The 25 Best Sci-Fi Films (2000-2015)

children of men will probably win but my favorite is AI

These are great:

01. Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
03. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry; 2004)
04. Her (Spike Jonze; 2013)
09. Solaris (Steven Soderbergh; 2002)
16. A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater; 2006)
24. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly; 2001)

These are fine:

05. Moon (Duncan Jones; 2009)
08. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp; 2009)
13. Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron; 2013)
15. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg; 2002)

These are I'm not sure about:
18. A.I: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg; 2001)
20. Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos; 2010)

These are crap:

11. Inception (Christopher Nolan; 2010)
23. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku; 2000)

Haven't seen the others.

not sci fi - eternal sunshine, her, moon, battle royale, donnie darko

i agree with those rankings except i remember scanner darkly being pretty crappy. i haven't watched it in forever even though i have the dvd. maybe i will give it another try. i remember liking how it looked but not being into keanu's performance at all. but then again i was kind of enjoying "johnny mnemonic" last night.

ath's critique of "children of men" from the OG thread rings true to me

what about the criticism that every second spent watching the film is one where you're grimacing in fear that you're about to be shot in the fucking face with a gun any second
― ath (ath), Tuesday, January 9, 2007 12:36 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I thought that was praise!
― Fleischhutliebe! like a warm, furry meatloaf (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Tuesday, January 9, 2007 12:37 PM (8 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think sci fi movies can aspire to better than that

one last thing, only armond white and a.o. scott got ai right iirc

Battle Royale.

xp Rosenbaum was pretty OTM on it too.

i guess i really need to see "attack the block" and "beyond the black rainbow"

Snowpiercer is fucking awful

i forget the ILX consensus but surprised not to see Prometheus on here.

Beyond the Black Rainbow looks and sounds great, but really has nothing else going on in it. Of course, "looks and sounds great" might very reasonably be good enough for some viewers.

Great: Children of Men, Eternal Sunshine
Flawed, but well worth the time: Upstream Color, Her, Moon, Primer
At least there's eyecandy/atmosphere: District 9, Solaris, Attack the Block, Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, AI, Sunshine, Donnie Darko, Edge of Tomorrow
Numbingly stupid, despite eyecandy: Snowpiercer, Inception, Gravity, Looper, Battle Royale

Haven't seen: Timecrimes, Ex Machina, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Interstellar, Beyond the Black Rainbow

Notable omissions: Under the Skin, WALL-E, Avatar, Serenity, The Fountain, Save the Green Planet!, and (personal obscure fave) Thomas in Love

Aargh no: AI, Donnie Dark, probably Inception and Solaris if I could be bothered to watch them.

not sci fi - eternal sunshine, her, moon, battle royale, donnie darko

― the late great,

Her and Moon definitely are, there is a strong argument for all the others being, except maybe BR.

Really, I would like to hear it argued that Moon is not science fiction.

What is Timecrimes?

All the movies mentioned as not being sci-fi are sci-fi.

Sunshine is terrible.

I've only seen 10; Her was my favourite.

They managed to not include my pick: Under the Skin

I'm actually a little surprised how many good movies are on this list (Under The Skin would definitely have made my top 10).

I'm actually a little surprised how many good movies are on this list

That's because good sci-fi movies are maybe the best kind of movie.

CoM, Moon, District 9, maybe Looper. Upstream Colour and Primer deserve honorable mentions. Gravity I think is wonderful but flawed. Gondry can do one. Minority Report was pretty good, way back when.

Donnie Darko is one of the worst movies ever made.

Gonna vote Minority Report

I enjoyed it thoroughly as a weird little curio coming-of-age thing. As some kind of sci-fi masterpiece, fuck no.

Gonna vote A.I. because even still it's insanely underrated, but I'd also happily vote for Children of Men, Upstream Color, Her, or Gravity.

Aside from Inception, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is the biggest misstep here. Rise was fantastic; Dawn was pretty tedious.

A.I. would be my second vote for sure

Is there a way to separate "dystopia" from '"pure"' sci-fi? Hmm

Also, Playlist listed Under the Skin as the 2nd best horror movie since 2000, fwiw: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-25-best-horror-films-of-the-21st-century-so-far-20141030?page=5

(I decided against polling that list because it didn't have either Inside or Martyrs but did have The Ring so screw that.)

Dawn in place of Rise is bizarre. thought it was pretty well established that the latter was superior.

im surprised to look at that list and find that i feel unenthusiastic about most of those movies--other than A.I/, which is still just as potent and unnerving as ever.

Voted for Timecrimes, it's pretty amazing how it manages to explore the whole Grandfather Paradox and other time travel shenanigans with a simple, tight plot and a handful of settings, while being also well-acted and fun to watch. Unlike, say, Primer.

I preferred Dawn to Rise, though I saw the earlier film on a shitty pirate DVD and the sequel in the cinema.

Voted Ex Machina, easy choice.

Beyond Black Rainbow is generally pretty boring but better than most films here for having some really incredible moments.

Liked Moon.

I was highly surprised that Edge Of Tomorrow was good apart from the ending.

Never heard of TimeCrimes.

Either lukewarm, dislike or not interested in the rest.

But Eternal Sunshine and Battle Royale? In the words of Wayne Hussey in Sisters Of Mercy's "No Time To Cry": "NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!NO!"

i have seen 0 of these but timecrimes is a funny name

Would assume Timecrimes is an 80s film watched on MST3K

Hah, so true.

Timecrimes is great, it's the one I'd vote for off this list. It is probably heavily indebted to Primer but is actually a better movie imo.

Aargh no: AI, Donnie Dark, probably Inception and Solaris if I could be bothered to watch them.

I was confused, I have seen Inception, regretted the hours lost. Interstellar is the nolan snooze-fest I chose to avoid.

I guess it's been fifteen years since I saw AI or Battle Royale. Don't get the hate for BR although if I saw it again maybe it wouldn't seem so fun. I will never be persuaded as to the merits of AI.

Timecrimes is like a fisher price primer, fun though.

Trying to figure out how Eternal Sunshine isn't science fiction when the central conceit of the movie is a machine that can selectively remove memories

It's a pretty broad category tbh.

I was looking the other day, but we don't have a thread specifically for Ex Machina, do we? I thought it was excellent.

I read (heard?) part of an interview where Alex Garland was explaining how disappointed he was with how his script for Sunshine ended up, mostly due to it becoming a slasher flick for the last third. I really enjoyed how straightforward his script for Dredd ended up being, and I think Ex Machina benefits from tackling a complex issue in a very simplified environment.

The list seems kinda weak on the cartoonier side of sci-fi, but I'm struggling to come up with good examples myself. Did anything like The Fifth Element come out in this time period?

Odd how many of these films deal with time travel/paradox.

Jupiter Rising lol

Children of Men slays p much everything here.

Battle Royale is great anyone who is hating on it is totally untrustworthy. Book is equally strong.

The more pulpy science fiction films of recent years would probably include Source Code and In Time. The more cartoony side has definitely leaned more in the fantasy direction, but you could argue for Jupiter Rising, John Carter, and the RIDDICK films.

I guess my version of "pulpy" is the more blue collar male protagonist punching things and less space opera or Burroughs adventure, although those are also "pulpy."

Southland Tales would qualify as the cartoonier side of sci-fi, right? Better movie than Donnie Darko at any rate.

Upstream ftw, tho Under the Skin should def be in there.

thank you Eric, I was trying to figure out how to frame and introduce that movie to the thread

Final act of Sunshine was definitely weak but overall it was such a ferocious audio-visual experience I can forgive that.

I absolutely cannot fathom the (admittedly minor) cult that has formed around Southland Tales.

What's so hard to believe? A movie that begs to be hated ends up loved by a peculiar, dogged strain of cinephile?

Especially one coming out after a wildly overrated faux-cult hit?

imo having that special version of Donnie Darko that actually made the film worse really foretold Kelly's real intentions

Donnie Darko was good. The director's cut was indeed, dreadful.

I'll vote for Nolan. But which one? Guess Interstellar had the most beautiful photography.

I would have voted for Wall-E if that had been on the list, though.

Ditto.

Just kidding. It's A.I. ... period.

Battle Royale is great anyone who is hating on it is totally untrustworthy. Book is equally strong.

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Monday, 11 May 2015 15:16

Never read the book but too many of the actors in the film look like they'd learned to act from melodramatic anime. Just full of all the worst cliches. The death scenes, the Kyo/Iori looking guys readymade for yaoi fan comics.

voting for one does not appeal to me. esp as there is a lot of genre fudging going on.

Shane Carruth gtfo

bizarre that Under the Skin isn't on here (I assume it would win this poll around here tbh), a bunch of absolute garbage on here.

kinda agree with crypto's first post assessment

Steven Spielberg gtfo

MIA: Turin Horse and Melancholia, two films about the end of the world (a classic SF trope)

many of these grievances are addressed in the article.

i've seen 20/25, and of those the best are Eternal Sunshine and A.I. by a good distance. Next are Scanner, Darko, and possibly Solaris, Attack the Block or Timecrimes.

Probably voting timecrimes? It's an astoundingly tight little movie.

"Norse Jung (Eric H.)
Posted: May 11, 2015 at 7:50:02 AM
(I decided against polling that list because it didn't have either Inside or Martyrs but did have The Ring so screw that.)"

You probably should poll it, I'm in the mood to yell at people today.

Didn't realise ILX had so much love for Eternal Sunshine.

it's a pretty good film!

but I think of it as the single great Hollywood romantic comedy of the last 20 years, a genre ILE chooses to think of as "horrible shit Rachel McAdams is in"

it is a sci-fi romcom, fits in both genres well imo

appearances by Eternal Sunshine on ILE Romantic Comedy poll - 1
appearances by Rachel McAdams on same poll - 0

Emma Stone, then

I voted for Edge of Tomorrow only bc I didnt see AI in the list at first. But i really really really dug it so i'll stand by it

lol @ Gravity. THERE IS NO SCIENCE IN THAT FUCKIN MOVIE

sorry

You probably should poll it, I'm in the mood to yell at people today.

(NOT) The 25 Best Horror Films (2000-2015)

xp hah, get off this thread, Neil deGrasse Tyson

imo having that special version of Donnie Darko that actually made the film worse really foretold Kelly's real intentions

ftr the only version of DD I've seen is the director's cut and as a result I will never, ever, ever see the original version unless forced at gunpoint, and even then I would strongly consider taking the bullet instead

lol never bothered with this Director's Cut precisely because everyone hates it so much and Kelly's obviously got poor judgment.

og film is really fun though

it is!

I think the director's cut gave a lot of people buyer's remorse about loving the original.

I still love Donnie Darko, but everything that Kelly has done since, including/especially the Director's Cut, proves that much of what was good about the original happened by accident.

Glad Morbs could stop by to tell everyone how shitty their taste in movies is... while in complete agreement about the movie in question.

your hatred has rendered you incomprehensible

(i win)

You have to admit "great Hollywood romantic comedy" doesn't exactly offer much in the way of competition for Eternal Sunshine.

Good list. Much more interesting and seemingly comfortable with the genre than what they came up with for horror. Would be happy to vote for any of these:

Children of Men
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Timecrimes
District 9
Attack the Block
Donnie Darko

And these aren't bad either:

Upstream Color
Moon
Primer
Gravity
Looper
Ex Machina
A.I.
Beyond the Black Rainbow
Battle Royale

Haven't seen or disliked the rest.

It's between Looper, A.I, Edge of Tomorrow, Sunshine, and CoM for me. Feels like there's something missing from this list, though.

Donnie Darko and Her deserve to be missing.

i like the orig donnie darko a lot but feel like the facepalm cut is more of a scifi movie, hence could not vote for it here

can't remember at this point which one has echo and the bunnymen and which has head over heels

I would have put Oblivion way up on this list. just me though eh.

lol yeah, that movie is pretty but I don't think anyone rated it

Best Cartoonish Sci-fi missing = Guardians of the Galaxy.

Still haven't seen either of the Carruths, feel like I have though - I hadn't heard of Timecrimes, clearly I need to rectify that.

A lot of these are good, some (Eternal Sunshine, Attack the Block, Looper, A Scanner Darkly), are great, but almost all have them have the flaw that they're not Children of Men - Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows otm in that quote.

The original cut of Donnie Darko had both Echo and "Head Over Heels." The Director's Cut replaces "The Killing Moon" with INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart," which reveals that the sly joke that I thought was being pulled in the original (BUNNYmen, get it?) was one of many unconscious flukes on the part of Kelly.

My top 5 would probably be
Under the Skin
Children of Men
AI
Eternal Sunshine
Moon
but I haven't seen all of these and Solaris could sneak in there after a rewatch.

Sunshine underrated IMO.

I think as a whole it really falls apart but the set and casting was excellent

Eternal Sunshine is the best movie on here, but maybe not the best sci-fi movie, if that makes sense

I probably agree with that.

If Under the Skin were on here, it would be both the best film and the best sci-fi film. From this list I'll take Primer, which even on multiple viewings is disorienting and uncomfortable -- like actual time travel might be!

(And which I liked a lot more than Upstream Color.)

It's interesting that There are no iconic franchise favorites here, like The Matrix would be for 1985-1999, or Star Wars would be for 1970-84.

Even the blockbusters (Minority Report, Looper, Inception) are eccentric one-offs.

Matrix sequels all came out post-99 and to call them favorites diminishes that word. Not sure most eras have a sci fi series, but fantasy and superhero movies have largely filled that void in past 15 years.

I guess at some point Avatar 2 and 3 will continue that series although it's hard to imagine how exactly they'll be received given how totally bizarre original film is.

it really wouldn't be weird to classify most superhero movies as scifi they just don't get that label for whatever reason

if someone is about start arguing that spiderman is not science fiction Remove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this ThreadRemove Bookmark from this Thread

One of the papers had a Scifi special yesterday because Mad Max - nah, right?

To be clear, there were a number of franchise sci-fi vehicles that started during this period: Transformers, Avatar, some of the Marvel movies... but they aren't original or interesting enough to make this kind of list.

Whereas the 85-99 list would contain a number of original, interesting films that WERE developed into franchises: the Matrix, Predator, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, etc.

I suppose this just reflects the derivative nature of contemporary Hollywood product, which is not exactly news

"Sequels can beat this idea into the ground" is not in itself a mark of quality, though.

It's also a Very Serious List by and large - not immediately clear that the films you mention would make it onto an earlier list - Star Wars would, Matrix might get the Attack The Block slot.

Sunshine underrated IMO.

― Jeff, Tuesday, May 12, 2015 4:23 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think as a whole it really falls apart but the set and casting was excellent

― ultimate american sock (mh), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 4:50 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I really like it, despite its flaws: unusual, too, in really getting the BEAUTY of space as well as the scariness in a way most cinema SF fails at

Voting Children of Men, with Timecrimes second.

DO NOT BELONG HERE:
Interstellar: portentous nonsense
Snowpiercer: ambitious but ultimately cheapo rubbish
Looper: hobbled by failure of Leavitts make-up
District 9: squanders wonderful early promise and premise on racist nastiness and boring action sequences

I voted for Moon, mostly based on catching it by accident, not knowing what it was or anything about it, and being completely surprised by how much I got into it.

My probably-boring summary: Think Children of Men is wayyyyy overrated but I still quite like it; Attack the Block another good surprise, it's not earth-shattering but very enjoyable; I frickin' love Battle Royale but it is schlocky and I'd call it horror more than sci-fi (though obviously dystopian future = sci-fi trope, yes... I guess sci-fi plot directed in horror style?); sort of see what defenders of Sunshine are getting at but come on, it doesn't work; liked Donnie Darko as a teen flick but probably don't ever want to see it again; Eternal Sunshine sucks, as does AI. Seen bits of others but not worth commenting on, really want to see Upstream Colour and Beyond the Black Rainbow.

It's also a Very Serious List by and large - not immediately clear that the films you mention would make it onto an earlier list - Star Wars would, Matrix might get the Attack The Block slot.

Are there enough serious sci-fi films from the late 80s and 90s to make up a similar list? I can think of a lot in 70-84, but I suspect 85-99 would have to be more action and schlock-oriented just to fill out the list. Though Terry Gilliam would be on there too.

Are there enough serious sci-fi films from the late 80s and 90s to make up a similar list?

Dark City and Gattaca spring to mind. There must be more.

Coherence is a good lo-fi Primer-ish sci-fi that should get a mention.

<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_science_fiction_films_of_the_1990s";>90s sci-fi<a/>:Contact / Ghost in the the Shell / errr.....

Definitely a golden age of great fun scifi though.

Bah

Cronenberg would also take a few 90s slots, but honest you couldn't make a respectable 85-99 list without including Robocop, Aliens, T2 and a dozen other Hollywood classics...

whereas today ignoring the Star Trek reboot is probably safe, or at least defensible.

What about Triangle - sort of a horror, but equally a sci-fi

Robocop, Aliens, T2 and a dozen other Hollywood classics...

Total Recall and Predator also for sure. It would be an Arnie heavy list.

I think the Tom Cruise appearances in the list might be my favorites. Huh.

I can't wait for the day that people start backpedaling hard on the Nolan praise. Neither of his movies belong here. He's the Kevin Smith of bombastically-incoherent sci-fi.

Voting A Scanner Darkly coz its visual approach is extraordinarily affecting and its story is strong (that old source material trick)

Robocop, Aliens, T2 and a dozen other Hollywood classics...

Total Recall and Predator also for sure. It would be an Arnie heavy list.

Robocop is great, Aliens is ok the rest can go die in a fire

Avatar omission from this list is hella stupid

Last remaining Avatar fan found, released into wild, starts beating up on more advanced machinery.

prob one of these:

03. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry; 2004)
05. Moon (Duncan Jones; 2009)
06. Timecrimes (Nacho Vigalondo; 2007)
08. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp; 2009)
09. Solaris (Steven Soderbergh; 2002)
12. Attack the Block (Joe Cornish; 2011)
13. Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron; 2013)
15. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg; 2002)
17. Ex Machina (Alex Garland; 2015)
18. A.I: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg; 2001)
21. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves; 2014)
23. Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku; 2000)
25. Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman; 2014)

prob one of the few people who actually like the solaris remake more than the original - im not ashamed!

I know a few people who do

Xpost avatar was fucking fantastic imo, yes it has serious problems on paper but it simply overwhelms them

You're aware that's not a widely shared view though (particularly not on blogs.indiewire.com)?

total recall is the last arnold movie i'd cut from anything; happy to go without either model T but could not abandon quaid calling himself a fucking asshole. i prob even prefer watching it to watching robocop, tho in memory robocop is much greater.

xp I mean, it's an interesting film, but all of the interesting things about it are to do with the fact that it took in $2.8 billion.

It's interesting that it's by (and the next film by) the same guy who made the $2.1 billion film.

It's a fantastic high water mark for 3D, the sort that would be praised by cinephiles for decades - if it hadn't taken $2.8 billion.

It disappeared without a _trace_ afterwards: I've never seen Titanic, but I can make about a half dozen joking references when appropriate. I have seen Avatar though, which should be 33% more striking, and... nothing.

I can't wait for the day that people start backpedaling hard on the Nolan praise.

IMDB hasn't backed down on Shawshank yet, so I wouldn't hold my breath.

Oh yeah and of course it's striking that the biggest film of all time, in 2009, involves cheering on the noble savages taking down the US Military.

i hope the post-avatar depressives are doing better these days.

Perfectly happy to briefly take the DJP mantle of suggesting that if you find Nolan films incoherent you might, y'know, pay a bit more attention.

no interest in "plot holes" but rises was incoherent in deep ways.

(inception was way too coherent.)

Xpost I am aware that it's a minority opinion yes. On ilx as well. IIRC contendo is my only avatar homie

Nolan is a pox

I think I have been on record as enjoying Nolan but finding people who enjoy analyzing the "ambiguity" in his films very cringeworthy

(inception was way too coherent.)

Yeah, I agree, if what you mean is that its logic was much too rule-based/systematic. The first hour was practically a tutorial to make sure that you understood the rules.

but, the top, man! does it fall at the end? what if life is... a dream?!?

^^ real conversation I overheard at a pizza place

The coherence of Nolan's films is on the level of some dude who's arguing that you don't understand what he's saying but you have to double down and insist that, while you understand the words coming out of his mouth, the words coming out of his mouth are kinds stupid and don't hang together in the way that he seems to think they do.

I concur

kinds = kinda, duh.

Like, I "get" Nolan's movies, but I also think they're kinda stupid and narratively inconsistent. Those two positions are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

I guiltily enjoy Inception but mostly because it's the movie where well-dressed people race against the clock (and large booming noises) in a surreal landscape, not because it has any deep psychological drama.

It's really kind of an uncharismatic heist movie

"Hey guys, I have an idea for a film. It's like Ocean's 11 but instead of a casino, it takes place in the mark's dreams, and instead of Clooney and Pitt mugging at the camera, we'll have DiCaprio making really serious faces."

Nolan forgot that heist movies are supposed to be fun

I enjoy watching Nolan's movies in the moment, they fall to pieces once I spend five minutes thinking about them after the movie is over, and I don't feel the need to ever see them again. This has held true for me with respect to every one of his movies. Sheer spectacle.

guys, I just remembered the linchpin of 90s big budget science fiction we're forgetting:
Roland Emmerich

I did not forget him

"Hey guys, I have an idea for a film. It's like /Ocean's 11/ but instead of a casino, it takes place in the mark's dreams, and instead of Clooney and Pitt mugging at the camera, we'll have DiCaprio making really serious faces."

This is a great summation of why nolan's films are so shit and bad!

Inception is like having every "what is dream and what is reality" movie from the last 25 years diagrammatically and laboriously explained to you by a close-talking literal-minded simpleton

and then the actual travails within the dream are not really that surreal, just multiple action scenes

I think it's kind of poetic that the '85-'99 window is bookmarked (well, if you fudge a couple years since it came out in 1983) by Videodrome and eXistenZ, both of which I love, and both of which are takes on the most relevant media of the time.

I am astounded that someone can watch Tarkovski's Solaris and be like - meh Soderburgh's dry soulless remake of this w/George Clooney is so much better!

Sunshine for me. I liked it from the jump, but since I've made peace with the third act, it's been one of my favorite films of the last 15 years regardless of genre.

xp Soderbergh's version is a fairly straightforward, 99 minute film with a good score, casting that is recognizable but not (with the exception of Clooney) overused actors for the time, lacks meandering artistic shots that, while very appealing to me, turn off a lot of viewers.

I think the most cited shots of Tarkovsky's version are driving through Tokyo as a futuristic landscape, which has nothing to do with the plot, and the opening scene of water

I am astounded that someone can watch Tarkovski's Solaris

could've stopped there imo

ouch

Tarkovsky's science fiction films are enjoyable to me, but they're also ponderous exercises in viewer attention span

I'm okay with long, slow, & ponderous as a style, what drove me insane about Solaris was this:

Character A: [brief expository dialogue]

*3 minutes of silence*

Character B: [completely unrelated response to Character A's dialogue]

repeat for an hour.

Like if you hate characters and dialogue so much just maybe make a pretty movie that requires neither, I'd be cool with that.

I recently watched a very fine Ukrainian movie called The Tribe, which was completely dialogue free or least all the dialogue was in sign language with no subtitles. It wasn't very pretty though.

Tarkovsky's Solaris has zero characters listening to Insane Clown Posse so it can't be the best Solaris

I still think you could do an academic paper on whether Jeremy Davies's character, Snow, would have listened to ICP or if it's something his Solaris-duplicate has decided to do. If so, does it reflect a judgement of the planet about humanity?

I like Nolan's movies for the most part. I mean sure, none of them have a plot that really makes sense once you spend more than 20 seconds thinking about them, but he pretty reliably brings some fun ideas to play with (in the case of the two movies in this poll, dream heists and time dilation) and often some very good setpieces.

The main mistake people make with him seems to be to think that his films should be taken as seriously as he wants them to be taken.

If he didn't demand to be taken so seriously, he'd probably be a really fun and pulpy director. Like a John Carpenter with a way better visual sense.

I think of myself as a person who doesn't see movies but to my surprise I've seen 14 of these. I guess I like SF. It's fun to argue but for me, Children of Men towers above the rest of these, conventional as that choice is. It's the only one I really remember.

#2? Maybe Eternal Sunshine though not sure I see it as sci-fi. District 9 objectively has a lot wrong with it but of the movies here that aren't Children of Men, it's the one I just plain LIKED the most, and thought about the most after I watched it. I admired it when the guy threw up on the cake. Not everyone would have shot that scene.

Does Children of Men have any real differences from the present day other than the infertility crisis? I'm not sure why people don't see Eternal Sunshine as science fiction, other than the fact the film's style is different than a lot of other science fiction films.

Shit, I just realised I forgot what film District 9 was - I caught it quite recently, too, and really enjoyed it. The juxtaposition of depressing/ridiculous worked very well.

xp Widely advertised legal suicide? I mean it the infertility crisis seems to have had a significant change, more so than a film where knowledge of the human mind has advanced to the point we can wipe out memories, but our concept of ourselves seems largely the same.

they've got this crazy futuristic music man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1IoWXR1QwY

Widely advertised legal suicide is definitely a big sociological change, but the technology... is there.

Anybody in this thread bagging on Nolan that ever gave props to any of the matrix movies please make yourself known so I can ignore you forever, thanks in advance

it's been real

there's a serious undercurrent to the plot of the matrix but there are so many fight scenes where it's ridiculous wish fulfillment on the part of the directors and audience, and I don't think they'd ever deny that!

I would appreciate it if Christopher Nolan was like "oh man, we kept having to restart these shots with Tom Hardy because he just looked and sounded so goofy in that mask"

Solaris should be automatically disqualified for being a rehash.

But I'm a Tarkovsky fan.

Watched Infini last night. It is not one of the best sci-fi films (2000-2015).

is it, somehow, Minority Report?

Upstream Color might be the quintessential Indiewire 'flick'. I think it's fine, but seriously some films on this are on another level.

Wall-E should be on this list. Will somebody think of the children. (Indiewire said it made the animation list fwiw)

This is dumb; ain't no way to rank stuff this close to release.

That being said, I'll throw out Children of Men, Moon, and Looper

throw out as suggestions, rather, not throw out of consideration

watched Timecrimes last night cuz of this list - pretty good, not sure what Cronenberg would bring to the table in a remake but whatever. I liked the conceptual conceit, the tightly constructed story, the obvious resourcefulness involved in it's making. The lead was a bit of a blank, could have done with some more characterization/shading, but that's my only complaint.

this is a useful list for future reference thx

I can't rly choose between several, of those ive seen i was prob most pleasantly surprised by edge of tomorrow but rly liked district 9, looper, children of men, primer, eh most of the rest actually.

prob,all told, minority report?

I haven't seen Upstream Color (kind of don't want to) but I do not get the love for Primer/Carruth, which put me to sleep

The lead was a bit of a blank, could have done with some more characterization/shading, but that's my only complaint.

Oh no I think he had to be a bit of a nothingy everyman.

I really liked both Primer and Upstream Color.

i watched Coherence last night, it's certainly better than a bunch of these, if a bit puzzley for my taste.

It is ok but I think Timecrimes does it better.

Oh no I think he had to be a bit of a nothingy everyman.

I agree but there are literally no details about this guy, to the extent that I'm not sure how to take *SPOILIDAD* his reaction to seeing a naked girl in the woods or his wife's death, for example

I suppose wife should be in scarequotes there

I haven't seen Upstream Color (kind of don't want to) but I do not get the love for Primer/Carruth, which put me to sleep

― Οὖτις, Friday, May 29, 2015 11:46 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fwiw i loved UC and hated primer, they're v different movies but UC is still probably just as hateable for different reasons

I voted AI. Still completely strange, beautiful, frustrating and imho one of Spielberg's greatest.

Wrong Strugatsky Bros adaptation; Hard To Be A God over any of these.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Great, in order of preference:
Edge of Tomorrow (Doug Liman; 2014)
Looper (Rian Johnson; 2012)
Minority Report (Steven Spielberg; 2002)
Upstream Color (Shane Carruth; 2013)
Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron, 2006)
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp; 2009)

Okay, in no order:
Primer (Shane Carruth; 2004)
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry; 2004)
Her (Spike Jonze; 2013)
Battle Royale (Kinji Fukasaku; 2000)
Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly; 2001)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron; 2013)
A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater; 2006)
Inception (Christopher Nolan; 2010)
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (Matt Reeves; 2014)

Not good:
Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho; 2014)
Attack the Block (Joe Cornish; 2011)
A.I: Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg; 2001)

Haven't seen:
Moon (Duncan Jones; 2009)
Timecrimes (Nacho Vigalondo; 2007)
Solaris (Steven Soderbergh; 2002)
Ex Machina (Alex Garland; 2015)
Sunshine (Danny Boyle; 2007)
Beyond the Black Rainbow (Panos Cosmatos; 2010)
Interstellar (Christopher Nolan; 2014)

Interstellar is on the netflix and Ex Machina is on the must see this year; which of the rest of these am i obliged to see most?

i got a half hour thru Her and decided life is too short

i'm being generous with a lot of my "okay"s tbh

Moon is really good. I liked Attack The Block as a piece of teen fluff.

hey forks, given that I agree with yr placing for everything IVs seen there then you need to see moon

message received. i've queued it on netflix a time or two, guess i should follow through.

I think you'd dig Beyond the Black Rainbow. It's p flimsy on plot/characterization etc. but the eye and ear-candy are top notch

adding as well

I liked Timecrimes except version I saw was dubbed and dubbing is awful.

I still think Primer is a better movie though.

Haha yeah the version i saw defaulted to dubbing that shit was terrible. Luckily there was a subtitle option.

My wife's definitive verdict on Interstellar was ,"That was really hokey."

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

90 odd votes not bad

Zero votes for Her. I'm happy.

Guess horror's dead.

I just watched Frequencies tonight, a Brit sci-fi movie that creates this unreal dystopia without any fx and is sort of between Pontypool and Eternal Sunshine. It is ridiculous but very entertaining.

I think Limitless is surprisingly good. Especially that they didn't go with a "drugs are bad" ending.

Wow, Edge of Tomorrow is terrific, kinda restored my faith in sf blockbusters a little. Despite the Saving Private Cyborg beach scenes it really didn't feel like a gung-ho war movie, definitely had an understated intelligence to it.

Also caught Coherence which has been mentioned on here and maybe would deserve a place somewhere near the bottom, moderately clever but I didn't really buy the 'thin veneer of civilisation' thing they were going for - the behaviour of narcissistic and highly strung californians probably doesn't generalise to the rest of humanity.

Agreed on Edge of Tomorrow - though I don't think of Saving Private Ryan (particularly the beach scenes) as gung-ho about war?

ok, well lazy comparison maybe to a film i haven't actually seen!

EoT getting too much credit for not being a worthless timewaster

it is, however, a timewaster

Yeah, Saving Private Ryan is the worthless timewaster here

Nothing with that opening sequence is worthless! But yeah if you're still watching when Matt Damon turns up, you could probably have got some reading in instead.

Sad District 9 didn't get any votes, as I think it's pretty great. I guess it's potentially a "everyone's second or third choice" film.

"Worthy timewaster" would describe many of the very best movies even tbh.

It's a pretty well crafted science fiction action film, but there's about ten minutes of actual plot. Nothing wrong with that.

I appreciated that EoT made my loathing of Tom Cruise work in its favor. Happy ending was totally unnecessary bullshit though.

I appreciated that EoT made my loathing of Tom Cruise work in its favor.

OTM, was fun watching him get killed a load of times.

Happy ending was totally unnecessary bullshit though.

And made no sense.

having read the comics, i can confirm that the movie is vastly better

Having read the Wikipedia summary I concur.

Fuck District 9 forever

Blomkamp is a terrible terrible director, unbelievably his previous 2 movies are even worse than D9