Top 50 Sci-Fi Movies, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Back To The Future. Get those Netflix queues ready. The 2. 5 Best Sci- Fi Films Of The 2. Century So Far. As kids, we looked ahead to the imminent 2. The robot butler and trips to the drug store in hovercars version hasn’t yet arrived, but the first 1. Sci- fi is almost as old as cinema itself —1. Georges M. Many so- called sci- fi blockbusters were really action movies with some fantastical trappings, rather than thoughtful, provocative examinations of the world we live in through speculation about worlds we might live in. That’s still true to an extent, but the last decade- and- a- half have seen a flourishing of smaller- scale, ingenious sci- fi pictures, as well as some dazzling bigger- scale examples with more ideas per se than explosions and laser fire. ![]() ![]() Science fiction is a genre that has produced many innovative and classic film scores. From the introduction of the theremin, to startling orchestration, the analogue. Best French Films Ever. Top Rated French Movies: popular, classic, famous "must watch" Cinema Français Great Movie Pictures Old and New. Thriller is the absolute favorite genre of David Fincher and Alfred Hitchcock. Here are the 20 greatest thriller movies of all time. Internet Movie Database users vote for the top fifty all-time Science Fiction movies. Movie Title Screens - Sci-Fi & Creature Features of the Mid-20th Century (the 1950s): Title screens are the initial. And with “Ex Machina” proving to be surprise hit this spring, the sci- fi idiom is the next in our Best Films Of The 2. Century So Far series (read Horror, Animated Films, and Music Documentaries). We set a few rules —no superhero movies (which is a genre unto itself these days), no films with sci- fi segments without the whole film being in the genre (see “Cloud Atlas” and “The Fountain”) and a few films that don’t quite feel like they are true science fiction. Otherwise, anything went, and the 2. Take a look below and let us know your favorites in the comments. The film was the best use of Cruise’s star persona in aeons (serving almost as a metaphor for the redemption of his own stardom), but the secret weapon, aside from a cunning evocation of video game tropes, the best alien warfare since “Starship Troopers,” and crystal clear direction from a back- on- form Liman, was Emily Blunt as the “full metal bitch,” making a strong case that she deserves to be the biggest star in the world. The film didn’t find the theatrical audience it deserved at home, but more and more people are catching on over time. Melding John Hughews David Lynch, and Albert Einstein into an ’8. Jake Gyllenhaal, in a star- making role) who receives visits from a sinister rabbit who may be trying to convince him to travel through time, it’s rich, funny, swooningly romantic stuff with a very fine cast (Patrick Swayze and Katharine Ross got well- deserved comeback roles, there’s a great cameo from producer Drew Barrymore, and keep an eye out for a young Seth Rogen as a bully), and a surprisingly melancholy tone. Kelly, just 2. 6 when the film was released, handles things with real flair (and a great ear for song selection), and while the Director’s Cut only makes the mythology more impenetrable, it’s a fascinating sci- fi puzzle- box on top of everything else. Lean, bloody, and with terrific action sequences (Quentin Tarantino called it his favorite film of the previous two decades), it’s also more than a mere genre piece: the students, and even their teacher (a smartly- cast Takeshi Kitano) are sensitively and three- dimensionally drawn, and its power as metaphor, both examining the power of violence and the demonization of youth, elevates it far above the tales of Katniss & co. Indeed, it cut a little too close to the bone for many, and landing in the aftermath of Columbine, it wasn’t released in the U. S. Some claimed the picture his worst (our review wasn’t very charitable), some thought it was a vision from the heavens, and as usual, when the dust has settled, more mannered judgments have taken root (more of a consensus Playlist opinion forms here). So yes, Nolan shoots for the fences in “Interstellar” and arguably does not connect in the same home run fashion he has for so many pictures in a row now. The dialogue can be really on the nose, while the ending some see as jumping the shark. None of us will make too strong of a case against any of those points. That said, Nolan’s film is still a dazzling, ambitious vision of love, time, space, and some deeper, perhaps fuzzier elements of the universe. It’s the place where the heart and quantum physics meet. While that might admittedly be a bit of an awkward intersection, its love- letter sincerity to humanity inspired by Nolan’s own children is at least visually awe- inspiring and occasionally breathtaking. Admittedly clunky in spots, it’s a film that will very likely only grow in estimation over time. But the film was a quiet, unexpectedly moving triumph, and was then exceeded on every front by Matt Reeves’ follow- up, one of the few sequels that trumps the original. Picking up after the ape- pocalypse, as Caesar (Andy Serkis) is forced to confront humanity again, as well as a new threat closer to home, the movie, even more than its predecessor, takes full advantage of the stunning performance- capture technology, which reaches something of an apex here. Beyond that, it’s also simply a remarkably well- told story: a rare summer blockbuster in which you actively root against violence taking place, with a borderline Shakespearean arc for its non- human hero, and Reeves’ stylish- but- unshowy filmmaking chops steering things beautifully. Radium Age Sci- Fi: 1. Best – Hi. Lobrow. MORE LIT LISTS: 5. Best Scientific Romances (1. The 1. 90. 4–3. 3 era is one in which sf fans and historians have never been particularly interested. At first, I called this neglected period the Pre- Golden Age, but later I coined the phrase Radium Age — a moniker which I’ve popularized by writing about the era for the scientific journal Nature, Boing Boing, and elsewhere; and by reissuing 1. Hi. Lo. Books’s purpose- built Radium Age Science Fiction imprint. At io. 9, I published a short series of semi- exhaustive posts on the following topics: Radium Age Supermen . At the time, I took notes for subsequent posts on, e. Air Battles, Antigravity, Interplanetary Voyages, Lost Worlds, Mad Scientists, Time Travel, and Utopias. I collected a roomful of books by Olaf Stapledon, William Hope Hodgson, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sax Rohmer, Karel . Lovecraft, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Yevgeny Zamyatin, Rudyard Kipling, Jack London, Arthur Conan Doyle, David Lindsay, John Taine, Jack Williamson, S. Fowler Wright, Gustave Le Rouge, A. Merritt, Murray Leinster, Jean de La Hire, Maurice Renard, Philip Wylie, Aldous Huxley, and many less well- known science fiction authors from the time. However, since then I’ve moved onto other projects. Throughout 2. 01. I did exactly that. Scroll down, to see the full list. Please let me know what 1. I’ve overlooked! And, if you’d like to support the cause, please visit the Hi. Lo. Books homepage; you’ll find Amazon links for all of our Radium Age series. PS: Interested in learning more? I can’t recommend enough Everett F. Bleiler’s Science- Fiction: The Early Years (1. JOSH GLENNSOME PRE- RADIUM AGE TITLESRADIUM AGE SCI- FI: THE OUGHTS (1. RADIUM AGE SCI- FI: THE TEENS (1. RADIUM AGE SCI- FI: THE TWENTIES (1. SOME POST- RADIUM AGE TITLES***SOME PRE- RADIUM AGE TITLESThe following classics from the science fiction genre’s Scientific Romance (1. Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth (1. Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon (1. Edward Everett Hale’s The Brick Moon (1. Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1. Edward Bulwer- Lytton’s Vril, the Power of the Coming Race (1. Samuel Butler’s Erewhon (1. Jules Verne’s The Mysterious Island (1. Mary E. Bradley Lane’s Mizora: World of Women (1. Walter Besant’s The Revolt of Man (1. Albert Robida’s Le Vingti. Abbott’s Flatland (1. Richard Jeffries’s After London (1. W. H. Hudson’s A Crystal Age (1. Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1. Joseph Shield Nicholson’s Thoth (1. Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde (1. Walter Besant’s The Inner House (1. William Morris’s News from Nowhere (1. Camille Flammarion’s La Fin du Monde (1. H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine (1. Percival Lowell’s Mars (1. Wells’s The Island of Doctor Moreau (1. H. G. Wells’s The Invisible Man (1. H. G. Wells’s The War of the Worlds (1. H. G. Wells’s When the Sleeper Wakes (1. H. G. Wells’s The First Men in the Moon (1. M. P. Shiel’s The Purple Cloud (1. RADIUM AGE SCI- FI: THE OUGHTS (1. The Oughts are a kind of interregnum period between sci- fi’s Scientific Romance era (1. Radium Age. Verne, Wells, Kipling, Arnold, Baum and some others who published science fiction from 1. Chesterton’s The Napoleon of Notting Hill (1. In an alternative- history version of England (it’s set in 1. When Auberon Quin, a man who aspires to live life like a medieval adventure, becomes king, he mandates that each of London’s neighborhoods become an independent state, complete with unique local costumes. Everyone goes along with the conceit until young Adam Wayne, a born military tactician, takes the game too seriously. War rages throughout the city — fought with sword and halberd. Fun fact: Irish revolutionary leader Michael Collins is known to have admired The Napoleon of Notting Hill. H. G. Wells’s The Food of the Gods (1. Does The Food of the Gods belong on a list of the 1. Best Radium Age Science Fiction novels? I originally determined that the genre’s pioneering Scientific Romance era ended in 1. H. G. Wells lost his touch. The First Men in the Moon (1. Wells’s last terrific sf novel; The Food of the Gods is his first un- terrific one. Un- terrific Wells is still pretty damn good. A chemical intended to make chickens grow larger accidentally causes plants, wasps, earwigs, and rats to grow as well. Fun fact: The 1. 97. Marvel Classics Comics edition of the story is great. Jules Verne’s The Master of the World (1. In this sequel to Verne’s 1. Robur the Conqueror, FBI(- ish) Chief Inspector Strock arrives in North Carolina to investigate what appears to be an imminent volcanic eruption. Meanwhile, a supercar is spotting traveling at 1. New England. The brilliant inventor Robur is back, and this time he has invented a ten- meter long multi- purpose vehicle, The Terror. Determined to have it for military purposes, the feds first attempt to buy the machine, then attack Robur. With a captive Strock aboard, Robur escapes in The Terror over Niagara Falls, then challenges God by heading into a Caribbean thunderstorm. Fun fact: Is this one of Verne’s best novels? I include it here to demonstrate the context from which Radium Age science fiction emerged. Here we see one of the genre’s pioneers, at the end of his career (and life), questioning man’s ability to use science and technology to benefit humankind. Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain’s Sultana’s Dream (1. Originally published in English in The Indian Ladies Magazine of Madras, Hussain’s story depicts a peaceful, crime- free utopia in which women run everything and men are secluded — i. What’s more, the women use advanced technology that makes possible laborless farming and flying cars; they have solved the problem of solar energy, and control the weather. Most impressively, perhaps: The workday is two hours long, since men used to waste six hours of each day in smoking! Fun fact: One of the first examples of feminist science fiction. The author was a Muslim feminist, writer, and social reformer who lived in British India. Rudyard Kipling’s With the Night Mail (1. Kipling’s novella follows the exploits of an intercontinental mail dirigible battling the perfect storm. Between London and Quebec we learn that a planet- wide Aerial Board of Control (A. B. C.) now enforces a technocratic system of command and control not only in the skies but in world affairs. It’s an impressively nuanced portrait of a future in which dirigibles — not airplanes — have triumphed. Kipling goes so far as to include excerpts from the Aerial Board of Control Bulletin, complete with letters to the editor, book reviews, and advertisements. Both titles have been reissued by Hi. Lo. Books, with an Introduction by Matthew De Abaitua and an Afterword by Bruce Sterling. Edwin Lester Arnold’s Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation (1. In this satirical, nightmarish, episodic update of Gulliver’s Travels, Lieut. Gullivar Jones, an arrogant US Naval officer, travels to Mars (a jungle planet, not the desert planet of other Mars sci- fi) via magic carpet. There, he gains super strength and telepathic powers, and proceeds to stumble into and out of trouble. There is a war brewing between the beautiful, innocent, sophisticated Hither Folk and the barbaric, industrious Thither Folk; Gullivar fails to prevent the war, and flees back to Earth. He also attempts to claim a vast tract of Mars for himself, travels down a river of death, fails to outwit or defeat his enemies, and doesn’t win the hand of beautiful Princess Heru. Fun fact: Arnold was best known in his own time for the 1. The Wonderful Adventures of Phra the Phoenician. Note that Edgar Rice Burroughs’s first John Carter novel was likely inspired by Lieut. Gullivar Jones; and the flying cities of Flash Gordon and other, later sci- fi, find their precusor here, in the city of Laputa. Reissued by Bison Frontiers of Imagination. Gregory Casparian’s An Anglo- American Alliance (1. In 1. 96. 0, Aurora Cunningham, daughter of Great Britain’s Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and Margaret Mac. Donald, daughter of an American senator, meet at a Ladies’ Seminary and fall in love. However, because they fear social ostracism and negative publicity — Western culture hasn’t caught up with the advanced technology; for example, prenatal sex determination and suspended animation are now possible, a germicide for laziness has been developed, and a Persian astronomer has discovered a new planet on which live a race of electric- wheel- riding aliens — the young women must suppress their true emotions. So — with a brilliant doctor’s help — she undergoes a “mental and physical metamorphosis” transforming her into a man: Spencer Hamilton. Spencer and Aurora marry, and live happily ever after. Fun fact: An Anglo- American Alliance is, as far as I’ve heard, the first lesbian and transgender science fiction novel. The genre wouldn’t see this theme treated openly again until the 1. L. Frank Baum’s Ozma of Oz (1. The third Oz book, and the first in which we meet one of Baum’s most delightful characters: “He was only about as tall as Dorothy herself, and his body was round as a ball and made out of burnished copper. Also his head and limbs were copper, and these were jointed or hinged to his body in a peculiar way, with metal caps over the joints, like the armor worn by knights in days of old.” From a printed card attached to its neck, Dorothy learns that Tiktok is a “Patent Double- Action, Extra- Responsive, Thought- Creating, Perfect- Talking Mechanical Man Fitted with out Special Clock- Work Attachment. Thinks, Speaks, Acts, and Does Everything but Live.” Though one of the earliest fictional appearances of true machine intelligence, Tiktok is not a free agent like his equally metallic, yet living new friend, the Tin Man — to whom he confides that “When I am wound up I do my du- ty by go- ing just as my ma- chin- er- y is made to go.” Fun fact: Baum revisited this story for his 1. The Tik- Tok Man of Oz, in which Tiktok sings: “Always work and never play!/Don’t demand a cent of pay!”Alexander Bogdanov’s Red Star (1.
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