I used to love the Terminator movies. The original two, not the third, which I'm not sure actually exists.
They gave us the Terminators, an iconic sci-fi bad guy that's permeated into the pop culture every bit as much as Darth Vader. And The Terminator pretty much made Arnold into a movie superstar.
Were the films good for their time? Yeah. Hell, yeah.
But I can barely watch them now. The special effects are so dated as to look comical, which is kinda sad. I enjoy the first one better than the 2nd. The second was just blowing shit up.
Which brings us to the modern state of the Terminator franchise. We have, currently, a pretty kick ass television show that has FX better than that of the first two films, and then we have this upcoming Terminator: Salvation thing coming this summer.
The show, if you guys aren't watching, is badass. You need to go rent it and catch up. Sure, it's tv, but it's good sci-fi tv. It's well written and pretty well acted. And it's taken the Terminator story and done some interesting things with it.
The new movie... I dunno. One the one hand, it's directed by McG, and he's of questionable talent (the Charlie's Angels movies and We Are Marshall). From what I've seen of the stills, the new Terminator flick looks pretty awesome, and it does have Christian Bale in it. He's sort of becoming the go-to guy for decent action flicks these days.
I'm hesitantly hopeful, I suppose.
I always want good sci-fi. I need it like an addict needs a fix. It's why I watch Lost and Battlestar and have seen The Matrix a good 30 or 40 times. It's why I have The Island on DVD and have paid for Bladerunner twice. I blame Star Wars. I still believe George got lucky, but he managed to hook me at an early age.
It's difficult being a "respected film critic" when my taste is so pulpy, but I won't apologise for it.
I'm also not quite sure what draws me to science fiction of the moving pictures type. Sure, I read it, too, but my reading appetites are wider than those of viewing.
So, with that, my top 10 sci-fi movies of My Time:
Predator
The Matrix
Gattaca
V for Vendetta
Aliens
The Empire Strikes Back
The Dark Knight (it's sci-fi; trust me)
Star Wars
The Terminator
Blade Runner
Honorable Mention:
Children of Men
Pitch Black
Serenity
Deja Vu
The Fountain
Wall-E
The Road Warrior
Iron Man
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
The Abyss
Minority Report
Sunshine
Dark City
Pi
Alien
Akira
The Matrix Sequels (hey, they only suffer by comparison to the One. Taken on their own, they're pretty cool sci-fi flicks)
There are more sci-fi films, obviously, but these are the best of the bunch (from my day of birth onward) in my opinion.
6 comments:
I would have to agree in spirit with your choices. But I would swap Iron Man or Serenity out with Gattaca,
I would also replace pitch black with Chronicles of Riddick or the animated Riddick movie.
Chronicles better than Pitch Black? you fool!
As i stated in person :) I would make some changes to your list. I'd have to add Close Encounters and ET.
Looking through a list of sci-fi movies makes a person understand why so many people think sci-fi is crap. There are a ton o' turds on that list.
sneffnie
OMFG! Where the fuck is Dune???!!!!
if you ask which one I will pull your endocrine system out of your body.
oh yeah, i also liked Event Horizon.
As much as I would have loved to get into a "Top x Sci-Fi Movies", I know I'd just be begging for a beating.
Instead, I took the ones from your list I haven't seen and am slowing making my way through them. Pretty good stuff. 'The Fountain' was very interesting.
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