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Slashdot Asks: What's Your Favorite Sci-Fi Movie?
Many say it's the golden age of science fiction cinema. And rightly so, every month, we have a couple of movies that bend the rules of science to explore possibilities that sometimes make us seriously consider if things we see on the big screen could actually be true. The advances in graphics, and thanks to ever-so-increasing video resolution, we're increasingly leaving the theaters with visually appealing memories. That said, there are plenty of movies made back in the day that are far from ever getting displaced by the reboots spree that the Hollywood is currently embarking. With readers suggesting us this question every week, we think it's time we finally asked, what's your favorite science-fiction movie? Also, what are some other sci-fi movies that you have really enjoyed but think they have not received enough praises or even much acknowledgement?
Editor's note: the story has been moved up on the front page due its popularity.
Editor's note: the story has been moved up on the front page due its popularity.
Corny, but a classic to enjoy for all time.
"Show me a successful sci-fi movie that's not a remake, sequel/prequel or spin-off in the last ten years."
The Martian?
Interstellar?
Arrival?
>> Many say it's the golden age of science fiction cinema Slashdot editors must be getting dumber or I'm getting older. Show me a successful sci-fi movie that's not a remake, sequel/prequel or spin-off in the last ten years. On second thought, I'll vote for "dumber."
Interstellar. Moon. Inception. District 9. The Martian. Ex Machina.
They aren't all my favorites, but they're all original (the Martian is an adaptation, not sure if that counts). And they are all firmly sci fi.
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Edge of Tomorrow came out in 2014, a scant 3 years ago.
Interstellar came out in 2014, a scant 3 years ago.
Looper came out in 2012. It wasn't as big as the other ones I've mentioned, but its box office returns were 6x its production budget (which is much better than some of the bigger names above).
Gravity, 2013, might be argued to not be sci-fi but science fact, but presuming we can reasonably call it Sci fi, it did pretty well, bringing in about $723M in revenues.
Inception, 2011, made approximately 5.5x its budget and brought in around $826M, which is successful by most people's account
District 9, 2009, brought in only around $210M, but only cost around $30M or so, so a 7x multiplier, and hugely popular
(all numbers courtesy of http://www.boxofficemojo.com/)
Now, it's likely -- this being Slashdot -- that someone will argue that some/all of these movies aren't good, or particularly original. That's fine. The original claim was "no successful Sci-fi movies in the last decade who aren't remakes, [s|pr]equel, or spin-offs. None of these movies are that.
Primer
As far as I know, it's the only one that involves time-travelling without inconsistencies, although I may have missed several.
Maybe considered sci-fi/fantasy but hands down my favorite movie ever. I prefer the director's cut since it excludes some of the hand-holding voice-overs. The story is great, it was shot "film noir" style, has great sound track and an excellent cast. I think "Richard O'Brien" played a perfectly creepy stranger. I like how they cast Jennifer Connelly as the caring wife of her homely husband (Rufus Sewell). William Hurt played a great contemplative Det. Bumstead. I could go on.
The question was just about "sci-fi movies" and not about "sci-fi movies but not in space". But ok:
Source Code
Chappie
Ex Machina
Edge of Tomorrow
Elysium
Tomorrowland
Limitless
The Book of Eli
Better? ;)
I find that there are few movies that I can watch more than once, but I've seen The Thing many times and will watch again. The paranoia and fear among the characters is palpable, and there is no lame CGI.
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Dark Star!
Primer may be my favorite Sci-fi of all time, certainly in the time-travel sub genre.
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In whatever order I'm in the mood for, which varies:
Bladerunner - the original, with the narration.
Firefly - TV show same. These were just plain fun, except for the pilot's death, which struck me as uncalled for.
Starship Troopers - loved the twisted angle on government. Great bugs. Would you like to know more?
Paul - hilarious, totally non-serious SF.
Alien (original) - great SF horror, and great SF besides.
Terminator - original
The Martian - really good hard SF, quite rare to find
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Are you really not aware that Contact is based on the Carl Sagan novel, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Stargate?
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... no discussion.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Remember, the movie wasn't based on the book - it was developed under a different title and then changed for name recognition.