Leading from a post by Michael in "latest movie thread..." Me and a few friends were having a heated debate about what is the best sci-fi film ever, so lets see what you lot say...

me......Bladerunner.

Alien

hmmm,aliens perhaps,a rarity in that the sequel is better than the first one,only just tho....

Will you be as stringent as I was with the favourite piece of music thread?

If not () I'd go for 2001, Bladerunner (Final Cut) and Alien with bonus shouts to Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, Aliens and Solaris (Soderbergh - haven't seen the Tarkovsky).

If you are then it'd have to be 2001. Stone cold genius my man.

Im being stringent Marzie, 2001 for you i see. This is starting to be exactly the same as what we all came up with, Alien, 2001 and Bladerunner.

its gotta be 2001. THX 1138 is one of the best looking sci fis i've ever seen. John Carpenter's The Thing i would put up there. Cronenberg's The Fly if that counts. Does Eraserhead count?

fantastic planet or tarkovskys solaris

Big on Inception and Sphere myself, but of the classic classics I'd have to say Bladerunner.

Hmm, add Sunshine to that.

The Thing (John Carpenter version).

Blade Runner
2001
Fahrenheit 451
Solaris
Mad Max
Dune

How could I forget Dune?!

Avoiding all the obvious choices - Akira

bladerunner

+1 on Dune

wasn't the greatest but i liked Event Horizon. The idea of alternate dimension of pure evil was interesting.

can't stand sci-fi movies...

Then you haven't seen a good one.

didn't know Donnie Darko is into this group or V for Vendetta too..wtf

ok..i was wrong..but science fiction is in my mind only movies as star wars or so :/

Marina, meet Libby.

Well, this is as good a thread to make my first post as any...

And, to be edgy and foreign and all that, I'm going to say that, while I respect some of the choices above (particular props go to "Eraserhead" and "Solaris"), I have to go with the most formally inventive sci-fi film I've ever seen, Chris Marker's 30-minute-long La Jetée, which is made up of maybe 95% black and white stills, and the one minute or so that there is of moving picture is like an ocular orgasm.

It also happens to be on YouTube in full:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClvTYd4XnEc

I wouldn't class Donnie Darko or V for vendetta as Sci-Fi, i would class them as something like fantasy thriller.

Eraserhead isnt sci-fi now is it? what science is being fictionated in eraserhead??

it is amazing though, one of my favourites, just not Sci fi.

Dune however is the other end of David lynch's work. Utter rubbish, mainly because of studio interference but still, a terrible film. Especially as the book is one of, if not the greatest Science Fiction events in history.

Total recall anyone?

Fans of Sting in plastic undercrackers though won't be disappointed.



Phwoar.

Agreed that the film was the artistic equivalent of runny poo and that the original story was a rollicking read. But calling the book 'one of, if not the greatest Science Fiction events in history'? Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clarke and indeed Iain M Banks have written better and they're just off the top of my head.

Asimov especially, wrote most of the stories which have been remade time and time again in various incarnations.

My Choice would also be 2001. The use of the monolith and its music in a few key places in which I previously missed first go around is ahead of its time. Amazing stuff.

As for contemporaries, I would also class children of men as a sci fi, I like the dystopian future Britain that was portrayed and a few moments in that film were very intense, EG the crusty abduction attempt and the battle sequence at the end.

As far as sci fi horror is concerned I think alien wins every time. allthough the thing is one of my favourites, original and remake. oh and a prequel is on the horizon http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0905372/

Glad its not a straight remake of a remake and am curious to see how this works.

Surprised i haven’t seen any mentions for Terminator 2? District 9? Brazil? Clockwork Orange? Star Wars??? All fairly modern and popular but still great films.

yes...but,wikipedia has list of them and binch movies which has nothing to do with sci-fi... "psycho" thrillers and movies which end but u still have no clue what was the point are the best

this is your fav
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lW0F1sccqk

oh no...

I don't care, I still enjoyed The Matrix a lot when it came out. Was kinda ruined by the following sequels though....

@ marina - if you hate the genre then post elsewhere, surely. Attempting to pour scorn on a class act like Bladerunner - and regardless of genre, the brilliance of the filmmaking alone qualifies it as a bona fide 'classic' - just makes you look trollish.

@ Erik - Aye, the Matrix is class alright. Was thinking about this earlier though - is it actually sci-fi? I reckon true sci-fi qualifies as such only if a/ it suggests futurism or at least a version of the future or b/ is atemporal but plotwise is rooted on another planet in another galaxy far, far away.... The Matrix was definitely rooted in its time - all those Nokia slidey phones mean it forever will be...

Matrix is definitely Sci Fi, as it is completely based on fictional science. it is heavy in its sci finess, much more so than things like a clockwork orange , which i always think of as a social satire as opposed to Sci fi.

If clockwork orange is sci fi, than thats one of the best by a mile as its one of my all time favourite films.

Never read much azimoth, read some Arthur C Clarke and some banks. hope to read alot more as they are all recommended highly..
i think im right in calling the biggest selling Sci fi book of all time one of the greates SCI Fi events in history. Especially considering the depth and complexity of Dune and the fact that it reached and continues to reach so many people. Thats something a bit special surely.

ghost in the shell???

That trailer is terrible, infact it maybe the trailer to the original cut which had the god awful voice over all the way through, the directors cut is the one. Just watch it Marina (directors cut).

I think it is my fave sci-fi because i went to see it at the cinema in 1982 when it was released, i was very young at it just blew my mind, it was the days of no computers and no CGI overkill in films. I even have a Blue dragon tattoo based on one of the neon signs in my tattooed sleave. I did also see Star Wars on its release in 1977, yes, im old.

The Thing

add Moon to the list.
Renaissance:the masters series 14 :dave seaman,was good too.

I'm not sure but there are a bunch of interesting looking ones reviewed here:
http://cyberpunkreview.com/movies-ordered-by-star-rating/

Certainly, the classics are classics for a reason: inspiring, evocative, watershed. You have your Blade Runners, your 2001s, your The Things, your Stalkers and Solarises. They all have their place in the pantheon.

Then there's some newer ones that stand above the crowd for me: Sunshine, and Children of Men especially. But the one sci-fi film that towers over everything else, for me, just has to be...

Ghost in the Shell. It is just the most awe-inspiring, thought-provoking, and down right sublime sci-fi film I've ever seen. Granted, it loses some of the mystique and minutiae of the source material. But it really checks all the boxes for me: mind blowing treatment of AI; a somewhat wabi-sabi look at a future Japan; some killer future tech; scintillating action; chin-stroking science; phenomenal, mostly hand-drawn animation; and, finally, it just really carries on the tradition established by the classics, whilst creating it's own niche.

In other words, Ghost in the Shell, is, IMO, the best sci-fi film ever.

Event horizon

Blade Runner and Terminator 2 were always my faves.

Matrix I.

Terminator...the first one closely followed by Matrix 1, great films both of them, Arnie does not really act in Terminator which is ironically one of it's strong points!!

Never mind Ridley Scott's forthcoming Alien prequel, Prometheus, a film with possibly the coolest cast list since Pulp Fiction in Idris Elba, Michael Fassbender and Noomi Rapace - what about this?

Unfeasibly exciting news - unfeasible chiefly because Scott hasn't made a decent flick since Black Hawk Down.

I live in hope....

Marzie, that has made my week, no, my year!! A while ago some one told me that Michael Bay was going to do it, i instantly vomited and cried at the same time.

Yeah the prequel looks freaking sick, watched the original Alien last night for old time's sake.

Godda say it's a toughy to say any one film, but I'd say Alien, The Thing and Blade Runner push all my buttons.

Star Wars, duhhhh!

This is all very exciting, obviously. The mere thought of new BR and Alien flicks (the AvP "films" do not exist in my mind...) truly fills me with excitement. However, I am approaching all of this with a fair bit of trepidation. As much as I appreciate and admire everything Ridley did with both those films, he really hasn't done anything else since then (IMO) that even approximates their brilliance. Sure, he's helmed some decent stuff (Black Hawk, Matchstick Men), but he's mostly created utter dreck since then. My worry is that he may just not have quite what it takes to treat these with the amount of tact required to make them remarkable.

With that being said, I'm not sure if there are ANY other directors who would do any better here. And as for BR, there still isn't even a script for it yet, let alone a production company with the clout to spend some serious cash. And Prometheus isn't any better! With the script coming from Damon Lindelof, who knows where it could lead to (Heaven? Really? What a complete waste of 6 years...). That's not even taking into account all of the bits of (mis?)information that has been leaking about it.

And beyond all of THAT, is there really a need for another BR in any way, shape or form? I would hate to see that movies legacy be tarnished by a superfluous new edition. Prometheus has some stuff being said that is extremely enticing (Space Jockey! Weyland without the Yutani!), but there are just too many unknowns at this point for me to get too excited. Agh! It all makes my head hurt. Like everyone else here, I'm very passionate about both films (hence this rather wordy reply). I guess I'll just have to be patient, and trust that Ridley will return to his previous form to do the impossible.

ALSO, lol, on topic: I'm surprised no one has yet mentioned the grandfather of sci-fi films, Fritz Lang's watershed Metropolis. If you want to talk about inspiration, pretty much every set designer could probably point to Metropolis as being a big influence. Killer story that remains prescient to this day as well.

Aye, Metropolis. A memorable trip and one I don't regret taking. I did however fall asleep two-thirds of the way through despite its awesome imagery and the fact the central conceit of workers versus fat cats couldn't be more prescient. Then again I was very tired.

Loved the poster with its art-deco echoes of Empire State and Chrysler buildings...



What an absolutely rocking piece of film art.

- A Penderyn on ice to celebrate!

- I concur about BHD being his last decent movie - Crowe is fat, grumpy and average at best.

- Lang's masterpiece on my original Top 20 list - epic. Inspiration for Burton's sets in Batman.

I'm with you on all that, there is going to be one so we have accept it and the only way i would except it is if Ridley was directing it, so thats one problem out the way.
The other thing is that they don't call it Bladerunner 2 or Bladerunner :The prequel, but Ridley (I hope) is too intelligent to do that.
As for the script and story line, well that could be make or break, but again, we will have to accept whatever it is.
The biggest thing i fear is the use of CGI, I'm a big fan of it when used right, used subtly, but when its overkilled, it ends up looking like a PS3 game. Those bloody awful Starwars prequels are an example, but Ridley tends to use it subtly, in Gladiator you hardly know its there, lets hope he keeps it lo-fi.

Christ, the CGI in the Star Wars films was bloody atrocious. I mean, I have a decent imagination - or am at least a champion daydreamer - but those films defeated me as regards any sense of illusion. Just artifice of a particularly plastic kind. Even worse was Lucas's tinkering with the original seventies films, changing entire strands of narrative and subtext, most heinously in the infamous saloon scene. Ye know what I'm talking about.

Scott's subtle digital buffing-up of Bladerunner on his Final Cut was how it should be done. Some halation in the vehicle lights, some noise removal in the grain and that's about it. The whole thing scrubbed up a treat. In fairness Trumbull's brilliant designs would stand the test of time anyway.

Slightly - well, totally - off-topic, but seeing as we're on the subject of Scott's oeuvre, wasn't the special edition of Gladiator - much like the extended Lord Of the Rings dvd's - galactically superior to the original, theatrical release? It actually feels like an authentic Ben Hur type De Millean epic.

I havent seen the special edition of Gladiator but i can imagine you can only just spot the difference, like with the re-mastering of Bladerunner, it took me 2 watches to spot the touch ups.

Syd Mead should be brought on board again for Bladerunner (if he's alive?)

Actor to play Deckard? An unknown or i would like to see John Hamm play him.

More a mini series than a movie but the Martian Chronicles was excellent (though not a patch on the book).

Space Balls is pretty brap as is Zardoz.

A quote from Zardoz

"The gun is good. The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life to poison the Earth with a plague of men, as once it was, but the gun shoots death, and purifies the Earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth ... and kill!"

That's just awesome frankly.
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