Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)

[Mannahnin]

Ugh. Look, I didn't want you to think I didn't read this, or I didn't think about it.

I DID. Way, way, way way too much.

---


So I am giving up, at least for now. I did my homework, and I'm giving myself an F on the assignment. I've failed to come up with the films, @Mannahnin

Brava! Still a great post and series of thoughts. Thank you.

 

[Parmandur]

RotJ was my favorite film when I was a kid/teen. It would definitely still make my top 20, probably my top 15. While the Ewoks are silly it's still an extremely satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Luke coming into his own as a "real" Jedi is just right, the space battle is epic, the whole Jabba's palace rescue sequence is absolutely iconic, the finale between Luke, Vader, and the Emperor is one of the greatest story climaxes I've ever watched, and the speeder bike chase scenes are some of the best thrills I've had in all of cinema.

Damn it, I might be talking myself into top 10.

It's not the worst, but watching it as ana dust in rapid succession with the first two...it is a steep decline.

 

[Parmandur]

I eagerly await this discussion about Fantasy when we get that follow up to this thread.
(Such as what Disney and Pixar films besides Wall-E as SciFi, Davey Crockett as Western, and Incredibles I/II as Supes aren't eligible...)

Preview: the key is "Mythopoeia", which is why St Wars and Lovecraft are Fantasy.

The novelist Brandon Sanderson makes a pretty decent case that all fiction is, essentially, Fantasy, and the "Fantasy" genre is just fiction with the gloves off.

And the "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" section in bookstores is about marketing to a demographic interested in weird stuff more than a serious analysis of literary form.

 

[Parmandur]

I did at least include it by listing the "Star Wars Trilogy". It may not have started many things, but as a conclusion and follow up to the adventure of Ep IV it is, as a whole, solid enough. (And really I think RotJ gets more disdain than it deserves.)


And Williams' deep, haunting score when Luke attacks Vader (after the "Sister..." exchange), hovering on the precipice of the dark side, is just spine-tingly magnificent.

It's OK. It hits emotional notes fairly successfully.

John Williams did brilliant, transformative work in Revege of the Sith, which has the best recorded score of any Star Wars movie. Williams did a lot to elevate Star Wars for decades.

 

[Mannahnin]

It's not the worst, but watching it as ana dust in rapid succession with the first two...it is a steep decline.

I have to disagree. I think they stick the landing despite the Ewoks. Even the battle on Endor has classic moments like Han and Leia and the bunker blast doors.

I think the only film trilogy which tops it is LotR. Heck, I'm going to spin that off as a new thread.

 

[Cadence]

I have to disagree. I think they stick the landing despite the Ewoks. Even the battle on Endor has classic moments like Han and Leia and the bunker blast doors.

I think the only film trilogy which tops it is LotR. Heck, I'm going to spin that off as a new thread.

I think they could have saved the Ewoks for me if they showed some casually in the background cooking for the big party, with storm trooper armor being cracked open like shell fish or lobster and a cleaver going up and down on something. Leia's outfit when she's a prisoner always annoys me too even though it can be justified by Jabba presumably picking whatever outfit degrades a particular captive.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Leia's outfit when she's a prisoner always annoys me too even though it can be justified by Jabba presumably picking whatever outfit degrades a particular captive.

Today, the outfit annoys me. C'mon, it is entirely unnecessary.

But when it was released, the outfit bothered me. It really bothered me. It definitely made me very, very bothered.

Spoiler: Random Thoughts

I wonder if there has to be at least a small correlation between Leia's costume in Return of the Jedi and the subsequent mainstreaming of Bad Design Subsequently Modified (ahem) in the '90s and '00s. Because in a movie for kids with teddy bears, that certainly was a choice.

 

[Mannahnin]

I think they could have saved the Ewoks for me if they showed some casually in the background cooking for the big party, with storm trooper armor being cracked open like shell fish or lobster and a cleaver going up and down on something.

I always felt like that was implied, between their original intent to cook our heroes and the presence of empty storm trooper helmets being used as drums during the end celebration.

 

[Cadence]

I always felt like that was implied, between their original intent to cook our heroes and the presence of empty storm trooper helmets being used as drums during the end celebration.

That makes me feel better.

 

[The Soloist]

The Ewoks are awesome! Smashing an imperial walker with two tree trunks is most excellent. RoTJ is a good movie but the lesser of the three. Wish Lucas had replaced the blue elephant musician with another creature.