The 12 best sci-fi movies of the 2000s

At the turn of the century, sci-fi evolved to new heights, which fortunately had nothing to do with Y2K (even if previous sci-fi movies might have led us to believe it would).

Propelling themselves through the 00s, iconic franchises continued to thrive with both Star Wars and Star Trek continuing their dominion over sci-fi cinema.

The decade also saw the birth of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with 2008's Iron Man.

The MCU now consists of 38 movies and counting, with many of them sitting firmly in the sci-fi genre.

It wasn't all legacy franchises, though; our list is chock-full of original stories that joined the upper echelons of sci-fi history.

In fact, it was such a fantastic decade for science fiction flicks that we've had to extend our "best of" list to 12 entries, because we simply could not narrow it down to ten.

So, let's all meet up in the year 2000 (to 2009), with our list of the 12 best sci-fi movies of the 2000s.

Oh, and when you're done here, we've also covered the best sci-fi movies of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s 12.

Iron Man (Image credit: Marvel) Release date: May 2, 2008 | Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, and more | Director: Jon Favreau | RT score: 94% critics, 91% audience The Marvel Cinematic Universe is simply that, a universe that weaves and threads through a multitude of movies all centered on Marvel Comics.

Over almost three decades, there have been phased releases (with plenty more in the pipeline), but the movie that started it all was Iron Man in 2008.

Not only did it kick-start the MCU, but it catapulted Robert Downey Jr. back into the limelight for his stellar performance after being rocked with personal issues prior.

Iron Man follows billionaire engineer Tony Stark, who wasn't born with special powers, but can sure as heck pay and use his powerful mind to give himself them.

Crafting the iconic weaponized suit to save himself from a terrorist kidnapping, Iron Man is born.

If you watch the Marvel movies in order chronologically, it's technically not the first, with both Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain Marvel taking place before it, but it was the first in release order, and it's still one of the best MCU movies to date.