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.

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