Rolling Stone's "Top 20 sci fi films of the 21st century"

[Vic Sage]

Rolling Stone came out with a "top 20 sci fi films of the 21st century" list:
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/lists/the-top-20-sci-fi-films-of-the-21st-century-20140515/under-the-skin-2013-19691231

There are some good choices here, but I have some quibbles. First, I don't think you should include on this kind of a list (where one is trying to rank �the best� of a particular period, rather than just one�s favorites) movies that have come out recently, because of our natural bias toward the new and the lack of historical perspective on such films. Secondly, if you�re going to include foreign films (like THE HOST), then you have to consider ALL of world cinema, and that�s just too daunting a task.

So, here's my list -- 20 Best English-language SF features / 2000-2009 (listed chronologically):
[Note that I have limited myself to only 1 superhero movie, since I distrust my own judgment about them (I tend to like them even when they�re terrible)]
(movies on the Rolling Stone list are noted with a *)

From the Rolling Stone list
� DONNIE DARKO
� MINORITY REPORT
� SERENITY
� CHILDREN OF MEN
� CLOVERFIELD
� WALL-E
� DISTRICT 9

I have not seen THE HOST, MOON, PRIMER or SUNSHINE, but they seem promising. But REIGN OF FIRE, while some fun, is a piece of crap.

Plus:
UNBREAKABLE � Shamalayan�s exercise in superhero realism; sad and fascinating
PITCH BLACK � Vin Diesel introduces Riddick in this thrilling little piece of horror/sf
A.I. � Spielberg + Kubrick; an SF Pinocchio with great performances
28 DAYS LATER � A game-changer in the �fast zombie� sub-genre
ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND � Philosophical, romantic; Jim Carrey in �serious actor� mode
V FOR VENDETTA � underrated adaptation of Moore�s comic; power to the people!
IDIOCRACY � Mike Judge�s hilarious and prescient satire about our intellectual decline as a species
THE FOUNTAIN � Aronofsky�s flawed but ambitious study in the metaphysics of love and loss
BATMAN: DARK KNIGHT � If I only get 1 superhero movie for the decade, this is it. Nuff said.
STAR TREK � JJ Abrams successfully relaunched and rebooted the moribund franchise
AVATAR � Cameron pushes the limits of color and 3D to retell the archetypal story of the warrior going native to preserve the natural world from Man�s destructive nature
THE ROAD � McCarthy�s classic; an austere, deeply felt adaptation
ZOMBIELAND � Hilarious revamp and update of the zombie apocalypse

Honorable Mentions: FREQUENCY, X-MEN, X2, HELLBOY, A SCANNER DARKLY, RENAISSANCE, MAN FROM EARTH, IRON MAN, WATCHMEN, 9, MR. NOBODY, BLINDNESS

And now here are 10 films from 2010-2014, for early consideration on the 2010-2019 list (but I may feel differently by 2024):
� INCEPTION
� ATTACK THE BLOCK
� THE WORLD�S END
� GRAVITY
� HER

I have not seen MONSTERS or UNDER THE SKIN, but LOOPER is convoluted.

Plus:
X-MEN: FIRST CLASS � This prequel to the series surpasses the original trilogy
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES � a successful reboot, and a remake (of sorts) of ESCAPE and CONQUEST but much better.
SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED � A funny, romantic indie � is it time travel or insanity?
SEEKING A FRIEND FOR END OF THE WORLD - Funny/sad romance with great perf by Steve Carrell
MAN OF STEEL � Thoughtful reconsideration of Superman in his best film adaptation

Honorable mentions: PAUL, CABIN IN THE WOODS, MELANCHOLIA, AVENGERS, THE DIVIDE, OBLIVION, EUROPA REPORT, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE

Edited May 23, 2014 by Guest

[Benjamin Grimm]

I really liked Cloverfield, and District 9 was cool. I thought Wall-E was awful.

I loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and I agree that X-Men: First Class is the best of the X-films. (I hope Days of Future Past keeps the mojo going.)

Avatar was okay, I guess, but a bit too pretentious (and too lengthy) for me.

I would have guessed that Hellboy and Unbreakable were 20th Century films. They seem like a long time ago.

[Vic Sage]

I would have guessed that Hellboy and Unbreakable were 20th Century films. They seem like a long time ago

HELLBOY (2004), but whether UNBREAKABLE (2000) was a 20th century film depends on whether you say 2000 was the last year of the 20th century or the 1st year of the 21st century. Rolling Stone included DONNIE DARKO (2000) on their list, so i followed suit.

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

20 individual pages that load in screwy ways.

[Vic Sage]

i just saw THE ISLAND (2005) on cable over the weekend, and it deserves an honorable mention at least. Ewen McGregor and ScarJo are clones on the run from the evil corp that grew them for their spare parts. Good action, good perfs, thought-provoking.

[Vic Sage]

DAYS OF FUTURE PAST was an excellent way to retrofit X3 out of the existing X-MEN continuity. Overall, though, the movie is a little slow and talky (the sentinel action is dull and repetitive) but there's a lot of good character stuff and Quicksilver steals the show. 3.5 ****

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, the Quicksilver scene was great. It will be interesting to compare this Quicksilver with the one we'll be seeing in Avengers Age of Ultron next year.

X-MEN DAYS OF FUTURE PAST SPOILER ALERT
=#FFBF00]The events of X3 were definitely erased, but it's also possible that X1 and X2 were retconned as well. I guess we're unlikely to ever know for sure. This movie seemed like the happily-ever-after for the group of X-Men that we met in the 2000 movie except, of course, for Wolverine, who, since he exists in both time periods, can easily be integrated with the "First Class" group.

[Ceetar]

I really despised Unbreakable. I loved the concept I just felt like it didn't go anywhere and nothing really happened in the movie. The most lasting impression I have of the movie is the character calling up his boss and asking "When was the last time I took a sick day?" and getting a raise out of it.

[RealityChuck]

The choice of Children of Men is inspired.

I'd go with

1. Children of Men -- A classic that has everything, including an emotionally stunning ending.
   
2. District 9 -- Satire; you need to know some South African history to appreciate it.
   
3. The Dark Knight - The only superhero movie that has any depth to it and the only one that is more than just boring fight scenes.
   
4. Serenity -- space opera at its finest
   
5. Shaun of the Dead -- A horror film that's actually fun to watch.
   
6. Donnie Darko -- A little dark, but a very strong film.
   
7. Wall-E -- The first half was among the best animated sequences ever. Flagged toward the end, but still a fine film.
   
8. Looper -- The best time travel film since 12 Monkeys. Their handling of time paradoxes was brilliant.
   
9. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec -- A criminally overlooked fantasy/SF adventure.
   
10. Inception - clever situation and setup

[Vic Sage]

Thanks for the ADELE recommendation. I've liked some Luc Besson films; i'll give this one a shot.
And i just saw SHAUN OF THE DEAD this weekend; it was excellent. I really like Simon Pegg's films.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

I really liked Cloverfield, and District 9 was cool. I thought Wall-E was awful.

This is literally the first time I have ever seen or heard that sentiment expressed.

Vic: you found LOOPER convoluted... but you ranked INCEPTION? If anything, I'd say the first gives you more meat for the chew required. You don't agree?

[Edgy MD]

In the posted reactions, if not necessarily the voting, there was a lot of folks down on Wall-E here.

[Vic Sage]

I really liked Cloverfield, and District 9 was cool. I thought Wall-E was awful. This is literally the first time I have ever seen or heard that sentiment expressed. Vic: you found LOOPER convoluted... but you ranked INCEPTION? If anything, I'd say the first gives you more meat for the chew required. You don't agree?

First, I liked WALL-E very much, but it wasn't the greatest thing since sliced bread. Still, its deserving of its place on the RS list. The culture has spoken on this film and has moved on [e.g., metacritic = 94-critics / 8.9-users; Rotten Tomatoes = 96%-critics / 89%-users] (these are unusually high numbers). And, politics aside, it's a moving love story. I'm a sucker for a good robot love story.

Secondly, I didn't rank INCEPTION; Rolling Stone did, and i didn't reject it (this was more a matter of "tie goes to the runner" deference than an expression of my own preference). As for LOOPER, i disagreed with them about it, so i didn't keep it on my list. I found both stories convoluted, and wasn't crazy about either of them at the time i saw them, but INCEPTION had other qualities i appreciated more on subsequent viewing (original imagery, excellent performances, more profound philosophical questions), and it has had a greater overall impact on filmmaking and the popular culture. Other storytellers are still referencing it (either visually, conceptually, or literally), whereas LOOPER, while perfectly entertaining (perhaps more than INCEPTION, since it has a more traditionally satisfying conclusion), has been largely forgotten. It was not memorable or impactful to the same degree, and so doesn't warrant inclusion on my list, where the similarly flawed INCEPTION does. I do think LOOPER is a good film and a legitimate case to be made for it, and I would put it on a list of honorable mentions. But I would also understand if some of the films on the RS list that i didn't see (THE HOST, MOON, PRIMER, SUNSHINE) knocked either or both off the list entirely, since I'd put both of them nearer the bottom than the top.

As a side note, 12 MONKEYS kicks LOOPER's ass all over the playground and takes its lunch money.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Guest

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

Vic Sage wrote: As a side note, 12 MONKEYS kicks LOOPER's ass all over the playground and takes its lunch money.

Oh, indeed.

You'd like MOON. A nice sideways meditation on work/service/identity... and Sam Rockwell's career highlight.

PRIMER's interesting, idea-wise, but is sloppy (even for indie sci-fi) and makes INCEPTION look like the very picture of plot clarity/order by comparison.

[Vic Sage]

RealityChuck wrote: [*]Shaun of the Dead -- A horror film that's actually fun to watch.

I considered adding SHAUN to my list, but i've arbitrarily classified it as comedy/horror rather than SF.

Comparing it to the 2 other Zombie movies on my list, SHAUN never says why the dead are rising, using instead the Romero zombie approach (which is a horror approach) that "it may have been this or that, but it doesn't matter... run!" But both 28 DAYS LATER and ZOMBIELAND give specific scientific explanations for the spread of a zombifying virus and are also much more about the post-apocalyptic world created by the cataclysm (a common theme of SF) than it is about surviving the cataclysm itself (NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD). Like i said, its an arbitrary distinction, but lists are all about drawing lines and making distinctions; that process is always going to be somewhat subjective and, therefore, seem arbitrary.