Science-Fiction Movies that Don't Suck

Those of you who are science fiction fans and also have one half of one clue or more in your head have doubtless noticed that the vast majority of science fiction movies suck. Ass. And anything else that's handy. The Friday night movies on TV are converging ever tighter on a plan that makes them look like the last presidential "race" (farce might be more appropriate): Bush, and Gore. Now, I like muff, and I like seeing people blowing up and bodies flying through the air (with apologies to G. Carlin) but what the fuck, over? Most sci-fi movies have all the class, style, and science of an episode of Buffy. So below I present a list of sci-fi movies which don't suck. If you have suggestions, you can email them to drink@hyperlogos.org or just leave a comment below.

By the way, I demand some science from my science fiction. Thus titles with spectacularly slushy physics are left out unless they are extremely good in other ways - those are fantasy, not science fiction. There are other movies that we like which just aren't on this list.

• 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
  This is really a suspense movie in a Sci-Fi setting, but that doesn't really change anything as far as we're concerned. 2001 is a landmark movie in the same way the first installment of the Star Wars saga (by which I mean Episode III) was; It broke completely new ground, took gigantic risks as far as who's going to go see it, and managed to walk away with the Gold. Along the way it manages to ask a lot of difficult questions, and leave most of them unresolved - just as the novel does.
• 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)
• Abyss, The (1989)
  If you haven't seen the director's cut, then you may be wondering what this movie is doing on the list. Well, the DC might as well be a different movie entirely, as the ending is substantially longer and there's numerous bits in this version of the movie that make it actually make sense.
• Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The
• Alien
  Creepy, kooky, and kind of the debut of the ass-kicking version of Sigourney Weaver. If I ever make a movie about aliens, remind me to use H.R. Giger's work as my inspiration (he personally did the designs for this movie, which were then the basis for the aliens throughout the saga.)
• Aliens
  Alien was really a suspense movie in a sci-fi setting. It's still very sci-fi of course, which is why it's here; but Aliens is sci-fi, in a way almost embodying everything it's about. Spaceship? Check. Aliens? Check. Fancy guns, AI, flying vehicles, it's all here. (And what testosterone fan hasn't said at some point while watching this movie that they've got to get one of those "steadycam" .50 caliber machine guns?)
• Alien: Resurrection
  This is not the best movie ever made, but it's a hell of a lot better than the one in the middle (Alien III) in which Sigourney is infected with an alien, shaved of her hair, and jumps in a volcano, not necessarily exactly in that order (although the end is pretty definitive.) Instead, an alien has been removed from a clone of her (apparently the aliens alter the DNA of their host or something) and the whole thing starts up again. Has a great cast including Michael Wincott and Winona Ryder.
• Alien Nation
  Aside from aspects of the basic premise (Like being dissolved by seawater; What do you think raw meat is full of? That's salt, son) this was otherwise an amazingly tight effort which spawned one of the best Sci-Fi television series of all time. While that might not be saying much, I found it to actually be worth watching for more than just the setting (I'll give anything Sci-Fi a chance.)
• Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001)
• Back to the Future
  The sequels don't make it here, but the original showed us a lot of fun things we hadn't seen before and brought Christopher Lloyd to new heights of being a nutball. Plus, it has to win extra points for using the correct pronounciation of the prefix "giga-". Now that's so geeky that even 99% of geeks didn't know how geeky it was.
• Blade Runner
• Black Hole, The (1979)
  Admittedly this is a kids' movie, but it was so amazing for its time that it's still worth watching today, and luckily it's a Disney movie so you can occasionally catch it when ABC doesn't know what else to run.
• Boy and His Dog, A (1975)
  A Boy and his Dog, based on the Harlan Ellison story of the same title, is one of the finest Science-Fiction movies ever made. Watching a young Don Johnson run around the desert complaining to his dog that he can't get laid is worth the price of admission all by itself.
• Brazil (1985)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
  "This Means Something." Yeah, it means you like to sculpt mountains out of potatoes. Seriously though, this was a thoughtful and beautiful movie.
• Contact (1997)
  Perhaps not the finest in science fiction. It makes the list because it manages to hit pretty much all the high points of the book, it looks good, and the acting ranges from acceptable to good.
• Day the Earth Stood Still, The
• Dune (1984)
  It's pretty much impossible to follow if you haven't read the book, but this is bar none the most beautiful science fiction movie made in its day of all time. Nobody knows how to do epic weirdness (and let's face it, some elements of Herbert's vision were Way off in left field) like David Lynch, and he's always at his best when he can use Kyle MacLachlan, who delivers an entirely believable performance as Paul.
• Electric Dreams (1984)
  This is a pretty corny little movie about a kid who spills champagne into his new home computer (which he has fitted with what would have been about a $20,000 home automation system at the time) which goes A.I. and tries to steal his girlfriend. As corny as the premise is, it's very well-realized for a mass-market movie, and it's an entirely palatable date movie which can be very hard to come by.
• Enemy Mine
• Explorers (1985)
  Who hasn't wanted to travel through space in a Tilt-a-Whirl?
• Fifth Element, The
  Bruce Willis rides again. This time the bad guy is Gary Oldman, who is so good at being an evil bastard that (Refer to Leon/The Professional for this one) you practically forget that anyone else ever played an asshole. Milla Jovovich delivers a consistent role and several tit shots. The various aliens (there aren't many) are beautifully crafted and the music by Eric Serra is excellent to say the least. In fact, it's one of two soundtracks I purchased on opening night right after seeing the movie, the Matrix being the other. Let's not forget an excellent if brief performance by Trip-Hop star Tricky, who was quite entertaining to watch.
• Flight of the Navigator
  Okay, so it's a kid's movie, but it details the youthful dream of posessing your own spaceship, complete with AI and adorable alien creatures. It's Sci-Fi from Disney, which means high production quality and excellent cinematography. And Paul Reubens is the voice of the space ship, which I'd think in and of itself is enough reason to go see it (though if you're going to see something on that basis, he's a lot better in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.)
• Fly, The (1958)
• Galaxy Quest
  I was prepared to absolutely despise this movie, but it was actually a lot of fun. It does feature the stereotypical hollywood ending, and that does damp my enthusiasm for including it in this list - I always feel like I just ate cotton candy and washed it down with sugarwater when I see something like that. But, it also has Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver, and just to see that combination work on the big screen is worth a watch.
• Gattaca
• Ghostbusters
• Jurassic Park
• K-PAX
  Anything surreal restores my faith that there are still people in hollywood that understand art. Not very many, of course... but Kevin Spacey seems to take "far-out" roles and then actually carry them off.
• Last Starfighter, The (1984)
  Another kids' classic with staying power. The special effects are a bit dated, but they're not that bad honestly, and most of the humor elements are only mostly predictable, which puts this one ahead of most movies in any genre.
• Logan's Run
• Mad Max
• Matrix, The
  Note that the sequels will not be included here. They have gorgeous special effects but neither one is anywhere near as good as the original. Regardless, The Matrix introduced us to a lot of important concepts in cinematography, and it deserves an award for much the same reason the Bill and Ted movies do; finding a role for Keanu Reeves actually suited to his wooden features and perpetual air of confusion.
• Metropolis
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie
• Planet of the Apes (1968)
  The new Apes is an action movie that does away with many elements of the original, and frankly the love interest is hotter in the original - or maybe I've just been programmed to believe that by watching tons of the original Star Trek series - gotta love that late sixties/early seventies funk-chick look.
• Predator
  The original stop-the-alien action movie. Arnie and Jesse together. Spawned a sequel and another sequel (Alien vs. Predator) which sucked. Aside from the basically flawed premise of defeating thermal optics with mud, an excellent flick.
• RoboCop
  PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPON. YOU HAVE TEN SECONDS TO COMPLY. Need I say more?
• Rollerball (1975) (But not the remake)
• Spaceballs
  Mel Brooks has kind of tapered off in more recent years, and Spaceballs stands as one of the last examples of his funniest films, although admittedly it's already on the downhill itself. Still, it's absolutely classic and irreverent and manages to bag on both Star Wars and the entire science fiction genre.
• Stargate
  A really beautiful movie, very well paced, that also spawned one of the best science-fiction television shows of all time, although again, that's not saying a whole lot. Still, Stargate is one of those properties that people get very passionate about.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
  KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
  "Admiral! There be whales here!" and of course, "Hello, computer." James Doohan, rest in peace.
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
• Star Trek VIII: First Contact
• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
  I just want to say now that episodes I-III will never ever be on this list so long as I run it. With that out of the way; The movie that started it all, that made it possible to make mass-market science fiction movies. Carrie Fisher was hot, Mark Hamill delivered a highly convincing performance as a whiny bitch with magical powers, and Lucas hadn't invented the concept of Midichlorians yet. Not to mention that Harrison Ford is at his snarky, sarcastic best, although that's really true throughout the series.
• Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
  Considered by many to be the best Star Wars around, and the only one not directed by Lucas. Definitely the deepest of the films. Lucas should have taken its quality as a sign that each movie should be made by a different director (like the Aliens saga) but alas, it didn't work that way, and many years later we got the crapfest that is Episodes I-III.
• Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
  Down side: Ewoks instead of wookies. Up side: Everything else, especially Carrie Fisher in a brass braziere. What can I say?
• Strange Days
  One of the finest "cyberpunk" movies ever made. It's not very far future (hell, it's in the past, now) which limits the scope of technology but I think that it does what cyberpunk is meant to do; It examines the interface between humanity and technology. Ralph Fiennes is the Magic Man, and Angela Bassett proves once again that she is an excellent actress and one of the most attractive women ever to appear on film. Tom Sizemore shows his copious acting talents as well, as does Michael Wincott, who is always a joy in anything he's in, especially when he's playing a bad guy. Like always.
• Terminator, The
  I think we can all agree that Arnold's Terminator is the quintessential evil cyborg, and he absolutely will not stop until you are dead. Arnold is usually quite expressive, and does a fantastic job of behaving like a block of wood. Linda Hamilton is very convincing (even if her hair looks like the 80s attacked her head) and Michael Biehn is typically fantastic.
• Terminator 2: Judgement Day
• Thing, The
• THX 1138
• Time Machine, The (2002)
• Total Recall
  Vaguely based on the Philip K. Dick story "We can Remember it for you Wholesale" (First published in the April 1996 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction.) Sure, it's an Arnie movie, but it's also got some decent sci-fi. It does however lose points for being so far off from the novel. It gets most of them back because it has a halfway decent story anyway. A youthful Sharon Stone provides what I consider to be one of her best performances ever, Michael Ironside plays an evil hardass with no regard for human life, and Arnold plays Arnold. What more do you want? What really makes this movie special is that every time they cut away from Arnie, you have to ask, is this backstory, or is he free-associating? Incidentally, there was a series called Total Recall 2070, and a movie to go with it, and it's CRAP, but I have heard that it better represents K. Dick than this movie does. The acting, however, makes soap operas look believable, and I literally could not bring myself to finish it. Stick with this one.
• Tron
  Is there anything bad about this movie? Jeff Bridges and Bruce Boxleitner (for those who are totally in a fucking hole when it comes to Sci-Fi, think Babylon 5) fight the bad guys and win. The first movie containing purely digital effects, and a whole range of great quotes, like the one about the big door, and of course the ever popular END OF LINE. Incidentally, Peter Jurasik, also a Babylon 5 cast member, is also in this one.
• Twelve Monkeys
  Bruce Willis again, entirely believable and an excellent actor as usual. He's backed up in several scenes by Brad Pitt, who displays his broad range in this movie as he plays a wingnut.
• Wargames (1983)
  The only way to win is not to play. Come on, WOPR, I just wanted to play chess.
• War of the Worlds
• Westworld (1973)

There are tons of animated films which are science fiction, though usually not hard sci-fi.

• Akira
• Cowboy Bebop the Movie, (2001)
  Also known as "Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no tobira) for reasons which should be obvious, this is one humdinger of an extended episode of Bebop. It's like a really really good fast-paced episode that lasts as long as a movie. How you could fail to love it is beyond me. Everything is fantastic, from the new music to the high quality of the animation. It was shown in the US on the big screen for a little while, and I got to see it in Berkeley with a packed crowd. Bliss.
• Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within
• Ghost in the Shell
• Heavy Metal
• Macross Plus
  Some of the most beautiful animation ever displayed, and some fantastic music, because you just can't fuck with Yoko Kanno.
• Titan A.E.
• Transformers the Movie (1986)
• Wings of Honneamise: Royal Space Force (1987)

There are some movies which don't make the cut, but almost qualify as sci-fi, or good, or both. However, they fail on one or both counts. They're here because we want to justify them now before you waste our time with email. We know they'll occur to you.

• Arrival, The
• Dark City
• Demolition Man
  This movie was funny. It contains Denis Leary, who is always amusing when he rants, which of course is why they put him in the movie. The knitting jokes are amusing. But Snipes is, well, Snipes. And Taco Bell? Please. At least let us have (Der) Weinerschnitzel. Sandra Bullock, of course, is uninspiring as always.
• Event Horizon
  This movie has plenty of science, but it's not all that hot. This is a horror film. The best thing you can say about it is that no basic principle in the movie is denied by current theory, so it makes this 'consolation' list.
• Escape From New York
  There's still some discussion over this, but it's just not in the cards. There's not enough science in it. It could be ten years ago, big woop. And it's not like the whole world is screwed, so it's not post-apocalyptic enough.
• Starship Troopers
  First of all, this movie automatically loses points for bearing so little relation to the book. They used some of the names, they killed bugs... Whoopdeeshit. Second, it was lowbrow. I like tits as much as the next guy, but they weren't necessary here. The transparent, flourescent violin was completely retarded, and I use that particular saying so you'll understand the spirit in which I mean it; just plain mean. The one good thing about this movie (besides the aforementioned guns, and... guns) was the government propaganda spliced into the movie here and there. That was really slick. Too bad the rest of the movie was so dumb. Expensive special effects are fun to watch, but they do not make a movie good. I liked it on most levels, but I can't tell you that it didn't suck.
• Star Wars Episodes I-III: The search for more money
  Meesa lotta sorry that episode I had Jar-Jar Binks, who successfully places it into the "asstacular" category. Episode 2 is centered around a love story that just cannot be believed, as both actors absolutely fail to act. Natalie Portman at least is known to have some acting ability (she displayed about ten times more in Leon/The Professional so I can only assume that it is the fault of the director. I didn't even finish Episode III, which everyone said was the best in the series. It was just simply too over the top, too corny, and too much more of the same kind of crap that we saw in Episodes I and II.

Movies on which no call has yet been made. Some of these we liked a lot when we were kids but can't decide if they have staying power, so we have to check them out again. Or, we just weren't ready to discuss them when making the initial list. Some of them were suggested by other media sources. And so on.

• 1984
• Barbarella
  The foreign version of this film is reputed to be one FRCHIf you don't know, explaining would probably offend you. away from the spice channel. That's not the movie I saw on TV...
• Boys From Brazil, The
• Charly
• Cherry 2000
• Colossus: The Forbin Project (1969)
• Donnie Darko
  Well, it has wormholes...
• D.A.R.Y.L.
• Dreamscape
• E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
• Fahrenheit 451
• Fantastic Voyage (1966)
• Forbidden Planet
• Ice Pirates
• Iron Giant, The
• Inner Space
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
• Max Headroom (1985)
  Only one hour long, and it requires a reviewing.
• Sleeper (1973)
• Terminal Man, The