Best sci-fi movie ever?

[scottr]

Since we are all computer nerds im sure sci-fi is something near and dear to all our hearts. I would like to cast the first vote for the best sci-fi movie ever and that vote goes to the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!MATRIX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!, anyone else care to disagree, if you do i must warn u, i know kung fu

....but how can it compare to Aliens the best ever scifi movie.

[Benjimin]

Agrees with Jetho, Aliens is the best sci-fi movie ever. What about Bill Paxton performance as the totally **** scared soldier.What a performance.
Matrix I suppose was pretty good, but know where in the class of Alien, lots of great computer animation but I just can't stand Keanu Reeves, total stone face, can't act, best thing I think he still ever did was Bill and Teds Excellent Adventure.

[Zaphod64831]

I think it's a tie between Matrix and X-Men.

[SteveCRM]

I've never seen any of the alien movies so my favorite has got to be the matrix :)

I dont like sci-fi very much, but I must say the best sci-fi movie ever made was:
The Day The Earth Stood Still

;)

I think the matrix was cool because of a lot of action moves and stuff, but I didnt really watch it very closely when I did see it..

and I have never seen any Alien movies, I have seen parts of them though.

no wait!!
my favorite sci-fi movie is:

"Plan 9 From Outer Space"

Which was generously rated worst movie EVER! heheheh

[scottr]

Ok i will agree that keuan reeves is a bad actor.But when you factor his poor acting skills into the movie, and the movie was still great despite those bad acting skills then with out a doubt this is the best.

[dvst8]

definitely the MATRIX

very rarely does a movie come along that makes you think, has lots of action and is visually stunning.

dvst8

[HarryW]

Yeah the Matrix was good, RATM 'Wake up' at the credits was cool. Cool effects and stuff and a nice idea. Not sure if its the best ever though.

What about Star Wars? And Spaceballs!

[SteveCRM]

Spaceballs is one of my favorite.

[GRAHAM]

What about War of the Worlds, that caused quite a stir, when people thought it was actually happening.

GRAHAM

Is that the one with the guy in the gorilla suit, who has a fish bowl on his head, and plays with a bubble making contraception.

Come on Guys you have to be joking about Spaceballs, you might as well say that Muppets from Outerspace is a great scifi movie.

The matrix is all about special effects, no meat to the story once you deduce whats going on, besides it totally distorts Gibson's story line which is much cooler.. FYI for those guys that like this movie check out some of Gibson's books...way cool....forces more concentration than this Sydneywood clunker.

Some one had to mention Star Wars, or Cowboys and Indians in outer space, or lets give all the goodies US accents and all the baddies European accents.

If you want to check out a really weird down under scifi get a hold of The Quiet Earth

[Gen-X]

I have to agree with Zaph

I saw X-Men last week and it was f*@#$*#$king amazing!


I don't think there has existed another Science Fiction movie that has come from a source of as much history, depth of character with such a plethora of storylines as the X-Men.

Anyone who has ever read the comic would know the amount of history they had to draw on and I don't think there is another mythos that exists with this much information...



"I haven't finished with you yet bub"

Wolverine forever!!!!

[Zaphod64831]

Yeah, don't even bother posting here until you've seen X-Men. I've decided it most definitely beats all others, with the Matrix a close second.

The real problem here is time, I saw the matrix so long ago and so many times since then that it starts to get boring and I can't accurately compare my feelings of the two movies. But right now I think that X-Men is THE BEST SCI-FI MOVIE EVER!

[Zaphod64831]

Also, X-Men left such an opening at the end for a sequel comparable to that of Jurassic Park. There will definitely be a sequel.

This is about best scifi movie......you are stating that X-Men is better than Blade Runner or 2001....l think not.......best implies the greatest not the latest flick that you have been too.

[Zaphod64831]

It does rival those two movies. One of the only reasons they became popular is because when they came out they were ahead of their time. Show it to someone today and have them compare it to X-Men and they would almost definitely pick X-Men. I'm not saying that 2001 or Bladerunner suck, just that there are better ones now.

Will check out X-Men tommorrow.

By the way what's every ones favourite horror movie?

I would vote for The Exorcist

[Zaphod64831]

I think most horror movies suck, "I know what you did last summer" "I still know what you did last summer" "Scream 1-3" they're all the same. Predictable, crappy, unoriginal. I'd swear all they did was take the same script and change the location, time, and characters and then shoot the whole thing all over again. And I really don't see what the big deal was about the Blair Witch Project. It was supposed to scare the crap out of me, I'd heard stories of people running from theaters screaming and puking and when I went out and wasted my money on it it turned out that a 10 year old could watch it and get bored (no I'm not 10, my cousin is).

The only worthwhile scary movie I've ever seen was the exorcist. So I agree with you there Jethro :)

[Gen-X]

Actually... I would say X-Men is better than those movies.

This is coming with some weight of authority here because I am the all-time greatest movie buff that ever walked the face of the earth.

As Zaph said, movies have to be placed not only in their correct Genre but also within the time period they were written or done, the thoughts that were behind it and the visions that they carried into the future.

We could be talkinga bout Metropolis if you wanted to talk about a science fiction movie ahead of its time, made in the 1920's I believe... But although this film portrayed a vision of the future that was amazing for its time very few people understood it.

Blade Runner as you said is a very good one... but it certainly didn't match the author's original vision (Book by Phillip K Dick entitled "Do androids Dream of Electric Sheep"). The movie (Even the directors cut), while being very viscereal was made as a figurehead and had none of the intensity or indepth background for the book it was based on.

2001 also another good movie which of course Stanley Kubrick was famous for as was Arthur C Clarkes writing... but it attempted to do what it did with grandious images of Obelisques at the dawn of time, heavy implications in its part in our evolution and then completely forgetting about it by the end instead trying to make a "trippy" end sequence without explaination or reason.

We could quote some of the other famous Sci-Fi's... Contact which was a novel originally written by Carl Sagan, while amazing in its characterization focused more on the story of the woman and her faith in science than on the actual science fiction concepts.

Star Wars. I would have to say this comes extremely close to being the best Sci-Fi but it falls short in George Lucus' attempt to completely "cartoon" some of the creatures taking it out of the Sci-Fi genre and starting to place it in the "Space Fantasy" genre.

Outland starring Sean Connery was an attempt to capture the 2001 fame but was basically a western in space.

Tron, brilliant in concept and scope though it fed off the already established ideas of artificial intelligence and computers.

Aliens, a masterpiece of work no doubt but James Cameron took a wonderfully dark and dangerous movie by Ridley Scott (Alien) and turned it into a "Marines in Space", which was then bastardized by an Australian Director with Alien 3 and although it started with a marvelous idea in Alien Ressurection, turned it into a complete joke with a human version of the alien that cried "Mummy!!"

Lost in Space, a fantastic adaptation of the TV Series but didn't really have much of a story line

Logan's Run, Surely up there as a film of all time staring Jeff Bridges, with amazing concepts and a fantastic world.

Dune, Now this would have been the ABSOLUTE GREATEST!!!! Sci-Fi if it wasn't for the poor movie. I think the series written by Frank Herbert without a doubt is the BEST Sci-Fi books ever to grace our universe, the first of which he wrote in the 60's before any of this technology was even conceived. The film let it down however and we are talking about "films" here.

Matrix, I loved this movie and the concepts it portrayed were feeding off not only the AI trip that Tron did but added in the already established idea of "Virtual Reality". Easily up there in the top of the best Sci-Fi's.


But now we have X-Men

This is something the "general populous" hasn't been exposed to... something that until now has been reserved for those who read comics.

The concept of not only spontaneous human evolution as a result of an unknown Gene that has emerged (An "X" factor if you will), the fear of humanity against people who have these genes, the prejudice and racism brought to mass hysteria... and a group of people who are trying to understand what is happening while fighting FOR those people that hate them most.

The struggles, the pain, the stories, the lessions that it teaches, the level of complexity....

I think the movie captured amazingly well the existing 15 year history to which it was based on, it brought the characters to life which in itself is no mean feat to do... to turn something that until now has been immortalized in comics to the big screen and do it with such a level of success and altruism is amazing.

- Blade Runner failed to portray Dekkard the way Phillip Dick intended him, and Roy was a joke

- George Lucus failed to bring forth his original vision for Star Wars having to leave out the planet of Wookies in place of the laughable Ewoks because he already had a Wookie in the cast.

- 2001 didn't capture Arthur C Clarkes amazement in the final stages showing the poor ability to convey thoughts in visual movies

- Dune completely failed to capture Frank Herberts original concept but then again I think it always WOULD fail.



So that leaves Matrix and X-Men in my honest and humble opinion... and while one has a gigantic history behind it with the ability to create several "decent" sequels as well as spin-offs the likes of which hollywood has never seen...

- Age of Apocalyse
- X-Force
- X-Factor
- Askani'Son
- Legacy Virus
- Legion
- Wolverine (Degeneration)
- Generation-X
- X-Man
- Dark Pheonix

Matrix hasn't allowed itself much scope to do anything else now that Neo is absolutely invincible in the computer world.

They Live

Dawn of the Dead

After Dark

John Carpenter's remark of The Thing

Anything by David Croneburg(SIC)...greatest ever Canadian horror maker.

I agree with you though, just about any late 90s horror movie is either slock, or dependant on special effects to get scare points...they suck like weasels


Oh also get

The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, really...check it out and figure out if you really do see the violence

A Clockwork Orange

Alien....Aliens was a scifi, Alien is defiantly a horror movie disguised as a scifi

[Gen-X]

I forgot to mention I am a horror movie freak as well ;-)

They tried to revive the horror movie with this "New Blood" in movies like "I know what you did last summer", "Urban Legend" and "H20".... I don't mind them but I wouldn't call them "cult" by any means.

I have to say my favourite serious was "Friday the 13th". Despite it getting very "cliche" at the end Kane Hodder who played Jason Voorhees in several of the movies is the most impossing actor I know of.

The "Nightmare on Elm Street" series also went horribly wrong although "Wes Craven's A New Nightmare" did bring some credibility back to it, would recommend people chat that one out.

The "Halloween" series I think peeked at about Halloween 2 and I think that was one of the my favourite movies.

"Evil Dead" has to rate a mention in there somewhere.


But as for the "BEST" horror movies It is neck and neck between 2 very famour directors

GEORGE A ROMERO
Night of the living Dead (Original and Sam Rami remake)
Dawn of the Dead
Day of the Dead

DARIO ARGENTO
Susperia
Inferno
Tenebrae


If you haven't seen these movies I would highly recommend them all, but as far as pure horror goes Dario Argento I think takes the cake quite well.

Matrix is not good, it doesn't do justice to William Gibson's vision of a future where computers and the internet are wired direct to human thought processes.

The movie's depection of the future had nothing what so ever to do with what Gibson was trying to predict. Clearly the movie makes thought processes ran along the lines of.......Terminator 2 -> bags of money -> the old chestnut of computers taking over -> bags of money. This had been done to death 100 times before. The movie relies on special effects, not the effects of computer hackers being fully engaged in a virtual duel against each other's ability as predicted by Gibson. Industrial Espionage is no longer breaking into an Industrual site, it is breaking in to the Company's computers via virtual reality.

As stated before read Gibson to get an idea of what the movie could have been.

Haven't seen X-Men, but from what you and Zap are saying will check it out Tuesday sounds an awesome concept.

Get a copy of Crptomanicon as well...currently reading it....way cool

Has anyone seen that turkey Escape From Mars if not flee like the wind it's too later for the rest of us.

[Fox]

I like matrix very much, it's one of the best films as I think (and I don't talk only about the speciial effects!). But you can't find the best film ever coz in some months there will be a film with a better story, better special effects and better (or the same ;)) people and this film will be better than matrix..
Also there are many diffwerent types of films, ie. I like Spaceball also that much, but I like Mission Impossible I too. I woulnd't say one film is better than another...

just my 0.03 ;)

[Gary.Lowe]

Do you think there is a best ever film whether it is horror, science fiction, chick flicks, etc.

I think a successfull film is based on expectation. If you expect it to be good and it is not what you expected then you assume it is ****.

Hype can spoil a lot of films.

I prefer to watch films and have no real expectation of it. that way it is nearly always a good film.

I am goin to watch X-Men when it comes out, I have tried to stay away from the hype of it. I don't know who is in it, the plot or even what one scene in the movie looks like.

This way I don;t know what to expect so unless it it criminally dire I know it will be a good film.

Thats me reasoning for spending 5 quid on a shite film anyway. It also doesn't make me feel as bad.

one of the scariest movies I have ever seen is the excersist, I dont think it is the best though.

I like the freddy crougar series, those are pretty scary, mainly because your watching a movie right before you go to bed, and the movie is about people getting killed in their dreams.

and Zap, the reason people threw up at the blair witch project, was because how the camera kept shaking, it kind of makes you dizzy, then sick :(

I think the best horror movie is... The Shining, it isnt that scary, but it has all elements of a horror movie, ghosts, crazy people, alcohol(the scene @ the bar), blood,
so I think the Shining is the Best....
:D

[scottr]

I havent seen the X-men but you could be sure that this is going to be huge for years to come. They have over 20 years of stories and they only included a small small sampling of all the mutants.

For scary movies I liked the omen trilogy but the best scary movie was silance of the lambs. Not for what it showed but for what it implied awesome movie. Too bad the sequal "Hanibal" sucked so much.

[HarryW]

My favourite horror movie is probably 'Evil Dead 3: The Medievil Dead', but that's just because I'm not a big horror fan and that has some comedy in it ;)

'Braindead' was pretty good too ;)

For Sci-Fi, 'Dune' was really good in the ideas it had, but I have to agree that the film was somewhat crappy. I love the atmosphere though. Plus, if it hadn't been for that film, we may never have had the game 'Dune 2', which was the beginning of a wonderful friendship between Westwood and the RTS genre. I prefer Starcraft actually, but that's getting way OT

Forgot all about Nightmare on Elm Street the first one was really good, but thought the rest tapered off some what.

Evil Dead

Got to love a Couple of guys raising money from dentist etc then making a movie which brings in big cash.

Friday the 13th

The first one was hot...and then it got to be a formula. Anyone noticed that in the first one the murderer was Jason's mother and in all subsequent ones it was Jason. Was there some logic there that l missed.

Halloween

Enjoyed the use of camera angles, and doorways etc framing the shots. Added to the inclosed feel of the movie. Check out After Dark for a reprise of Lumos the doctor. Donald Pleasance does it again.

The Blair Witch Project

What a load of crap. By about a third of the way through it l was hoping that some one would finish the chick off. Lets face it for horror to work you must relate to the characters, with these people l was hoping Freddy would leap out and do the business. Never give the film makers cameras again.

The Shinning and the Omen

Yeap Kuberic does it with Steve King's haunted house stories. Those long dark corridors.....
Omen 1 was good chilly stuff.

Matrix

Re-viewed it last night. Problem was had read book and new the punch line. Gibson handles it better, but then its uour imagination that supplies the firepower.

X-Men

Local critics gave it bad review, which means its probably really good, why allow critics to review a film if they have no grasp of the genre.

The Haunting

Run like the wind from this dog. Based on Shirly Jackson's Haunting of Hill House, and man does that one cause shivers, the movie is a dog with flees which relies on special effects to go anywhere at all.

[Gen-X]

Horror Fans

Oh you guys are truely missing out!!!!


If you thought Exorcist was good then I strongly urge you to run down to your video stores and ask the pimply faced person behind the counter for one of these films :

Tenebrae
Susperia
Inferno

They are all by the directory "Dario Argento". Each of these films was 10 times more chilling than Exorcist and I think were even made BEFORE Exorcist. I'm serious... they are hardcore films that make Exorcist look like a walk in the park.

[Gen-X]

Friday the 13th

Actually Jethro, Jason wasn't the killer in the 5th Movie as well, it was the Ambulance Driver whose daughter died and he was seeking revenge on the kids who he thought were responsible, one of which happened to be Tommy who killed Jason in the 4th Movie and it ended with Tommy in fact pretending to be Jason and killing.

1. Friday the 13th
Brilliant, it started the "have sex, get killed" craze


2. Part 2
A nice sequal picking up where the first left off althought it was a little lame having Powers of Matthew Star actor

3. Part 3 in 3D
Cashed in on the new effects, worth a laugh

4. The Final Chapter
First time Jason actually died for real.

5. A New Beginning
The Ambulance driver and Tommy going nuts

6. Jason Lives
Goes to the graveyard and brings him back with lightning. The start of Jason's inhuman rampage (Best effects at this stage I reckon)

7. New Blood
Telekinetic Chick tries to take him out

8. Jason takes Manhatton
A total bust, the makeup was like a melted wax doll

9. Jason goes to hell
The idea was good, LOVED the start but tried to go too much like Nightmare on Elm Street by explaining it with supernatural means.

Have a client who writes movie scripts, (you know the aussie romantic comedy stuff.....she is currently getting a movie called Remembering Stella off the ground), and anyway she heard this in LA.

Apparently some mental giant has this idea for a new Friday the Thirteen where Jason becomes the US President.

OK all Ronald Regan jokes aside this has to be the most ludicrous plot development l have ever heard off. Well l guess he would just butcher the other candidates, but whose going to be the First Lady...Carrie...Roseanne....shudder the Oxlymoron.

......Clive Barker's Hell Raiser that's got to be on the list somewhere.

[scottr]

The friday the 13th movies sucked. I live in nyc and i saw the one where he goes to nyc and starts killing people, i laughed through the whole movie, mostly at myself for acutally paying money for it. As for critics they suck too. They look for things in the movie that the normal movie goer would never even consider, oh well those that cant critize hence QA people.

[jdavison]

May not be the best movie of all time but I love it.

And just remember:
Good...Bad...I'm the on with the gun :)

Just had to be said.

[parksie]

I'll chip in here with my favourites:

1. Alien
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Armageddon
4. The Matrix

[HarryW]

Hail to the king baby.

[The Magician]

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by denniswrenn
I dont like sci-fi very much, but I must say the best sci-fi movie ever made was: The Day The Earth Stood Still

My vote would go for The Day The Earth Stood Still. I got the old school movie poster for it hanging up in my room with pride.


I just don't understand why the poster is in color and the movie was black and white? :(

[Behemoth]

so...are we on sci-fi or horror here?

im not a tremendous horror fan, but I enjoyed the remake of psyco from an artistic point of view..oh yeah, and the guy who played Norman Bates looked like Graham Norton :D

sci-fi...err...anything that makes you think....The first film to come into my head whan I read the thread title was Blade Runner. I love The Matrix too, Twelve Monkeys was cool as. God- theres hundreds of them...

Aliens is a ddifficult one to label. The plots a bit wishy-washy but the film's great. Alien had a better plot but was a weaker film. Alien 3 had tension and drama but was ultimately forgettable, and Alien Resurrection had a good beginning but I fell asleep towards the end when it was repeated on TV (I was drunk though....)