What Are The Best / Your Favorite Sci-Fi Movies?

[Butch7999]

District 9, indeed overlooked and a worthy choice.
There's a thin blurry line between actual science fiction and what we'd call "space opera" or "space fantasy,"
which certainly has its charms (e.g., Flash Gordon, Star Wars), and a slightly broader but no less blurry line
between sci-fi and monster-horror. Anyone up for that discussion?

[White Borders]

Originally Posted by Butch7999

There's a thin blurry line between actual science fiction and what we'd call "space opera" or "space fantasy,"
which certainly has its charms (e.g., Flash Gordon, Star Wars), and a slightly broader but no less blurry line
between sci-fi and monster-horror. Anyone up for that discussion?

To me Science Fiction is a very broad category encompassing many genres/elements including:

Time Travel (The Time Machine)
Futuristic Settings/Technology/Weapons (Logan's Run)
Space Travel (Mission to Mars)
Space Opera (The Last Starfighter)
Super Heroes (Batman v Superman)
Alien Invasion (Pacific Rim)
Creature Features (Tremors)
Post Apocalyptic (A Boy and His Dog)
Psychological/Thriller-Suspense/Horror Sci-Fi (The Butterfly Effect/Escape Room/Resident Evil)

But I do see Sci-Fi as being distinctly separate from:

Fantasy (Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, Maleficent)
Action/Adventure (Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider, Jumanji)
Pure Horror (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Rosemary's Baby, The Shining)

[White Borders]

Science Fiction Double Feature lyrics from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Michael Rennie was ill the day the earth stood still
But he told us where we stand
And Flash Gordon was there in silver underwear
Claude Rains was the invisible man
Then something went wrong for Faye Wray and King Kong
They got caught in a celluloid jam
Then at a deadly pace it came from outer space
And this is how the message ran

Science fiction, double feature
Doctor X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Whoa oh oh oh oh
At the late night double feature picture show

I knew Leo G. Carroll was over a barrel when
Tarantula took to the hills
And I really got hot when I saw Janette Scott
Fight a triffid that spits poison and kills
Dana Andrews said prunes gave him the runes
And passing them used lots of skills
But when worlds collide said George Pal to his bride
I'm gonna give you some terrible thrills
Like a...

Science fiction, double feature
Doctor X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Anne Francis stars in Forbidden Planet
Whoa oh oh oh oh
At the late night double feature picture show

I wanna go oh oh oh
To the late night double feature picture show
By R.K.O oh oh
To the late night double feature picture show
In the back row oh oh oh
To the late night double feature picture show

[clydepepper]

Johnny Mnemonic

The Book of Eli

Hey Ted- Fay Wray died 16 years ago, but, at one time, that was 'recently'.


.

[White Borders]

Originally Posted by clydepepper

The Book of Eli

Ohhh, I'd forgotten about that one! Good movie with Denzel Washington, Mila Kunis, Gary Oldman and Jennifer Beals.

[Butch7999]

Hi Craig, thanks for electing to engage in our slightly tangential discussion. Our definition is much narrower
-- not saying you or anyone else is wrong, and not saying we don't enjoy well-made space opera or sci-fantasy
just as much. But just to fit our definition, "sci-fi" has to have some actual science involved, extrapolating
from real technology, and not ignoring or deviating too far from or violating the known laws of physics.

You've now added some additional entertaining titles to the long list accumulated throughout this thread,
thanks for that -- and for your breakdown of sci-fi subgenres (we'd place a couple of those in our puritanical
"not quite sci-fi" category), which reminds us of yet more films not yet mentioned (both sci-fi and
"borderline" sci-fi) that we consider well-made and worthwhile... Frankenstein (1932) and its sequels
(Bride of..., 1935, and Son of..., 1939), Things to Come (1936), AI ~ Artificial Intelligence (2001),
Elysium (2013), and Looper (2012), one of the very very few time-travel stories we've liked. Whoops,
sorry, despite our anti-time-travel prejudice, we rather enjoyed Edge of Tomorrow (2014) as well.

[White Borders]

Hey Butch. I agree that in it's purest form, Science Fiction is exactly as you described it. When I think of pure Sci-Fi, Verne and Wells immediately come to mind. Some of their stories that were made into movies have already been mentioned in this thread, but I'll list four from each:

Jules Verne
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Around the World in Eighty Days
The Mysterious Island

Herbert George Wells
The Time Machine
The Invisible Man
The War of the Worlds
The Island of Doctor Moreau