Science fiction movies

Let´s talk about a genr ein movies which I think many of us Progheads like very much: Meg Ryan movies... oh no, excuse me, Science fiction movies.

What´s your favorite movie? What do you generally think of this genre? Is it just an excuse for making adventurous movies in outer space or do you think there are actually intelligent movies made under this cathegory? Which type of science fiction movies do you prefer, Cyberpunk (Blade runner), Outerspace (Star Wars), philosophical (2001: A space odyssey), monster movies (Godzilla)...etc...? And what ever yoy would like to add!

Personally, I think science fiction is quite like metal, for it has some of the best movies ever made (Solaris, A clockwork Orange) just as metal (Opeth, Tool, Metallica (old Metallica)) but in general the genre is full of special effects, non plot dirven sh*t (Battlefield earth, Godzilla meats your momma...etc) just as most metal (Glam metal, most of Power metal (sorry), Nü metal...etc). But, as I said mefore, some of the very best movies ever made fall under this genre.

As for my favorite movie, I have said it many times, 2001: A space odyssey, it´not only my favorite movie in the genre, but in general. Other movies I like very much: The Fountain, A clockwork Orange, the first two X-men movies, the first Matrix (woooow how original!) and the three original Star Wars (specially The Empire strikes back) among others...
Generally I like the more deep, philosophical films, although there are many, specially the ones that are set in the future, that could even be considered as Film Noir´s that are very effective also.


...now you

I love all the greats.. Fantastic Voyage (so good they still haven't remade it), War of the Worlds (the original of course), Time Machine, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the first one and the remake with Donald Sutherland is excellent), and the mother of modern sci-fi cinema Forbidden Planet.. also Jason and the Argonauts and the other Harryhausen ones, and all the Alien movies are great

My favourite movie of all freakin`time is Eraserhead. Genius. My Godzilla collection drives everyone nuts as well. Creature From the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, 1,000,Years BC all great ! I won`t watch anything with modern special effects although the first Terminator movie was great. Bores me to Tears. Ed Wood Rules ! Can`t stand remakes either. I also love the original StarTrek series.

"Welt am Draht" ("World on Wire") by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Basically the same idea as "The Matrix", only about 30 years earlier, without all those FX, but a much better movie.
Another good one:
"Phase IV", a movie about ants that have become intelligent and two scientists who try to study them. After a while you start asking who is being studied though, the ants or the scientists?
"Silent Running", a movie about the last forests, which sadly no longer exist on earth but in space.



Edited by BaldFriede - January 08 2008 at 15:32

I love reading good sci-fi/dystopian novels, but don't generally care for the movies, to be honest. There's usually too much flash and not enough substance to impress me. On the other hand, some of the best movies ever made are directly or undirectly related to sci-fi, imo. I like your (el böthy) list, our tastes are rather similar, it seems!  Don't have much to add right now, except that every Philip K. Dick fan should see A Scanner Darkly.

Thanks for the tips Baldfriede, haven't seen any of those!

Slartibartfast wrote: sleeper wrote: Starship Troopers 2 Please tell me you made that one up. #1 did such a disservice to the Yes song.

No, I'm not, and the first did a diservice to Heinleins original (the songs not that good either).

The last great Sci-Fi film I saw was Children of Men, but I've not read the original book by P.D. James, which apparently is also very good.

I thought the Tom Cruise War of the Worlds was abysmal, Hollywood seem to ruin things nowadays.

Oh and the original Day of the Triffids was excellent too.

I tend to also like dystopian and/or intelligent sci-fi.  I don't like Space Operas that much to be honest.

I am still waiting to see some of the film adaptations of some Kurt Vonnegut books, I believe there is some.

Atavachron wrote: Vibrationbaby wrote: I also love the original StarTrek series. have you caught any of the new ones with the added footage and effects?  they're really well-done, very tasteful and lovingly restored.. they're not available on disc yet as far as I know (usually shown on CW network) but well worth it

Well, the first Star Trek movie was rather boring. Was it really necessary to do a camera trip of about half an hour through the new Enterprise? Yawn...

Not bad for a box office hit, but when it comes to that I prefer "Twelve Monkeys". A movie in which you have to watch out for the details down to the very last scene if you want it to make sense.

The Doctor wrote: Well, I'm a huge scifi fan, so here are my favorites. The aforementioned movies based on Philip K. Dick's writing, esp. Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report.    The even-numbered Star Trek movies: I, V and IX all sucked.  III and VII were ok but not as good as any of the even-numbered movies.    If counting the Star Wars movies as scifi (I consider them to be more fantasy related than scifi), I love episodes II, III and V (III being my favorite movie ever of any genre).   I also like some of the old cheesy scifi movies, like Forbidden Planet, When Worlds Collide, the original Time Machine, and all five (yes, I said all five!) of the Planet of the Apes movies.  I even liked Godzilla vs. Your Momma.    Also, there are some great movies which use science fiction plot devices like Butterfly Effect (time travel) and Vanilla Sky (cryo-freeze).    Some others: Logan's Run, Deep Impact, The X-Men trilogy, The Spiderman trilogy, The Terminator trilogy and The Langoliers (ok, that one's a miniseries).    That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

well, first of all: I, V and IX are uneven numbers. and then you seem to contradict yourself; just look at the marked passages