[betaraybdw]

This is a short list of my favorite Sci-Fi movies.

[bowers]

Some excellent choices- truly an eclectic mix! Cheers, Bowers

[paw broon]

Nice choices.  But you probably know what I'm going to say, that is, that were it my list, I'd have different films on it.  I voted for Empire because it's, for me, the best one on the list.  But my favourites would have have been older.  The 3 Quatermass films, X The Unknown, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (original), Night of the Big Heat, Island of Terror etc.
This is good fun.  Thanks.

[misappear]

I don't know what it is about Star Wars that leaves me unimpressed.  I realize I'm clearly in the minority on this opinion, and I actually have wondered why for some time.  The subject matter and characters are fun and engaging, but not compelling to me.  My favorite all-time SF movie is still The Day the Earth Stood Still, but I will watch Dark City over and over as well.  (modern versus classic?)

But I gotta say that the Ewok thing, (third SW movie) was possibly the worst film I've ever seen. Again, I'm sorry to tread on holy ground here, but phew, no thank you.

--Dave

[betaraybdw]

No worries Everyone has their tastes.

(I love SW, but I don't like Ewoks (or Gungans) either and most SW fans don't) The new film looks like it might be pretty good. The new head of Lucasfilm said they have listened to the fan complaints over the years and are keeping what most fans really like about SW (Jedi, Sith, lightsabers, Stormtroopers, spaceships and droids) and jettisoning the Ewoks and Gungans, but we'll see.

The Day the Earth Stood Still made my runner-up list along with Them, Godzilla(1954), King Kong (1933) & 2001: A Space Odyssey

[narfstar]

In most things I am not big on favorites. I do not watch things over and over. With me it is usually I enjoy or not.

[Captain Audio]

I see that many agree with me on "Forbidden Planet".
"Blade Runner" would be a close second with "Aliens" running third place.

"Pitch Black" is pretty much in a class by itself, and one of my favorites, but the three listed are more ground breaking.
Like "Empire Strikes Back" any episode of a long running franchise does not stand on its own merits. To some extent you could say the same for "Aliens" but in fact the Alien series pretty much went off the rails after the second film and the Script for Aliens could stand alone even if you never saw the first film, especially since they edited out the re-discovery of the Alien derelict by the colonists.

[paw broon]

I'm not sure that's right about Empire, but it could be only my opinion.  I've watched this a few times and, really, I voted for it mainly for the first half hour or so.  Forbidden Planet starts well and seems to wind down and I've always found it a bit disappointing by the end.  Blade Runner was great entertainment the time I saw it at the pictures but I couldn't watch it again. Not seen Pitch Black and I'd have to look it up to find out what it's about.
As a Quatermass fan I've often thought there are other Quatermass films which aren't part of the series but easily could be.  It's worth a look at The Giant Behemoth and X The Unknown.
The Quatermass films, 2 with Brian Donleavy, although not quite as good as the original tv serials are still frighteningly good.  Jack Warner is worth watching in the Quatermass Experiment, as usual.
Perhaps I'm just old

[betaraybdw]

Pitch Black is a true gem, way different from Chronicles of Riddick.

[paw broon]

Rronicles of Criddick?  Got me again.

[Captain Audio]

The Riddrick series has a few problems, They expanded the main character beyond the limitations of his back story in Pitch Black.
Pitch Black stands alone as a very interesting survival story, each actor presenting his character well enough that you felt you knew them despite not knowing much about them. The monster species was very well thought out. It reminded me of the various stages of the Grendels in one of my favorite Sci Fi novels "The Legacy of Heorot". Only one dominant life form remains and the various stages of development result in what appears on the surface to be many species filling ecological niches.
Legacy of Heorot would make a dynamite miniseries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legacy_of_Heorot

[elGiron]

Why Aliens, but no Alien?!??

[betaraybdw]

because the poll is based on MY favorite sci-fi movies and Though I like Alien (a lot), I really consider it a Horror Movie that just happens to take place in the future, in space.

[elGiron]

Ahhh, I see. I'd vote for Blade Runner again.

[jimmm kelly]

If voting were still open, by a process of elimination, I would have to vote for LOGAN'S RUN.

I've never seen PITCH BLACK or SILENT RUNNING. All the others are science fiction but with some qualification. Most of them are piggy-backing on science fiction but in the tradition of another genre. For example, BLADE RUNNER is really a film noir that uses the futuristic setting as a way to add more surreality to the already surreal form. FORBBIDEN PLANET is Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST set in space.

I'm sure LOGAN'S RUN has some other metaphorical stuff going on, but to me it's the one movie from that set that really feels like straight ahead science fiction.

[betaraybdw]

Pitch Black and Silent Running are treats to watch. you do yourself a disservice by not having seen them.  Another movie that holds  up to this day is Outland starring Sean Connery as a cop on a mining station in space. (A comic adaption was made and printed across a few issues of Heavy Metal magazine with outstanding art by Jim Steranko.)



http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2014/12/21/year-of-the-artist-day-355-jim-steranko-part-3-heavy-metal-volume-5-3-4-7-and-10/

[jimmm kelly]

Pitch Black and Silent Running are treats to watch you do yourself a disservice by not having seen them. 

Well it's not like it's something I've been deliberately doing to myself. There are thousands of movies, comic books, novels that I've not got around to--and it's quite likely I never will, given that life is short and wishlists are long.

[betaraybdw]

I wasn't trying to be cheeky or snarky, sounds like you took it that way Jim