Best and Worst sci-fi movies of all time

[CavLancer]

Cube and Cube II are both excellent if a bit far fetched. A military contractor constructs all this for...what again?

Battlefield LA is all about US marines defending against an amphibious attack by a superior military which is the US marines usually. A role reversal thing or something. That's why the aliens land in the ocean instead of a park or empty road somewhere. So, the low tech (compared to what one expects from space aliens) invasion lays on a whole huge level of underwater complexity to serve the needs of an ex marine writer, or some such. We've landed on Mars and there is no standing water. Aliens can't soft land after traveling great distances?

 

[El_Machinae]

The magic connection between the natives and the nature that sorunds them, living together in perfect harmony, it's such a horrible, two dimensional cliché.

It wasn't magic, and it wasn't perfect harmony. It was a functioning, but designed, ecosystem by a higher-level sentience.
Like I said, it worked really well from a transhumanist perspective. The idea of a super-sentience formed from trillions of smaller sentiences is ... well, basically how our brain works, except our neurons don't seem sentient (they just act as if they are). Like I said, I really liked it.

It also seemed to me that the aliens were not intent on actually conquering the planet, but just raiding our world. They needed water and I think they were just trying to hit a few costal cities and hold us back long enough to grab the water they needed. This is evidenced by the numbers they deployed to Earth (which is never stated in the movie, but it was stated on the official website for the movie as part of their marketing campaign). The aliens only sent about 30 million at most, which is not enough to subjugate a planet of over 7 billion (especially since their tech advantage over us was minimal).

Yeah, this is why I liked Skyline, too. We learn what their motivations are, but we don't really (really) understand why. The idea of aliens wanting water is ludicrous, but ehn, work with it.

And, I'll have to give Battleship props on the alien motivation front. Like, we never know WTH they're doing or why. It's clear they're trying to be careful to not kill people too much, and the fact that they only defend themselves is shown in the movie but never understood by the characters. Plus, sending missiles to "grid J12" was fundamentally awesome, and I'm glad they worked it in. I think Battleship is on youtube right now, but only recently so.

 

[Antilogic]

errr so which one that suppose to be best between this movies?

I don't pick single favorites, but have a few that I like. I'm also a fan of so-bad-it's-good, so I like the bad ones too.

I like "Contact". Both the novel and the movie. What plothole?

I'm watching "Sphere" (1998) right now. It got negative reviews, but I think it's quite good. It doesn't have big fights with bug eyed monsters, but the story is loaded with genuine science fiction themes like first contact with aliens, spacetravel, timetravel, time paradox... good stuff.

Pacific Rim is a joke. Battleship is a joke. Avatar is a - admittedly nice looking - joke.

I will agree that there was an annoying character in it, but I'm curious as to who your choice is (hint: mine's not Elly Arroway).

WHAT plot hole?

I'm generally not a Matthew McConaughey fan so his presence brings Contact down for me.

The plothole I'm talking about is the massive deus ex eff you audience moment when the first machine is destroyed by a suicide bomber and a moment later they reveal that random effing billionaire numbnuts has built a second machine on the other side of the planet and it hasn't been mentioned before because REASONS. Okay, maybe it's not technically a plot hole, but it is inexcusable.

I remember watching and liking Sphere and The Abyss--I always link those two movies together despite different casting and release dates for the nautical theme. Plus I saw them within a week of each other.

I'll disagree with the upthread slamming of Avatar. I really, really enjoyed it. The gaia/interconnected web of life really, really worked from a transhumanist perspective. And I like that they right out called the plot element 'unobtainium'; no googlygook there. Or, at least, they just admitted it.

Its plot and characters were so stale, you could tell exactly what was going to happen to each character within 5 minutes of seeing them on screen. Hey, it's a hot-shot Latina pilot. She's probably going to go down in a blaze of glory. Look, scarface is probably a bad guy because he's been disfigured, and as it turns out he is. And so on.

Yeah! Thank goodness for the human race that apple (well TCP/IP really I guess, but hey they used a mac) negotiating protocols were able to communicate with that mothership's OS!

You are going to love the hacker in The Core. I can just tell.

2001: A Space Oddyssey: One of the best shot movies of all time. Just absolutely glorious cinematography and editing. People complain about how slowly it moves, but I think the lurching pacing and drawn out scenes really do it justice. You really get a sense for the buildup of time. And the last 20 minutes are some of the most suspenseful cinema I've ever seen. You really feel the weight and terror of being an astronaut and entering the unknown during those final bedroom scenes.

I don't know if I was discussing this with you or another poster before, but I just can't get past the lack of solid character development sans one who doesn't appear until half-way through the film. The slow pace seems to only reinforce the lack of character development because I'm sitting around listening to classical movement wondering why I care about anyone on that ship as well as the monkeys.

Why are you the only one to mention Battlefield Earth?

I don't know, but that and anything MST3K panned are great for a bad scifi night. As well as anything SyFy releases.

For my money ($0), you can't get better than watching MST3K pan Space Mutiny on youtube. It features Captain Santa Claus, First Officer Sting, Big McLargeHuge as the action hero, the 50 year old milf-daughter love interest, and all the visuals ripped straight from the original Battlestar Galactica.

EDIT: And I forgot the railings!

Worst, probably Plan 9 from Outerspace. Still Plan 9 is endearing, though. Sort of like an ugly dog, you just feel pity for it.

Love it.

 

[warpus]

Skyline is probably the worst sci-fi movie I've ever watched. The characters were just so laughable.. I couldn't tell if they were professional actors or just a bunch of random people they found hanging out somewhere. Their interactions and reactions to things were very fake and felt forced and the plot was incredibly one dimensional and boring. The special effects were aight, but they didn't help any.

Very likely the worst movie I have ever seen, and I did see one about a dinner party where a guy claims he is immortal and then later in the movie claims he is Jesus.. and then later people start having heartattacks cause OMG Jesus. We were all laughing at that point.. It was a bit frustrating, because the first half an hour was kinda promising, and even maybe the first hour.

 

[bhsup]

You know what bugged me most about BE3000? It wasn't the massive changes from the book that just made no sense (like, oh, 1000 year old fighters being functional AND piloted in a matter of, what, days/weeks) or even the more or less tepid acting. It was the fact that they stopped the movie half way through the damned book.

 

[Kyriakos]

Best (well, not BEST, but pretty good) : The city of Lost children (1995)


Link to video.

Good points:

-Excellent cinematography, dream-world atmosphere and mood
-Quite dark, some sequences (eg the dance of the insect) are mesmerising
-Most of the actors are good, although probably only the one from Name of the Rose (and Hellboy) is known internationally.
-The Cyclopean society!

Bad points:

-I thought it was a bit too extravagant, and had way too many characters which (in my view) did not add anything to the plot
-Rather focuses too much on somatic uglyness
-The plot could have been quite a bit more pronounced, and it would help the film, i think

Overall a very good movie

 

[H4run]

I don't pick single favorites, but have a few that I like. I'm also a fan of so-bad-it's-good, so I like the bad ones too.

"So bad.. it is good..." that must be a pretty weird feeling

 

[bhsup]

"So bad.. it is good..." that must be a pretty weird feeling

SyFy saturday night movies exist for this reason.

 

[Kyriakos]

^

 

[H4run]

SyFy saturday night movies exist for this reason.

Sound scifi or syfy movie is really not for me, I seen most of the post here looking of reference it mostly refer to somekind like action movie. However I do remember once I seen a scifi movie that picture somekind like Orwellian future. Where the peoples are been segmented into classes, and they been given pills to keep them calm or avoid them from rebelling, a little bit remind me of this old film like metropolis, but also not exactly like that. I seen that movie quite long time ago when my father watch it, but as I don't follow it from the beginning I don't continue to watch it. Do you or anyone here can tell me the title of the movie?

 

[El_Machinae]

That really sounds like Brave New World...

 

[H4run]

That really sounds like Brave New World...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145600/

5.1 in imdb :/ and the way you comment it give the impression that the film seems not that good

 

[Kyriakos]

He meant that it was a film based on the other famous future dystopia novel of that era

I haven't read either of them, though. I tried to read 1984, but due to some mess only one publishing house here holds the right to the Greek editions, and that house is easily one of the lamest around, so the book became crap :/

 

[History_Buff]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145600/

5.1 in imdb :/ and the way you comment it give the impression that the film seems not that good

Brave New World is originally an excellent book by Aldous Huxley. However I don't think a good film adaptation has ever been done, hence El Mac's tone.

 

[Cutlass]

Did anyone mention how much Transformers sucked?

 

[Valka D'Ur]

No known actor, and the actors were quite bad

The actress who played Ezri Dax on Star Trek: DS9 was in it.

I'm generally not a Matthew McConaughey fan so his presence brings Contact down for me.

The plothole I'm talking about is the massive deus ex eff you audience moment when the first machine is destroyed by a suicide bomber and a moment later they reveal that random effing billionaire numbnuts has built a second machine on the other side of the planet and it hasn't been mentioned before because REASONS. Okay, maybe it's not technically a plot hole, but it is inexcusable.

Okay, I believe you about the actor. The thing is, the character of Palmer Joss was definitely not a love interest in the novel. He and Elly had a kind of "frenemy" relationship for part of the novel, and the ending is a bit twisty, where both of them come to some kind of epiphany about the other's point of view.

The character of S.R. Haddon in the novel also wasn't like the character in the movie. Both were extremely eccentric multibillionaires, yes. But what they did with their money was very different. It's a bit convenient that Haddon just happened to have a duplicate Machine available... but considering the immense investment made and the importance of what was at stake, I don't fault him for it. I think he intended that even if the first one hadn't been destroyed, Elly would have gone in one or the other.

In the novel it wasn't just one person who went in the Machine; it was an international team of people.

I'm glad the movie dropped the subplot about Elly's parents. Just killing them off when she was a child was a much neater, simpler way to deal with them.

Brave New World is originally an excellent book by Aldous Huxley. However I don't think a good film adaptation has ever been done, hence El Mac's tone.

I guess I'm the only one who actually liked the Keir Dullea adaptation...

 

[Kyriakos]

Link to video.

In my view this was the only good Arnold film, but it still is cool as entertainment

 

[El_Machinae]

Arnold has a ton of good films. Like it or not, he was a super-fun actor. Commando has a ton of cheese, but you'll laugh and laugh at the one-liners.
I've quite enjoyed most of the Predator franchise, to be honest. I found Predator 2 too gritty, so maybe it wasn't to my taste. AvP2 was pretty godawful. But I liked AvP more than other people did (it was what I wanted). And I really enjoyed the new Predators, it was an excellent imagining of the franchise. I didn't enjoy Lawrence Fishburne's character, and the other characters were only tokenly interesting, but the story itself was right within the theme of the original Predator movie.

Link to video.
The whisper nearly killed me, I laughed so hard.

 

[Kyriakos]

He used to be the #1 scifi hero-actor, but he was in a ton of rather bad movies (along with his endless line of comedy films :/ ).*

Mr. Freeze probably was his worst role, though. I don't recall if he ever was in a main movie after that

*Arnold must have had a sense of humor, cause in one movie he was a pregnant male. But overall he seemed to be quite strange, moreso in some of his public comments. Anyway, not the worst thing ever, but not a good actor, despite having an imposing presense and being able to act to some degree.

 

[bhsup]

How can you say that?? Best dramatic moment in acting history ever right below in spoiler!

Spoiler :

Link to video.

Anyhoo, Ahnold is just a scifi god (or at least demi-god) imho. The original Terminator movie alone puts him in top tier. Then Predator, Running Man, etc...