You may have noticed that I very rarely have much good to say about recent genre movies. There’s a reason for that. I don’t think they’re very good. Oh, the special effects have gotten much better over the years but otherwise most of today’s science fiction movies in particular just aren’t very good movies. The Transformers franchise and the Pacific Rim movies are basically just 1950s Godzilla movies with better special effects and that was awful. It belong under the category “Good Because It’s So Bad”.
But what I’m writing about in this post are how good movies are as science fiction rather than how good they are as movies that just happen to be science fiction and I’m pleased to say that in recent years I’ve seen a couple of movies that are actually pretty good science fiction.
So, for example, although it probably should be classed as science fantasy rather than science fiction I thought that Snowpiercer was pretty good. Arrival, too, was pretty good.
But there are two pictures I’ve seen recently that are actually darned good science fiction: Interstellar and The Martian. I actually think that The Martian could be the best science fiction movie ever made.
I realize that it’s blasphemy but the less said of the Star Wars pictures, the better. 1-3 are just awful and the original Star Wars is just an old Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon serial with better special effects, deliberately so. It sort of made me long for Charles B. Middleton.
Arguably the best fantasy/sci-fi movie of all time is “Total Recall” with Arnold Shwarzenegger.
“We Can Remember It for You Wholesale” is a short story by American writer Philip K. Dick, first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in April 1966. It features a melding of reality, false memory, and real memory. The story has been the subject of two film adaptations, both titled Total Recall: the first made in 1990 with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the story’s protagonist, and a 2012 version with Colin Farrell as the protagonist.”
No matter how many times I’ve watched it I still can’t determine which parts are supposedly real and which parts are dream sequences.
I haven’t seen the Martian but the book was widely acclaimed and everything I’ve heard about it is good.
I would still put Kubrick’s 2001 at the top of the list. It’s one of my all-time favorite movies actually.
If you enjoy good science fiction, then I highly recommend the series “The Expanse.”
I would say the best SF films made are:
1) Stalker
2) 2001
3) Starship Troopers
I’ve always liked how PKD in his later books was writing SF set in the present, just like Ballard. Classic SF is pretty stagnant. The last time I was really reading it, it was hard-core stuff by Greg Egan, which I don’t think translates that well into film and some space-opera things, which were just sex and intrigue and completely forgettable.
A couple years ago, Ben Wheatley directed an adaption of J. G. Ballard’s High-Rise which I recommend. A couple years before that the director of Arrival and Blade Runner did Enemy with Jake Gyllenhall, which was way better than the new Blade Runner. The same director is about to do Dune, supposedly. I’ve read the original four books. The last would be hysterical as a movie. I’ve also seen the Lynch version more times than I’d like to admit.
“Arrival†was excellent — it used the aliens as an opportunity to reflect on humanity from a different perspective, which is what I think science fiction should do, and what other genres just can’t do as well.
I bunch of years back, “Moon†was excellent too. I’m also fond of the George Clooney “Solaris†— less of an ordeal than the original 47 hour Russian movie — but that might be two decades old at this point.
“Interstellar†bothered me because it was all about the power of love. We have Harry Potter for that.
“Star Wars†is just fantasy in space. “The Last Jedi†did some interesting things, but I’m not sure it was successful at it. I have trouble with the plot holes and character motivations In it — with some technobabble about heavy ships traveling slowly (anything… dark matter nebula even though it makes no sense), and an explanation for Holdo not explaining her plan (spy on board rather than being tracked?), it would have been a lot better.
I do have a fondness for “Transformers 2: Revenge Of The Fallenâ€, since it is an almost literal war on plot and the audience.
Oh yea, Stalker is excellent, but something only movie buffs would love.
Andromeda Strain is another good movie I just thought of, plus Gattaca.
Most of the sci-fi I read growing up was hard SF, I couldn’t really get into the more fantastical stuff.
The book, “The Martian,” is excellent classical scifi. Well worth a read.
“Interstellar” lost me with the AGW stuff. I’m surprised no one suggested the first “Alien.” Going back, I would nominate “Things to Come” (the original with Raymond Massey), “The Thing” (the original with the bondage scene), “Logan’s Run,” In general, there is a lot of 1950’s and 1960’s stuff worthy of watching.
Some time ago, I got tired of everything Kubrick has ever done. Pretentious, self-righteous, dishonest, manipulative, PC in the extreme … I’ll stop there. “2001,” in particular, is too self-indulgent, and too long by an hour or so.
Blasphemy: t-r-u-t-h
John Carpenter’s The Thing was an excellent, if a bit too short, exploration of human psychology under stress.
While it isn’t a movie, The Expanse has combined good science with a dystopian film noir atmosphere. Tom Jane’s performance in the first two seasons was exceptional.
Stalker’s pretty arty. So is Solaris.
Way after it was released I saw Brain de Palma’s Mission to Mars, and that was pretty good. It went nowhere in the US, but the French loved it. I think American popular entertainment is at the point where the guy who did Body Double and the first Mission Impossible is Andrei Tarkovsky.
The Martian was a great book and a great movie. Wouldn’t fault anyone for claiming it was the best sic-fi ever. Well written, directed and acted. Agree with most of the others and have soft spot for Forbidden Planet.
Steve
Since this is America and we have American politics, we really shouldn’t neglect the original Time Machine.
Enthusiastically agree on Forbidden Planet, though there are parts I cringe at due to the male characters’ behavior toward Alta.
Well, Forbidden Planet has the greatest proto-screenwriter in English in its ancestry. That’s a leg up. Great movie.
May suggest Metropolis for some sort of award? That picture holds up.