Top Sci-Fi Movies I Haven’t Seen

1) TC (Profile)

I haven’t seen Solaris or Gattaca, either.

You really should see A Clockwork Orange. It’s tame by today’s standards, but it’s a disturbing little film.

I really need to see Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. Otherwise, I’m in pretty good shape, at least through the top 50!

2) Andrew Oakley (Profile)

In my order first = most important to see:

“Clockwork Orange” I rate highest of all - you really have to see this. Totally groundbreaking, style, substance, a massive influence upon popular culture and, to top it off, a proper cyberpunk/near-future sci-fi plot. You cannot call yourself a sci-fi buff if you haven’t seen this, there are no excuses, so go rent it now.

“Gattaca” is vastly underrated by loads of people. I really like it, it’s understated, stylish and has a genuine sci-fi plot that asks questions about how society would adapt to a new technology. If you liked “The Island”, “Code 46″ or “Equilibrium”, as I did, then you’ll love it.

“Contact” is a “nice” movie whilst also being grounded in scientific common sense for at least the first three-quarters of the movie. Let down slightly by a wishy-washy ending but I’ll let them off because the wishy-washyness of the ending is actually the whole point that the storyteller is trying to get across (ie. that personal experience may not be valid as scientific evidence but it does drive human interest). Plus there is actually a little tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it “real” ending (concerning the length of the blank tape) just after the climax. No urgency, but it’s good.

“The Omega Man” is an apocalypse movie with zombies. Well done, for the time, and with a refreshing new take on zombies (a feat only beaten by “28 Days Later”), but essentially, zombies. If you saw “Soylent Green” and are thinking that this will be more of the same excellence… you’re in for a dissapointment. That’s not to say it isn’t good; it is good, but it just isn’t a truly great movie.

“Donnie Darko” is the second dullest movie I have ever seen. It is painstakingly slow, and took me four or five attempts to actually get through it. There is a reward for sticking it out, but only barely worth the effort. It’s highly rated by people solely because it reminds them of great 1980’s movies, it is not a great sci-fi movie. Oh, and which do you hate more: spoilers giving away the ending, or time travel plots? A truly sucky movie.

“Solaris” is the dullest movie I have ever seen. Three attempts so far and I have still not got further than about fourty minutes in. Technically I guess I haven’t “seen” it yet, at least not fully, which would make “Donnie Darko” my dullest movie. Maybe Solaris gets really good from 41 minutes onwards. Frankly I doubt it.

3) Yaron (Profile)

I’ll join the “Clockwork Orange” recommendations, it’s very well made. A pity Kubrick used the US publication of the book, which didn’t include the last chapter, but still a great movie.

“Contact” is not impressive. It’s viewable, but not much more beyond that. The movie was made a lot more active than the book, which I found didn’t go well with the points Sagan tried to raise. Not to mention that, at least in my opinion, Sagan’s science books are much better than this SF one.

“Solaris”… yes, totally boring. Every single version of the movie, or at least as much as I managed to see of them. Which isn’t surprising, the book is mostly philosophical with very little plot and very few things actually happening. It was a good book, I liked it, but totally inappropriate for a movie. Lem wrote a number of fun books, with lots of things occurring in them. But none of those (that I know) were adapted for the screen. Only “Solaris”, the one least fitting, and this one was made into a movie again and again. I never did figure that out.

“Gattaca” was pretty good, but I remember feeling that something was a bit jarring when I watched it. Interesting, but I didn’t really connect and the characters felt a little too abstract. Certainly worth watching, but I wouldn’t make it the top of the priority list.