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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.
Star Wars
2001: A Space Odyssey
Contact
Metropolis (1927) or The Fifth Element.
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2001 Space Odyssey. "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that."
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
It's one of the few movies that has actually become more though provoking over time. Sure it's full of cheese and an-old but great story.
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Based on HEINLEIN's work: PREDESTINATION - Starring Ethan Hawke (gives NEW meaning to the phrase "Go fuck yourself", lol).
* It is truly awesome...
APK
P.S.=> A friend of mine brought it home & the SECOND I saw Robert Heinlein on it, I just knew it had to be great (it didn't disappoint)... apk
I saw it four times in the movie theater and it was the first DVD I ever bought.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01...
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Because Kubrick did meticulous research from flat screen displays and glass cockpits. Also had all actors be boring just like the characters they portrayed, i.e. people that do space are not expressive like most actors (compare 2001 to 2010). Of course Kubrick missed a few things, like Pan Am no longer exist, we ignored the Moon after 1972. But then I'm old enough to remember seeing this movie in 1968 shown at Century theatres on Winchester Blvd, a time when it seemed only obvious because soon we will have men walked the surface of the Moon. And many people were around to remember reading the news of first flight of Wright Bros and Lindbergh's transatlantic flight. By the time they were retirement age, they can ride an airplane that comfortably flies across continents or oceans. Hey when I'll be their age, I can do the same with space travel. But no, still waiting to see who will walk the surface of the Moon again, still waiting for my flying car (oh wait there's roadable airplanes I cannot afford). However, we got computers to enable me to rant on the forums (can't do that with a HAL9000).
mfwright@batnet.com
Because of the story it is based on, which I had read before. Westworld (1973) was also pretty good. Unfortunately, there are not so many good Science Fiction movies, although there are quite a few. I don't remember any good recent ones, even though I watch all of them. Metropolis with live classical piano accompaniment was also very good. They Live is also fantastic, and I also liked Solaris (1972). Many more, of course, but I'll stop there.
Night Watch (Russian: , Nochnoy dozor) is a 2004 Russian urban fantasy supernatural thriller film written and directed by Timur Bekmambetov. It is loosely based on the novel The Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko, and is the first part of a duology, followed by Day Watch. You have to watch both movies to get the complete narrative and it is friggin awesome! This is one of the best sci-fi/fantasy movies I have ever seen!
Agreed. I don't care that the movie is darker and more brooding and implies Deckard is replicant without the overdubbing. I don't care that Harrison Ford thought it was stupid to do the voice over and did it in the most passive aggressive monotone voice he could manage. Since the movie is shot in the film noir style, the monotone hardened detective voice over is perfect.
vi +
Not a popular movie, but it's my favorite. It accomplishes the almost impossible task of thoroughly explaining 2001, for a start.
Other things I like about it? HAL 9000 redeems himself. We find out what his problem was and who was responsible. Then HAL sacrifices himself to save lives.
Another nice bit - the science in this movie is just about 100%. The zero gravity, the air brake scene, the actual 3d environment of space where the Discovery is simply tumbling. Space ships aren't moving around like flat horizontal pieces on a chess board. The only flaw I can find is when Jupiter ignites there is a sound, which of course there wouldn't be. But that's about it.
It's a great story and it's told very well.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Loved the fist Matrix movie. Philosophy, virtual reality, crazy new visual effects. I remember walking out of that movie and there was silence from the audience. Many were still processing the meaning and some were discovering brand-new ideas for the first time.
Colossus: The Forbin Project
So many others,
A Boy and His Dog
Quintet
Zazrdoz
Oh yeah and I forgot, The Ice Pirates, fucking Robert Urich.
Fifth Element. Just like in real life, you know you have an arch nemesis out there, you just may never meet them. Your actions are always in direct conflict with theirs even if you never come face to face with them.
Whenever this comes on tv, I stop and watch it. I can't help myself and I can't think of any other sci-fi that has the same grip on me.
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
I would also put some of those originals (and their contemporaries) in the top tier: The Day the Earth Stood Still, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing from Another World, War of the Worlds... Obviously, you have to forgive the limited special effects of the day, but some of the stories were every bit as good as the top-rated films today.
And, though it's not a movie per-se, um... Twilight Zone anyone?
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If it's "rights sitting" that you're interested in, try "Rendezvous with Rama". Thank Morgan Freeman for that.
I love 2001, but many of the key themes are more in the realm of fantasy. I love Forbidden Planet but it's really an adaptation of The Tempest; replacing the sorcery with science. Metropolis is a beautiful film, but it hardly depends on the scientific themes to deliver its message. Same thing with most of the other dystopian films like Fahrenheit 451, Brave New World, 1984, or Logan's Run.
But that's really the tricky part about "best science fiction". You've gotta get everyone to agree on what defines quality science fiction.
Body armor that may as well have been regular clothing for all the good it did? This was a frustrating movie.
I always wondered why they even bothered to wear the body armor when it couldn't even stop their own weapons, not to mention the bugs themselves. That and the fact that none of the rifles even had sights kind of blew my mind. When you are fighting as infantry against thousands and hundreds of thousands of enemies, spraying and praying is really not the best idea. And, for a semi-fascist, military-industrial complex led society, they surprisingly had no idea of combined arms tactics. No armored vehicles, no air support, no artillery. Just lots and lots of people. It was like the WWII-era Red Army in space. The closest thing they had was the bombing run on the one planet followed up by an infantry attack, but clearly the staff officer school for the Federation military doesn't go into much detail on WWI or WWII, otherwise they would have realized that pre-attack bombardments are pretty useless against enemy combatants that are entrenched or bunkered underground.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
"Edge Of Tomorrow" - a clever sci-fi interpretation of "Groundhog day" with a good choice of a cast
It is easily the first scifi film I remember watching when I was a kid, I remember most of the star wars and stuff but the first one I can remember was TRON. I also vividly remember The Last Star Fighter, and Wargames.
I never did understand why Live Action Disney movies of the past never did well... I really loved The Black Hole... I think I even had a Lunch Box... Other good ones: The Absent-Minded Professor Tron And for a more modern favorite (but not Disney): Stargate
Came here just to say this. After seeing it mentioned in the xkcd: Movie Narrative Charts several years ago, I thought it seemed out of place sitting next to the rest of those films, so I wanted to see what had warranted its inclusion.
When it finally showed up on Netflix a few years later, it blew me away.
It's the only movie that I have ever finished and then immediately rewatched. It's the only one that I even wanted to immediately rewatch, since normally I either want a break or want to let things percolate. But with Primer? Not so much. Every time I felt like I had a grasp on it, something would happen that would show me otherwise, but never in a frustrating way. After multiple viewings it holds up beautifully, with each viewing revealing just a bit more about how the world of the movie works and how the characters interact with each other. And with it being so short, it never overstays its welcome.
Well worth watching. And I believe it was even re-added to Netflix just a few months ago...
Released right before Star Wars upped the game as far as special effects ... great concept, wild sets, including an ice cave patrolled by an insane robot, a domed utopian/dystopian city, and Washington DC covered in vines... wonderful stuff.
They belong... just, well, if those are your favorites you're not a real computer guy and are barely a sci fi fan.
Then again, if neither Tron nor WarGames make the top of your list, you're also not a real computer guy.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Cloud atlas was an honourable failure, and had several storylines that were compelling and believable. It fell apart under its own weight, since just one of its threads could have sustained an entire movie easily. Due to the fact that no-one will watch a ten-hour movie, the Wachowski's could only really scratch the surface of each storyline, which ultimately let all of the stories down.
But Jupiter Rising is total, complete, absurd, nonsense. And believe me, I did pay attention, it's a little bit patronising to suggest that people didn't like it because they couldn't follow it. I could follow it fine, thanks. It was just very, very, very bad indeed.