Your top 3 sci-fi movies

List your top three sci-fi, or a combination of sci-fi and something else, like sci-fi/action, and explain why you like them.

1. Escape from New York
2. Escape from L.A.
3. Dark City

For my two choices, I went with the Escape movies. The thing that I like about both movies, is that the main character, Snake Plissken, is just plain bad-ass. The thing I like about him most though is that he is a former soldier/war hero who has a problem with authority. He reminds me of the soldiers who returned from vietnam to nothing, some of them turning to crime to survive in the world. I also love how the movie depicts the future government, and apocalyptic U.S.

Dark City, is my third choice, because the first time I watched it my brain was just blown. Weird ass story, but pretty cool.

1. STII: Wrath of Khan
2. Logan's Run
3. I can't decide, maybe the original Time Machine

I went for a kind of kitsch feel here, I dunno why, evocative of the genre at different times I guess. ST II is a masterpiece though IMO. Btw you posted this thread twice by mistake so be careful next time.

Empire Strikes Back
The matrix (ONLY the first)
Strange Brew

-E

ST:VIII
AI
Predator

alien 3
event horizon
space mutiny mst3k version

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey
2) Blade Runner
3) Alien

Aliens
Empire Strikes Back
Planet of the apes

I'd probably like event horizon if I ever saw it in its entirety.

Gah just three?
I don't know probably Alien, Star Wars and Blade Runner.
But it really hurts me to leave out Aliens (Best sequel ever) and 2001: A Space Odessey, Rollerball, Soylent Green and probably some others I can't think of.

Captain Red said:
I'd probably like event horizon if I ever saw it in its entirety.

Horrible movie. Skip it and just watch Alien or Aliens (again).

yeah, event horizon was horrible.

1. 12 Monkeys
2. The Fifth Element
3. Brazil

I really don't know why I love 12 Monkeys so much. Maybe its Brad Pitt's acting, or Gilliam's usual top of the class directing, or the great soundtrack or the plot twists or the loss of sanity you get trying to piece it all together. In the end, it's just really awesome.

Fifth Element is another great movie. I really REALLY love the costumes and set design. It's just way out there and fantastic and gives the move a colorful yet subtly distopian atmosphere. Plus, Milla is really cute and the love story makes me go "awww". Also great acting from Gary Oldman, Chris Tucker, and Ian Holm with Bruce Willis doing his usual reluctant hero role.

Brazil is yet another Gilliam classic. Really I don't know what order these shoudl go in, because Brazil could easily be first as well. Probably what I like most about it are the great camera angles. I really like the tragic love story and the horribly fucked up beaurocratic almost 1984-ish atmosphere of the setting. I find it rather eerie considering modern events the whole part about the government controlling the people through threats of terrorism and any dissenters are 'questioned' to death. This movie is probably also the prime example of Gilliam's classic sci-fi set design with bizarre extraneous moniters and contraptions sticking out of everything. I just love that.

And runners-up that could have easily gotten onto this list would be Clockwork Orange and Bladerunner.

1. Escape from New York
2. Escape from L.A.
I wouldn't call them Sci-Fi, more like Action movies
3. Dark City
Yep, that was pretty cool


1. STII: Wrath of Khan
I never liked that one... "STI: the motion picture was waaaaayy better
2. Logan's Run
Very cool movie indeed... not very believable though.
3. I can't decide, maybe the original Time Machine
I like that one aswell

Empire Strikes Back
Not much of a SW fan
The matrix (ONLY the first)
Not much of a Matrix fan either
Strange Brew
Don't know that one

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey
The ultimate SF movie!
2) Blade Runner
Cool
3) Alien
Rocks

alien 3
Not as good as I
event horizon
sucked, no story what so ever
space mutiny msk3k version
Don't know that one...

ST:VIII
Not as good as ST:VII
AI
Too slow... ending is weird... really
Predator
Has nothing to do with SF... pure Action movie

1. 12 Monkeys
Cool
2. The Fifth Element
Funny, but not that great
3. Brazil
Never understood that one...

my top 3:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Solaris (the original)
Planet of the Apes (the original)

m0l0t0v said:

2. The Fifth Element
Funny, but not that great
3. Brazil
Never understood that one...

tsk

Star Trek II is one of the 20 best movies ever made IMHO. It pulls off so many things flawlessly. The extra story is done so well. The billion dollar movie for Paramount, as it single-handedly built the ST future.
Brazil is not sci-fi, IMO, but I'm no expert --- it is one of my 10 favorite movies though. :)

I don't know, sci-fi movie? that's a rough cat to pin what qualifies... hmmm...
Carpenter's Thing (the sci-fi one, not the porno), ST II, ST V, Evil Dead 2, Alien, Terminator 2...

Yeah, I'm not really sure if Brazil is futuristic or just stylised modern age. It is a projection of where things are headed though.

Heh, Brazil is so awesome... Borrows fairly liberally from Orwell, but the comedic angle is at least original (I think).

But The Fifth Element?! WTF! I actually watched that bomb on the big screen, and damn near walked out on it (although I'm so damn cheap that I'll probably never walk out on a movie I paid for...).

I am also very, very glad to see people that DO NOT like Event Horizon. Why that movie is praised by so many people is beyond me...

EDIT: Dear Jeebus, please let this be a typo:

Opulent said
ST V

PLEASE tell me you meant either ST6 (my favorite of the series) or ST4 (which was funny, at least).

I dont see how you can not like The Fifth Element. It's one of those movies that I can just watch whenever because it flows so well and never gets old. Its the best movie in the whole sci-fi fantasy action/adventure genre. It completely owns any Star Wars movie up and down, even Empire Strikes Back.

Also, I agree that Even Horizon sucked. A few great visuals, but other than that there wasn't anythign interesting about it.

EDIT: Heh Star Trek 5...yikes. Just yikes.

;

Danarchy said:

I dont see how you can not like The Fifth Element. It's one of those movies that I can just watch whenever because it flows so well and never gets old.

I just thought it was a typical mindless Hollywood big-budget action movie. Some of it was just embarassingly bad slapstick, and the I thought the sci-fi stuff in it was mediocre at best.

Its the best movie in the whole sci-fi fantasy action/adventure genre. It completely owns any Star Wars movie up and down, even Empire Strikes Back.

I stopped caring about Star Wars after HS for some reason. Just totally lost interest in all of it, including the original trilogy. I may have just gotten burned out on it or something; I read a bunch of the books and stuff in middle school.

What would you say The Fifth Element competes against, other than Star Wars?

david_a said:

What would you say The Fifth Element competes against, other than Star Wars?

Well, I admit there isn't that much competition. I guess what would fit would be stuff like Stargate, Titan A.E., about a hundred Star Wars knock-offs and every anime that takes place in space (a friend of mine once described Fifth Element as a live-action anime, which is odd cause I don't like anime). Basicaly anything that is futuristic but not sci-fi in the strictest sense (technicaly sci-fi is a fiction based off scientific, social or political theories and stuff like Fifth Element and Star Wars really don't have much in the way of realistic scientific priciples or societal utopian/dystopian studies thus they are futuristic fantasy). So... *breathe* yeah. Anyway, I still hold that it is a great film, and at least a little unique.

Also, it's not a Hollywood film at all. The director/writer/producer is French and it was filmed in Europe for the most part. :)

1.Predator
2.12 Monkeys
3.Hellraiser IV? or was it five? I think it's four. The one on the space ship. =)

Yeah, that's 4. 5 sucked ass.

yeah that's right. I dunno why they bothered to make 5.

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Terminator 2 yet.

1. Aliens
2. Terminator
3. Perhaps Blade Runner or Akira

david_a said:
[BPLEASE tell me you meant either ST6 (my favorite of the series) or ST4 (which was funny, at least). [/B]

heh
V was barely passable in the movie theater, but when I realized the whole movie is Kirk's dream, I saw the light. It is truly shameful how much better this is than... say, the Spiderman movies.
I'm a sucker for hidden meanings and allegories in any art form.

Converted DOOMer said:

I'm surprised nobody mentioned Terminator 2 yet.

It has scifi elements but I consider it to be more of an action movie.
Then again it's one of those hybrid movie genres action/sci-fi, so I guess it could be accepted as either or both. I'd say it's my favorite action movie.

Ok I pretty much forgot The Terminator films (The first two).
Stargate was pretty cool as was Escape from New York (L.A. was kinda stupid). And the Fifth Element is lot's of fun.
And Mst3k: Space Mutiny is hilarious.

CapNapalm said:

Mst3k: Space Mutiny is hilarious.

:D

I love that one. My friend has that on DVD or video disk or something.

Dirk Hardgristle! Chuck Rumproast! Big McLargehuge!

Apples mounted on the walls? This must be...THE FUTURE!

umm...yeah

1)Aliens
2)Predator
3)Star Wars Ep VI (ROTJ)

BTW, Escape From LA sucked donkey cock.