as Bong Joon-ho’s sci-fi dystopia “Snowpiercer,” while delivering even more unpretentious fun.”
3. 12 Monkeys – Metacritic score 74
This 1995 film stars Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt and sits at number three on our critics list. A deadly virus wipes out almost all of humanity and the survivors go underground. A prisoner is trained to go back in time and find the original virus to develop a cure. Christian Science Monitor’s David Sterritt wrote, “Bruce Willis is bruisingly good as the hero and Brad Pitt is suitably zany as the activist who dogs his trail.”
2. 28 Weeks Later – Metacritic score 78
At number two on the chart with a 78 Metacritic score, 28 Weeks Later focuses on six months after a rage virus on the population of Great Britain. Now it’s time to repopulate the earth again, but do they actually do it? The Hollywood Reporter’s Ray Bennett writes, “A ferociously entertaining thriller with sympathetic characters, stunning set pieces and pulsating excitement.”
1. Children of Men – Metacritic score 84
Sitting at number one on the critics review list is Children of Men, a 2006 movie that stars Julianne Moore and Clive Owen. In the movie, it’s now 2027, and women have become infertile and a woman who becomes pregnant woman is carried to a sanctuary for protection. With a score of 100, the Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan writes, “Made with palpable energy, intensity and excitement, it compellingly creates a world gone mad that is uncomfortably close to the one we live in. It is a “Blade Runner” for the 21st century, a worthy successor to that epic of dystopian decay.”
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