The Top 100 Sci-Fi Films

(Stanton) #49

Yeah, but films always overused the then new effects. So, nothing new in that department too.

I generally don’t care much for SFX dominated films too. Mostly these films suffer from too much superficial effects and too less dramatic ideas.

(Asa) #50

The Matrix - Absolutely superb. The effects (should) exist solely to serve the story and, in this case, they do. Excellently.
The Matrix Reloaded - As dependent as it is on the third film, whether or not this turned out to be good or bad largely relied, for me, on how The Matrix Revolutions answered the many questions it was posing. Unfortunately…
The Matrix Revolutions - Big bag of spunkwipe. Incoherent mess. The effects, used so well in the first movie, swamp everything here in lieu of any actual story. Never mind the plot, kids, look at the flashing lights! And lasers! And spaceships! BlamblamblamblamblamblamBLAM! Utter crap, and heartbreakingly disappointing.

IMO, of course.

(kit saginaw) #51

[quote=“last.caress, post:1, topic:3405”]…As voted for by “Leading sci-fi experts, filmmakers, science fiction writers, film critics and scientists”, apparently.

Courtesy of Time Out London (LINKhttp://www.timeout.com/london/film/the-100-best-sci-fi-movies-100-91):

  1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)
  2. Blade Runner (Scott, 1982)
  3. Alien (Scott, 1979)
  4. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Spielberg, 1977)
  5. Aliens (Cameron, 1986)
  6. Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (Lucas, 1977)
  7. Brazil (Gilliam, 1985)
  8. Metropolis (Lang, 1927)
  9. The Terminator (Cameron, 1984)
  10. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner, 1980)
  11. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Spielberg, 1982)
  12. The Thing (Carpenter, 1982)
  13. The Matrix (Lana & Andy Wachowski, 1999)
  14. Moon (Jones, 2009)
  15. Stalker (Tarkovsky, 1979)
  16. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron, 1991)
  17. Solaris (Tarkovsky, 1972)
  18. Children of Men (Cuarón, 2006)
  19. The Fly (Cronenberg, 1986)
  20. Forbidden Planet (Wilcox, 1956)
  21. Back to the Future (Zemeckis, 1985)
  22. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)
  23. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001)
  24. Twelve Monkeys (Gilliam, 1995)
  25. RoboCop (Verhoeven, 1987)
  26. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Siegel, 1956)
  27. A Clockwork Orange (Kubrick, 1971)
  28. La Jetée (Marker, 1962)
  29. Planet of the Apes (Schaffner, 1968)
  30. Jurassic Park (Spielberg, 1993)
  31. The Day the Earth Stood Still (Wise, 1951)
  32. Gattaca (Niccol, 1997)
  33. Silent Running (Trumbull, 1972)
  34. Galaxy Quest (Parisot, 1999)
  35. The Man Who Fell to Earth (Roeg, 1976)
  36. Inception (Nolan, 2010)
  37. Primer (Carruth, 2004)
  38. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman, 1978)
  39. Dark Star (Carpenter, 1974)
  40. WALL-E (Stanton, 2008)
  41. They Live (Carpenter, 1988)
  42. The Fifth Element (Besson, 1997)
  43. Total Recall (Verhoeven, 1990)
  44. Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (Meyer, 1982)
  45. District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009)
  46. Her (Jonze, 2013)
  47. Contact (Zemeckis, 1997)
  48. Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984)
  49. Starship Troopers (Verhoeven, 1997)
  50. Under the Skin (Glazer, 2013)
  51. Fantastic Planet (Laloux, 1973)
  52. Predator (McTiernan, 1987)
  53. Akira (Otomo, 1988)
  54. Soylent Green (Fleischer, 1973)
  55. Repo Man (Cox, 1984)
  56. The Time Machine (Pal, 1960)
  57. Dune (Lynch, 1984)
  58. Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)
  59. Gravity (Cuarón, 2013)
  60. Quatermass and the Pit (Baker, 1968)
  61. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (Miller, 1981)
  62. Dark City (Proyas, 1998)
  63. Je t’aime, je t’aime (Resnais, 1968)
  64. Sleeper (Allen, 1973)
  65. The War of the Worlds (Haskin, 1953)
  66. The Abyss (Cameron, 1989)
  67. The Thing From Another World (Nyby, 1951)
  68. Westworld (Crichton, 1973)
  69. Logan’s Run (Anderson, 1976)
  70. Iron Man (Favreau, 2008)
  71. The Prestige (Nolan, 2006)
  72. Seconds (Frankenheimer, 1966)
  73. The American Astronaut (McAbee, 2001)
  74. Flash Gordon (Hodges, 1980)
  75. Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (Marquand, 1983)
  76. The Truman Show (Weir, 1998)
  77. Avatar (Cameron, 2009)
  78. World on a Wire (Fassbinder, 1973)
  79. Ghost in the Shell (Oshii, 1995)
  80. Star Trek (Abrams, 2009)
  81. The Iron Giant (Bird, 1999)
  82. Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013)
  83. Things to Come (Menzies, 1936)
  84. Frankenstein (Whale, 1931)
  85. The Andromeda Strain (Wise, 1971)
  86. Barbarella (Vadim, 1968)
  87. The Damned (Losey, 1963)
  88. Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002)
  89. Fantastic Voyage (Fleischer, 1966)
  90. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (Richter, 1984)
  91. Attack the Block (Cornish, 2011)
  92. Solaris (Soderbergh, 2002)
  93. THX 1138 (Lucas, 1971)
  94. Alphaville (Godard, 1965)
  95. Serenity (Whedon, 2005)
  96. Pitch Black (Twohy, 2000)
  97. Superman (Donner, 1978)
  98. 2010 (Hyams, 1984)
  99. Three Colours: Red (Kieslowski, 1994)
  100. Independence Day (Emmerich, 1996)[/quote]

What kind of a list is this?

Killdozer isn’t there.
Earth Vs. Flying Saucers is missing.
No Zardoz.
No Zombies Of The Stratosphere.
Kronos is a no-show.

It’s like a science-fiction list by people who only watch films that somebody told them to watch.

(Asa) #52

It’s all subjective of course, but Killdozer and Zombies of the Stratosphere are hardly the most obviously worthy candidates for a general list of the greatest 100 science fiction movies ever made, are they? Come on. If you honestly, truly believe that Killdozer is one of the 100 best sci-fi films ever made then of course that’s up to you and I’d champion your right to that belief with my last breath but it’s naive to think that that should be a general consensus, and/or that any list that omits it must have been drawn up by people that don’t know what they’re talking about. There will always be obvious-looking omissions from any list thanks to the subjectivity of these things (and, in this instance, because there are more than 100 great sci-fi films and they can’t all make the cut in a top 100) but it’s surely a wee bit previous to jump on this list for omitting Zombies of the Stratosphere, no? I absolutely love Starcrash, but I wouldn’t expect to see it on this list at all. Love it or not, It’s f*cking rubbish, let’s be honest! ;D

Talking of glorious f*cking rubbish, here’s The 20 most hilariously bad sci-fi movies as compiled by the same publication (LINKhttp://www.timeout.com/london/film/worst-sci-fi-movies):

  1. Battlefield Earth (Christian, 2000)
  2. Mac and Me (Raffill, 1988)
  3. After Last Season (Region, 2009)
  4. The Island of Dr. Moreau (Frankenheimer, 1996)
  5. Dünyayi Kurtaran Adam (Inanç, 1982)
  6. Plan 9 from Outer Space (Wood, 1959)
  7. Transmorphers (Scott, 2007)
  8. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (Underwood, 2002)
  9. Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (Furie, 1987)
  10. Robot Monster (Tucker, 1953)
  11. R.O.T.O.R. (Blaine, 1987)
  12. A Sound of Thunder (Hyams, 2005)
  13. Bicentennial Man (Columbus, 1999)
  14. Highlander II: The Quickening (Mulcahy, 1991)
  15. Starcrash (Cozzi, 1978)
  16. Freejack (Murphy, 1992)
  17. Star Trek: Insurrection (Frakes, 1998)
  18. The Chronicles of Riddick (Twohy, 2004)
  19. Judge Dredd (Cannon, 1995)
  20. Star Wars - Episode I: The Phantom Menace (Lucas, 1999)

About a thousand glaring omissions from that top twenty! ;D

(sartana1) #53

No question Earth vs Flying Saucers is better than many of the movies on that “top 100” list. Would be in my top 20

#54

@4.The Island of Dr. Moreau(Frankenheimer, 1996

I like the film, it’s pretty good. Not rubbish in my view.

(sartana1) #55

I know theres a fine line between Sci-Fi and horror sometimes (which I apparently dont seem to understand very well) but both Island of Dr Moreau’s and The Island of Lost Souls must be horror right? :slight_smile:

(Asa) #56

Three movies I absolutely adore in there: Starcrash, Robot Monster and Plan 9.

(Stanton) #57

Plan 9 is really one of the most boring films I ever watched. A catastrophe in every respect.

(scherpschutter) #58

Don’t think I ever watched it, not a good idea to fill this hole in my knowledge maybe.

In got myself a copy of The Island of Dr. Moreau (remake), also often mentioned among the worst ever. I’ve always avoided it, but know it mentioned again in this context on these pages, I decided to give it a chance. Soon more about it.

(Asa) #59

[quote=“scherpschutter, post:58, topic:3405”]Don’t think I ever watched it, not a good idea to fill this hole in my knowledge maybe.

In got myself a copy of The Island of Dr. Moreau (remake), also often mentioned among the worst ever. I’ve always avoided it, but know it mentioned again in this context on these pages, I decided to give it a chance. Soon more about it.[/quote]

Whoa, pickle!

Everyone says Plan 9’s no good = you decide there’s no need to look at it

Everyone says the Dr. Moreau remake’s no good = you’re inspired to give it a try??

Shenanigans! I’m calling Shenanigans!

Plan 9 from Outer Space (Full Movie)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5DZhDH8eew

Come on, Scherp! It’s right there! Don’t listen to Stanton, he’s been gorging on banana-and-crisps sandwiches all morning and now he’s full of melancholy and self-loathing. What else are you going to do with a sh*tty old Sunday? Best 78 minutes you’ll ever spend. Well, best 78 minutes you’ll spend today, anyway. :slight_smile:

(scherpschutter) #60

Okay, I’ll give it a try after I have finished The Island of Dr. Moreau (not immediately after though)

Shenanigans?
Maybe, I don’t know what it is that makes me look one movie (that was pulvarized by critics) and not another one (that was equally pulvarized). All of a sudden I felt the urge the watch Dr. Moreau, because of the cast maybe, or the fact that it is based on the works of HG Wells, don’t know.

What have I done on this sh*tty sunday ? I have been writing:

http://www.spaghetti-western.net/index.php/Two_Faces_of_the_Dollar_Review

(John Welles) #61

Ironically, the last three films in that Worst Ever list I happen to like quite a bit (Judge Dredd is n’t particularly good, but due to my dedication to 2000 AD I msut confess to viewing it more than once).

(Asa) #62

The 40 best sci-fi pictures of the 21st century so far, according to Rolling Stone:

  1. Children of Men (Cuarón, 2006)
  2. Ex_Machina (Garland, 2014)
  3. Under the Skin (Glazer, 2013)
  4. Arrival (Villeneuve, 2016)
  5. Inception (Nolan, 2010)
  6. WALL-E (Stanton, 2008)
  7. Gravity (Cuarón, 2013)
  8. 28 Days Later… (Boyle, 2002)
  9. The Martian (Scott, 2015)
  10. Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Abrams, 2015)
  11. Mad Max: Fury Road (Miller, 2015)
  12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Gondry, 2004)
  13. District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009)
  14. Serenity (Whedon, 2005)
  15. Looper (Johnson, 2012)
  16. Snowpiercer (Bong, 2013)
  17. A Scanner Darkly (Linklater, 2006)
  18. Her (Jonze, 2013)
  19. Edge of Tomorrow (Liman, 2014)
  20. The Host (Bong, 2006)
  21. Midnight Special (Nichols, 2016)
  22. The World’s End (Wright, 2013)
  23. Moon (Jones, 2009)
  24. Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002)
  25. Primer (Carruth, 2004)
  26. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001)
  27. Cloverfield (Reeves, 2008)
  28. Attack the Block (Cornish, 2011)
  29. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Reeves, 2014)
  30. Reign of Fire (Bowman, 2002)
  31. Monsters (Edwards, 2010)
  32. 2046 (Wong, 2004)
  33. Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)
  34. Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014)
  35. Sunshine (Boyle, 2007)
  36. Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013)
  37. The Girl With All the Gifts (McCarthy, 2016)
  38. Source Code (Jones, 2011)
  39. Another Earth (Cahill/Marling, 2011)
  40. The One I Love (McDowell, 2014)
(titoli) #63

23 out of this 40 I have seen. From the top 10 I haven’t seen only Under the skin.

Nothing particular to add, although I would rather see The Mist, Pandorum or Elysium than Source Code or Pacific Rim and Rogue One than Force Awakens.

This is how I would order my 23:
1 Snowpiercer (Bong, 2013)
2 Mad Max: Fury Road (Miller, 2015)
3 District 9 (Blomkamp, 2009)
4 Donnie Darko (Kelly, 2001)
5 Gravity (Cuarón, 2013)
6 28 Days Later… (Boyle, 2002)
7 Children of Men (Cuarón, 2006)
8 WALL-E (Stanton, 2008)
9 Moon (Jones, 2009)
10 The Martian (Scott, 2015)
11 Sunshine (Boyle, 2007)
12 Ex_Machina (Garland, 2014)
13 Guardians of the Galaxy (Gunn, 2014)
14 The Host (Bong, 2006)
15 Minority Report (Spielberg, 2002)
16 A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Spielberg, 2001)
17 Arrival (Villeneuve, 2016)
18 Cloverfield (Reeves, 2008)
19 Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Abrams, 2015)
20 Inception (Nolan, 2010)
21 Her (Jonze, 2013)
22 Pacific Rim (del Toro, 2013)
23 Source Code (Jones, 2011)

#64

This is the only one I’ve never heard of.

‘Star Wars’ does have a ring to it though. It could gain a cult following someday.

(Asa) #65

Absolutely. I quite like The Force Awakens but I’m not sure I could’ve found a place for it in a top 40 let alone a top 10. Rogue One is a fantastic picture.

I own 27 of them, I’ve never heard of two of them (2046 and The One I Love). I’ve never seen the much-lauded number one, Children of Men. I suppose I should give it a try at some stage, I’ve just never felt any real urge to do so. I’ve never seen Her either, that gets a lot of love too. I used to own A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind but I ditched them both. And I found Arrival fairly disappointing really.

(scherpschutter) #66

Like Top 5: Ex_Machina, Source Code, The Martian, Moon and (surprise) Reign of Fire

Don’t like Bottom 5: Inception, Looper, Snowpiercer, District 9, Children of Men

(titoli) #67

I’ve just noticed that there is no Interstellar on this Rolling Stone list. Not that I am that crazy about it, but it is surprising for a mainstream magazine like RS to ignore it.

(Asa) #68

I liked Interstellar far more the second time around, just as I did with Inception and The Dark Knight. Must be something to do with the way Nolan structures his films.