best science fiction movie of all time

[pokerfan]

Poll question: best science fiction movie of all time

[TZ]

1. The ORIGINAL Star Wars Trilogy

Not the Prequels...
I liked 2001 but (WARNING: HERESY) I found parts of it verrry draggy..I ALMOST liked 2010 better....

[kentauros]

7. Have you ever seen the original Russian "Solyaris" ?

Parts of it, too, drag, yet it continues to compell the viewer to stay with it. I love it for how very deep it is. It's amazing it got made at all in the Soviet Union...

[TZ]

14. I don't know

About half of 2001 almost put me to sleep!the second half was excellent but because of that no way is it the best movie of all time..I never felt that restless boredom with the original Star Wars

[kentauros]

16. "Hardcore" science fiction doesn't have a lot of action in it.

I can't say I've read anywhere near as much science fiction as some around here, but you might read some of Frederick Pohl's Heechee Saga or the Gentle Giants Saga by James P. Hogan. All of them have slow beginnings that build to more action, but none would ever be confused with the space-opera storytelling of Star Wars ;)

[leeroysphitz]

18. Well after the fifteen minutes Lem felt we needed to spend watching traffic I wasn't compelled

to continue. Solyaris is an unmitigated snooze.

[kentauros]

19. Then fast-forward over that part.

I can watch it all. I guess I'm just more patient. You have to be to read something like James Hogan's Inherit the stars ;)

[Dr. Strange]

26. Ditto on Inherit the Stars.

That's a nice series.

[leeroysphitz]

30. I read the "Giants" (minus Entoverse, of course.) and the Proteus Operation but

but a little but of Hogan goes a long way. I'll stick with Niven.

[kentauros]

34. I haven't read Niven since The Gripping Hand

and found it very weak. I hope he's done better work since then.

And you got my point about Hogan. I still love his stories, but they do take forever to get anywhere.

[quakerboy]

45. I used to enjoy Hogan

Then I read up on him, and I started seeing some unfortunate things insinuated through his writing. I stopped enjoying it nearly as much when I started taking it apart for messages.

[kentauros]

58. I have read some things about him, too

but I think I'll just leave that alone in case I want to go back to any of his older works and reread them. Sometimes it's good to know the background of a fiction author you like and sometimes it isn't. I doubt I'll ever read anything by the author of the Golden Compass, ever since learning about what an arrogant ass he is towards religion and spiritual thought. His "opinions" on those subjects turned me off to even bothering to seek out those books.

If I enjoy an author enough to look them up in more detail, I will just have to be careful as such knowledge could skew my acceptance of their work from then on. Crichton wrote some great stories long time gone, but I doubt I'll ever read any of them since I know he's such a big republican supporter now...


(forgive any lack of decent coherency in my fact-checking as the drugs are kicking in after the colonoscopy this morning...)

[ghostsofgiants]

32. Tarkovski was pretty brilliant.

I actually really liked the Soderbergh remake as well.

[kentauros]

35. I still haven't seen the remake.

How does it compare? I have heard mixed feelings about it, both good and bad, so I'm kind of leaning towards seeing it anyway, just to give it a chance ;)

Have you ever seen First Spaceship on Venus ? MST3K parodied it, but I didn't think it deserved that treatment. Sure the effects were bad, but the story was great! I once downloaded it from a "public domain movies" site, but I'm not sure if it's still there: http://www.publicdomaintorrents.com


(found it, under the sci-fi category :))

[ghostsofgiants]

39. It is definitely worth checking out.

And I'll check out First Spaceship. I've never heard of it.

[kentauros]

40. Okay, thanks, I'll look for it :)

First Spaceship is a bit cheasy at times, but it's still a good oldstyle science fiction movie. I think it was made in 1960.

[LeftOfSelf-Centered]

62. I've only seen the remake...

and I enjoyed it. Jeremy Davies is really good in it.
I'd like to see the original, but I wouldn't know where to get it (probably not exactly a big seller in Italian video stores!)

I read the book "Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem, but I found it fairly tedious...

[Ikonoklast]

2. How could you leave this one out of the poll? I voted 'other'.

Great story (stolen from Shakespeare) and great effects that have weathered the test of time.

And a nubile Ann Francis in short skirts, ferchrissakes!



And, of course, Robby The Robot is a cultural icon.

[pokerfan]

3. I also left out

When Worlds Collide, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, It Came From Outer Space and a whole bunch of others from that era.

[RagAss]

5. Oh yes, nubile. Very nubile.

[HopeHoops]

4. Mars Attacks

Okay, it sort of sucked, but it was funny when the music made their heads explode inside their helmets.

[kentauros]

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey

The epitome of what is real science fiction :D




(the Mike Oldfield CD that was written to another Clarke book, Songs of Distant Earth, is playing on my headphones now )

[Kingofalldems]

8. Spaceballs

[kentauros]

9. If you want the best sci-fi parody

then Dark Star is by far the best! :D

[Richardo]

53. +1

That movie is hilarious.

[RagAss]

10. Donovan's Brain.

Yes that's Nancy Reagan....

[flvegan]

11. The Running Man

"Killian, here's your Subzero, now plain zero."

:rofl:

[sarge43]

12. Metropolis

Film makers are still mining it for themes and visuals and it holds up even after 90 years.

[charlie and algernon]

13. children of men

[IDemo]

54. Seconded

[Shell Beau]

15. Sci-fi isn't my thing. The only one I can say that I really liked was

the Star Wars movies. And not all of those either. Really just the first 3 (or last three if you go by how they fall into place time wise)!

[GCP]

17. 2001- just because they got the science right

No noise in space - goodbye Alien and Star Wars
No fighter ships banking and maneuvering as if there was air in space - goodbye Star Wars again
Yet it dealt with big themes - evolution, what it means to be human.
I think it's under-rated by too many people

[wickerwoman]

20. Dune

:P

Just kidding.

The only acceptable answer is Aliens.

Or The Cube.

[pokerfan]

23. I had my phasors on kill when I clicked this

Neither interpretation captured Herbert's novel, IMO. Yet, Lynch's version was utterly incomprehensible to anyone who hadn't read the book so he actually failed both ways. I remember taking my gf and they were handing out notes for everyone to read before the movie. Some kind of last ditch effort by the studio.

Aliens rocks. "Get away from her, you bitch!"

[leeroysphitz]

28. Aliens was better than Alien IMO. n/t

[LeftOfSelf-Centered]

64. I loved Cube...

And Aliens was a really fun action adventure type movie. It still angers me to no end when I think about what they did to the franchise starting with Alien3 :mad:

[Tikki]

21. 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and...

I like the TV movie 'Martian Chronicles' and the movie 'The Man Who Fell To Earth'.


Tikki

[Vidar]

22. Dune. Not kidding at all.

[pokerfan]

24. It's one of my top five

SF books. The movie and miniseries? Not so much.

[Vidar]

61. Read it 10 times, taught it twice. I really like Brian Herbert &

Kevin Anderson's prequels & sequels as well.

[Paladin]

25. Hey! What About "Starship Troopers"????

[kentauros]

27. Well, it's a great recruitment and propaganda film

since that's what Voerhoven's intent was ;)

[many a good man]

29. Fantastic Voyage

OK, not really. But it is a good excuse to post this pic.

[Frank Cannon]

51. Excuse me

But I really think you meant to post this one...

[petronius]

31. The Thing (nt)

[DerekG]

33. Where's Solaris and Children of Men?

And what the fuck is Star Wars doing on a SF list?

[kentauros]

36. We're discussing Solyaris and Solaris upthread

:D

[LeftyMom]

47. Children of Men is fantastic.

And you're correct, Star Wars is a fantasy story in a space opera setting, rather than science fiction. There's not really any science involved- you could substitute appropriate nouns from another setting (say a terrible new siege machine for the Death Star and a walled city for Alderan) and the plot wouldn't change appreciably or make any more or less sense.

[Condem]

37. The Andromeda Strain.

[begin_within]

38. "2001" easily, but "Contact" (1997) is a close second.

[RoyGBiv]

41. 2001 ...

The others aren't even close.

Some are excellent movies, in particular Alien and Brazil.

[Occam Bandage]

42. 2001 was very, very good, yes. It's also overrated. nt

[edbermac]

43. Plan Nine From Outer Space

What else?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

44. Forbidden Planet.

The ORIGINAL Star Trek. And never forget it!

[pokerfan]

48. The original Star Trek movie?

Really? I thought they were trying to do Star Trek: A Space Odyssey only without the talent of Kubrick. The franchise was virtually DOA.

[GaYellowDawg]

46. KHAAAAAN!!

Nothing beats Wrath of Khan, baby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAAl2zfk684&

[InvisibleTouch]

49. Agreed. n/t

[Common Sense Party]

50. Brazil is science fiction?

I never thought of it as such. I guess 1984 would also be sci-fi?

[RebelOne]

52. The original "The Thing" made in the 1950s. Best sci fi pix ever. n/t

[wyldwolf]

55. Galaxina... Battle Beyond The Stars... Final Countdown...

;)

[Ohio Joe]

56. Other - 12 Monkeys - nt

[LeftHander]

57. THX 1138

[arenean]

59. Silent Running

Got to be "Silent Running" for me.

Here's the BBC's film critic, Mark Kermode, explaining why!


Forgotten Classic: Silent Running

[Tikki]

67. Is a really excellent movie...

Bruce Dern was amazing in that movie...


Tikki

[Iggo]

60. The Chronicles Of Riddick

[petronius]

69. I thought about those too - I remember being really surprised

at how good Pitch Black turned out to be...

[azmouse]

63. It's not even close... Alien and Aliens = best ever!

[Dogtown]

65. You Forgot "Logan's Run" n/t

[LeftOfSelf-Centered]

66. Blade Runner

It's probably my favorite movie. It's by no means perfect, but I just love that whole near future dystopian setting. And you can see it's influence in a lot of stuff since then. I even got myself the 5DVD boxed set.

2001 did get the science right, and it is an amazing movie, especially considering when it was made. But as a movie I find it really hard to watch. I read the book and enjoyed it a lot more.

Star Wars I'll always have a soft spot for, because The Empire Strikes Back is the first movie I remember wanting to see and seeing in a cinema when I was six. Alien/Aliens I both love as well...

And does Tron count??
:hide:

[cwydro]

68. Remember Fantastic Voyage?

I guess that qualifies. I love that movie.

[YankeyMCC]

70. Forbidden Planet

Poll over