Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)

[Parmandur]

Sci-fi can be nothing but set dressing.

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If your definition of food can be used to show that a hot dog is a taco and a Big Mac is a cake, the take away should not be that you are a clever chef. It's that your definition is wrong. A joke. Fun pedantry for the internet, but not copacetic with any meaningful, real world definition.

If your definition of sci-fi is that a movie about aliens in space ships using lasers to blow up a giant space station isn't sci-fi...

Yes, a movie about spaceships using lasers to blow up a giant space station can easily not be speculative fiction. I stand by that.

 

[Autumnal]

Damon Knight, an sf author, editor, and critic of fundamental importance to the field, once defined sf as distinguished from fantasy in appealing to the authority of science as justification for its inventions. This doesn’t mean that only hard sf is sf, or other only sf that uses science well is sf. And it very much includes stories that use the trimmings without regard for anything deeper.

In Star Wars, the Force is explicitly mystical. But hyperdrive is entirely technological, as are Death Stars and droids. So Star Wars is a perfect demonstration of science fantasy.

Godzilla is science fiction. The creature has a place in evolution. Atomic power revives it. Its symbolic significance is just that: symbolic. In the world of the story, it’s entirely justified by science. It’s as much science fiction as Primer, Terminator, and Alien, which all appeal to the authority of science in their various ways.

An interesting edge case is Pi. Is the qabbalistic stuff a religious perspective on things that are fundamentally mathematical, or genuinely transcendent? In leaving it open, I’d say Aronofsky is choosing not to appeal to any ultimate authority at all, which puts it in the neighborhood of a lot of weird fiction.

 

[Maenalis]

Honorable mentions:
7. Children of Men: Great story, even better film.
6. Total Recall (1990) an awesome action movie with twists and turns.

5. Minority Report: Law and crime movie in the future.
4. Paul: it is a goofy movie about friendship and aliens, what not to love?
3. I am Legend: survival horror in a post apocalyptic setting, with multiple endings.
2. Gattaca: an interesting take on gene manipulation.
1. Matrix: Is there even a better movie?

 

[Parmandur]

Damon Knight, an sf author, editor, and critic of fundamental importance to the field, once defined sf as distinguished from fantasy in appealing to the authority of science as justification for its inventions. This doesn’t mean that only hard sf is sf, or other only sf that uses science well is sf. And it very much includes stories that use the trimmings without regard for anything deeper.

In Star Wars, the Force is explicitly mystical. But hyperdrive is entirely technological, as are Death Stars and droids. So Star Wars is a perfect demonstration of science fantasy.

Godzilla is science fiction. The creature has a place in evolution. Atomic power revives it. Its symbolic significance is just that: symbolic. In the world of the story, it’s entirely justified by science. It’s as much science fiction as Primer, Terminator, and Alien, which all appeal to the authority of science in their various ways.

An interesting edge case is Pi. Is the qabbalistic stuff a religious perspective on things that are fundamentally mathematical, or genuinely transcendent? In leaving it open, I’d say Aronofsky is choosing not to appeal to any ultimate authority at all, which puts it in the neighborhood of a lot of weird fiction.

Don't get me wrong, I love Star Wars, Godzillq, Flash Gordon, etc.

But if we are ranking sci-fi...they will notnrank high on the scifiometer.

 

[Autumnal]

Well, you’ll notice I put Star Wars in the science fantasy hinterland. Depending on the version, I’d probably do the same with Flash Gordon.

 

[Zaukrie]

On a tangent, best B-movies. They always found a way to pull me in despite their flaws:

• Barbarella
• Death Race 2000
• Escape from New York
• Flash Gordon
• Rollerball.

Rollerball is not a b movie. That's serious social commentary . Assuming you mean the original.

 

[MGibster]

Trying to pick the five best science fiction movies is a Herculean task. I can't just limit this to what I like the best, so instead I'll have to select the movies that are culturally significant or influential on other movies.

• Blade Runner (1982): This movie defined the look of a cyberpunk dystopia and its influence is still visible today.
• Star Wars (1977): This obscure movie might not be remembered by many today, but without it the Trek franchise might never have come back, Bladerunner might never have happened, and Roger Corman wouldn't have made Battle Beyond the Stars.
• Metropolis (1927): One of, if not the, first feature length science fiction movies out there and it's DNA can be found in many movies that followed. That metal woman looks an awful lot like C-3PO.
• Godzilla (1954): I like both the original Japanese version and the 1956 version where they shoehorned Raymond Burr to make sure Americans would actually watch the movie. What appears to be a stupid monster movie is a surprisingly deep reflection of post-war Japan dealing with the horrors of the atomic bomb as well as what to do with the a superweapon like the Oxygen Destroyer.
• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): My wife still hasn't forgiven me for "making" her watch this with me. I think the HAL 2000 makes this movie for me but of course Kubrick's visuals are just fantastic.

You have to consider that the Godzilla concept was born out of a post war Japan that had just been devastated by two atomic bombs. Godzilla is the physical embodiment of that fear. For me, he's solidly SciFi.

He's even taken out by a science fiction super weapon.

 

[Clint_L]

Yes, a movie about spaceships using lasers to blow up a giant space station can easily not be speculative fiction. I stand by that.

Agreed. Star Wars (Andor possibly excepted) is far more fantasy in terms of both content and, especially, themes and narrative structure, than it is sci-fi. Probably more Western, as well. I would call it a Fantasy Western with a sci-fi aesthetic.

 

[Clint_L]

My top 5:

1. Alien
2. Bladerunner
3. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
4. Children of Men
5. The Iron Giant

 

[MGibster]

Agreed. Star Wars (Andor possibly excepted) is far more fantasy in terms of both content and, especially, themes and narrative structure, than it is sci-fi. Probably more Western, as well. I would call it a Fantasy Western with a sci-fi aesthetic.

I tend to find getting into the nitty gritty of genre classification to be non-productive and find it's generally better to have a broad tent approach. If you want to call it a fantasy western with a sci-fi aesthetic, okay, but that sure sounds like a fancy way of saying it's science fiction to me.

I've had people seriously look me in the eye and tell me Alien isn't science fiction.