{"id":27365,"date":"2014-11-26T06:30:19","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T17:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=27365"},"modified":"2014-11-23T22:44:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-23T09:44:11","slug":"my-top-sf-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2014\/11\/26\/my-top-sf-films\/","title":{"rendered":"My Top SF Films"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, I posted a few thoughts on Interstellar<\/a> in which I concluded that: “I don\u2019t think it\u2019s made it into my \u201ctop\u201d SF films.”<\/em><\/p>\n

But then I immediately wondered what films I would put on that list. My very first qualifier on that has to be that I am not a big film-goer, so my viewing is not exhaustive, but nonetheless, I do have favourites, as follows:<\/p>\n

\"Star<\/a>Star Wars:<\/strong> (the real ‘first” movie)—because it’s fun and adventurous and had space ships and a real sense of worlds and space. Plus “A long time ago in a galaxy far far away…”<\/em> was just magic! Space opera? You betcha—but I still enjoy watching it again from time to time. A big reason, I suspect, for that is because as the first film, Star Wars was spared the “overblown” elements that overwhelmed the sequels, with the exception of The Empire Strikes Back.<\/p>\n

\"Blade_Runner_poster\"<\/a>Blade Runner:<\/strong> For me, Blade Runner is all about atmosphere, chiefly the world and the world-weariness of Dekker. But it also takes a slant-wise look at a really important question, what makes a human being—only without any big speeches or heavy-handed philosophizing.<\/p>\n

\"Alien\"<\/a>Alien\/Aliens:<\/strong>\u00a0 Alien is atmospheric, eerie—and basically a great psychological thriller set in deep space. It’s also a really compelling take on what I regard as one of the great SFF themes, “person alone.”<\/p>\n

Aliens is an equally great action movie set in space, but despite the difference in pace\/focus it’s a sequel that really works for me—or it may be that the change in pace\/focus is why it works as a sequel, rather than trying to do exactly the same thing over again.<\/p>\n

\"Gattaca\"<\/a>Gattaca:<\/strong> Gattaca is another one of those “deceptively simple” stories, which in this case means that it takes one idea, the implications of genetic engineering in a near-future world, and works it through in a powerful and straightforward way, by focusing on the implications for human aspiration.<\/p>\n

\"Deep<\/a>Deep Impact:<\/strong> I love this film, particularly because it actually has quite good science, as well great storytelling and interesting characters, including positive and interesting women characters.\u00a0 Personally I think it knocks Armageddon out of the ballpark.<\/p>\n

\"Forbidden<\/a>Forbidden Planet:<\/strong> Although an oldie (it was made in 1956) and accordingly dated in some ways, I still think\u00a0Forbidden Planet has a lot to recommend it in terms of classic SF storytelling, with space travel and interplanetary exploration that anticipates the Star Trek genre. But it’s also a story that is as much about human psychology and motivation as external action.<\/p>\n

\"GalaxyQuest\"<\/a>Galaxy Quest:<\/strong> Because it’s such a brilliant take-off of Star Trek, but also has it’s own story integrity. Always fun.
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other films that are up there, too, include:
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ET\"<\/a>ET: <\/strong>“phone home” remains in the lexicon, as does the image of the kids riding their BMX’s across the face of the moon<\/p>\n

\"Contact\"<\/a>Contact:\u00a0<\/strong>I was a little disappointed by the ending to Contact, but I loved the overall idea and the focus on how “first contact” might come about.<\/p>\n

Terminator\/Terminator2: <\/strong>for very similar reasons to Alien\/Aliens in fact, although set on a pre-Apocalyptic Earth, rather than in space, plus I love Sarah Connor<\/p>\n

The Matrix: <\/strong>So cool! (But what do you mean, sequels? I’m sure it’s a standalone film!)<\/p>\n

Inception:<\/strong> If only because you’re never really sure what’s real and what isn’t!<\/p>\n

\"Serenity\"<\/a>and Serenity: <\/strong>because, you know, Firefly<\/em>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sunday, I posted a few thoughts on Interstellar in which I concluded that: “I don\u2019t think it\u2019s made it into my \u201ctop\u201d SF films.” But then I immediately wondered what films I would put on that list. My very first qualifier on that has to be that I am not a big film-goer, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27365"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27388,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27365\/revisions\/27388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}