Spabbit’s Top 10 Sci-Fi Movies!
This post covers my picks for the top Sci-Fi movies, starting with my Top 10!
In the list I talk about the ideas at the heart of the movies. Good Science Fiction always has a simple idea at the core, but one which is left to almost naturally develop into a narrative which will make you sit up and think “WTF did I just watch”. Other Sci-Fi, and some in the later stages of the list completely bypass the horrific ideas, in their cases I’d class them as “Sci-Fi Lite”, good for a watch, but they ain’t gonna shake your mind up :).
I’m not a movie critic, and in many examples what I like has been routinely ripped apart by critics… but what the hell do they know? Just take a movie for what it is, with its limits, and just bloody well enjoy it 🙂
First on the list, and in top place is Lucy (2014). Everything about this movie is epic – apart from it’s too short! In the title role, Scarlett Johansson is more or less forced into taking evolutionary steps, and in short order becomes something else all together. The movie takes the viewer on a roller coaster non-stop journey including one of the best driving scenes out there. Can’t say any more about this without spoilers, but seriously, it’s the one. Morgan Freeman, as usual is excellent in his role, and brilliance from Luc Besson 🙂
Transcendence (2014) comes in a strong second. It received robust criticism when released, however I just really enjoyed this tale of human evolution when mixed with technology. As with all excellent Science Fiction, Transcendence deals with the small idea integrating into and eventually bringing about massive changes in the bigger picture. A small and horrifying idea given space to grow! An epic movie on every level.
Transcendence
April 18, 2014 (United States)
Summary: A scientist's drive for artificial intelligence takes on dangerous implications when his own consciousness is uploaded into one such program.
Source: IMDb
Again with a horrifying idea at the core, Ender’s Game (2013) comes in third place. The idea behind this film is brutal… You kinda get a hint, but it’s not until the end of the movie where the true audacity of the idea smacks the back of your brain awake! I can’t really say more without spoilers, but this one will blow you away.
Ender's Game
November 1, 2013 (United States)
Director: Gavin Hood
Writer: Gavin Hood, Orson Scott Card
Stars: Harrison Ford, Asa Butterfield, Hailee Steinfeld
Summary: Young Ender Wiggin is recruited by the International Military to lead the fight against the Formics, an insectoid alien race who had previously tried to invade Earth and had inflicted heavy ... Read all
Source: IMDb
No list would be complete without my fourth place choice, Evolution (2001). This is a Sci-Fi Comedy – and for the life of me I don’t know how the actors didn’t dissolve in a pool of laughter in every other scene. Fox Mulder eat your cold exterior and go watch this supreme masterpiece which I usually end up watching at least once a year! Laugh a minute with some very cute (and some damn right icky) aliens!
Evolution
June 8, 2001 (United States)
Director: Ivan Reitman
Writer: Don Jakoby, David Diamond, David Weissman
Stars: David Duchovny, Orlando Jones, Julianne Moore
Summary: A fire-fighting cadet, two college professors, and a geeky but sexy government scientist work against an alien organism that has been rapidly evolving since its arrival on Earth inside a met... Read all
Source: IMDb
In the middle of the pack, fifth place comes Flash Gordon (1980). Wow! What scummy list would miss out on this awesome work of genius! The soundtrack alone is famous enough to have an entry! Flash Gordon saves the day. Simply put – you should have seen this if you’ve been alive at least nine years, if you haven’t – go watch. If anyone re-makes this film they should be punished. Step away from the edit button!!!
Flash Gordon
December 5, 1980 (United States)
Director: Mike Hodges
Writer: Lorenzo Semple Jr., Michael Allin, Alex Raymond
Stars: Sam J. Jones, Melody Anderson, Max von Sydow
Summary: A football player and his friends travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
Source: IMDb
Paperhouse (1988) Is in 6th place, but has a special place in my movie loving heart. This was a film I viewed for the first time when I was around 18. Paperhouse stood out from the usual crop of movies at the time, and still does – it’s the whole set of feelings it projects, and the overall style which make it brilliant. An interesting point about this movie is that the mother’s part was dubbed over, giving it a unique sound, making this movie even more cut glass than it was originally. This is a movie which will make you think, for sure.
Paperhouse
February 17, 1989 (United States)
Director: Bernard Rose
Writer: Catherine Storr, Matthew Jacobs
Stars: Charlotte Burke, Jane Bertish, Samantha Cahill
Summary: A young girl lost in the loneliness and boredom of reality finds solace in an ill boy, whom she can visit in a surreal dream world that she drew in her school composition book.
Source: IMDb
My Best Friend Is A Vampire (1987) in seventh place. This has been in my favourites list for a long time! I initially saw this on VHS back in the day, and it was many years later when I managed to find it again. Rewatching after 20 years, the film does show its age, but is just as good. It’s a very lite film, so does need the viewer to just relax and watch, easy to pick holes in, but why when it’s so enjoyable 🙂
My Best Friend Is a Vampire
May 6, 1988 (United States)
Summary: After a sexual encounter with a beautiful client, a teenage delivery boy finds himself being turned into a vampire.
Source: IMDb
Night Watch (Russian with eng subs) (2004) is in eighth place. This masterpiece should be filed in the dictionary under “Industrial Cool”. I’ve only watched this and Day Watch in terms of Russian Movies – gotta day I love the whole feel of the movie – it just has an essence and depth that is so different to all others I’ve seen. Dark, Brooding and brimming with purpose, plus a fleeting glimpse of a culture that I doubt I’ll ever know. If you watch this, don’t you dare do it dubbed, Russian with subtitles is the only way.
Night Watch
March 3, 2006 (United States)
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Summary: A fantasy-thriller set in present-day Moscow where the respective forces that control daytime and nighttime do battle.
Source: IMDb
Barbarella (1968) – Barbarella Psychedelia coming in 9th place! What an amazing movie! It has everything from funky-cool-70s-porn-star-world – costumes, ships, bondage, a fallen angel who’s blind, and finally an Orgasmatron! The villians are villainous, and the heroes are straight from an even more camp Flash Gordon! What’s not to love… ❤❤❤ Barbarella & Jane Fonda!
Barbarella
October 10, 1968 (United States)
Director: Roger Vadim
Writer: Jean-Claude Forest, Terry Southern, Roger Vadim
Stars: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg
Summary: In the 41st century, an astronaut partakes in sexy misadventures while seeking to stop an evil scientist who threatens to bring evil back into the galaxy.
Source: IMDb
The Ambushers (1967) comes in 10th place, but still a much loved memory of my early childhood! Dean Martin plays secret agent Matt Helm, and oh boy is he straight out of a whiskey-glass from the 60s! This movie is as sexist-funny as could be for the time it was produced, yet still manages to maintain an air of innocence – guess it was just that way back then. The scenery is cardboard, the special effects only spring to a sparkler or two, yet this low-grade 60’s scifi comedy hits all the right buttons. They just don’t make ’em like this any more!
The Ambushers
December 22, 1967 (United States)
Director: Henry Levin
Writer: Donald Hamilton, Herbert Baker
Stars: Dean Martin, Senta Berger, Janice Rule
Summary: Secret agent Matt Helm must battle foreign spies and a rogue nation's exiled ruler in order to recover a hijacked U.S. government experimental flying saucer.
Source: IMDb
Now I know this was supposed to be a top ten, but I have a couple of mentions which I’d like to slip in some details for before the main list.
Explorers (1985) – For me, this was always one of my favourite movies, again this is from my childhood. Director Joe Dante manages to capture the feel of the 80s perfectly here, and I’d even go so far to say that the production is more like Spielbergs’. This is junior Sci-Fi at it’s finest – a bunch of kids are sent dreams of circuit designs, and manage to build a spaceship straight out of junk, taking the voyage of their lives! Just wow!
Weird Science (1985) Is the last movie I’ll detail here – what Sci-Fi list would be complete without Weird Science? This is THE teenage Sci-Fi movie! Two nerds rebel against a bully, make a kick-arse girl who then goes on to turn their kitchen blue, and park an ICBM in their living room! Soooo cool – and I so missed out on the tech of that era!
Weird Science
August 2, 1985 (United States)
Director: John Hughes
Writer: John Hughes, Al Feldstein, William M. Gaines
Summary: Two high-school nerds use a computer program to literally create the perfect woman, who promptly turns their lives upside-down.
Source: IMDb
Abyss (The) (1989)
Ambushers (The) (1967)
Barbarella (1968)
Battleship (2012)
Biggles (1986)
Blade Runner – The Final Cut (Original 1982, Final Cut 2007)
Bright (2017)
Doctor Strange (2016)
Downsizing (2017)
Ender’s Game (2013)
Evolution (2001)
Explorers (1985)
Flash Gordon (1980)
Inception (2010)
Last Starfighter (The) (1984)
Lost In Space (1998)
Lucy (2014)
Man From Earth (The) (2007)
My Best Friend Is A Vampire (1987)
Night Watch (Russian with eng subs) (2004)
Paperhouse (1988)
Quiet Earth (The) (2003)
Robinson Crusoe On Mars (1964)
Transcendence (2014)
Weird Science (1985)