My top 10 SciFi movies of all time

POSTED BY: Moss
UPDATED: Thursday, March 23, 2006 07:36
VIEWED: 18334
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LEGOLAD

Sunday, March 19, 2006 7:09 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Jonestein:
I've ranted about politicizing movies on this board before. It's not so much the substance of what's being politicized that bothers me, it's that when I recognize the politicizing(which was so blatently obvious in Ep. III), it jerks me out of my world of escapism and back into the real world.

I go to the movies for the escapism and to be entertained, not to be brainwashed with the director's real world political views.

I'm right there with you on Natalie Portman's harlequin lines...unfortunately, her one "good" line was just more politicizing.

Interesting... I think I like a movie best when it works as escapist entertainment AND as a commentary on the real world. Bit of a paradox, I know, but considering the site we're on, I think I'll use Serenity as my example. The whole concept of Miranda was just brilliant, in my opinion, and one of the most powerful parts of the film. But consider the details: a military power tries to 'pacify and improve' a foreign population, and instead ends up killing many and provoking a few to extreme retaliatory violence. Am I the only one reading more into this? Serenity seems to have a pretty overt political message to me, but I think it just makes the film more effective. What do you think?

"We need a hood ornament."

MOSS

Sunday, March 19, 2006 8:00 AM

I think I'll use Serenity as my example. The whole concept of Miranda was just brilliant, in my opinion, and one of the most powerful parts of the film. But consider the details: a military power tries to 'pacify and improve' a foreign population, and instead ends up killing many and provoking a few to extreme retaliatory violence. Am I the only one reading more into this? Serenity seems to have a pretty overt political message to me, but I think it just makes the film more effective. What do you think?

"We need a hood ornament."

I hadn't thought about it that way before.

Very interesting interpretation.

MAGHAFFAR

Sunday, March 19, 2006 9:56 AM

Personally, I like films that have some intense emotionally involving elements -- hence, "Serenity" works so wonderfully precisely because it's really all about the PEOPLE in the 'Verse and the Family that is the crew of Serenity. I think it's significant that Joss' vision paints the problem with the Allaince as being it's meddlesome desire to control the masses by removing their passion & feeling of individuality -- a la Communism. The Pax added to the air on Miranda killed most of the people by removing their will to live, to strive, to be [a-hem] INDEPENDENT & INDIVIDUALISTIC. It created the Reavers by accentuating the exact, negative opposite -- completre self-centeredness/carnal passions/violence, etc.

Firefly/Serenity appeals to people on that basic emotional level of needing to be yourself and make your own choices, be valued/respected for who you are -- black, white, Jayne, whatever, and not have Big Brother doin' your thinking for you. That outta the way, here's my list of top SF & Fantasy films... ones that to me celebrate our human-ness in our emotional/spiritual experiences. WARNING... A passel of tangents underefoot.

(My picks are not necessarily in any 'better than' {to quote Badger) order. 'Sides, I gots me the right to like 'em more or less equally if'n I wants. {..."Spent time in the lockdown - but not as much as he claims..." - River as a Cockney Brat}

LOTR TRILOGY (extended versions) You Are There! 'nuff sed.

CONTACT {"Do you love your father?... Prove it." Man, this whole movie gets me every time. Finding God in outer space -- and honestly, it's just this element that existentialism as a philosophy fails to deliver -- the finding God part. Joss's worldview, reflected in Mal, fills the nuthin' of space with nuthin' but us, and that's a shame. Existentialism as a system creates, on one hand, the bonding of the crew of Serenity to each other (via the womb that is the ship itself) cuz there's no one or nothing else to bond to or seek protection in -- and emotionally speaking, that's very effective story-wise -- and on the other hand, existentialism creates the cold, sterile Big Brotherism of the very Alliance the Independents rejected. Darwinism when it first came out did the exact same worldview/dictotomy-shifting thing by influencing the development of free-market "survival of the fittest" capitalism in the West and socialism/communism's "survival of the species/society cancelling out individuality Big Brother" thing in Russia)

SERENITY (That cut-to-black outer space close-up of Serenity logo all lit up & the pull-back with the Cello music, the ship in space all majestic and purty -- shoot, I fast-forwards & plays just that sequence just to get all choked up on the sheer Shinyness of it all -- Damn! This is why I wanna go into the black onna '03-K64 Firefly! And thanks to Joss, AIN'T WE JUST done did it!)

FIREFLY (think of it as equal to 6 2-hr. prequel films to the BDM 'cuz let's be honest -- epsiodes like "Out of Gas" and "Objects in Space" and the "Serenity" pilot were Truly Awesome BDMs only stuck on the small screen with commercials (or not with the DVD set)...

THE FIFTH ELEMENT (Kinda cheesey SFX in the beginning I know, but once you 'get it' (like us Browncoats 'get' Firefly) it's a movie you can watch over and over and over -- I know cuz I do -- it's about the need for and the power of Love.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and SILENT RUNNING (great messages in both + I've always loved Bruce Dern. 'Sides, Lucas admits this is where he got his R2D2 Droid design from. Also, did anyone else besides me notice what looks like an homage to Gort's "kill switch" phrase with River's "kill switch" phrase? Tho' River's definitely sounds more Gaelic or Tolkienesque)

BRAZIL (about chasing your dreams and bein' your own man -- even if you gotta end up nutso livin' in your head to do it. But again, this is the whole "Firefly" Independents vs. the Allinace thang 'cept it's in proper England where they're just so damn proper and fastidious about their totalitarian soul-crushing op

MOSS

Sunday, March 19, 2006 11:48 AM

to MAGHAFFAR

Excellent reply, you have introduced some excellent and thought provoking films into the mix, Brazil being one of them.

Some of the films I havn't seen. I have always felt that there is a lack of good scifi around, especially as it is a genre with endless possibilities.

You have given me some more movies to see.

Thanks.

GRIZWALD

Sunday, March 19, 2006 1:57 PM

I only sit down for a talk with Mr. Grizwald once a week or so, if we're lucky; we're both ships that pass in the night, it seems, these days, with two jobs, three kids, and a house to fix up. Anyway, yesterday at breakfast I took the opportunity to ask him to help me make our Top Ten Sci Fi Movies list, inspired by this thread -- and he came up with two that I hadn't thought of.

One, I agree should be up there pretty high on the list - maybe not top 10, but top 20 for sure - is Gattaca. Love that movie.

Another he mentioned which is very Hollywood-ish but not bad is Minority Report.

Our eldest, age 15, snorted at the whole idea of a top 10 sci-fi list, but then proceeded to nominate The Day the Earth Stood Still... showing that there is still hope for our next generation of leaders on this planet.

I am also amazed to see THX-1138 on this list and embarrassed that I forgot about it. Ditto Logan's Run.

And (guilty secret confession) I also loved Tron. Haven't seen the re-released, doctored-up version, but I found the original to be mind-blowing way back when.

____________________________________________________
They could not take the sky from them -
Our Big Damn Heroes made a film!
I'm gonna see Serenity then
go back the next morning and see it again.
Cuz no one at Fox knew this show had no equal
C'mon Universal, and greenlight the sequel!

Click on my profile for my Annoyingly Long List of Firefly Links.

MICJWELCH

Sunday, March 19, 2006 3:28 PM

It's nice to see I'm not the only person out there who's seen Equilibrium. Is this a safe place to admit that I don't have a brown coat? It's black. It's a replica of the coat from Equilbrium.

"We may experience some slight turbulence, and then... explode."

JONESTEIN

Sunday, March 19, 2006 4:35 PM

Well, I'm sure one could find political subtext in about any movie if one looked hard enough. There just wasn't enough obvious politicizing in Serenity to yank me from my world of escapism.
The politicizing in SW Episode III just seemed more obvious and did pull me out of the Star Wars universe and back into reality.

I don't mind political subtext if the whole premise of the movie is based on some real world event, otherwise, in my opinion, it's just the director attempting a little political brainwashing on an unsuspecting public who is expecting a sci-fi fantasy, not a lesson on the evils of the Bush administration.

For me, Mr. Lucas' not-so-subtle agenda pushing ruined what could have been the redeeming episode for the prequels. I just didn't see the same blatent agenda pushing in Serenity, I saw entertainment.

-Jonestein
http://jonestein.blogspot.com/
*************************************
OPERATIVE: ...and I'm unarmed.
MAL: Good.
(BLAM!)

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CAB1729

Sunday, March 19, 2006 7:12 PM

Can't possibly limit it to 10 - I've lived too ruttin' long! Did at least limit to true SF - with fantasy the list is much much longer:

IN NOR PARTICULAR ORDER:
Them!
Serenity
Mad Max/Road Warrior/Thunderdome
The Brother From Another Planet
The Fifth Element
The Day the Earth Stood Still
Westworld
The Incredible Shrinking Man
War of the Worlds (1953)
Terminator movies
Alien movies
Ghost in the Shell
E.T. The Extraterrestrial
The Iron Giant
The Arrival
The Abyss
Cube

NOT GREAT - BUT I'VE WATCHED THEM AGAIN AND AGAIN - AND WILL AGAIN:
Galaxy Quest
Flash Gordon (1980)
Spacehunter: Adventure in the Forbidden Zone
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Soldier

___________________________________________
Hobbes: How come we play war and not peace?
Calvin: Too few role models.

CHRISISALL

Sunday, March 19, 2006 7:24 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by nuclearday:
Blood of Heroes (Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen playing post-apocalyptic football with dog skulls :)
A Boy and His Dog (Another good post-apocalyptic flick from a Harlan Ellison book.)

There's two I don't see mention enough.
And props for being a Spacehunter fan

Total Recall seems to be MIA on this thread...

Speaking of Verhoeven, how about Robocop?

Dead or alive, you're coming with me Chrisisall

CRACKERS

Sunday, March 19, 2006 9:21 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by micjwelch:
It's nice to see I'm not the only person out there who's seen Equilibrium.

Right back at ya!

Another one I forgot to put in the mix - John Carpenter's, 'They Live'.

Some of you that like to make interpretations on films could have a field day with this one.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Being CRACKERS provides sanity in an insane world!

_________________________________________________

"Well... I don't like the idea of someone hearin' what I'm thinkin'."

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