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Space.com's Top 10 Space Movies of All Time
Comatose51 writes "Space.com has posted a Top 10 Space Movies of All Time list based on reader ratings on each movie. Apollo 13 is currently the #1 movie, followed by Star Trek: First Contact at #2, and Wrath of Khan at #3. I was surprised by Apollo 13 at #1, since I initially equated space movies with sci-fi. However, I don't disagree with it. What do other Slashdotters think, or suggest as good space movies?"
I think Serenity hasn't been around long enough to sink in to the culture properly, but god, such a good movie. Firefly was a good series too.
First Contact before Empire Strikes Back? I liked them both, but c'mon now. Overall I think the top ten are solid choices, but the order leaves a little to be desired.
That's the shit that feds me up
khan is #1 for me, just because it resonates so deeply with me. i, too, was left stranded on ceti alpha five.
. . . and Heavy Metal . . .
and I'm sorry but Episode IV practically invented the "summer blockbuster" for better or worse. It should be listed first.
I'm laughing at clouds.
The original Solaris could well be the best movie of all time.
Bar none. Period. Certainly no other space movie stands close.
Uhm, IMHO, of course.
"I see that your schwartz is as big as mine."
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Dude, it's SPACE movies, not SCI FI movies. How the heck is Back to the Future, albeit a very good movie, considered a SPACE movie?
How could this movie not at least make the top three?! Shocking lack of taste, I say. Shocking.
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Then I nominate "The Right Stuff". Also I think this list is a little too Star Trek heavy (but I'm probably in the minority on that).
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
2001 is one of the best scifi movies.
Also don't forget StarTrek the motion picture. The original was long in spots but none of the others were as deep. The ending was great.
I never watched the series, and just happened to catch the movie two days before it disappeared from my local theatre. It was the matinee, and there were three other people in there with me. I have to say, I've been avoiding going out to see movies in recent years, because there always seems to be some asshat sitting behind me who feels that it's perfectly ok to discuss plot points in a normal voice, or be in a constant state of candy rustling, or other noise that just ruins the whole thing.
... empty ... walking out of those movies. All special effect, no humanity, no heart. Is anyone else yawning these days at the latest, greatest special effects? I mean, it's been a while since I was really wowed by this stuff - I think Terminator II was the last movie that really made me go "hey, neat!". The Matrix was ok (the first one only, please, not the travesty that the other two became), but it was mostly the style (and bullet time) that make that movie.
Anyway, back to the real point: Serenity has restored my faith in movies. Star Wars (the recent run of prequals) almost killed off my hope totally. I just felt so
Serenity was a return to something that George Lucas almost had in his grasp with his very first Star Wars movie: A sense of real people, experiencing real life, only in a very, very different environment to ours. This is true escapism - not Grand Councils and "sheratons in space" (thanks Joss), but real, gritty, imperfect, cowardly, funny, wisecracking people. The sort of characters you would probably like if you met them in real life. Who can imagine interacting with any of the recent Star Wars characters in real life? Sheesh.
Joss Whedon is one of those people who has a talent for mixing the real with the fantastic in a funny, witty way. I think Serenity is right up there at the top of my list of all-time favorite movies. It rocks because it has heart, which so many movies these days lack. The big mistake action movies make is that if you don't care about the characters, then who cares what happens to them? In Serenity, I cared. I took my wife to see it for a second time (had to travel a bit, since it was gone from most places by then). She is not a Sci-Fi fan, but I had a hunch, and I was right - she loved it. That says something.
I also went right out and bought the Firefly DVD set, and we both watched it all the way through over the next few nights. I have to say I am totally amazed that this show was canceled. They canned this in favor of what? More reality sludge? Yikes.
Any Top 10 Space Movie list that includes ST The Undiscovered Country yet leaves out Heavy Metal obviously cannot be taken seriously. And as much as I like Trek, I really don't think ST First Contact belongs on this list either. I do, however, agree with ST Wrath of Kahn. I also take offense at the absence of Silent Running.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
They missed Airplane II. Easily the best space movie EVER!
Norman Cook's Ode to Sl
But I think the top ten is a little biased in favor of movies that are part of a series. I guess that's because the characters are better known ( having spent more time with them ) and because it's easy to carry over karma from other films in a series. ( For better or worse. )
My top five would be, in order:
1) 2001: A Space Oddessy
2) The Right Stuff
3) Apollo 13
4) Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
5) Star Wars: Episode IV
Too bad the list is just space related movies, rather than space related stories in any medium. I'd love to throw Babylon 5 in the mix.
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Tm
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but what about Dark Star? Come on people, it was co-written by Dan O'Bannon, who later reused the "alien mascot" section of the film as the basis of his script for Alien FFS!!
Directed by (the) John Carpenter as well.
And then there's Silent Running, although wabbits being nuked is probably not a big vote winner among the majority of popcorn-crunchers.
Spaceballs forever!
I've got to wonder what standard they used? Apollo 13, 2001 and Contact were solid and obvious choices but a lot of the rest were largely fantasy films. If hard science was a factor most of the rest of the films barely gave science a nod. If it was a science fiction list, several were definately fantasy and Apollo 13 was factual. Seemed to more reflect box office than anything. Another pointless ten best list.
When you consider that this film was made in 1968 it wasn't until 1977 when Star Wars appeared that you could get something to actually compare with in quality. And even though that film is almost forty years old it is still a film that you can watch. The only thing that it actually missed was the political situation in the world of today, but wh coul tell that at a time when the Soviet Union was at it's height and al-Qaeda wasn't known. The worst terrorists at the time was PLO and Lebanon was a holiday paradise.
Personally I don't give much for the Alien films, but it's a matter of taste.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
- Star Wars 4
- Star wars 5
- Alien
- Aliens (the sequel to Aliens)
- 2001: A Space Oddysey
- Blade Runner (well if Contact is on the list, why not this?)
- Star Wars 6
- Star Wars 3
- Planet of the Apes (1968 version)
Yes, i've gone against convention and used digits not roman numerals for the Star Wars films. I'd be interested to see are larger list - Star Wars/Trek domaination makes it seem more like a top 5.I find it very sad, that the list contains little less than a bunch of star wars/star treck movies. Who was the voting audience? Space Odyssey only #5? No Aliens? (OK, at least Alien is on the list). Where is "Blade Runner"? "Total Recall"? "Dark Star"? Hell, even "Stargate" or "Starship Troopers" deserved to get on that list more than some other entries ("Contact", for example, is a very good book, but a mediocre movie - to say the least).
Some obvious missing classics:
Forbidden Planet
Silent Running
Powers of Ten (ok, it's a short feature, but still a classic)
And some good ones that are better than ones that made the list:
Aliens
Galaxy Quest
(And if the new Battlestar Galactica series counted it would be near the top of my list.)
I know I'm the minority on this but I hated First Contact. They ruined the Borg in the movie. What made the Borg unique was their total alien like qualities. Total logic, no emotion, total devotion to a single goal, etc. It made them a different kind of enemy, something special.
In first contact the introduce the Queen Borg who asks just like you average generic power hungry villian. No longer are the borg this unstopable, uncarring machine, now the Borg are just a the standard typical enemy you can try to seduce, reason with, etc.
How sad to take such an interesting race and completely ruin it's interesting qualities.
I thought Serenenity was a very good movie, which leaves me more annoyed that like effectively all hollywood SF movies, it had no real concept of astronomy, how really far it is between planets in a solar system. (Or how vastly far it is in a galaxy, which Firefly sometimes declared to be its setting.)
A solar system is not like a western frontier where you meet other ships along the trail. And a solar system with hundreds of moons around many planets will have, depending on the place in the orbit, immense vast distances between planets on opposite sides of the star, and relatively short ones between moons, but still a vast void on all trips. You are not going to happen to run into Reaver ships.
Now as I said, most shows get this really wrong. To some extent the shows with FTL get it "better" even though FTL is itself fantasy, at least you get a reason to not treat the differences as so vast. Hyperspace jumps, another fantasy, are even better.
2001 got space right. Apollo 13 did (duh.) Few other films and very few TV shows ever did.
Has it been over a year since you last donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation
I did read the book. When it first came out. In 1985. And I like the movie.
I learned a long time ago that translating a book to a movie inevitably involves a lot of compromises -- at least with any book over a hundred pages. In the case of Contact, I think they made them admirably.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
I'm sure there of hundreds of stories like mine.
Before everyone here starts oozing with happiness about Serenity, it should be noted that IT FLOPPED. Despite a lot of attention, lots of dedicated fans, and great reviews, it was not even able to recap production costs at the box office. Look at this years yearly box office to get an idea of just how badly it did (for those tired of scrolling, it is in place 77).
Now, with DVD sales I am sure the studio won't end up in the red when all is said and done, but $25 million for a high budget high profile movie is terrible. Serenity will probably be pointed to in the future as a good reason not to use cult DVD followings as a reason to greenlight films. Sorry to tell ya all.
Core dumped
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Well... The list is biased and severely americanized. There is not a single movie on it shot outside the US. Hello yanks? Ever heard of Solaris? Stalker? It is also missing what is for me possibly the best sci-fi movie of the 90-es. Gattaca.
We can continue, but frankly, this poll is best ignored.
Typical "the world according to America" http://www.msxnet.org/humour/america
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It should have been there on the list. 'Contact' sucks, really, except for '22 hours of static on the tape'.
Seeing as this whole "news" item is just an invitation for a flamefest anyway, I would rate Contact as easily the best of the ten films listed. It has the most interesting and original premise in it, it has the most coherent internal logic, it has the strongest basis in science (and yes - I am aware of the ending), it is the best acted (*cough*Star Wars / Star Trek*cough*), and it has the strongest emotional engagement with the characters.
If Aliens rather than Alien was in the list, I might give that equal place for different reasons - it's just Hellishly good fun ("They cut the power? How could they cut the power?"). Alien is also very good, but not as good as Contact.
I haven't seen Apollo-13 though, because Tom Hanks disturbs me. He looks like a serial killer.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Prior to that revelation, however, she, the scientist, finds herself in a situation not unlike that of her religious friend - she's just had a life-changing experience, she knows she's had it - yet all she has left to go by at that point is, it seems, faith. No evidence, no anything. Had everything been explained, had there been certainty, or had it been yet another little space adventure, the movie would have missed its own point. I'm not sure I agree with that point, nor is it a particularly brilliant point, but I did enjoy that movie more than any of the others in that list.
(I also find Khaaan painfully dull, for reasons I could not adequately explain, so shoot me already.)
That wasn't her dead father, btw., it was an alien lifeform masquerading as her father to "make it easier for her" (whether that makes sense or not) and, perhaps, to make it more mysterious for us. Frankly, I liked how there were but a few scant hints at an interstellar transport network, no more than a short glimpse or two of an illuminated alien city... in a way this was more impressive and felt a lot larger than the over-crowded scenery of several Star Wars films combined.