Two lists of sci-fi movies: What do YOU think?

Replies

Richard Willis March 12, 2024 at 8:39pm

A Trip To The Moon (1902): The first sci-fi movie helped construct the language of cinema

I have never seen this one.

I think you probably have seen it. It’s only 13 minutes long, ending in the Moon getting an “eyefull”. (Well done for 1902)

Metropolis (1927): A German expressionist masterpiece that still influences filmmakers almost a century later

This one ought to place higher. Everybody swipes from it. Truly seminal.

So far I’ve only seen clips. Watching a silent movie is an uphill battle for me. Still intend to see it.

Godzilla (1954): The original kaiju movie created a cinematic icon

Isn't King Kong technically the first kaiju movie?

I’ve seen it with and without Raymond Burr. I’m sure it was a world-beater when it was new, but I’ve seen too many such movies over the years. Pre-Perry Mason, I think this was Burr’s breakout as a regular person after his many excellent turns as villains.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): Alien invasion movies were never the same after Invasion of the Body Snatchers

I found the remake to be scarier.

There have been a few remakes, but I assume you mean the 1978 one with Donald Sutherland. The others are Body Snatchers (1993) and The Invasion (2007). I watched them all recently and they are all well done. Just the other day I rewatched the 1956 original. The scariest thing is when, after finally falling asleep, the protagonist’s love opens her eyes and – she’s gone.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951): The Robert Wise movie approached aliens in a new way

Klaatu barada nikto. Definitely a classic.

No argument there.

The Fly (1958): The Fly blends sci-fi and horror expertly

Really?

Considering the special effects of the time, it was pretty good. The ending scene makes the movie.

Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954): A creature feature that is more than just cheap thrills

I like Creature from the Black Lagoon well enough, but is Creature from the Black Lagoon scarier than The Blob? More of a trend-setter than Them? More iconic than the robot from Forbidden Planet?

I also saw it recently. Yet another movie in which a non-human somehow finds a pretty woman just as attractive as we would. Forbidden Planet, the inspiration (IMO) for Star Trek, should have been listed.

Frankenstein (1931): An iconic adaptation of a revolutionary novel

And like Alien/Aliens and Terminator/ Terminator 2, you need to mention the sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, in the same breath.

Both were also recently watched by yours truly. They never get old.

King Kong (1933): Kong was not a typical movie monster at the time

A classic. See the version with the giant spiders.

Like you, I think it was the first kaiju movie. (A word I learned in the Comics Cave.) Years ago there was a columnist who fell for some guy’s claim that he played King Kong in the original movie. I sent him a letter explaining stop-motion.

Flash Gordon (1936): The space opera is a noted favorite among sci-fi writers and directors

Like you, I’ve only seen scattered episodes. Considering it was 1936, they did a good job.

The second story is Sci-Fi Box Office Bombs That Are Actually Worth Watching

Titan A.E. (2000)

Haven't seen it.

I have seen it, but don’t remember much. “A.E.” means After Earth. I usually don’t like things that are after Earth is destroyed. I take it personally.

Starship Troopers (1997)

I don't think it leaned into the satire hard enough, because most of the people I talked to didn't get it, or were just confused. I wasn't really sure myself probably until Neil Patrick Harris showed up as a neo-Nazi scientist.

This was supposedly based upon the novel of the same name by Robert Heinlein. I haven’t read that particular book, but have read several others by him. I was put off by what I understand is a fascist story.

Tron (1982)

I saw this on the screen when it first came out (I was 24) and thought it sucked. I'm 42 years older now, so maybe I'd have a different opinion if I saw it today.

I was 34. Before seeing it, I saw a trailer in a theater. Two teenagers were seated in front of me. They were blown away. At the end of the trailer we saw Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and were informed it was from Disney. They said “(Fill in expletive), I was going to see that.” This was before Disney came up with other studio names. When I saw it, I didn’t think much of it. They were showcasing new techniques, but didn’t have much of a story.

Dredd (2012)

This is the one with Karl Urban and Lena Headey, and I loved it. But the well may have been poisoned by the Sylvester Stallone misfire.

I think I saw the Stallone one. At a San Diego Con, I saw some original art that had Judge Dredd stopping a crook who was notoriously fast on his feet. He did it by blowing off both of the guy’s legs. I can’t get past that image.

The Thing (1982)

This is the remake with Kurt Russell, and it is a classic.

I agree. Occasionally, someone bad-mouths it. Hard to believe they actually saw it.

The Abyss (1989)

When I saw this -- sometime in the '90s when somebody loaned me the DVD -- I thought James Cameron was too impressed with his own special effects to tell an effective story. There were too many endless scenes of F/X "wonder."

I eventually saw it. Like Tron, the movie is introducing new techniques. Cameron would use these to better effect in Terminator 2.

Donnie Darko (2001)

Haven't seen it. And why I haven't seen it is kinda embarrassing, but also kinda funny.

It is very good. I recommend it.

Children of Men (2006)

Haven't seen it.

Worth seeing.

Blade Runner (1982)

The greatest sci-fi movie of all time, probably.

I can’t think of one better. The Director’s Cut gets rid of the missteps in the theatrical release.
The Baron March 12, 2024 at 9:06pm
1. A Trip To The Moon(1902): The first sci-fi movie helped construct the language of cinema
I have never seen this one.

I’ve never seen it, either.

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1. Metropolis(1927): A German expressionist masterpiece that still influences filmmakers almost a century later
This one ought to place higher.

I tend to find these old silent pictures hard to watch. There’s a lot of memorable imagery in this one, though.

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1. Godzilla(1954): The original kaiju movie created a cinematic icon
Isn't King Kong technically the first kaiju movie?

Kong was definitely one of the influences on this picture, along with The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms/

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1. Invasion of the Body Snatchers(1956): Alien invasion movies were never the same after Invasion of the Body Snatchers
I found the remake to be scarier.

I’m not sure whether I’ve seen this one or not. I definitely haven’t seen the re-make.

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1. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951): The Robert Wise movie approached aliens in a new way
Klaatu barada nikto. Definitely a classic.

I understand why everyone calls this a significant movie, but I find thay I don’t find a need to re-watch it very often.

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1. The Fly (1958): The Fly blends sci-fi and horror expertly
Really?

I’m not sure whether I’ve seen this one, either. I have seen the re-make, though.

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1. Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954): A creature feature that is more than just cheap thrills
I like Creature from the Black Lagoon well enough, but is Creature from the Black Lagoon scarier than The Blob? More of a trend-setter than Them? More iconic than the robot from Forbidden Planet?

Creature is OK, but I would’ve bumped it in favor of The Invisible Man or The Wolf Man of the Universal horror movies. Them! certainly deserves a spot on this list. Forbidden Planet is another film where I understand why it’s “significant”, but I feel no desire to re-watch it very often. This is probably Horror Fan Heresy, but while I find the concept of The Blob scary, I think that the picture itself is a bit overrated.

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1. Frankenstein(1931): An iconic adaptation of a revolutionary novel
And like Alien/Aliens and Terminator/Terminator 2, you need to mention the sequel, Bride of Frankenstein, in the same breath.

More heresy, but while it has its moments, Bride is another picture that I think is overrated.

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1. King Kong(1933): Kong was not a typical movie monster at the time
A classic. See the version with the giant spiders.

Definitely a great picture.

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1. Flash Gordon(1936): The space opera is a noted favorite among sci-fi writers and directors
Wait, the Flash Gordon serial is No. 1? I have never seen it in its entirety, so I can't argue with certainty. But the few episodes I saw on Channel 3 in my youth didn't inspire me to go find more. (Obvious toy models of space ships with sparklers glued on.) And weren't all of its ideas lifted from the comic strip? Having not seen it, I can't evaluate it, but I sure have my doubts.

And if serials count, why not include the Superman or Captain Marvel serials?

I don’t know that it’s fair to be too harsh on special effects from nearly nine decades ago. It surely was influential. Star Wars is certainly one of flash’s spiritual descendants.

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1. Titan A.E. (2000)
Haven't seen it.

Nor I.

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1. Starship Troopers (1997)
I don't think it leaned into the satire hard enough, because most of the people I talked to didn't get it, or were just confused. I wasn't really sure myself probably until Neil Patrick Harris showed up as a neo-Nazi scientist.

I liked the book a lot better than the movie.

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1. Tron (1982)
I saw this on the screen when it first came out (I was 24) and though it sucked. I'm 42 years older now, so maybe I'd have a different opinion if I saw it today.

I suspect that it hasn’t aged well.

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1. Idiocracy (2006)
Never seen it.

Nor I.

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1. Strange Days (1995)
Never seen it.

Nor I.

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1. Dredd (2012)
This is the one with Karl Urban and Lena Headey, and I loved it. But the well may have been poisoned by the Sylvester Stallone misfire.

Never seen it.

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1. Sunshine (2007)
Never seen it.

Nor I.

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1. Dark City (1998)
Never seen it.

Nor I.

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1. The Thing (1982)
This is the remake with Kurt Russell, and it is a classic.

I like Hawks’ version better, but this is a great movie.

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1. The Abyss (1989)
When I saw this -- sometime in the '90s when somebody loaned me the DVD -- I thought James Cameron was too impressed with his own special effects to tell an effective story. There were too many endless scenes of F/X "wonder."

Never seen it.

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1. Annihilation (2018)
Haven't seen it.

Nor I

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1. Donnie Darko (2001)
Haven't seen it. And why I haven't seen it is kinda embarrassing, but also kinda funny. For some reason, I got this movie mixed up in my head with Johnny Dangerously. I have no idea how that happened. And I had seen Johnny Dangerously, which I found mildly entertaining, but not a classic by any means. So I was baffled when people raved about Donnie Darko. Which I thought was Johnny Dangerously. And I wouldn't watch Donnie Darko when it came on TV because I thought I'd already seen it. But it was Johnny Dangerously I had seen. So here I am, 23 years after its release, and I still haven't seen Donnie Darko.

Never seen it. The title made me think it must be a gangster movie.

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1. Children of Men (2006)
Haven't seen it.

Nor I.

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1. Blade Runner (1982)
The greatest sci-fi movie of all time, probably.

Another picture that I think is OK, but not everything that it’s cracked to be.
The Baron March 12, 2024 at 10:09pm

Here's "A Trip To The Moon", if you want to see it. You can tell that it was made before subtety was invented. Given what we now know about traveling to the Moon, ,parts of this picture may come across as scientifically implausible.
- Richard Willis > The Baron March 13, 2024 at 12:23am
  
  Firing a projectile from a long cannon was what Jules Verne wrote in his 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon. H.G. Wells took an innovative approach in his 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. Instead, his characters relied upon an artificial anti-gravity material. Even though this movie was immediately after Wells' book, it is believed that the French movie was inspired by the French book by Verne. Each book has a Wikipedia entry. The page for Verne's book even has an illustration from an early edition that shows a projectile that looks a lot like the one in the movie.
- The Baron > Richard Willis March 13, 2024 at 5:54am
  
  I always thouyght that Verne's stuff was more plausible in general than Wells' stuff. As I recall, the spot in Florida that Verne chose for his launch was fairly close to the spot that the actuall first Moon launch went from.
Jeff of Earth-J March 13, 2024 at 9:11am

A TRIP TO THE MOON: I saw this one in my college "Introduction to Film" class.

METROPOLIS: I saw this one for the first time in college, but a don't remember whether it was part of my film class or not. (Maybe not because I have it on VHS.) A remastered version was recently released on DVD and I have seen it twice (so far).

GODZILLA: Re-watched this one most recently through new eyes over Thanksgiving last. I have never enjoyed it more.

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: As Richard has already pointed out, there are four film versions; I have seen all but the most recent. Tracy has not seen any of them, and they have been on our "to watch" list for some time now. One thing I noticed last time through is that the first three are somewhat "chronological" in the sense that the Superboy, Lois & Clark and Adventures of Superman TV shows are "somewhat chronological" if viewed in that order.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL: As Cap said, "Definitely a classic."

THE FLY: I saw this for the first time just a few weeks ago, but what's a color movie doing on a list of b&w films?

CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON: I think monster movies should be a genre unto themselves.

FRANKENSTEIN: Again, more horror than sci-fi per se.

KING KONG: Again, this movie belongs on some list, but not a list of science fiction movies.

FLASH GORDON: This one kind of baffles me. I have seen both the serial version as well as the serial edited into a "movie." I wouldn't say the film version changed the genre of science fiction, but I would definitely say the print version changed the medium of comics, undoubtedly.

If the list were to expand to include color movies, I would include Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth (among others).

I'm less intriqued by the second list, most of which I have not seen. (Were all these movies "bombs"?) Here are a few comments.

STARSHIP TROOPERS: The movie is more along the lines of what I thought the third Alien movie should have been like. The movie inspired me to read the book, and it was so different as to be nearly unrecognizable. I would say the movie is "based on" or "inspired by" the Robert Heinlein book.

"THE GREATEST SCI-FI MOVIE OF ALL TIME": I would give the nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey or Planet of the Apes (depending on one's sensibilities) if we weren't talking about bombs. Again, was Blade Runner a "bomb"? I remember it being quite popular.
Jeff of Earth-J March 13, 2024 at 12:52pm

The discussion of Jules Verne and H.G. Wells (as well as the film "A Trip to the Moon") reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's 1835 short story "The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" about a trip to the Moon by hot air balloon, considered by some to be the world's first science fiction story. It is very much tongue-in-cheek yet is remarkable as a work of sheer imagination.

The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall

"The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall" (1835) is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in the June 1835 issue of the monthly magazine S…
- The Baron > Jeff of Earth-J March 13, 2024 at 1:00pm
  
  That seems vaguely familiar. I must have read it at some point.
Richard Willis March 13, 2024 at 3:17pm

This trivia item from IMDB may explain the color vs black and white issue about The Fly:

Although many people who saw this film swear it was made in black and white, it never was. This may be an example of the "Mandela Effect", which is simply a name for a collective false memory among people which never really happened and yet everyone remembers. It is extremely common. The Fly (1958) was only ever filmed and shown in color; however, its two sequels, Return of the Fly (1959) and Curse of the Fly (1965), were made in black and white. This is likely where the confusion comes from, or people might have watched it on black and white televisions, which were common up to the 1980s.
Travis Herrick (Modular Mod) March 13, 2024 at 5:39pm

10. A Trip To The Moon (1902): The first sci-fi movie helped construct the language of cinema - I saw this about 5 minutes ago. (Thanks Baron). Interesting from a historical point of view.

9. Metropolis (1927): A German expressionist masterpiece that still influences filmmakers almost a century later - I saw this in German class during high school. I always kind of liked it.

8. Godzilla (1954): The original kaiju movie created a cinematic icon - I liked these movies back when I was younger, but honestly I haven't had much use for them since junior high.

7. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): Alien invasion movies were never the same after Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Pretty sure I've never seen it.

6. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951): The Robert Wise movie approached aliens in a new way - Never seen it.

5. The Fly (1958): The Fly blends sci-fi and horror expertly - Pretty sure I've never seen it.

4. Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954): A creature feature that is more than just cheap thrills - It was alright

3. Frankenstein (1931): An iconic adaptation of a revolutionary novel - I agree with Jeff, this is a horror movie to me. That being said, I've always liked it. The book was terrible.

2. King Kong (1933): Kong was not a typical movie monster at the time - See Godzilla above.

1. Flash Gordon (1936): The space opera is a noted favorite among sci-fi writers and directors - Never seen it.

Titan A.E. (2000) - Again, never seen it.

Starship Troopers (1997) - I really liked this one.

Tron (1982) - Loved it back then I still like it now. For years, I'm talking well over a decade, there was an electronics store in the local mall that played this movie endlessly to show off how great movies looked on their TVs.

Idiocracy (2006) - Never seen it, but a local radio station references it all of the time.

Strange Days (1995) - I'm pretty sure I never saw it.

Dredd (2012) - Pretty freaking great. I loved it! I know Karl Urban was really campaigning for a sequel at one point.

Sunshine (2007) - Never seen it, heck I've never even heard of it.

Dark City (1998) - I thought it was pretty bad,

The Thing (1982) - I've always thought it was really good. I've never seen the original.

The Abyss (1989) - Never seen it.

Annihilation (2018) - Walked out of it. Not so much that I hated it, but I was dating someone at the time and it didn't hold our interest enough to stick around. Which is still a review in itself.

Donnie Darko (2001) - I've seen it, and it was okay. It had achieved its cult status by the time I watched it, and I found it to be a bit overrated.

Children of Men (2006) - Good flick

Blade Runner (1982) - Defintely one of my favorites!

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