Your Top 50 sci-fi films

I've seen all of those except 6 of 'em. Avalon caught my eye and I said to myself Barry Levison....can't be, I looked up the Japanese-Polish flick. How did the original The Day The Earth Stood Still not make your field? I'm really partial to The Arrival.

 

I do agree that Kubrick's film would have been far more clinical in approach and lacked Spielberg's softer touches of humanity. However, Kubrick did with "Spartacus" show that he could take a less clinical and more emotional approach to the material should he choose to. Granted, the script was written before he arrived and he was a replacement director but, having said that, I do believe that, if he had worked with Spielberg on this, he might have been able to find a bridge between their two styles. Nevertheless, I do think that it likely that Kubrick would have eschewed Spielberg's more populist sentiments.

For me the only scenes that don't work in A.I. are those scenes where the kid is resurrected by the aliens at the conclusion of the film. It panders to the audience's need for a happy ending that has emotional resonance.

Otherwise I think it's a fascinating combination of their styles...that fashion was what Nolan was going for with "Interstellar" even if it wasn't completely successful it does indicate an attempt to grow beyond the confines of his established the something that Spielberg tried to do with "A.I" and, I hope, that Kubrick might have aspired to as well.

 

I would add Buckaroo Banzai to my list as I completely forgot about that cult film. I enjoy Silent a running but can't stand the Judy Collins song in the film.

 

I'm really parital to A.I. There's so many right things about it. The ending could of been better maybe but the getting there seems rather righteous to me.

 

too many, too much work...I like most from the 50's on up...

 

Here's mine...

The Incredible Shrinking Man
The Thing From Another World
Forbidden Planet - just got this on bluray
The Colossus of New York
Close Encounters
Silent Running
Alien
Star Trek (first one)
Predator
The Keep
Robocop
Enemy Mine
Gattaca
Pitch Black
Contact
District 9

 

Zardoz

 

I'd have to say Tiomkin's "thing from another world" and Herrmans' "the day the earth stood still" for starters..so different yet recorded in the same time period. The Incrdible shrinking man is also great...maybe the sleeper in the bunch. These composers took the genre seriously, as did the great Jamesd Bernard for Hammer Films early horror efforts.

 

It's been optioned a few times by Hollywood studios, but nobody has cracked the script yet.

Note that Spielberg shot Kubrick's ending. This was always intended by Kubrick to be the ending of the movie, and was written more than a decade prior to Spielberg actually shooting the movie. I was one of the first to say, "hey, what a cornball ending!" and was shocked to actually read the original 1990s Brian Aldiss script and see that this was actually Kubrick's intent from the very beginning.

 

Save the Green Planet and Zeram are 2 very entertaining films that I have not seen on other lists yet. Of the more traditional nature The Day the Earth Stood Still is one of my all time favorites.

 

A nice round Dozen

Bladerunner
Event Horizon
Independence Day
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
Silent Running
Alien
Back To The Future
Star Wars
The Terminator
Moon
Planet Of The Apes
The Fly

 

Just about all of my favorites have been mentioned in the various posts, but one of my all-time favorites seems not to have made anybody else's "Top 50" cut. It's a little late 1950s gem called The Monolith Monsters.

 

As Vidiot has already pointed out, the entire ending of AI was as Kubrick outlined it in the early '90s. Even the fairy-tale element of David finally being allowed to sleep at the end. I agree, though, that the ending section doesn't completely work dramatically.

I'll add some further clarification. Those aren't aliens, they're supposed to be super-evolved self-made robots descended from those of David's generation. Furthermore (and you didn't suggest this, but many people miss it) the whole sequence where the Blue Fairy is animated and David runs about in his old house is a simulation created by the evolved robots so that they can, by fulfilling his need to receive recognition from the human on which he has imprinted, extract data from David's purpose-locked memory. The problem is, this is all communicated rather subtly -- I too thought they were aliens when I saw it in the theatre -- much more subtly than anything else in the movie. It's an uneven movie in that regard.

 

I agree about the ending. Although Kubrick had the original outlined there's still a bit too much Spielberg gloss. I had forgotten that they were super evolved robots or the next step in evolution since they had surpassed and survived humanity. I also totally missed the real reason that they allowed David to "live" a day accepted by his "mother" wheni saw it n theaters as well. One of the few times Spielberg was subtle in his later career and more of a Kubrickian touch.

I still like the movie as its sort of a parting gift from Kubrick indirectly and a much better film than Eyes Wide Shut.

 

When you think of the ending n the context of gathering info, it may be cornball on the surface but much Kubrick like below.

 

I always liked the mixture of the post apocalyptic world here and the mixture of satire and bizarre humor here. The director continued that with Excalibur and tried to do this with his awful sequel Exorcist II.

Oh and it's coming to Blu-ray from Twilight Time this year.

 

Omitting the usual classics, a few possibly lesser known, more recent flicks I'd put in my list of 50.
Lifeforce (1985)
The Quiet Earth (1985)
Strange Days (1995)
Dark City (1998)
Gattaca (1997)
Pitch Black (2000)
Daybreakers (2009)
Hell (2011)
Super 8 (2011)
Iron Sky (2012)
Riddick (2013)
Under the Skin (2013)
Autómata (2014)
Predestination (2014)

 

I found the ending very moving, but I also think there were some huge logistical problems in the movie that made absolutely no sense. But it had moments. Even bad Spielberg films have good things in them, if only the technique and visuals.

 

I didn't necessarily find it bad just too long and too sentimental.

 

It was silly fun. I think I also liked the bad guys' tech look, if I recall.

 

I keep waiting for "The Quiet Earth" to show up in the U.S. on blu-ray. I really like the film. Tragic that the lead actor Bruno Lawrence died so young (he was 54 and died in 1995). A very powerful film.

Speaking of which, where the heck is "Strange Days" on blu?

 

Somebody should be doing a bar-chart or something.

Mine are all obvious but - hey, I love 'em.

Close Encounters
Back to The Future
Silent Running
Outland
Dr Who and the Daleks.
the first 2 Terminator films
The Thing (Carpenter's version)
the first Alien.
The Omega Man (the Charlton Heston version)
Planet Of The Apes (Heston again...)
The Day The Earth Stood Still.
Quatermass & the Pit.
Escape From New York (Carpenter again...)
12 Monkeys
and, because although it's not a sci-fi film it has serious sci-fi connections: 'Ed Wood'.

 

Am I the only one (besides the Leonard Maltin movie guide) who prefers the '50s Thing From Another World to the Carpenter version? Amazing effects and atmosphere in the Carpenter movie but very uneven acting and editing, IMHO. But the original is graceful, elegant, and spellbinding, even with a somewhat ridiculous monster.

 

Is it just me or am I wrong to think that threads like this should maybe ask for just a few or 5 films...how many people are really going to sit down and think about it and make a list of 50?
That's a ton of work if you're not Sheldon Cooper. Not trying to crap on your thread, just offering a thought...carry on.

 

I highly recommend the 2007 Spanish film, Timecrimes. If you're into time-travel, paradox plots and suspense then you'll love it. Don't be put off by the slasher-esque cover art.