Greatest sci-fi movies of the decades- but only one per...
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Saturday, December 3, 2005 08:30
VIEWED: 17340
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Here's my alternative list nominating somewhat lesser known masterpieces:
50's- Incredible Shrinking Man (matte lines and all...)
60's- The Power (a George Pal gem)
70's- Silent Running (very small flick)
80's- Firestarter (a most amazing finale)
90's- The Abyss (heard of it?)
00's- Serenity (yes, Greatest AND Greatest lesser known)
Chrisisall, double-dipping
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Dang Chrisisall you come up with the greatest questions, yet so often they tear my loyalties....
....Boy this is a tough one!! Ok
50's - Creature From the Black Lagoon in 3D (If you've not seen it in 3d give it a go it's brilliant)
60's - Village of the Damned
70's - Close Encouters of the Third Kind
80's TRON (Simply genius and unlike any film EVER made!!!!)
90's Matrix (This was the late 90's right?)
00's SERENITY
Can I put one down for the 40's ? :Flash Gordon conquers the Universe (Peril from the planet Mongo) I just love these so much fun.
Fun as always Chrisisall.
The
Somnambulist
www.cirqus.com
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Aren't we forgetting some other decades?
1900s - A Trip to the Moon
1910s - Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
1920s - Metropolis
1930s - Things to Come
1940s - Dr. Cyclops
1950s - Forbidden Planet
1960s - 2001: A Space Odyssey
1970s - A Clockwork Orange
1980s - Blade Runner
1990s - Contact
2000s - Pluto Nash
Wait a minute, I think I just went a bit insane. Scratch that last one and put in Serenity.
wo men ren ran zai fei xing.
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This is hugely difficult! Herewith, my main list:
50's- The Day the Earth Stood Still
60's- 2001: A Space Odyssey
70's- Star Wars: A New Hope
80's- Terminator
90's- Dark City
00's- Serenity
And here is my alternates list:
50's- Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds, The Thing
60's- The Satan Bug, The Time Machine
70's- The Andromeda Strain, Alien
80's- The Empire Strikes Back, The Abyss, Aliens, Blade Runner
90's- Highlander, The Maxx, The Matrix
00's- 28 Days Later, Hellboy
A few comments... this is like deciding between apples and oranges. I like each of these movies for different reasons. Some inspire deep thought and reflection on complex topics (The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001). Some are special effects masterpieces (Forbidden Planet, War of the Worlds). Some are relatively shallow, but tightly-told stories with such momentum that they just keep you in the movie (The Thing, Terminator). Some offer engrossing characterization (Serenity, The Maxx). Hence, I couldn't just pick one alternate in each decade.
And "The Maxx" is something of a ringer... it was an animated story presented as 11 minute installments for MTV's Liquid Television. It was intriguing, but incomprehensible to me until I purchased it properly stitched together on a video tape as a feature length animated film... it is actually far superior in that form.
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Wow. This is a tough one, because some of these decades produced some amazing stuff. I have a ton of ties, but I'll give my list and make some commentary.
50's - Day The Earth Stood Still - Not necessarily for what it was, but what it became. It went on to become one of the most recognizably homaged sci-fi movies ever. Klaatu barata nicto!
60's - 2001, A Space Oddysey - Easiest decade to pick from, in my opinion.
70's - Alien - This became the standard by which I judged all other sci-fi. The acting and special effects were above and beyond anything seen so far (yes, even SW and ST:TMP).
80's - The Terminator - This was by far my hardest decade to pick from. You had Aliens, Highlander, Blade Runner, SW:ESBack, SW:WoKhan - A veritable smorgasboard of sci-fi. Terminator had a tight (if a bit predictable) story, great visuals, and some of the most highly quoted dialogue of a film to this day, so I had to go with it. Blade Runner was based off a better book; Highlander, while still a favorite, needed better editing; and the rest were (although awesome) sequels.
90's - Dark City - I would like to make the Matrix my first choice, but I can't. They have similar plots (to a point, I'll explain in a sec), but City came out first and had a much better actor in the lead role. If the Wachowski's didn't say they cribbed half the Matrix from City, they're lying their asses off. For those that haven't seen it, Dark City is a story about a man (Rufus Sewell) who wakes up and is wanted for murder, who knows he didn't commit it. He comes to find out that there is a secret race of beings called the Strangers that keep people mentally sleeping in order to conduct experiments. Each night they change reality so that the people interact with one another in different ways, but something fails with Sewell's character. It is a brilliant movie, probably my #2 or 3 all time pick. Oh, on another note, can't forget The Mummy in the 90's (it was 1998/9, wasn't it?); say what you want, that was a fun movie to watch.
2000's - So far, I have to say Serenity, but have to admit that it isn't due to the quality (don't flame me; Serenity was awesome and I saw it 4 times). There hasn't really been much else to the 00's yet. I'm not sure I count the superhero movies as sci-fi (so no S-2), and I don't count animation (so no Incredibles). I don't consider LOTR or HPotter sci-fi, nor will I consider Narnia (not only do I consider them fantasy, a trap Highlander nearly falls into, but they are also adaptations from books, which hampers their originality factor). I liked War of the Worlds, but wouldn't rate it as a number one because of the weak ending; the new SW movies I thought all pretty much sucked ass (even SW3:ROTS). I'm hoping something wows me here real soon and (given that I am a fan of Chung's animation- Aeon Flux, Animatrix, Reign the Conqueror) I'm doubting that Aeon Flux will do it.
7%'s 2c
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He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.
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7%...
I went back and forth between SW and Alien for the 70's. I agree with you that Alien is the tighter story with better acting. But what swung SW for me was that it's story was grander in scope... and more ambitious visually. There was enough depth in SW to base an entire series of movies on it. And Lucas should be shot for squandering the richness of that universe in the last three movies.
But I can't hold Lucas' loss of vision in recent years (decades) against the presence of vision he displayed in the original film.
Still, a tough call for me.
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I haven't see Aeon Flux yet 
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Quote:
Originally posted by danfan:
And Lucas should be shot for squandering the richness of that universe in the last three movies.
Line him up and blindfold him, and I'll hand you the rifle when I'm done. I'm in total agreement with you on that. But that wasn't what he did that lost me; when he went back and "edited" the originals (Han shot first, btw) is when he pissed me off.
And I just remembered, thinking of "reverse engineering" movies- I forgot E.T. for the 80's! Damn Spielberg for pulling a Lucas with that one (went back and changed guns into walkie-talkies).
I also didn't realize that you had City for your 90's flick also. Man, that's a great film.
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He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.
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Thankfully, someone just let me know about a movie from the 00's that I had forgotten about, one that completely blew my mind when I saw it. The Spielberg flick A.I., with Jude Law and Haley Joel Osment (sp?). That was an incredible movie with some brilliant societal criticism. How I forgot that one, I'll never know. Call that one my 00's pick (tied with Serenity, of course ).
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He looked bigger when I couldn't see him.
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Glad to see someone else willing to defend A.I. I just don't see it as being half as atrocious as people are making it out to be. Sure, the end takes it time (and yeah, it's a bit too long), but a bad ending doesn't always a bad movie make. I can still enjoy acts one and two for what they are.
And while we're talking about Spielberg 00's films, what about Minority Report? Fantastic film.
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