How should I rank a mind-bending sci-fi epic among my top ten movies?

[Violet.B]

I’m trying to put together my personal top 10 movies of the 2010s, but I’m completely stuck on where to place a certain mind-bending sci-fi epic. I know it deserves a spot, but ranking it against more straightforward dramas and comedies from the same decade feels like comparing apples to oranges.

[Alexander_P]

I did something similar last year. The mind bending sci fi epic earned a spot no doubt, but I treated it like a separate category. I watched it twice in a weekend and took notes on what it demanded from me—the pacing, the ideas, the emotional beat—and I kept shifting other films around it until I decided it earned its own pedestal rather than a straight swap with a drama. It landed in the middle for me, not top or bottom.

[Eric.S]

I tried to slot it into my top 10 alongside straightforward dramas and comedies. It stayed in the top 5, but I kept pulling out other titles because the emotional warmth of the dramas mattered more on a weeknight, whereas the sci fi demanded a different mood. I even asked a friend to rate its accessibility; they gave up after forty minutes of scenes.

[Mason82]

Is the real problem here just whether you want the list to reflect what you feel most often or what you think is the most technically ambitious thing in the decade?

[VioletZP]

I drifted off topic once, thinking about how a mind bend shifts what we call replayability but then snapped back to the list. It’s not that the film is bad; it's that it sits outside the usual scale of a top 10. I left a few dramas heavy with character arcs to keep room for it, and it still feels unsettled.