Slashdot Asks: What's Your Favorite Sci-Fi Movie? 1222
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.
Bladerunner... (Score:5, Insightful)
Bladerunner. The original with the overdubbing.
Re:Bladerunner... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Bladerunner... (Score:5, Insightful)
Clearly.
Like other great Sci-Fi (Fritz Lang's Metropolis, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Westworld (the original), etc) it remains entertaining to this day. Aside from being a great movie, the thing I find most remarkable about BladeRunner is that it is almost 30 years old but if you didn't know that, you might think it was made last year.
The Fifth Element (Score:5, Informative)
Corny, but a classic to enjoy for all time.
Re:The Fifth Element (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Starship Troopers (Score:5, Funny)
Starship Troopers. We can end all discussion now. It's about the greatest movie ever made. Anyone who disagree is a bug lover.
Re:Starship Troopers (Score:5, Funny)
I would like to know more.
Re:Starship Troopers (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
You missed the point of the movie. (Score:5, Funny)
It's an "in-universe" propaganda movie to get people jacked up for war and boost recruitment numbers.
Think "Triumph of the Will" meeting "Top Gun".
Except it's Verhoeven behind the camera. And when he satirizes something he dials it up to 11.
And then he breaks off the dial and replaces it with a "MORE!!!" button, which he then beats with a hammer until there's nothing left to indicate that it's a satire.
Re:Starship Troopers (Score:4, Informative)
Remember, the movie [wikipedia.org] wasn't based on the book - it was developed under a different title and then changed for name recognition.
Re: (Score:3)
>warp-speed asteroids
Between that and the massive defense ring protecting Earth and yet conveniently an asteroid still flattened a not too important city (in the global scheme) you didn't figure out that it was a false-flag attack designed to whip up public fervor?
As for the body armor, of course you want casualties, you need to show that this is a horrific conflict that will take the entirety of your people standing as one to defeat some bugs (that didn't even attack you to begin with). Plus materially
It's a toss-up (Score:5, Interesting)
Metropolis (1927) or The Fifth Element.
Re: (Score:3)
Metropolis with the Queen soundtrack.
Oldie but Goodie (Score:5, Interesting)
Serenity (Score:5, Insightful)
Serenity
total recall (Score:5, Interesting)
Silent Running... (Score:5, Insightful)
"Silent Running" has never been my favorite movie (it would probably "Outland" with Sean Connery). But it has more science fiction than a lot of science fiction movies that came before or after. It fit the 1970's environmental theme quite well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Running [wikipedia.org]
Iron Sky, sitrict 9 (Score:3)
Ones that sort of straddles the intimate/big effects
District 9 . (south african alien flick)
And ones that straddle the "sheer force of will", low budget, and goofy good category
Iron sky
sky commander and the world of tomorrow
while the latter technically did get the hollywood budget treatement the back story is the key elements were done over 10 years on an old macintosh before being re-made.
My main criteria here is films I enjoy watching again.
Moon (Score:5, Insightful)
If only for kevin spacey's voice paired with emoji
Better yet... (Score:4, Funny)
...that are far from ever getting displaced by the reboots spree that the Hollywood is currently embarking.
Did you have to run that through a translator a couple times to get the desired effect? ;)
Based on HEINLEIN's work: PREDESTINATION (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:Based on HEINLEIN's work: PREDESTINATION (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw it a few weeks ago, and it was awesome! I searched it out as I had read it was based on Heinlein's work.
Honestly, I think most of Heinlein's work should be made into movies.
Still the best (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
SPOILER ALERT:
I've spotted other movies with the same basic plot element... humans given god-like powers, but the subconscious ruins everything.
Sphere is one I can remember. The others, I've forgotten...
I think watching Legion (TV Series) had me thinking about this again. Everything could be a product of his own mind.
I'd love to have a list of these.
Re: (Score:3)
Forbidden Planet
I popped in Forbidden Planet during a movie night once and all of the other guys kept saying "That's just like ", and I had to remind them that Forbidden Planet was done decades before those other movies with which they were familiar.
Re: (Score:3)
Leslie Nielsen being all serious. Theme music played on a theremin. Robbie the Robot. God, what a great movie.
Gattaca (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw it four times in the movie theater and it was the first DVD I ever bought.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt01... [imdb.com]
2001 (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
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).
The actors were not boring because space, they were boring because all humans were bored. They had mastered the solar system and apparently weren't concerned with war or poverty any more. They were waiting to evolve, so to speak.
Dune (Score:3, Insightful)
He who controls the spice controls the universe!
Forbidden Planet (Score:3)
Enemy Mine (Score:5, Interesting)
Spaceballs (Score:5, Funny)
Not a 'great' movie, but for sure one of my favourites. =)
To avoid normal responses: Nightwatch and Daywatch (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Primer - 6000$ one (Score:5, Informative)
Primer
As far as I know, it's the only one that involves time-travelling without inconsistencies, although I may have missed several.
Re:Primer - 6000$ one (Score:4, Interesting)
Came here just to say this. After seeing it mentioned in the xkcd: Movie Narrative Charts [xkcd.com] 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...
2010 (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
motes on mute (Score:3)
This is one of the most ridiculous memes ever. Sound is a mechanical vibration, and Jupiter probably vibrates like hell after it ignites.
What people mean is that there is no direct transmission of physical sound waves through the vacuum of space.
Snooping Through Walls with Microwaves [slashdot.org]
Laser microphone [wikipedia.org]
The red pill (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:The red pill (Score:5, Funny)
Loved the fist Matrix movie.
What do you mean, the "first" Matrix movie?
Colossus: The Forbin Project (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Dark City (Score:4, Informative)
John Carpenter's The Thing (Score:5, Informative)
Lesser praised sci-fi .... (Score:3)
As you as you start talking about "all times favorites", I think the well known movies like Star Wars come to mind for most of us. I agree with another poster that the first Matrix movie was also top-notch. That one bothers me though, only because the sequels derailed some of the things I liked best about the original. Basically, they took the story to different places I didn't think benefited it and I would have been happier if parts 2 and 3 were never made at all.
One of the low budget sci-fi flicks I really enjoyed, though, was "The Cube". In fact, the limited resources and "unknowns" used as actors and actresses add to the enjoyment because IMO, the whole cast did an amazing job and it's intriguing how so much suspense could be created with a backdrop that's typically just empty white rooms.
The Final Countdown (Score:5, Insightful)
...for its thoughtful resolution of the time travel causality paradox.
Without a doubt... (Score:5, Informative)
Dark Star!
Ringworld (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh wait, James Cameron's been sitting on the rights for that for almost two decades so he can waste our time with giant blue aliens encounter generic military stereotypes.
Either use your rights, or give them to someone else already, John. My opinion of you has gone from top-notch to meh about you over the years. Shit or get off the pot.
Re:Ringworld (Score:5, Interesting)
Easy choice (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Amazon Women on the Moon (Score:3)
Howard The Duck (Score:5, Funny)
I'm surprised Howard The Duck hasn't been mentioned yet, I would have thought that was everyone's favourite sci-fi. Or are people not mentioning it because they see it more as a drama?
I think Gattaca deserves a mention (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Contact (Score:4, Insightful)
Because it's an almost totally original concept, not relying at all on hyperdrives or laser canons. Maybe the producers got some ideas from "Stargate" which preceded it by three years.
Because it's suitable for everybody.
Because it's based on something that we can all participate in, the SETI project.
I'm wondering if and hoping that there will be a sequel in 2024.
Re:Contact (Score:5, Informative)
Are you really not aware that Contact is based on the Carl Sagan novel, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Stargate?
An Inconvenient Truth (Score:3)
How about ... Weird Science, Real Genius (Score:3)
along with Tremors, Terminator/Terminator2, and Back to the Future. All great ones in my book!
Children of Men (2006) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
This is one of those rare movies based on a book where they keep the heart and soul of the book while changing just about every detail that can be changed, almost like an alternate-history version of the book. The acting is just outstanding, you won't find a better A-list cast brought to a SciFi movie. And the camera work! Truly an unforgettable movie.
Impressed so many people said Gattaca (Score:3)
Normally, everyone says Bladerunner. The latter is truly great, but it lacks the story and character development of Gattaca.
The only real competition to Gattaca is Donnie Darko, but few think of it as sci-fi. Amazing they both came out in 2001.
Matrix clearly superb, as is 2001: A Space Odyssey.
"Her" is a great little film, the best sci-fi since Gattaca.
Empire Strikes Back, Terminator (original) and The Thing -- all these are either perfect or borderline perfect.
TRON (Score:5, Interesting)
Brazil! (Score:5, Insightful)
Tarkovsky's Solaris (Score:3, Insightful)
Demolition Man (Score:4, Insightful)
I will probably be chastised for this... I always loved Demolition Man. Stallone is a terrible actor, the film isn't particularly artistic or high-brow, but it was a fun film, a sci-fi premise (right down to the morality study of today's society by using an abstract world).
I liked it... sure, not the artistic appeal or thought provoking ability of Gattica. Perhaps not the commercial draw of Avatar. Still a fun film.
Something different (Score:4)
Men in Black
The Last Starfighter (Score:4, Insightful)
Not much science but using a video game to screen for hidden talents was pretty good. Plus Robert Preston was great as the alien.
The Black Hole (Score:5, Interesting)
Logan's Run (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Informative)
"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?
Re:Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Interesting)
Re: Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:4, Informative)
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? ;)
Re:Code 46 (Score:5, Funny)
The Matrix.
Watching that movie for the first time with no idea what it was about was fantastic - was it a hacker movie? alien invasion? spy thriller or detective movie? some kind of martial arts superhero movie? Going down the rabbit hole was great.
A shame they never made a sequel...
Re:Mine is... (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry, but no. I have NEVER EVER read a worse book.
What do you have? A completely unlikable protagonist, a Mary-Sue character if there ever was one, worse than in any Star Trek fanfic. Knows everything, can do everything, and every other important figure wants to be his friend and suck up to him. And being immortal he doesn't even have the decency to die at the end and sacrifice himself for everyone else, which is about the only redeeming feature those Mary-Sues have.
Plus, there is zero character development. None. At the start, when he acts all childish, kicks out the nudists for not conforming to his whims and flushing everything when he notices he made mistakes, you'd think that in the end he realizes that this is morally wrong and that one shouldn't do that, you'd expect some sort of catharsis, some insight, some atonement and eventual redemption so he would in the end emerge as a better god... but no. Nope. In the sequel he sends his son down (who is a far more likable character) and has him tortured and killed because ... reasons.
Sorry, but that book just sucks.
Re: Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:4, Funny)
No true Scotsman would agree with your assessment.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Insightful)
The Martian may well be forgotten, but it was a much better movie than any that you named. Space Odyssey is practically unwatchable because it's so full of anachronisms. Star Wars is a typical hollywood three-act play. Don't get me wrong, I loved it when I was twelve, but it's not great art, and it's not even great story. The Matrix was fantastic, I loved it, I even use imagery from it in my meditation practice, but there were way too many bandaids. One of them is even the bandaid that my wife and I use to joke about Hollywood scriptwriting bandaids: "combined with a form of fusion..." Alien 2 was pretty good, I'll grant you that, but it was basically a bug hunt.
What is great about The Martian is that it's got story, it's got adventure, it's got a kick-ass optimistic view of the future, and most of the science is fine. There is one plot band-aid at the beginning—the windstorm that can knock over a spaceship—but that's the worst one. And above all else, the film honors and lauds science. That's what science fiction is about, not blasters and bugs.
Re: (Score:3)
Space Odyssey was based on a book
Nope, read the foreword to the book. Clarke wrote the book at the same time as working on the screenplay. The book was, as I recall, released slightly earlier than the film, but neither was based on the other.
Re: (Score:3)
In addition to being around longer, we only discuss the good ones. Here we are discussing five standout movies over nearly 50 years rather than the thousands of terrible movies released over the same period. Yeah, most movies today suck. The same was true in 1980, but we don't waste our time re-watching "Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land".
Mine: (Score:5, Informative)
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
Re:Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Informative)
>> 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.
Re: Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Interesting)
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?
Re: (Score:3)
Why do you think moon is overrated? I barely heard about it, and really enjoyed it when I watched it. (I can understand and agree regarding the rest).
Re: (Score:3)
Re: Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
Re:Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Informative)
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/ [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.
Re:Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Funny)
Right, right, right... but apart from Avatar, Edge of Tomorrow, Interstellar, Looper, Gravity, Inception, and District 9, what have the Romans ever done for us?!
Re: (Score:3)
> Avatar came out in 2009, 8 years ago. You could argue there are some derivative ideas in it (as you could argue for any other work of fiction these days), but it was not a remake, not a sequel/prequel, and not a spin-off.
Avatar was a 100% remake of "Dances with Wolves" -- and I'm saying that as someone who bought the BluRay the instant it was available AND The Ultimate Fan's Guide to Avatar [amazon.com]
You might enjoy these reads:
* Avatar: A Multi-Dimensional Pop Parable for Ascension [realitysandwich.com]
* The Theology of Avatar [ezinearticles.com]
What ma
Re: (Score:3)
For example, I'm pretty sure that
Anne Hathaway’s Husband Begs Her to Stop Practicing Oscar Acceptance Speech
and John Hinckley, Jr. Furious to Discover Jodie Foster is Gay 32 Years Too Late
Aren't to be taken too seriously :)
Re:Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think there is a single story that isn't derivative in some ways.
Re:Golden age of remakes maybe (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Star Wars easily. If you saw it back in when it was released, it was a life changing event!
So many other great ones out there too, I'm enjoying the majority of the lists so far. But nobody has mentioned the original scary monster space movie:
Alien
And I don't think I've seen any of the big Japanese anime films mentioned so within my top 2 or 3 is:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Finally, my favorite during my college days, even the trailer blew me away:
The Matrix
Re: (Score:3)
Old School : Darkstar (Score:3)
Has to be Darkstar, John Carpenters directorial debut, co written with O'Bannon. It is notable not least for the reuse of the alien beach ball as the star of Alien some six years later. Darkstar is possibly the best $60,000 ever spent on a movie. If you do not tell anyone else I can let on that it can be found on YouTube in a fairly low resolution. Absolute classic and funny as hell. Star Wars is of course Cowboys and Indians in space for twelve year olds.
Re:Old School : Darkstar (Score:4)
Re:The Day the Earth Stood Still (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
The alternate ending version.
Re: (Score:3)
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Sphere!? You have to be joking. That was a terrible movie. The book was great, but so much of what made it great was internal dialog and psychology that just didn't translate to film.
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If you're going with TQOOS, why is there no complementary love for Plan 9 From Outer Space?