The Best Science Fiction Movies Of All Time --- Sci-Fi at its best!
Feb 21 '06
The Bottom Line Science Fiction is a great genre of film, and it is exciting just how far we have come in developing great stories.
It's a great thing that science fiction films have come as far as they have in the past 20 or so years. Back before Star Wars, it was hard to do a sci-fi movie that had a lot of technological "wow" power to put an audience on the edge of their seats. Since then though, motion pictures have come along way, and the genre of science fiction has really made some leaps and bounds. It is important though, to not forget that there were some great older films that helped us rely more on imagination, and what could possibly be, rather than everything that we saw on screen. What falls into the science fiction category could be up for debate, but it is understood by most that the category encompasses anything that is outside of the norm. Interpretation is all in the eye of the beholder, and here is the list of the top 10 Science Fiction Movies from this beholder...
Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind
1977 was a great year for science fiction, but the one that stood out above all others in my opinion, was Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind. Richard Dreyfuss stars as Roy Neary, who after a close encounter, is being drawn toward a destination he knows nothing about. He has in his mind a picture of his destination, and acts out to draw it on paper, and even to carve it in his mashed potatoes. Planes that have vanished reappear, bright lights are seen in the sky, and "UFO fever" is spreading everywhere. We are shown glimpses of what could be UFO's, and the dramatic effect of the movie is built up until we are rewarded at the end of the film. Spielberg does a great job of building the tension and suspense of the film, and it keeps us nervous and scared about what is going to happen next. Sound and coloring are used perfectly, and with Dreyfuss acting at his best, the film has many different sub-plots that keep your eyes glued to the screen. Even though we aren't sure of what is going on, Spielberg keeps us entertained until all of our questions are answered. A truly great film, with a new look at close encounters.
Bladerunner
In between Indiana Jones and Han Solo, Harrison Ford starred as Rick Deckard in the futuristic Bladerunner. When you start watching the film, you are struck by the way the cinematography was so well done. The colors and the movement of objects just seems like something out of this world, and the illusion that the creators are trying to present seems as real as anything around us. Taking place in 2019, it involves Deckard's character needing to track down a group of human clones that must be destroyed. Deckard works for a futuristic LAPD, and must do everything he can to find this "replicants". The only problem, is that they look just like everyone else. The only way to figure out if they are human or not, is to test their eyes. The way that this film was done was absolutely stunning, and Director Ridley Scott has what I believe to be his best film ever. The dark and dreary outlook on the future strikes a chord with the viewer, and the protagonists almost switch places as we are taken along for the ride. Ford is at his best, and he helps Bladerunner become an extremely good Science Fiction film about what our future could look like.
The Matrix
Just when we thought we had seen it all, along came the Wachowski brothers with a whole new breed of science fiction film. Keanu Reeves is Neo, a human who has been chosen to provide energy for a world run by machines. Only he doesn't know it. He has been placed in the Matrix, which is a computer generated version of the real world, where he goes about his daily life, never knowing that everything is being controlled. None of his life is real, and only when a man by the name of Morpheus comes to the rescue, is he able to find the true version of what has happened to the human race. In a struggle of man against machine in what will surely be the last fight for survival, Neo must stand with a group of hackers against the machines that control the Matrix. What the audience is given is an extremely well done action film, that takes special effects to a different level we had not seen before. With slow motion bullets, stop-time explosions, and manipulation of time itself, The Matrix set a new standard for action films. This film led to two additional sequels that furthered the story, but the original Matrix is still by far the best.
The Terminator
Arnold Schwarzenegger is The Terminator. It is interesting how the character has evolved in the two sequels since then, but you have to think hard to realize he wasn't actually the star of the first film. Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn (The Abyss, Aliens) has been sent from the future to protect Sarah Connor from a machine that is on its way to kill her. Schwarzenegger is of course that machine, dubbed the terminator, and he will stop at nothing to make sure that Sarah Conner is destroyed. She is the mother of what some day will be a leader of what remains of the human race, and in order for that to happen, Sarah must survive this attack. That is where Kyle Reese comes into play, as the last hope for not only Sarah, but for all mankind. The Terminator was a ruthless killing machine, and there was nothing that seemed to stop it, despite it getting shot, blown up, and burned. Hope appears slim, but Kyle has to succeed for all of us. The film was packed with action (and a lot of violence) and James Cameron did a great job of depicting a future that is run by machines. This could have been were the idea for The Matrix was born, but the territory was first crossed by Cameron and Schwarzenegger back in 1984.
Contact
Contact is one of those films where an audience member either loved it, or simply hated it. Luckily for the creators of the film, I ended up being one of the former. Jodie Foster plays Eleanor Arroway, who has spent her life looking up at the night sky. She feels there is something more out there, and when she is the one to find a radio signal being sent from space, she jumps at the chance to research it further. Of course, this is the type of story where nobody will believe what she has to say, but she is striving to prove that there is something else out there. Breaking down the coded message is what leads everyone to get on the same page as her, and gives them the chance to experience something like never before. The supporting cast behind Foster is amazing in my opinion with David Morse, James Woods, Henry Strozier, Tom Skerritt, and Matthew McConaughey are just some of the great actors that make up the cast. This is a deep science fiction story that I think is strong from beginning to end, and is in my collection because of that. It explores the unknown, and does so in a way that keeps you on the edge of your seat; all the way to the lines James Woods ends the movie with.
Back To The Future
Michael J. Fox put himself at the top of the acting world for a short time aided by his role as the main protagonist in Back To The Future. He plays Marty McFly, a high school student that is often getting into trouble, but who has a great friendship with a mad scientist played by Christopher Lloyd. Lloyd's character Dr. Emmett Brown has come up with a way to travel through time, using a plutonium-powered DeLorean. While testing the car out, they are attacked, and Marty is sent back to 1955 while trying to escape. The car shuts down as soon as the time-travel has completed, and the only way to get the car running again is with plutonium; which can't be found in 1955. Now Marty is stuck in the past, trying not to change anything that could alter his own future, and lead to him not being born. Back To The Future was an exciting film by Robert Zemeckis that really re-did the thought of time travel and how minor changes in the past could alter just about everything in the future. The story was very strong, and left itself open for 2 sequels to be made 4 years later.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
In my opinion, this is the best of the Star Trek franchise. It makes my list because I think that the entire series of Star Trek movies have done a lot for the science fiction genre, and while I think the first film was really great, it was a little on the slow side, and made its sequel seem so much better. The Wrath of Khan is about an old enemy that has returned to seek vengeance on the Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Based on the original television show, all of the main cast members are back for the film, led by William Shatner as James T. Kirk. The movie crosses paths with an experiment that is taking place, and a sub-plot of a second star ship that is eventually hijacked. Khan turns the guns of that ship on Kirk's ship, and what results is a cat and mouse game of one captain trying to out move the other. This is a great dramatic movie (especially the last 15 minutes), and leaves you with a shocking ending that takes your breath away.
Star Wars
The original of the Star Wars films, George Lucas brought us the story of a band of rebels trying to fight off the evil of the Universe. That evil takes the form of Darth Vader who appears bent on controlling everything. The story starts with a young man, who wants to learn more about his past, and what it would be like to fight in the clone wars. Luke Skywalker is his name, and we learn much more about him from the 6 films that would comprise this series, the many books manufactured, and even the cartoons that link the films together. Luke Skywalker teams up with a Princess named Leia, and a ship runner by the name of Han Solo as the story progresses. Soon we find out that Luke is more important than we had first assumed, and that he has a bug future in front of him. This film really set the standard in 1977 for how films in space, and most science fiction films for that matter, were going to be done. The story had so many facets to it, that it was easy to fall right into liking the film. Lucas touched of a phenomenon with this movie, and now the original Star Wars has its place in history as one of the most successful films of all time.
War Of The Worlds (1953)
Way before Spielberg got his chance, Byron Haskin brought us a version of the great story in 1953. Though it too differed from the book, I think that it was an interesting take on the story, that was very exciting to watch. A set of ships has descended upon Earth from Mars, with the intent of eliminating the human race, and taking over the planet. They have technology that is far superior to anything that man has been able to come up with, and that is very apparent with the first time that a tank tries to take on one of these ships. They fire laser beams from the tops of the craft, and it causes things to pretty much be vaporized on contact. Faced with an enemy like none they had ever seen, the planet must stand together if they are going to fend of these invaders. The story itself was a great one, and that is why the movie makes my list. It tried to keep the main premise in mind while pumping up the action scenes at the same time. I think that it is far better than the remake that came out in 2005, and will forever be one of the better science fiction films ever made.
The Time Machine (1960)
The H.G. Wells classic was brought to the big screen in 1960 with Rod Taylor in the lead role of George. George is a scientist/teacher who has come up with a way to manipulate time, and send a machine into the future. He has designed a machine that will be able to take a man a certain length of time into the future, and he is touching on science that nobody else understands. So, of course he doesn't have the most supporting people around him, but he is determined to see through his experiments. What he ends up doing is going so far into the future that he finds a human race that has become something far different than he has ever known. Now he is faced with the decision of leaving things the way they are, or going back to where he came from. This is a movie that was well ahead of its time, and put a lot of ideas into the main-stream that would later become a lot of different films. This was a fantastic film that still holds up against the test of time, and is clearly a masterpiece.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.