Top Ten Sci Fi Films - make your own list

[Proteus4]

Hello

So the Grauniads Peter Bradshaw has spent all of about 2 minutes compiling a list of what he reckons are the 10 best sci fi movies ever made.

http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/16/top-10-sci-fi-movies

Now, I'm no expert on this sorta thing, but that's a real boring list.  there must be a hundred sci fi top ten lists around t'internet that contain the exact same films in almost the same order.

So here's what i want to know, Ignoring the movies he's already mentioned (they're listed below in case you can't read the article) what are your top ten sci fi films.  I think this will make for really interesting reading and might have you thinking long and hard (fnaar!)

Cheers
Dave

Peter Bradshaws top ten sci fi movies are

metropolis
terminator/terminator 2 (he sacrilegiously puts these two together as one entry!!)
Alien
Star Wars (new Hope)
Matrix
2001: space odyssey
Blade Runner
close encounters of the third kind
ET
solaris


So there you go.  What are your OTHER top ten sci fi movies.  I wont list mine just yet which leave you all with a wide open space to play

[Fragminion]

Hmmm....

War of the Worlds (1950's version)
Godzilla:King of the Monsters (I prefer the Raymond Burr version over Gojira)
The Thing (Both 50's and Carpenter Remake/ counted as 1)
Alien/Aliens (Counted as 1 since will almost always watch back to back)
Terminator/T2 (Same as above and same with next 2 choices
Predator/Pred2
Star Wars (Hope/Empire/Jedi)
The Fifth Element
Dredd3D
Jason X ( hey I like it so Bite ME)

(11th honorable mention Spaced Invaders)

[The Adventurer]

*cracks knuckles*

Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honneamise
Blade Runner
Akira
Back to the Future
Ghost in the Shell
Dark City
Alien
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
The Terminator
Wall-E

In a rough order, but not really in any particular order.

Honorary Mentions: Children of Men, Moon, The Venus Wars,

I really should watch Metropolis. I've owned in on Blu-ray for several years and have yet to pop it in. I don't rank 2001 A Space Odyssey, while it was definitely influential as a film visually. As a Science Fiction film it just doesn't hold up. And this is coming from someone who reads 'hard' science fiction as a past time.

[I, Cosh]

Well I suppose half of those are included because they are the best. Interesting that they've cheated on Terminator but not Alien(s). They should take it to the Alien vs Aliens thread. Personally, I really liked the Clooney/Soderbergh Solaris

Anyway, I always find it hard to decide where sci-fi stops (so no Predator, Pi or The Thing in this) and I'm really struggling to think of anything pre-70s but I'll have a go anyway.

Flash Gordon
Robocop
Gattaca
Sunshine
Mad Max 2
The Abyss
Escape from New York
Bad Taste
Wrath of Khan
The Road

[Colin YNWA]

...Anyway, I always find it hard to decide where sci-fi stops (so no Predator, Pi or The Thing in this)...

There hangs another debate. I would defo count two of those films, Predator and The Thing as Sci-Fi without even a blink. Pi, probably agree with you.

How sci-fi is defined is defo a tricky one and beyond that don't people break it down further into categories like Hard Sci-fi and whatever. I don't even know where to start there!

[Goaty]

And Dredd as well.

[Eric Plumrose]

...Anyway, I always find it hard to decide where sci-fi stops (so no Predator, Pi or The Thing in this)...

There hangs another debate. I would defo count two of those films, Predator and The Thing as Sci-Fi without even a blink. Pi, probably agree with you.

I'm not saying you're wrong but why not PI? Despite their sci fi trappings, ALIEN and THE THING are essentially horror films whereas PREDATOR is action.

[Theblazeuk]

Star Wars (A New Hope)
Terminator
Aliens
Ghostbusters
Children of Men
Akira
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (donald sutherland version)
28 Days Later
Blade Runner
The Thing


Oh and noting the above, The Thing would go on my horror list as well. 28 days later would be swapped for Dawn of the Dead

[Daveycandlish]

I have a top eleven;
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
Fifth Element
The Black Hole
Flash Gordon
Wrath of Khan
Trek VI - Final Frontier
Stallone Dredd (sacrilege around here I know but it's a good looking film with a great cast and gets a lot right)
And a little cheat but I remember seeing these pilot episodes getting a cinema release way back when...
Battlestar Galactica
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

What can I say? I like my sci-fi cheesy and in spandex!

[shaolin_monkey]

This is so difficult to do, because I have so many 'favourites' I want to stick in.  However, I think I will determine my list by how prepared I am to re-watch the film, and how many times I alreday have.

Here goes, from most watched to least watched:

Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
2001: A Space Odyssey
Blade Runner
Ghostbusters
Aliens
Star Trek: the Wrath of Khan (STILL the best Star Trek film ever)
They Live
Dredd

Dredd is a new entry.  I surprised myself by watching the damn film over 20 times, and at least half of those occasions while it was still in the cinema.  I haven't doen that since Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

2001 immediately sprung to mind.  I never tire of it.  I love it's misleading simplicity.  There are so many theories and discussions about it, it's imagery and meaning etc etc.  My favourite is that the monolith shape/ratio/dimensions appears throughout the film constantly, but so much so it is almost subliminal.  In fact, it is the same ratio laid on it's side as the cinema screens the film was designed for.  In the special releases, taht excact ratio has been the letterbox on our TV screens.  the entire film is the bloody monolith! 

Star Wars: ANH was the first film I ever saw in the cinema, as an impressionable 5 year old.  The White Palace in Pontypridd, now sadly a car park.  I've lived and breathed those 3 films ever since, so it's no surprise they're at the top. 

My fave is actually ESB, but I've watched ANH more because they used to show it on a loop in John Menzies in Edinburgh, above the toy display.  That's how I spent my summer holidays - sat in front of that toy display watching Star Wars every day until school went back.  I have no idea how many times I've seen that film now, but it's easily in the 100's.

[Jim_Campbell]

Ignoring the movies he's already mentioned

Weak in this thread, the reading comprehension is...

Cheers

Jim

[shaolin_monkey]

Aw balls!

D'oh!

Jings, crivvens, help m,boab!

etc etc

I'll have another go at it later.

[Dark Jimbo]

Can't believe people are using three of their ten slots for Star Wars films when there's been no mention so far of the likes of Back to the Future or District 9! With that in mind here's my list, not including any of the films on the Grauniad original and trying where possible to bring something different to the table to what's already been said:

Aliens
Back to the Future
Mad Max 2
28 Days Later
The Thing
Sunshine
Quatermass and the Pit*
District 9
Dark Star
Planet of the Apes

Ask me again on another day though and you'd probably get a completely different list!

*although arguaby I prefer the BBC serial of same, despite the lower budget.

[Colin YNWA]

...Anyway, I always find it hard to decide where sci-fi stops (so no Predator, Pi or The Thing in this)...

There hangs another debate. I would defo count two of those films, Predator and The Thing as Sci-Fi without even a blink. Pi, probably agree with you.

I'm not saying you're wrong but why not PI? Despite their sci fi trappings, ALIEN and THE THING are essentially horror films whereas PREDATOR is action.

Good grief this is the Internet, I wasn't expecting to have to defend the nonsense I spout... but since you ask and its worth knowing I've not watch PI for a very long time. PI is a... psychological thriller dealing with maths and theology... oh God I'm wishing I'd watched this again before typing... all fairly grounded stuff, or at least real stuff (I'm not suggesting Gods are real just the study of them is).

While Predator and The Thing are horror and or action based in an then contemporary world the moment you throw in a Sci-Fi trope of aliens that kicks them firmly into that territory regardless of the other elements of the film.

Is that enough to get me out of the corner?

[Greg M.]

A few notable crossovers with Dark Jimbo's on mine, it seems (and like him, ask me tomorrow and half the list will be different.)

The Thing (1982)
Quatermass and the Pit
Les Maitres Du Temp (Fantastic Planet is objectively the better Rene Laloux film, but this one made a huge impact on me back in the day.)
The Fly (1986)
Robocop
Zardoz
Aliens
Planet of the Apes
The Omega Man
Back to the Future

Too many HMs too mention - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), Westworld, The Last Starfighter... the list goes on.