- Inception
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Terminator 2:Judgment Day
- Alien
- Back to the Future
- Metropolis
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Blade Runner
- Star Trek (2009)
- Planet of the Apes
- Moon
- E.T.
- Avatar
- Wall-E
- District 9
Especially egregious is Star Trek: the '09 reboot isn't as good as Wrath of Khan or Journey Home, sorry. Likewise, Aliens is better than Alien (neither is any good, of course), and I personally think the first Terminator is the best of the only two that exist, because there certainly weren't any others made after that. Granting for the moment that ridiculous vitalism doesn't forbid it being classed as scifi (why not just say "there was a mass limit, and the Terminators are Skynet's most dangerous weapon that fit"?).
Was pleasantly surprised Serenity wasn't on the list, but what about Enemy Mine? Total Recall? Last Starfighter? Predator? Gattaca? Minority Report? At least one version of Dune? I can think of plenty of good scifi flicks, cricket-porn and otherwise, that the people who wrote that list probably never heard of. It may be that they're making a distinction between "great" and "good", since they themselves said Avatar is bad but still great, but the things on the list contradict that explanation: Aliens is the flagship of that series, not Alien, and District 9, the '09 Trek, and arguably Inception, are blips.
I think it's just "great=notable/influential", and the reason I think that, is Metropolis is on the list. Metropolis is not a great movie, but it is a famous movie, and it's always listed as an influence, even by people who can't make much of a case for themselves (Blade Runner, on the above list, definitely can—and it also deserves to be on that list).
I suppose it's like if I were gonna list "15 greatest NASCAR drivers"—actually, that'd be "greatest NASCAR driver", because the only one I can name is Dale Earnhart, alav haShalom. But you see what I'm getting at.
3 comments:
Yeah, that's a weird list. If they mean great as in "influential" then I'll allow some of the famous ones, even if they aren't strictly sci-fi. But some are too recent or too lame to qualify - if Inception is on there why not the Matrix? And Star Trek 2009? Please!
And if we're allowing Inception, why not Dark City? Why not all the ones you mentioned? Why not TRON? Here's my problem with their list:
1. Inception - I liked it, but it's not strictly scifi, and it's too soon to tell if it's a classic (doubt it though). For a better take on it, I'd have gone with Dark City.
2. Empire - One of the greatest movies of all time! Great sci-fi? I guess if you have an odd definition of scifi....
3. T2 - Cool special effects for its day, nice action, but the same could be said of King Kong. It added no new insights to the first movie, it just had a meaner bad guy. I guess it gets points for technical breakthroughs (the only point James Cameron should ever get)
4. Alien - Aliens was better, but I'll allow it.
5. Back to the Future - surprised it made the list, love the film, one of the better time travel stories. But for it to really make sense (as much as it can) I'd have to go with Bill and Ted.
6. Metropolis - points for influence and style and nothing else, and I actually like this movie. Not really scifi though (ok, maybe very soft and squishy with a chewy social message center)
7. 2001 - actually, it has some kick-ass science and was majorly influential. Damn. Too bad it's so boring.
8. Blade Runner - Yup. Totally agree. Whew. I thought I was going to have to admit that 2001 is the greatest scifi film on this list!
9. Star Trek - *snerk* see above for my acceptable level of time travel.
10. Planet of the Apes - which one? I guess it's nice and famous, but aside from the speculative premise, what exactly is science fiction about it? No tech has any implications for the characters' lives. I'm tempted to exclude all post-apocalyptic stories from scifi for that reason.
11. Moon - haven't seen it. No comment. Sounds boring.
12. E.T. - not really scifi, IMO, but it's famous. However, it's not influential - no other (famous or good) movies use it's ideas per-se. It did not add anything to the genre. Substitute Trumpy.
13. Avatar - I suppose the fire nation did have some cool machines. Oh wait. Phhht! Seriously? No, I'm being unfair. The ship approaching the planet in the beginning was cool. Then the movie started.... Substitute Fern Gully (or anything really)
14. Wall-E - I liked how they have line-following robots on their ship. That was very realistic tech. Also it didn't feel as preachy as it actually was. I liked the ending. But it doesn't belong on this list. Substitute Short Circuit maybe?
15. District 9 - haven't seen it. Looks boring. Also it's way too new to tell if it's influential (doubt it seriously). Sustitute Enemy Mine.
Yeah, that was long, but jeez, what were they thinking?
No no, long is good. And I quite agree, except I don't think Wall-E was particularly preachy. Well, that, and 2001 still is the best science fiction, as such, on the list (Arthur Clarke beats Phil Dick any day of the week)—Blade Runner is a better movie, just not as good of SF.
Yeah, I think Wall-E had the potential to be preachy, and it was a little in the beginning, but that's why I liked the ending so much. It wasn't a "people are the problem" message. It was basically about how we can fix things and build things that are wonderful, even if we sometimes forget that or don't live up to it. And I actually thought some of the tech and how they did space travel, etc, was pretty interesting. It's good scifi, just not great scifi.
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