Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)

[The Soloist]

1. Children of Men. Dark horse contender, I know, but IMO this is a perfect film. Perfectly grounded in our world, gorgeously shot and wonderfully acted, brilliantly written. Suspenseful, unpredictable, immersive. And with one of my favorite flawed protagonists ever. Next time you watch, notice his interactions with animals and with weapons.

You convinced me to watch it. Thanks.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The scientists may as well be wizards

True for the vast majority of scientists in science fiction*. You start ruling things out on that basis and you throw away 99% of the genre.



*Speaking as a scientist, also true in real life.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Good list! My notes-

That's a killer list.

Five is hard to do, but this is my best attempt for today:

5. The Terminator. Barely edged out T2 for me, in part because some of the humor in T2 is a little lame. Just a super tight, suspenseful script and story. Both have amazing scores.

Agree. Terminator > T2 in terms of importance (and is a better movie, although T2 obviously has the better budget).

4. Blade Runner. Some bits of it haven't held up for me, but overall it's so gorgeous and influential and enthralling. Hauer's work as Roy and that soliloquy/monologue he created for the end climax is utter poetry. At times in my life this has been my favorite film.

Hard agree. Made my list. As did your number 2 (Star Wars: A New Hope).

3. Aliens. Alien I categorize as slightly more in the horror category than sci-fi. Both are among my favorite films of all time. This is just another wonderfully-written, suspenseful, incredibly well-shot and edited and performed movie. Awesome score. Endlessly rewatchable and quotable.

Eh... I almost put the original Alien in the list, but while Aliens is really good and arguably more thrilling and quotable ("Game over, man!"), Alien is more important - this established all of it (the H. R. Giger look, the alien concept, the grimy future dominated by megacorps that was later expanded on in Blade Runner) and it's hard to overstate how shocking and influential the original was (spaghetti, anyone?). Aliens might be one of the best sequels of all time (it's on the list with The Godfather Part II and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo) but Alien is a stone-cold classic of the genre.

1. Children of Men. Dark horse contender, I know, but IMO this is a perfect film. Perfectly grounded in our world, gorgeously shot and wonderfully acted, brilliantly written. Suspenseful, unpredictable, immersive. And with one of my favorite flawed protagonists ever. Next time you watch, notice his interactions with animals and with weapons.

So good. If you have the chance, look up how they shot the car scene.

My top honorable mentions have to be Her and Blade Runner 2049. I think both of them have a real chance to get on this list once I watch them some more.

Love them both. Her is one of those films that really lingers with you and does what the best science fiction does- it makes you think hard about the present by presenting a future problem. While Blade Runner 2049 is just absolutely gorgeous- one of the few films that you could watch with the sound off and be mesmerized (but why would you when the sound design is so good .... #areyoulisteningnolan?

Others vying for top 10 include Wrath of Khan, T2, Gattaca, Primer, Arrival, Moon, and Back to the Future (another perfect film).

Wrath of Khan- enjoyable, but not great IMO.
T2- really good, still not close to the top 10 (IMO).
Back to the Future- ....I have .... eh, let's say that there's a part of the story line that didn't age well for me on a recent re-watch.
Gattaca- Nice, deep cut! Definitely good, but I don't remember it as great. Maybe I should rewatch?

Arrival- So so so good.
Moon- Nice cut. Not sure it is a great film, but I love it so much. Wish Duncan Jones was doing more (Mute was worth watching, but didn't live up to Moon)
Primer- We're gonna need a bigger box! Such an amazing film, and even moreso if you know the story of how it was made. A scifi nerd's scifi film.

Maybe 2001 for Hal and for the visuals.

I'm sorry, Mannahnin, I'm afraid I can't let you do that. I think you know what the problem is just as well as I do. The top five science fiction movie list is too important to allow you to jeopardize it by leaving 2001 off of it.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Okay, my list:

1) Forbidden Planet. Inspired by Shakespeare, inspired Star Trek. The most important SF movie ever.
2) Star Wars (ANH). My favourite, not including multiples in the series.
3) Star Trek: First Contact. Personal favourite, and I'm not including multiples in the same series.
4) Guardians of the Galaxy.
5) Galaxy Quest.

Note: as far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't have spaceships and ray guns it's not science fiction.

 

[Piperken]

...Children of Men. Dark horse contender, I know, but IMO this is a perfect film. Perfectly grounded in our world, gorgeously shot and wonderfully acted, brilliantly written. Suspenseful, unpredictable, immersive. And with one of my favorite flawed protagonists ever. Next time you watch, notice his interactions with animals and with weapons...

It's popped up several times now; when people mention this film I immediately go to the one long take w/ main cast through the building.

 

[SkidAce]

In college, a group of us invented the "Rollerball Scale" of rating bad movies, based on the remake. The concept was pretty simple: how much alcohol is required to enjoy watching this movie? The scale is named after Rollerball because it's the limit. No amount of alcohol made that movie enjoyable. We tried. And failed.

Working in retail, here was our scale;

A. See in Theater
B. Buy on Blue Ray upon release
C. Buy the DVD
D. Watch on paid streaming
F. Might watch eventually for free.

 

[Parmandur]

True for the vast majority of scientists in science fiction*. You start ruling things out on that basis and you throw away 99% of the genre.



*Speaking as a scientist, also true in real life.

Well, yes. Best estimate I could find suggests there are somewhere over 1000 "sci-fi" films over a hundred and twenty year period. To come up with a top 5, 99.95% of the genre needs to be eliminated by some criteria.

Okay, my list:

1) Forbidden Planet. Inspired by Shakespeare, inspired Star Trek. The most important SF movie ever.
2) Star Wars (ANH). My favourite, not including multiples in the series.
3) Star Trek: First Contact. Personal favourite, and I'm not including multiples in the same series.
4) Guardians of the Galaxy.
5) Galaxy Quest.

Note: as far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't have spaceships and ray guns it's not science fiction.

Now, if the list was "top 5 space opera" then this is pretty close to my personal list. Galaxy Quest is one of the smartest and funniest comedies ever made, a beautiful reflection on creating and receiving art. First Contact is for my money the best Star Trek movie.

 

[Parmandur]

Agree. Terminator > T2 in terms of importance (and is a better movie, although T2 obviously has the better budget).
...

Eh... I almost put the original Alien in the list, but while Aliens is really good and arguably more thrilling and quotable ("Game over, man!"), Alien is more important - this established all of it (the H. R. Giger look, the alien concept, the grimy future dominated by megacorps that was later expanded on in Blade Runner) and it's hard to overstate how shocking and influential the original was (spaghetti, anyone?). Aliens might be one of the best sequels of all time (it's on the list with The Godfather Part II and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo) but Alien is a stone-cold classic of the genre.

What I think T2 and Aliens do that is brilliant, is to make direct comparisons to the originals difficult by switching up genres.

 

[The Soloist]

Wrath of Khan- enjoyable, but not great IMO.

I agree with this. Never understood why it gets high ratings. The ugly Federation Santa Claus suits are unbearable to watch. The acting is only passable (as usual for original Star Trek) and Khan 'David Lee Roth' is not super-intelligent.

/runs for cover.

 

[Zaukrie]

I agree with this. Never understood why it gets high ratings. The ugly Federation Santa Claus suits are unbearable to watch. The acting is only passable (as usual for original Star Trek) and Khan 'David Lee Roth' is not super-intelligent.

/runs for cover.

I used to think this movie was really good, but then I realized it's only really good when compared to other ST movies.....