The 5. 0 Best Sci- Fi Films Of The 2. Century So Far. It’s impossible for us to choose a single favorite genre from the wealth that cinema offers. But if some sort of “Sophie’s Choice” situation were to occur, we probably would be able to point to one that occupies a more central place in our hearts: science fiction. ![]() The term encompasses multitudes: sci- fi runs the gamut from stark, philosophical inquiry to space western to brainless robot- go- bang- bang; it hybridizes beautifully with other genres like comedy, horror and romance and as such is maybe the most expansive and elastic genre of them all. This week, we’re using the opening of Justin Lin. We’re hardly the first to notice that recent world events feel distinctly dystopian, and seeing various scenarios play out as extended thought experiments is something that only this genre really affords us. READ MORE: The 5. Best Animated Films Of The 2. ![]() ![]() Century So Far. Expanding the list was also interesting, insofar as noting how much or how little our feelings have changed over the past few years. Aside from including a few titles we’d excluded before for prosaic reasons, and a couple of new entries in the top half that are films released after the original list was drawn up, the passage of time has buffed some titles to a higher shine, while others have slightly lost their luster. But we haven’t undergone a 1. The 5. 0 Best Film Scores Of The 2. Century So Far. Writer Edmund Crispin once said that “science fiction is the last refuge of the morality tale,” and perhaps, living in such challenging and morally murky times, that’s why we find ourselves so compelled by it. Or perhaps we just really dig lasers and neoprene outfits! Either way, here are the 5. Don’t tell drama or westerns that we said that!), has to offer. But that’s hardly even a criticism when it comes to this type of conceptual sci- fi: “Remainder” may be chilly, pretentious and at times alienating in its Moebius- strip narrative of endlessly looping causes- and- effects, but it’s seldom less than fascinating. A deliberately dissociative Tom Sturridge plays a young man given a massive payoff when he’s the victim of a freak accident which leaves him with a kind of monomaniacal selective amnesia. He then uses his wealth to recreate a fragment of memory down to the most obsessive detail, assisted by a resourceful and discreet factotum (Arsher Ali). Science fiction movies give us a glimpse at what could be better worlds. Worlds with flying cars, bartending robots, and ultra-powerful weapons so awesome that you.It’s never particularly emotive, but as a pared- down mash- up of “Primer,” “Synecdoche NY” and “Memento,” this investigation into identity has its own prismatic, crystalline appeal. Essentially a sequel to his masterpiece “In The Mood For Love,” the film sees Tony Leung’s Chow return, now romancing (or sometimes not romancing) various women while penning a series of stories set in the year 2. The meta- nature of the narrative means that the film is sci- fi only by the loosest sense, but it’s still a thrill to get to see Wong turn his hand to a neon fantasia of a future. And if the pieces don’t quite add up to a satisfying whole (the Cannes premiere was somewhat rushed, and there’s a slight sense that the film was never quite finished), it nevertheless captures the very particular kind of melancholy that only Wong can pull off. The Sundance- approved film directed by Jennifer Phang sees Gwen (Jacqueline Kim, who co- wrote the script), a spokesperson for a cosmetic surgery company in the near- future, elect to have a procedure that will give her a new, younger body, only to find it difficult to connect with her daughter afterwards. The writing is occasionally stiff and the acting somewhat variable, but it creates a fascinating world on a meagre budget and is positively bursting with ideas and meaty themes, most of which —aging, the roles of women in business, racial identity, motherhood— simply wouldn’t have occurred to most white male filmmakers. Netflix bought the rights, and it’s well worth checking out.
Following wash- out Gary King (Pegg in his greatest performance)’s attempt to reunite his old friends for a once- aborted pub crawl around his hometown, only to discover that the place has been steadily taken over by robots, the film sees Wright’s craft reaching greater heights (the fight scenes are world class) and finding a newly melancholy tone in his work that feels like new ground. And if you’re looking for an insight into the British psyche that caused the self- destructive decision to go for Brexit, look no further than Gary King scorching the earth and telling the alien consciousness to “fuck off back to Legoland” in order to achieve self- determination. Much was made in advance of the film’s debts to Steven Spielberg and John Carpenter —perhaps too much, in the sense that it disappointed those who went in hoping to scratch the kind of ’8. Netflix’s “Stranger Things” does so effectively. In fact, Nichols’ film, which stars Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Kirsten Dunst and Jaeden Lieberher, is far more thoughtful and introspective. The otherworldly elements —a child with supernatural powers, a government conspiracy, extra- terrestrial communiques— function as merely a science fiction framework allowing Nichols to probe the concept of fatherhood to a painfully personal degree, as well as the existential dilemmas that raising a child can pose. We have officially entered Bizarro World: Here is some of the most gorgeous and detailed animation you'll ever see, and it's for a five-minute sci-fi short on YouTube. We’re living in a great time for sci-fi filmmaking – you just have to look at the right places. American and foreign independent cinema both are filled with. The new- agey- cult story “Sound of My Voice” from Zal Batmanglij may be even stronger, but for a robust sci- fi premise, “cult leader who may be from the future” is pipped at the post by “second Earth appears, inhabited by exact doubles of every person on the planet.” Mike Cahill. Here, Marling’s student and William Mapother. But it only lasted one 1. Serenity.” Starring the same cast —Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Jewel Staite and Summer Glau— rustling up the same chemistry and chowing into the same quippy, characterful dialogue, Whedon’s TV provenance also shows in less positive ways: it’s not hugely cinematic and the plotting feels a little episodic. But the transition mostly works well, with Fillion’s Captain Mal leading his motley crew on a surprisingly moving and ultimately very satisfying big- screen outing boasting genuine scares courtesy of villains The Reavers and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Directed by Gore Verbinski collaborator James Ward Byrkit, it’s the kind of film that works best the less you know about it. But broadly speaking, it focuses on a well- to- do L. A. It’s ingeniously written and resourcefully made, with Byrkit stripping the story right down to its bones, but without making the characters or dialogue feel perfunctory. Yet it’s narratively satisfying in a way that mind- benders of this type aren’t always, ending on a lingering note of existential dread that feels deeply earned. It’s rough around the edges, and yet few low- budget sci- fi pics feel as accomplished or exciting. Abrams undoubtedly has a feel for what audiences want from mainstream entertainment that few can match. But the secret of his Bad Robot factory isn’t so much in the choice of material as it is the strength of execution, and “Cloverfield” exemplifies that. Uniting two hugely talented Abrams collaborators, Drew Goddard (who wrote) and Matt Reeves (who directed), the film is the why- didn’t- I- think- of- that concept of “The Blair Witch Project” meets “Godzilla,” which was always going to connect. But it’s lasted — even growing in reputation— because Reeves’ direction is extraordinarily well- choreographed, capturing the chaos of disaster without making it incomprehensible, and because Goddard’s script finds the humanity among the people on the ground. For a film that could have just been a rollercoaster ride, it holds up incredibly well nearly a decade on. Mining the national resource that is Damon’s everyman charm, Scott made his most satisfying film in years courtesy of Drew Goddard’s peppy script (based on the bestseller by Andy Weir) and a little help from the incongruously ABBA- heavy soundtrack. It’s a film about problem/solution derring- do more than any particularly deep thoughts about isolation or identity, but despite the starry support (Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara and Chiwetel Ejiofor), it’s largely a one- man show, and making a big, crowd- pleasing hit out of one guy talking to himself and growing potatoes in his own shit is no mean feat. The top 5. 0 sci- fi movie protagonists On the face of it, compiling a list of truly great sci- fi protagonists should be easy. Pick a load of familiar names from a hat, write some breathlessly adoring drivel beneath them, and head off to the pub to reward a job well done. Except it was never going to be as simple as that – and compiling lists seldom is. For every character making an appearance in the list below, there were at least two other possible candidates who didn't quite make the cut. Some sci- fi heroes were removed, then quickly reinstated. The order was jiggled around, then reordered again. At one point, your humble writer realised there were more than 5. There are some names I’ll probably wish I’d included when I look back over it tomorrow, or in a year’s time, and there’ll be several more, no doubt, listed in the comments which I’ll also wish I’d included. What follows, then, is a nervous attempt at compiling the 5. God list. There are characters in here which hail from the earliest years of the genre in cinema, and one or two who’ve arrived on the big screen only a week or two ago. There are heroes from hurriedly- made B- movies, and heroines from multi- million dollar franchises. Some have been on epic adventures that span a galaxy, while others have fought more personal battles in a single location. Whatever they get up to, they’re the glue that hold some classic genre movies together. Jack Deth. The Trancers series. Less charitable readers might consider Jack Deth to be a poor cousin to Blade Runner’s Rick Deckard, but what Charles Band’s Trancers movies lacked in budget and artistry, the early ones more than made up for charm, novel ideas and humour. Deth, played by Tim Thomerson, is a 2. Trancers. In a plot device straight out of a Philip K Dick novel, it’s a drug rather than a machine that propels characters through time, and in the first film, Deth travels back to 1. Los Angeles to catch a criminal by the name of Martin Whistler. Deth was the proud owner of a particularly cool sci- fi gadget – something called a . With his big shoulder pads, slicked back hair (“Dry hair’s for squids”) and his wonderfully terse way with words (“I'm from another time, another world. I don't even know what you people eat for lunch”) he's a true B- movie hero. The Trancers sequels didn’t exactly improve as they were rolled out – 2. Trancers 6 used stock footage of Thomerson from earlier films – but Deth was a great character, a hard- boiled detective with a delectable range of high- tech gizmos. He’s also one of the few sci- fi heroes to narrate his own trailers. Riddick. Pitch Black, The Chronicles Of Riddick. More than any other genre, we’d argue, the protagonists in science fiction cinema are divided along two lines: those of intellect and those of action. Riddick, first introduced in 2. Pitch Black, is firmly in the second camp, but there’s something about Vin Diesel’s almost wordless charisma that makes him far more interesting than he could have been. A convict from an early age, an encounter with an eye surgeon left Riddick with an acute sensitivity to light – an affliction that isn’t without its upside, since he gets to wear a cool pair of goggles all day, and can see quite clearly at night. This stands Riddick in good stead when he crashes, along with an entire ship full of passengers and criminals, on a planet populated by giant killer bats in Pitch Black. If 2. 00. 4’s The Chronicles Of Riddick was a less than brilliant follow- up to the breezy B- picture fun ofthe film mentioned above, the anti- hero’s found refuge in some thoroughly decent videogames, and a not- bad- at- all animated short (Dark Fury). Here’s hoping next year’s Riddick, which sees Vin Diesel again teamed with David Twohy, will prove to be a return to big- screen form. Robert Neville. I Am Legend. Francis Lawrence’s 2. Richard Matheson novel which inspired it, but for the first half, I Am Legend almost comes close. In a future Manhattan left almost deserted following a viral outbreak, military scientist Robert Neville (Will Smith) trudges the streets alone with his dog, and locks himself away in his fortress- like apartment by night. Will Smith’s performance - lonely, wracked with guilt - is among his best, and I Am Legend is a world away from the largely interchangeable heroes he played in sci- fi fare such as Independence Day and I, Robot. The incursion of some unconvincing CGI monsters in the film’s second half derail much of what was good about I Am Legend’s opening, but while the atmosphere lingers, there’s always Smith’s superb portrayal to enjoy. James Cole. Twelve Monkeys. Quite possibly the toughest hero to travel through time (except for maybe Jean Claude Van Damme’s character in Timecop), James Cole was brought brilliantly to life by Bruce Willis. Terry Gilliam trained all his demented creativity on this apocalyptic sci- fi film, but all the visuals and batty performances (not least Brad Pitt’s) would have been for nothing without a great leading turn to tie it all together, and this film counts among Willis’ finest yet, and it’s certainly the best in his genre canon. Like all the best sci- fi protagonists, Cole’s journey through the film is intellectual as well as physical, and in the final scene, he makes an astonishing, quite moving discovery which brings the apparently non- linear story full circle. A truly great film, and an equally great performance. Donnie Darko. Donnie Darko. A deceptively complex character, Donnie Darko was played by a young Jake Gyllenhaal in a sublime early performance. Although he’s ostensibly just another troubled, middle- class teenager growing up in 8. America, Donnie is also a time traveller, capable of superhuman feats of strength (which includes leaving an axe buried in the hideous bulldog statue squatting outside his school), and has a supernatural best friend – a six- foot- tall rabbit with a dire warnings of a coming apocalypse. Richard Kelly’s debut is a stormy, murky stew of music, incongruous images and sometimes impenetrable pseudo science – but like a teen- centric David Lynch movie, Donnie Darko’s weirdness actually counts in its favour. The key to the film’s success, though, is Donnie himself – a neurotic hero who retains his humour, creativity and puckish sense of mischief in the face of impending oblivion. John Carter. John Carter. It’s remarkable to think that a hero as influential as Carter has taken so long to make it to the big screen - although there was the straight- to- DVD Princess Of Mars (2. John Carter is a veteran of the American Civil War who finds himself transported to Mars, where he discovers that the planet’s lesser gravity has given him enormous strength and the ability to leap huge distances. Reluctantly drawn into another civil war, this time between rival Martian tribes, Carter eventually becomes the protector of princess Dejah Thoris. An (almost) unwavering force for good, Carter may seem rather one- dimensionally heroic by modern standards, but his influence on other writers and filmmakers can’t be underestimated - Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Superman, and Avatar’s Sully all owe a debt to the brawny hero, and it’s good to see him finally take centre stage in his own movie. What a pity, then, that his big- screen debut wasn’t more readily embraced by critics and some moviegoers. Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. The X- Files. Although either character could have easily been given their own entry on this list, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are so memorable as a sci- fi double act that it made sense to keep them together – still bickering and flirting, no doubt, even after all these years. The simple conceit of a sceptical FBI agent (that’s Gillian Anderson’s Dana Scully) teamed with a paranormal investigator agent (David Duchovny’s Fox Mulder) provided the jumping- off point for almost a decade’s worth of TV, as well as two spin- off movies. Whether the episodes or movies involved investigating strange monsters in sewers or alien conspiracies, Mulder and Scully’s smouldering, sometimes uneasy friendship provided the lynchpin. It's unfortunate, then, that The X- Files: I Want To Believe ended their onscreen partnership on such an odd note in 2. X- Files movie will give the pair a fitting final mystery to solve. Tony Stark. Iron Man. He’s rich, intelligent, he has an entire garage full of cool cars, and he gets to fly around in an armoured suit which turns him into a humanoid fighter jet. These are all perfectly good reasons to hate the arrogant Tony Stark, but the little glint in Robert Downey Jr’s eye, as he plays one of the most spoiled of cinema’s spoiled rich kids, makes us side with him almost immediately. Although other Marvel movies flirt with magic, Stark is perhaps the more scientifically grounded of its heroes, which is why, after much agonising, we awarded Stark a place on this list in place of the Hulk or Captain America. He is, after all, just an ordinary man under all that hi- tech armour, and he only avoids the chill hand of death with his sharp reflexes and equally keen wit. Jean- Luc Picard. Star Trek. The second famous commander of the USS Enterprise, Jean- Luc Picard possessed all of the cunning and leadership qualities of Captain Kirk, but rather less of the preening self- absorption. Patrick Stewart first brought his thespian gravitas to the role in 1. Picard in the TV series and movies until 2. Star Trek: Nemesis. Although Kirk remains the most frequently lampooned ship’s captain in pop culture, Picard has himself become an icon, with his brooding aura and oft- quoted catchphrase, “Make it so” still resonating in the minds of Star Trek fans everywhere, even a decade after his final screen appearance. The Doctor. Dr Who And The Daleks/Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2. ADAlthough primarily based in the alternate universe of television, we just had to give the Doctor a place on the list for his two cheerfully 6. Dr Who And The Daleks and Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2.
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