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Ranking All Of Director Roland Emmerich’s Movies

“What are Roland Emmerich’s Best Movies?” We looked at all of Emmerich’s directed filmography and ranked them against one another to answer that very question!

We took all of the movies directed by Roland Emmerich and looked at their Rotten Tomato Critic, Rotten Tomato User, Metacritic, Metacritic User, IMDB, and Letterboxd scores, ranking them against one another to see which movies came out on top. The movies are ranked in our list below based on which movies have the highest overall score between all 6 review sites in comparison with all of the other movies by the same director. The process is all very scientific with no flaws at all.

The full ranking chart is also included below the countdown on the bottom of the page.

Happy Viewing!



The Top Film’s Of Roland Emmerich



16 ) Making Contact (1985)

Making Contact (1985)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 15
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 13
  • IMDB User Review Score: 15
  • Letterboxd User Score: 11

A nine year old boy named Joey, who after the tragic death of his father, begins to experience psychic powers such as allowing him to move inanimate objects with his mind, set things on fire, and even communicate with his dead father. However, not everything is good for Joey as his newly gained powers accidentally awake an evil supernatural force that is contained inside the body of an old ventriloquist’s dummy that Joey found in an abandoned house. The supernatural Dummy shows similar powers to Joey’s, and soon he puts the lives of everyone near Joey in danger as the evil Dummy has dark plans for Joey’s special powers.



15 ) Ghost Chase (1987)

Ghost Chase (1987)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 14
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 13
  • IMDB User Review Score: 16
  • Letterboxd User Score: 6

In an old Hollywood mansion, the spirit of an old family retainer inhabits an old grandfather clock. When a movie company uses the mansion for a film, the spirit inhabits the body of an alien and persuades the two filmmakers to track down an old house that will resolve a family scandal.



13 ) 10,000 BC (2008)

10,000 BC (2008)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 12
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 10
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 10
  • IMDB User Review Score: 11
  • Letterboxd User Score: 16

A prehistoric epic that follows a young mammoth hunter’s journey through uncharted territory to secure the future of his tribe.



13 ) The Noah’s Ark Principle (1984)

The Noah's Ark Principle (1984)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 16
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 13
  • IMDB User Review Score: 13
  • Letterboxd User Score: 4

The year is 1997, and World Peace seems to have come, with most classic weapons of mass destruction having been abandoned. However, orbiting the Earth there is the European/American space station FLORIDA ARKLAB, capable of controlling the weather at any location on the planet underneath. A civil project by nature, it might be abused as an offensive weapon, since it could deliver devastation to any potential adversary simply by creating natural disasters such as storms and floods. No wonder the space station soon becomes the central point in rising political tensions between East and West, next stop World War 3 (as indicated by the tagline “The end of our future has already begun”). We follow the main protagonist Billy Hayes, an astronaut aboard the station, as he wades through a plot of secrecy and sabotage trying to tell friend from foe in the process.



12 ) Moon 44 (1990)

Moon 44 (1990)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 13
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 11
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 13
  • IMDB User Review Score: 13
  • Letterboxd User Score: 8

Year 2038: The mineral resources of the earth are drained, in space there are fights for the last deposits on other planets and satellites. This is the situation when one of the bigger mining corporations has lost all but one mineral moons and many of their fully automatic mining robots are disappearing on their flight home. Since nobody else wants the job, they send prisoners to defend the mining station. Among them undercover agent Stone, who shall clear the whereabouts of the expensive robots. In an atmosphere of corruption, fear and hatred he gets between the fronts of rivaling groups.



11 ) Godzilla (1998)

Godzilla (1998)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 10
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 13
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 9
  • IMDB User Review Score: 9
  • Letterboxd User Score: 13

When a freighter is viciously attacked in the Pacific Ocean, a team of experts — including biologist Niko Tatopoulos and scientists Elsie Chapman and Mendel Craven — concludes that an oversized reptile is the culprit. Before long, the giant lizard is loose in Manhattan, destroying everything within its reach. The team chases the monster to Madison Square Garden, where a brutal battle ensues.



10 ) Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 8
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 12
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 10
  • IMDB User Review Score: 10
  • Letterboxd User Score: 13

We always knew they were coming back. Using recovered alien technology, the nations of Earth have collaborated on an immense defense program to protect the planet. But nothing can prepare us for the aliens’ advanced and unprecedented force. Only the ingenuity of a few brave men and women can bring our world back from the brink of extinction.



9 ) Stonewall (2015)

Stonewall (2015)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 11
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 1
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 12
  • IMDB User Review Score: 11
  • Letterboxd User Score: 13

“Stonewall” is a drama about a young man in New York caught up during the 1969 Stonewall Riots, a pivotal event widely considered the starting point for the modern gay civil rights movement.



8 ) 2012 (2009)

2012 (2009)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 7
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 8
  • IMDB User Review Score: 8
  • Letterboxd User Score: 12

Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth’s core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world’s population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world’s leaders race to build “arks” to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.



6 ) The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

The Day After Tomorrow (2004)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 6
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 7
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 4
  • Metacritic User Score: 5
  • IMDB User Review Score: 5
  • Letterboxd User Score: 8

After years of increases in the greenhouse effect, havoc is wreaked globally in the form of catastrophic hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, floods and the beginning of a new Ice Age. Paleoclimatologist, Jack Hall tries to warn the world while also shepherding to safety his son, trapped in New York after the city is overwhelmed by the start of the new big freeze.



6 ) White House Down (2013)

White House Down (2013)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 3
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 5
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 7
  • Metacritic User Score: 7
  • IMDB User Review Score: 5
  • Letterboxd User Score: 8

Capitol Policeman John Cale has just been denied his dream job with the Secret Service of protecting President James Sawyer. Not wanting to let down his little girl with the news, he takes her on a tour of the White House, when the complex is overtaken by a heavily armed paramilitary group. Now, with the nation’s government falling into chaos and time running out, it’s up to Cale to save the president, his daughter, and the country.



5 ) Universal Soldier (1992)

Universal Soldier (1992)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 9
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 8
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 2
  • Metacritic User Score: 2
  • IMDB User Review Score: 7
  • Letterboxd User Score: 6

An American soldier who had been killed during the Vietnam War is revived 25 years later by the military as a semi-android, UniSols, a high-tech soldier of the future. After the failure of the initiative to erase all the soldier’s memories, he begins to experience flashbacks that are forcing him to recall his past.



4 ) Anonymous (2011)

Anonymous (2011)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 5
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 6
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 6
  • Metacritic User Score: 6
  • IMDB User Review Score: 4
  • Letterboxd User Score: 5

Set against the backdrop of the succession of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Essex Rebellion against her, the story advances the theory that it was in fact Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford who penned Shakespeare’s plays.



3 ) The Patriot (2000)

The Patriot (2000)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 2
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 2
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 5
  • Metacritic User Score: 4
  • IMDB User Review Score: 1
  • Letterboxd User Score: 2

After proving himself on the field of battle in the French and Indian War, Benjamin Martin wants nothing more to do with such things, preferring the simple life of a farmer. But when his son Gabriel enlists in the army to defend their new nation, America, against the British, Benjamin reluctantly returns to his old life to protect his son.



2 ) Stargate (1994)

Stargate (1994)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 4
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 4
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 1
  • Metacritic User Score: 1
  • IMDB User Review Score: 2
  • Letterboxd User Score: 3

An interstellar teleportation device, found in Egypt, leads to a planet with humans resembling ancient Egyptians who worship the god Ra.



1 ) Independence Day (1996)

Independence Day (1996)

Review Website Ranks:

  • Rotten Tomatoes Critic: 1
  • Rotten Tomatoes Users: 3
  • Metacritc Critic Score: 3
  • Metacritic User Score: 3
  • IMDB User Review Score: 3
  • Letterboxd User Score: 1

On July 2, a giant alien mothership enters orbit around Earth and deploys several dozen saucer-shaped ‘destroyer’ spacecraft that quickly lay waste to major cities around the planet. On July 3, the United States conducts a coordinated counterattack that fails. On July 4, a plan is devised to gain access to the interior of the alien mothership in space, in order to plant a nuclear missile.



Roland Emmerich’s Best Movies



Roland Emmerich Review Website Filmography Rankings

FilmRT CriticRT UserMC CriticMC UserIMDBLetterboxdOveral Rank
Independence Day (1996) 1 3 3 3 3 1 1
Stargate (1994) 4 4 1 1 2 3 2
The Patriot (2000) 2 2 5 4 1 2 3
Anonymous (2011) 5 6 6 6 4 5 4
Universal Soldier (1992) 9 8 2 2 7 6 5
The Day After Tomorrow (2004) 6 7 4 5 5 8 6
White House Down (2013) 3 5 7 7 5 8 6
2012 (2009) 7 8 7 8 8 12 8
Stonewall (2015) 11 1 7 12 11 13 9
Independence Day: Resurgence (2016) 8 12 7 10 10 13 10
Godzilla (1998) 10 13 7 9 9 13 11
Moon 44 (1990) 13 11 7 13 13 8 12
10,000 BC (2008) 12 10 7 10 11 16 13
The Noah’s Ark Principle (1984) 13 16 7 13 13 4 13
Ghost Chase (1987) 13 14 7 13 16 6 15
Making Contact (1985) 13 15 7 13 15 11 16