March 16, 2024

What's Your Favorite Science Fiction Film?

The Top 150 Sci-Fi Films

Rolling Stone published this list of "the best 150" science fiction films back in January. It's a clickbait article, of course, and regardless of who your are you're going to find something to disagree with it.

That said, it's a good list of movies and there's probably a bunch you've never seen before and a few more you've forgotten about.

The top film in the list is 2001: A Space Odyssey. That's hardly a hot take. I wrote about 2001 just over a year ago. I have some great memories about seeing that movie with my Dad.

I agree with everything the reviewer says about 2001. The writing, the direction, the sets, the editing, are all top tier. It's an example of a well-crafted film by a master auteur at the height of his powers.

But I don't think it should be at the head of the list.

I was in the U.S. Army and stationed in Germany for much of the 1980s. My father mailed me VHS tapes with TV shows, movies and music videos on them while I was overseas. (I saw the entire run of Moonlighting via mailed video tape. 1980s file transfer!) One of the tapes Dad sent was a copy of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was a movie we both enjoyed, so it made sense that he'd send it as soon as it was available on VHS.

That tape was lying out on top of the VCR one evening when I went to work (A writer working nights when fewer people were around. Who would've thunk it?) My wife, who is from Germany, tried to watch it when she had a day off from University studies.

Tried to watch it. I'll paraphrase the conversation we had when I got home.

Me: (Ejecting the tape from the VCR) "Oh! You watched 2001? What did you think?"

Dagmar: (Grimacing) "I left it on for a while."

Me: "And?"

Dagmar: "I turned it off after I woke up."

If you're not into science fiction, I mean really into science fiction, 2001: A Space Odyssey is not a great film. It's kinda boring. It has no real villain, the first and third acts have mini-conflicts that resolve very quickly, and the second act feels more like an ad for commercial space travel than a film. The ending is... open to interpretation.

The number one science fiction film should be a film that appeals to a wider audience. Not necessarily everyone, but wider than 2001.

Looking at the top ten in Rolling Stones' list, Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a contender. I think this movie deserves a lot more attention that it gets. It was huge when it came out, for good reason. It's exciting. It's mysterious. It holds your attention without leaning too heavily on its excellent special effects or a massive body count.

If you haven't seen Close Encounters lately (or ever), give it a watch. I have some issues with the end, but they're the kind of issues that make you think, and that's part of what makes a science fiction movie great.

Blade Runner is another, more obvious, candidate. As the reviewer says, much of what that film predicted for 2019 didn't come true, but some other very important things have. Moreover, Blade Runner has had an influence on many of the movies that came after it, including fellow top ten member, The Matrix, which doesn't deserve the top spot.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention number eleven on the list Starship Troopers. I wrote about this movie and the book behind it a while back, too.

Which movie do you think belongs at number one? You can leave comments here.

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Eric

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Eric Goebelbecker
Trick of the Tale LLC
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