40. “Never Let Me Go” (2010)
A difficult, chilly film with a placid exterior hiding a vein of deep feeling, “Never Let Me Go” is one of the saddest films of the last decade and a remarkably sustained mood piece that grows more and more with each viewing. Adapted by future “Ex Machina” director Alex Garland from Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel and directed by Mark Romanek, it follows three children in a grim Britain being raised in a remote boarding school who discover that they are clones being raised for the purpose of organ donation and are unlikely to live conventional lives. Some audiences couldn’t deal with the lead characters’ quiet acceptance of their fate, but it feels utterly appropriate to the quietly-fucked world that Romanek builds, and brought out by remarkable, deeply human performances by his three leads, Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield and Keira Knightley, delivering among their best work. It’s a deeply haunting film.
39. “Signs” (2002)
Many’s the argument we’ve had, much is the ridicule we’ve suffered, but we’ll say it again: M. Night Shyamalan‘s widely derided “Signs,” starring Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin and Abigail Breslin, is great. However, since this film uses the oldest sci-fi trope (an alien invasion) to pry open faultlines of guilt, grief and lost faith within one fractured family, it’s easy to see where Shyamalan disappointed large swathes of his audience. While the film does feature a trademark 3rd act reveal (which is either strangely moving or dumb as hair), it’s not the destination but the journey that is the point here. A lot of the alien stuff does not work, but the story of an ex- preacher whose faith died with his wife and who is trying to protect his family from an invasion shows an admirable ambition to contend with the conundrum of life after death that rings true, sincere and peculiarly hopeful.
38. “Hard To Be A God” (2013)
Well over a decade in the making (production began in 2000) and having only premiered after the death of its director Aleksei German, “Hard To Be A God” is unlike any film you’ve seen before, a truly magnificent wallow in the filth of humanity. Based on a novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (also authors of “Roadside Picnic,” which Andrei Tarkovsky turned into “Stalker”), the film sees a group of scientists having traveled to a distant Earth-like planet that becomes stuck in an anti-intellectual Dark Ages, with one of their number (Leonid Yarmolnik) now serving as a God-like ruler tasked with starting a Renaissance there. Positively swimming in mud, shit, blood and offal, and with extended tracking shots immersing the viewer in a Bruegel-like landscape, but as bleak and near-nihilistic as its view of the human race might be, the film doesn’t quite feel oppressive. Even at three hours, it’s a must-see.
37. “Star Trek” (2009)
There is some irony in J.J. Abrams avowedly relaunching the ‘Star Trek‘ franchise by making it as though it should have been a ‘Star Wars‘ movie. But that doesn’t detract from just how much fun “Star Trek” turned out to be, largely keeping the deeper, philosophical bent of series like “The Next Generation” and “Deep Space Nine” in the background in favor of an old-fashioned, getting-the-team-together yarn, with a little time travel thrown in because… JJ Abrams! But if that sounds dismissive, it shouldn’t: Abrams assembled a terrific cast for the new-look movie —Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin (RIP), John Chu, Karl Urban and Simon Pegg— and Kurtzman & Orci‘s script gave every individual character their moment in the sun. Also including a touching cameo from Leonard Nimoy, it’s such an enjoyable kick-off that we almost forgive the slapdash sequel, especially now that early word on Justin Lin’s third installment is so positive.
36. “The Mist” (2007)
You have to tip your hat to Frank Darabont: having given us a hall-of-famer happy ending with his most beloved Stephen King adaptation “The Shawshank Redemption,” he then delivered one of most ballsy and outrageous downer finales of all time with his take on King’s “The Mist.” But the film is a lot more than just its ending, an enjoyably grimy creature-feature B-movie in which a small town is menaced by beasties unleashed by sinister government forces from another dimension, whose arrival is cloaked in mist. Unfolding largely in one grocery store where a group of townspeople hole up, beyond the jump scares, it’s also marked out by terrific performances especially from the great Marcia Gay Harden as the hyper-religious End-Is-Nigh type, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones and a rubble-jawed Thomas Jane as the would-be All-American hero whose subversive fate it is to make such a terrible error of judgement in those closing minutes.
35. “The Prestige” (2006)
For a long time, perhaps because of its period setting, “The Prestige” remained the least well-known of Christopher Nolan‘s post-breakout films. But gradually it seems people have cottoned on to the fact that it’s one of his most interesting, and that it includes many of his recurring themes about identity and doubling, and the difference between someone’s public face and their private heart. Based on the brilliant book by Christopher Priest (Nolan adapted it with his brother Jonathan), it also boasts a massive cast, with Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman playing rival magicians in the early 1900s, Scarlett Johansson, Piper Perabo and Rebecca Hall as their variously doomed lady loves, talisman Michael Caine and Ricky Jay as the “magical engineers” who design tricks and even David Bowie in a coup of perfect casting as Nikola Tesla. Intricate, mindbending and ultimately deeply melancholy, this is everything that Nolan does best.
34. “Monsters” (2010)
He’s about to head to a galaxy far, far away with “Rogue One,” and understandably so: Gareth Edwards made one of the most ambitious and striking directorial calling cards in recent memory with “Monsters.” Small in budget but huge in scope, it’s set in a world where alien creatures have made much of Central America a no-go area, and where an American (Scoot McNairy) is hired to find a wealthy young woman (Whitney Able) and bring her home. A low-key, intimate romance of unexpected feeling then unfolds, amid a backdrop of devastation, and if the script feels a little lacking sometimes, the chemistry between the leads (who married in real life), and Edwards’ kinship with the strange creatures leads to something that transcends the ‘Before Sunrise With Giant Aliens’ elevator pitch. It culminates in an ending that’s among the most strange and beautiful things we’ve seen on screen in recent years.
33. “A.I: Artificial Intelligence” (2001)
Given that it saw beloved director Steven Spielberg taking over a project from one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in the history of the medium, the late Stanley Kubrick, it was inevitable that some would be disappointed by “A.I,” and it took a relatively long time for the film to be greeted as anything other than a missed opportunity. Fortunately, it’s now won a fair chunk of cinephiles over, and is certainly seen as, if not Spielberg’s most lovable work, one of his most interesting. Riffing loosely on “Pinocchio,” the film (which features Spielberg’s first sole screenplay credit since “Close Encounters”) follows Haley Joel Osment’s child ‘mecha,’ rejected by his real parents and heading out in search of a way to become a real boy. Misread and misinterpreted by critics on release, it now stands as a perfect meld of the two visionaries behind it and one of Spielberg’s most meticulous, complex, and haunting works, and one well worth revisiting if you rejected it first time around.
32. “Interstellar” (2013)
Perhaps one of the most hotly contested films, sci-fi or otherwise, in recent memory, Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” received a host of polarizing and emotionally hot reactions, with some finding it baffling, impenetrable or saccharine (among the barbs thrown at it). But while debate still rages, we find that the film’s grown in the couple of years since it landed: still messy, still imperfect, still a dazzling, ambitious vision of love, time, space, and some deeper, perhaps fuzzier elements of the universe. It’s the place where the heart and quantum physics meet. While that might admittedly be a bit of an awkward intersection, its love-letter sincerity to humanity inspired by Nolan’s own children is at least visually awe-inspiring and occasionally breathtaking, and should finally rid people of the idea that Nolan is a cold, emotionless filmmaker. What initially felt like his greatest misfire may one day be seen as his greatest moment.
31. “Edge Of Tomorrow” (2014)
Taking “Groundhog Day” and giving it a sci-fi twist (more effectively than Duncan Jones’ “Source Code” a few years earlier), Doug Liman’s excellent blockbuster “Edge Of Tomorrow” picks up Tom Cruise’s dickish PR guy and drops him in the midst of a D-Day-style battle against an impossible alien threat, then makes him live it (and perish in it) over and over again. The film was the best use of Cruise’s star persona in aeons (serving almost as a metaphor for the redemption of his own stardom), but the secret weapon, aside from a cunning evocation of video game tropes, the best alien warfare since “Starship Troopers,” and crystal clear direction from a back-on-form Liman, was Emily Blunt as the “full metal bitch,” making a strong case that she deserves to be the biggest star in the world. The film didn’t find the theatrical audience it deserved at the time, but more and more people seemed to catch on after.
I swear ya’ll published this the exact same day as The Fil mStage .com’s own list on purpose.
https://thefilmstage.com/features/the-50-best-sci-fi-films-of-the-21st-century
Its fun to see where taste differ, but you had the same #1.
Jeremy, this is an update of a list we did long ago circa 2015 and with a series that began in 2014, not just this year.
The number #1 pick is my 2nd favorite movie since 2000 (Mulholland Drive is #1) so I couldn’t agree more.
I can never see “The Hunger Games” as anything more than “Battle Royale” rip-off material. LOL So even putting “Catching Fire”, which basically was a redux of the first film in most of it with the rebellion in the background to add flair, on the Honorable Mention hurts me deeply…well not deeply but still. I love that you guys gave “Snowpiercer” love. I kept reading articles it should have been the black sheep of the Oscars in 2014, no love for Tilda Swinton even!
It’s funny, I love “Interstellar” as a concept but pacing and actual narrative-wise it was all over the place. It felt like they had so much science behind it that they struggled to make sure all the relevant information was in it without too much exposition. Still liked it though so glad concept-wise it was honored! 
I would have included Sleep Dealer on this list. Very moving.
I love Children of Men but hate mention of it containing ‘two of the greatest extended shots in cinema history’, as they both have been revealed to be fudged together from shorter takes. According to the vfx coordinator, the car ambush was shot in “six sections and at four different locations over one week and required five seamless digital transitions”; and the battlefield scene “was captured in five separate takes over two locations”.
In my eyes, that doesn’t take away from the quality of shot. They are still amazing when we are so conditioned for now normal 1 sec average shot length.
They are amazing scenes, but to perpetuate the myth that they’re real time single takes is a disservice to both the people who made the scenes work -editors, compositors, fx people- but don’t usually get credit for long takes, and to the filmmakers who create actual single takes. Plus Cuaron outright lying about them has left a bad taste in my mouth.
fair enough. “perpetuate the myth that they’re real time single take”
I would put “Stranger Things” on this list. It feels like just a big 8 hour movie anyway.
as much as I agree with you Byers I think to be measured truly all entries should have at least a 5 year test . so when the hype is wore off will we still think it stands as a true original.
While I did love “Stranger Things” and think it should be in every top 50 list, I’m not sure it qualifies as Sci-Fi. They did give give things a soft scientific explanation, but overall it felt more like supernatural horror to me. It’s very borderline though and could be fuel for an interesting debate.
Stranger things is not a movie, till it becomes showed in the big screen, Stranger things do not belong on this list.
Snowpiercer was absolute garbage from start to finish.
Excellent list, especially the top 10. I would have included Avatar over Star Trek, but that’s a minor quibble over blockbusters.
Cloud Atlas? Mr Nobody? Vanilla Sky?
I think you are discrediting your list by not including Avatar. The best SciFi should be defined by whats actually possible while challenging and exciting our imaginations.
I totally understand the debate about the plot and characters but its hard to argue with the box office draw and the oscar awards. What separates Science fiction from pure fantasy? The answer is why the super-hero genre isn’t science fiction and why Star Wars and Star Trek nerds don’t always see eye to eye. Avatar took reasonable steps to make sure the movie conformed to our current scientific understanding of the universe.
2nd highest grossing film of all time adjusted for inflation. By that metric alone its got to be on your list.
Anyway awesome list and thanks for putting the time in. There’s a few movies I had dismissed like another earth but I’ll check them out now.
Avatar = “Lawrence of Arabia” with tails in 3D. Yes it was one of the first movies that used 3D as a serious filmmaking tool,can’t deny that one. In fact 70% of Avatar’s revenue is from its 3D version. But strip it from all its hype, it’s mediocre. Avatar is a sensory feast and nothing more.
Avatar = Dances with Wolves
You left out Ferngully in there to be the most unoriginal, parrot-like post of the day.
Counterpoint: Avatar = Pocahontas
Can’t disagree with you there. However we’re talking about the 50 best sci fi movies in the 21st century so far.
How do you quantify “the best”. Obviously that’s pretty difficult, however some of the metrics you could use are sales, critic reviews, user reviews, academy awards.
The credibility of this list is questionable by excluding Avatar. It’s more of a “Sci Fi movies that the authors liked” list.
As someone who pretty much hates anything he has ever been in, and who thinks calling him a over-rated actor would be a compliment, Tom Cruises Edge of Tomorrow should have been higher. Playing the complete jerk at the beginning of the film wasn’t a surprise, or much of an acting stretch. His getting knocked down a few notches, actually, quite a few notches, and having to put up with common BS and become a functioning human being during the film, one that people watching actually care about, was one of if not his very best acting job. Maybe not a top 10 film but it surely deserved a top 15.
I really don’t get what people have against Cruise and his movies. Does the guy seem like a AAA werido in real life? You bet! But I have honestly never seen a Cruise movie I didn’t enjoy. Every thing from Cocktail to MI to Edge of Tomorrow.
Name ONE other actor that has as many big budget AAA awesome Hollywood sci-fi films under his belt. I love that he doesn’t mind doing nerdy films like Minority Report, War of the Worlds, All You Need is Kill (Edge of Tomorrow). Not to mention he is the my most likable Nazi in film history and is amazing in Valkyrie.
Tom Cruise movies are pretty consistently awesome and entertaining.
Couldn’t agree more. His blockbusters are good if not great–Mission Impossible, War of the Worlds, Minority Report, Edge of Tomorrow, the list could go on forever.
If there’s anyone arguing his versatility and his “acting”, go watch Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut or P.T. Anderson’s Magnolia.
I agree. Say what you want about the guy be he sure knows how to make a movie.
I’m not particularly proud of this, but I must have watched Edge of Tomorrow about 20 times. The layers to it are pretty amazing, the script and story were just so tight for something that could have been a complex mess. (Yeah, yeah, it’s based on a manga novel… – the premise is, but the screenplay does it’s own thing). Every time I watched it I noticed something new that connected back to some other part of the story, which is pretty impressive for 20+ viewings
I haven’t seen it 20 times, but probably have seen it 6 or 7, but I’ll probably get there eventually. I love that movie. It’s the only movie I’ve seen in the theaters twice other than Terminator 2. Emily Blunt FTW.
Not sure how anyone can sit through Upstream Color and Under the Skin. I certainly wouldn’t have them in my top 100, in fact they’d be in my top ten worst scifi movies of the century. But, these lists are inherently subjective so I won’t say anything immature nor abusive about the author, they’re entitled to an opinion like the rest of us
Subjective is right. Loved, loved Upstream Color, disliked Under the Skin. Under was made into a sci-fi piece from a story that wasn’t. Many female friends of mine disliked Upstream. Think it was the control scenes at beginning.
What do you mean Under the Skin was made into a sci-fi piece from a story that wasn’t? I read the source material (the novel) and it’s even more sci-fi than the movie.
I agree and apologize. I posted that comment ages ago and I know I read at the time that little nugget from a review of the movie but just read the wiki link about the book and it certainly sounds like sci fi.
Edge of tomorrow is based on a japanese manga called “al you need is kill” (way better than the movie)
No its not. I’ve read the original book and the Manga and the movie is better than both.
Lucy, Limitless?
You already had a Pegg and Frost movie but you forgot about Paul.
ok, agree with many but saw the ‘Host’ and it shouldn’t be anywhere near #11 and Her doesn’t even belong on the list – stupid stupid movie! But bravo that they put Primer, Moon, Eternal Sunshine and Children of men in the top 10.
And where in the hell is Predestination? (All You Zombies by Heinlein?)
Sorry Scott, I disagree. The Host is a smart film, brilliantly executed. I loved the humour, the politics and the characters. There are loads in this list I disagree with (as anyone would with another person’s list) however The Host certainly deserves to be there. Plus, the monster is really cool!
“Gary King’s self destructive…comparable to Brexit?” So…the writer does believe that human civilizations can’t make their own decisions and need to be managed by “benevolent” outside authorities who promise to make it all better, just turn yourselves over to “us”, mind, body and soul?
Even if they are plastic robots?
I loved “The World’s End”, but something is telling me, sir, you saw a completely different movie than I did.
The Brits may have a rep for being polite, but deep inside, they are an independent warrior people who don’t like being treaded on. This is a good impulse.
Andy one who would see it otherwise should not be listened to.
I’m disappointed that Zero Theorem isn’t on this list.
Chappie? Where’s my beloved chappie?
Are these lists compiled by monkeys with Netflix accounts? “Star Wars” was ranked 27, but “Moon”—one of the most mind-numbingly boring movies I’ve ever seen—is in the top 10 (???). And it feels like a good third aren’t even Sci-Fi; I mean, “The Mist” was just a B horror flick—fun, but hardly in the same league as “The Martian.” “Avatar,” “Hunger Games,” and “Divergent” were every bit as relevant as “Edge of Tomorrow,” yet they’re completely ignored. Instead, the list includes the God-awful “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.” #headdesk
Boring is subjective, and just like your taste of Avatar, Hunger Games and Divergent are all pretty awful to me. It’s subjective. Without any intention of being snobbish perhaps you should watch more films.
It is subjective, and different people will enjoy different movies, which is what makes the fundamental premise of these lists so feckless As to seeing more movies, I’m not sure how that would help. I’ve seen most of the movies on this list, and seeing a few more is not going to make a movie like “Moon” any less tedious. Oh, and as someone else mentioned, the list snubbed “Tomorrowland” too, which I find unforgivable.
Just got done with moon. I didn’t find it boring at all. Martian was boring. I guess it’s up to the director and his vision that sets the mood. Moon caught me Martian did not. It’s probably got something to do with my DNA I am not an attaca freak I am natural.
Pssst: it wasn’t Walt Whitman in Upstream Color, the characters read from Walden.
World of Tomorrow by Don Hertzfeldt was deeply troubling and hilarious.
Totally underrated movie that is surprisingly good: Pandorum (2009).
The Host was fun, but I have a hard time calling it Sci-Fi. I am not as fond of B-Movies like The Host and Snowpiercer, I would rate classic AAA Sci-Fi movies like Elysium, Oblivion and I, Robot over them.
I second Pandorum. Not so much your second 3 recommendations.
Not at all a fan of Under the Skin. This film was slow and I turned it off on my first viewing. Went back later and watched it the whole way through because of this list and nope, it’s still slow and boring. Someone could come up with this simple plot in about 5 minutes. Scarlett is naked a lot, there’s that I guess, but not nearly as good as The Island.
>The Island
…And suddenly I can’t take you seriously anymore.
The Island is rated 6.9 at IMDb which is a very excellent rating, as it is difficult for movies anything less than absolute blockbuster smash hits to get over 7.5 there. Meantime, I think you missed the point because Scarlett Johansson was in The Island, so I believe the OP was comparing her two movies, stating that her performance, character and plot in The Island was better than her Under The Skin. I agree. Because movies about aliens (or related) dressed up in incredibly sexy female bodies having deadly sex with men is an overplayed theme and wasteful of female talents on the big screen.
In Under the Skin her character is physically incapable of sex, although the implied promise of it is used to lure men to their deaths.
Her was boring and sucked balls. Total piece of shit.
Did Tomorrowland make the list? Since the list is setup in click bait style I really don’t want to go back and look at each page. If it isn’t in the list, it should be.
No, it did not. Thank god.
Dredd would of made my list.
It’s one of the best Sci-Fi/Action movies of the last decade and harks back to some of those greats from the 80’s.
Its dystopian themes and overiding bleakness made it that rare thing in modern cinema.
Great photography from Anthony Dodd Mantle too!
Several of Alex Garland’s, writer of Dredd, other work made the cut so I can understand its omission, but the film shouldn’t be dismissed.
The acting in that film is “dreadful” (had to get that in). But, it’s true….The guy that played “Dread” has to be from the very bottom of the shit list of Hollywood’s worst actors. Obviously this was a risky film so they couldn’t go with a great. Even a half decent actor wouldn’t have touched this bag of shit movie with a 40ft barge pole!
Fortunately, easily forgotten.
Well clearly you’re in the minority as it was popular enough to be getting a forthcoming TV series spin-off.
Karl Urban is a more than capable actor and you clearly haven’t seen many of his other roles.
Still, there’s no accounting for taste! ?
All this proves is that you are one of millions of mindless sheep that rubbish like this appeals to and is made for. And why I hold a degree in aeronautical engineering while you remain loyal to your couch. As for taste….you really have no argument. Have a good day.
All your comment proves is that you are a
massive snob who fails to recognise what constitutes quality.
And no, I prefer the cinema experience to the couch.
Speak for yourself!
Hey don’t cry. There are literally billions of lonely sheep out there, just like yourself . Just as aimless and foolish as you. You’re not on your own metaphorically speaking, take comfort in that fact.
Please check my “z” cat sci fi shorts
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8keQgws3FyALia8zuYhplA
– Sunshine is so close to a perfect sci-fi movie that it’s painful – the one movie I wish we could take back in time and give Boyle a bunch of “Edge of Tomorrow” chances at a better last act. He let things get too messy – mostly that final confrontation, which could have been a scary and suspenseful turn, but was instead unpolished and rushed. He similarly screwed up The Beach with Leo’s mental video game trippy bullshit.
– Prometheus was obviously omitted and I agree as to why but think it had glimmers of good stuff. Not sure Ridley, who gave us so much, will ever give us another great movie again.
– Yes The Martian was good and should be on the list, but mainly winds up as a crowd pleaser as opposed to other older Ridley Scott films that take chances (although they don’t always work). The book was better.
– Moon was good and satisfying by the end but ranked too high here.
– District 9 should definitely be higher.
– Minority Report was great and inventive as sci-fi goes – my only gripe would be that Spielberg felt the need to over-explain the whole movie with Tom Cruise’s overly talky scene at the end as to how the whole crime was done. Would have been nice to let the audience put some of it together on their own.
– This list makes me want to rewatch Host and Snowpiercer.
– 10 Cloverfield Lane and maybe even the sometimes cheesy Vanilla Sky should be in there.
– Haven’t seen 2046, Holy Motors, Timecrimes and maybe a couple others so have some work to do.
– Love that the list tends to lean to the more uniquely strange and obscure, especially with Under The Skin, even if it maybe leans that way a little too much so with other titles.
– Avatar really was not a good movie and has become cringeworthy to rewatch. The movie and the acting was just cartoonish, especially the military bad guy.
– Couldn’t agree more on Children of Men – that movie I can watch over and over.
– Although not a movie – I’m hoping Netflix does justice to the upcoming Altered Carbon series (not sure when it will be released), seeing as sci-fi is an easy thing to screw up. If you like sci-fi please do yourself a favor and read that book first. Awesome and a trilogy (haven’t read 2 or 3 yet).
The first sequel to Altered Carbon was not great, the third book was almost as good as the first.
quote- Minority Report was great and inventive as sci-fi goes – my only gripe
would be that Spielberg felt the need to over-explain the whole movie
with Tom Cruise’s overly talky scene at the end as to how the whole
crime was done. Would have been nice to let the audience put some of it
together on their own. -endquote
I’ve notices audiences have a harder time nowadays putting anything together on their own. That said, the ending is a great place to tie up all the loose ends and make sure everyone who couldn’t put it all together gets to put it all together.
Leaving off 12 Monkeys is a bit of a travesty, IMHO. It has to be the best closed-loop time travel movie of the lot.
I’m just glad Interstellar didnt make the cut.
Because you’re an idiot. It’s easily top 10.
It’s a crime 12 Monkeys isn’t there…
You mean the film that came out in 1995?
It’s the ultimate time travel movie… It comes out all centuries….
You have Mad Max Fury road in Sci fi and not Predestination.
“And if you’re looking for an insight into the British psyche that caused the self-destructive decision to go for Brexit,”
The writer should really jump off that high horse…preferably into a big pile of $hite, for it is obvious you need some time outside your little echo chamber.
Like all of his fellow travelers, the leftist author is an all- consumed true believer who thinks nobody reading here could possibly disagree with his opinion re Brexit. After all, anyone who does disagree is, by default, a racist, sexist, homophobic bigot. Moral high ground, don’t you know.
this list is cancer
shit list.
Yeah ..
What would you have added? And I’m not trying to be condescending or anything, I just want to know more about Sci-Fi..
I think it’s less about addition and more about removal.
This list needs some serious reconsidering of what is science fiction. The author obviously prefers indie dramas with a tiny drop of sci-fi (or no sci-fi whatsoever, just surrealism, like in case of Holy Motors or Under the Skin) to what actually constitutes the genre, like Ender’s Game or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy.
Got it.
Alex Gaginsky, you took the words right out of my mouth! More and more, I miss Roger Ebert. It seems to me that movie reviews nowadays are being written by Millennials who never studied film ‘history’. Many of the great films I grew up on aren’t even on this list!
Re-read the title. “of the 21st Century”
you’re taking this list real serious there, “alex” – lighten up a bit, perhaps?
He cares about something and encourages others to as well. What are you good for? Helping people “lighten up” when they talk over your head?
I care a great deal about science-fiction cinema, to the point where I’m compelled to dismiss fanboy “purism” and seek out actual artistic/stylistic merit. Sci-fi means many things to many people, and I’d say this is a well-rounded encapsulation of contemporary works in the (broad) genre, with both mainstream and under-the-radar films represented. But, hey, if you think that arguing for the inclusion of pap like Ender’s Game and (ugh) Predestination simply because of the standing of their source material (and not on, ya know, the quality of the actual film adaptation) qualifies as “talking over my head,” then… well, you just enjoy that delusional line of thinking, buddy.
Good points, and now you’re taking the list very seriously, just like Alex. Why didn’t you just say all this in the first place instead of trying to belittle someone for being like you?
ouch. Check and mate. Well played devraticus
I’ll never understand the affection for ANOTHER EARTH! Wow, I absolutely hated that movie.
Quit reading at the “a white male” part.
I love how Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (a film based off previous films–hardly any originality), and Attack the Block are rated higher than Interstellar, Prestige, Cloverfield, Signs, and even The Myst. And Prometheus and Predestination aren’t even listed. Anybody have any ideas why these journalists/writers/critics have a job?
They don’t
They still have a job because the big movie companys pay them to have an opinion..
No idea, I suppose they had to pick a handful of each genre within a genre. Perhaps….maybe? Or maybe they don’t know their arse from their elbow
The Force Awakens – LOL
Hunter Prey.
“his supremely controlled debut space oddity.”
I see what you did there. Nice played!
it only takes one spark of DC electricity to rotate a 100cm circumference pulley, then if you run this 100cm of belt through 10 mini-pulleys of 1cm circumference, and attached AC generators to it, you would get a return of 1000 units of AC electricity. This output should easily gain your one spark of DC electricity, that goes back into your DC drive motor. Torque is not a problem, as these AC generators are just winding up massive voltage, which is just what you need to crank over your DC motor the once. Of course you will need to include a full wave bridge rectifier to convert your AC output back into a DC supply for your drive motor.
THAT’S ONE SPARK OF DC TO GAIN YOU 1000 UNITS OF AC ELECTRICITY
it is really that simple = http://free-energy.yolasite.com/
I happen to be poor,(on CPP) + disabled, with shaky hands, so I cannot build anything. I was hoping that if I made the description simple enough, that someone else would build this GEM of an idea for me. I have had the website up since 2001 or 2002, yet I cannot get past the POWERFUL SPIRITUAL WARFARE going on here, ever since Ezekiel 1:16, where I confirmed this came from God. This came from his description of a UFO motor,,,,,,,,,,,,,, so who knows where this will lead. If the government does not cover it up, and sweep it under the rug
Jessica Kiang and Oliver Lyttelton….put away the thesaurus. You’re trying too hard. Calling you pretentious doesn’t quite cut it. Just summarize the movie. We don’t care about your deep feelings toward the director, or watching you be a tryhard.
I made a list of my eight favorite films from this list and I have to admit that “A Scanner Darkly” is far superior to any other Sci-Fi film made in this century. Of course this could just be the Substance D talking. Wait… who’s typing this?
No Terminator 2. Kidding me?
Putting Interstellar at number 32 is just, politely put, retarded you fucking imbecile.
Well, if that’s how you put things “politely”…
Yeah, I didn’t wish to insult the cunts who wrote this list. There’s definitely a lot of amazing movies, I just think they need to think more carefully about which ones deserve to be in the top 10. Of course it’s all down to opinion, so they aren’t, by definition, “wrong.”
because it shouldn’t be on the list to begin with? i completely agree.
I’ve not seen all of these films, but I agree with the Children of Men being right up there at the top. Some like Never Let Me Go is so depressing only one viewing is recommended. Another one mentioned that is almost equally depressing (but not on the list) is The Road; it has a very sad ending. I thought Interstellar should have been higher up in the rankings, but no big deal, it is on the list as a great movie. I enjoyed the Mist for the twisted ending! A must see for all sci-fi enthusiast is Battle Royale – I have to agree with Quinton tarentino on this one. It is something else!
Of those mentioned I have not seen, I would like to see the Moon. That sounds like a great movie…along with District Nine. I have not seen nearly all of these movies, but will try to one day.
Terrible list and it truly showcases just how horrific the cinematic output has been in the last decade.
World of Tomorrow by Don Hertzfeldt was deeply troubling and hilarious.
Personal Top Ten:
Arrival should totally make it into an updated version of this list.
I still struggle to see Fury Road as sci-fi tho.
Melancholia will be on my top 100 list somewhere, mostly it’s a list of “tops” because they can’t be ordered. If I remember the movie forever, it is tops along with the others I remember forever. I heard mixed reviews of Melancholia, but I found it to be incredibly realistic regarding human behavior, family behavior, social and domestic help behavior, tabloid behavior, all to a profound T. There were many psychological subtleties which could be discussed for many hours.
Some great underrated picks here especially, Primer, Under the skin ( weird, fantastic movie! ) and Midnight Special, a personal fave.
No BLADERUNNER!!! Seriously?!! So many of these movies WANT TO BE BLADERUNNER. They PAY HOMAGE TO BLADERUNNER! How is BLADERUNNER not #! if not in the top 10!?
Some of these are very good but the fact that you COMPLETELY ommitted Bladerunner makes this ENTIRE LIST worthless.
…Do you even know what “the 21st century” means?
Ever heard of a re-release? Duh. I got the Voight Conf edition for my Birthday
21st Century moron
Stargate, the movies and the TV shows together were great. They started out on a pretty low budget but they made the series pretty great. that’s my number one. alien/s series, Mission to Mars, Chronicles of Riddik, Book of Eli, well this one is kind of crazy but the movie Screamers. got a thing for space sci-fi.
Theres a lot of great films on the list,unfortunately its ruined by so many being in the wrong order…
#32 Interstellar – I understand why people were confused over 2001: Space Odyssey, but this one, Interstellar, was pretty clear. Sure, you had to watch more of it to understand what you just saw, so, like most good movies, you have to have the ability to pay attention and keep track of the puzzles you are working out with the narrative and action provided. I think people are losing this ability more and more with each decade.
The problem with this list is that it basically says: “The closer a sci-fi movie is to a slow, brooding, art-house drama, the better. The less sci-fi elements left in it, the better” Which seems to me the same thing as to say “I actually hate most of sci-fi”.
If brooding lo-fi indie drama, means about the same thing as pretentious to you, I agree.
Why is having tings to say means pretentious?
umm… did we read the same list?
Absolutely. In fact, if you read it, it’s in the text.
Out of top 10,
• three films (Eternal Sunshine, Upstream Color, Her) are said to be included for their exploration of “love story”. Compare that to only ONE top-10 movie about space (and we’re talking about science fiction!);
• Under The Skin (2) and Holy Motors (10) are surrealist art-house rather than sci-fi, and in case of the latter authors even admit it themselves;
• there’s only one popular “entertainment” movie (critical darling Fury Road), as if authors were avoiding to praise popular movies on purpose. Note that Avatar, by far the most popular sci-fi movie of the decade, is not even on the list.
The rest of the list is also dominated by the “festival films”, low-budget indie, art-house and horror, some of which are barely sci-fi at all. Meanwhile adaptations of classic sci-fi novels such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy, Predestination or Ender’s Game, are not on the list.
Overall, the list feels not like a sci-fi fan pick, but like an indie snob pick.
Absolutely. In fact, if you read it, it’s in the text.
Out of top 10:
– 3 films (Eternal Sunshine, Upstream Color, Her) are said to be included for their exploration of “love story”. Compare that to only one (!) top-10 movie about space (and we’re talking about science fiction!);
– Under The Skin (2) and Holy Motors (10) are surrealist art-house rather than sci-f. In case of latter authors even admit it themselves;
– roughly 7 qualify as “independent” and 9 as “drama”. And the authors constantly stress it when a movie is “endearingly lo-fy” “low-key cult”, etc;
– there’s only 1 popular “entertainment” movie (critical darling Fury Road), as if authors were avoiding popular movies on purpose. Note that Avatar, arguably the most influential sci-fi movie of the decade, is not even on the list. It looks like a “take that!” against mainstream audiences.
The rest of the list is also dominated by the “festival films”, low-budget indie, art-house and horror, some of which are barely sci-fi at all. Meanwhile many adaptations of classic sci-fi novels, such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy, Predestination or Ender’s Game, are not on the list.
Overall, the list feels not like a sci-fi fan pick, but like an indie snob pick.
The reason “Avitar” is not in this is because it wasn’t from the 21st century. It’s a remake of a movie called “Dances with Wolves” from 1990.
Yeah, I see your point.
Great that this list only praises original XXI century property, like Star Trek, Mad Max, Solaris, Planet of the Apes and Star Wars.
Don’t jornolists love to sneer at the unwashed masses?
Yes, as they fantasize they are not one of them Ha !
You almost had me convinced, and that’s saying something. As a print SF fan from waaaaaaay back, I don’t have much patience for what mainstream Hollywood calls “sci-fi”. But while I enthusiastically second your nomination of _Predestination_, I note that it qualifies as all the things you complain about: a lo-fi indie drama with a love story (albeit a rather twisted one). I’ll go you one better and add a vote for _2081_, based on a short story by one of SF’s biggest “indie snobs”: Kurt Vonnegut.
When you lost me completely, though, was at the mention of Garth Jennings’s lifeless reboot of _HHGttG_. However immortal the original — a radio serial, BTW, not the later novels — it’s a piece of shamelessly pandering nerd bait that deserves to be thrown on the same dungheap as _Avatar_ and everything Michael Bay has directed this millennium.
Although real SF is better understood by Hollywood than in the past, there is still a large gap of understanding between true “fen” and the mass-market audience which is Hollywood’s bread and butter. It is a disconnect which many still misinterpret as snobbery or purism, but which is in fact mere passionate defense of a genre which has struggled for decades to be taken seriously — first as literature, now as cinema and television.
Pfft. I can only hope that the 50 is just how they’re listed (or, did I miss something), because if they’re in some kind of an order… Jesus Christ
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Thus Spoke Alex “Ghost in the Shell the Movie fanboy” Gaginsky.
Do you mean the original anime, which is great, or Rupert Sanders remake, which is mediocre? No, I’m not a fanboy of either.
Anyway, thank you for reminding of another flaw in this list: absence of any anime. Paprika, The Girl that Leapt Through Time, Steamboy? Nope, let’s stick to indie dramas.
Paprika! Inception seems to be inspired by “Paprika”.
Under the Skin? Mad Max?, who ever made this horrible list doesn’t know sci fi
Oblivion??
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YES. Hell yes. phenomenal movie from start to finish.
Doesn’t qualify, released in 1996.
Oh, *that* _Oblivion_. Meh. _Moon_ covered the same territory better, not least by casting a better actor in the lead rôle.
I don’t understand why MadMax: Fury Road is in the top ten of every list of Sci-Fi/ Fantasy movies.. what’s so great about that movie is beyond my understanding. In fact, I coudn’t hate a movie more and i wouldn’t watch that movie for the 2nd time even if someone pays me for it! Worst movie ever. Period!!!
District 9 top 5 and missing scifi animation 9 in top ten.
Sorry….Inception is either 1 or 2.
Primer is one of the most overrated movies of all time.
This list is garbage.
Does this idiot even know what scifi is? Seriously? They sound like a contrarian dimwit getting uppity about how painfully disappointing it is that women don’t direct or produce movies. It’s funny, our budding feminist here seems to not notice that if you’re the right gender you are entitled to nearly 40,000x as many grants, they left that part out.
crawl back to the disgusting shitpile you came from, you redpill inbred halfwit.
lol film is so dead, with the exception of Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind, all of these films are garbage.
Someone created a list in which Ex Machina is considered a better sci-fi flick than Donnie Darko… with a straight face?
Risible.
crappy list+movies
Didnt have any of the terrific Sci-Fi horrors like Event Horizon and Pandorum or Promethius but included the dreary incredibly overated Eternal Sunshine of a spotless mind drivel and left out Equlibrium its a pretty pathetic list in my opinion.
I agree to an extent, but “Event Horizon” was from the 20th century.
Looper, as well, is horrible. Might’ve been an entertaining movie – but, how they present it to be and all that people feel they should say about it… Fail. Not to mention that the plot is STUPID (& it doesn’t even work in the film, to make things worse), heh.
EDIT: OMG and Timecrimes, wow. Some people…
Children Of Men is garbage.
What a crap list. There are maybe 5, or at best 10 movies on this list that actually deserve it. There are a few that where clever ideas but that alone should not put a movie on this list. This list is more the top 50 most pretentious Sci-Fi movies of the 21st century.
“Arrival” is criminally absent.
This is a digression on films but of course (!) there had to be politically charged invective about Brexit. We read reviews on films because we like films, not because we want to be pandered to or moralized to. Stop talking down to your readers. We’re not aimless children who need to be told what and how to think.
It’s funny how a list that was published before Arrival came out somehow doesn’t contain Arrival.
AVATAR???
Fan boy much…..
No AVATAR?
great list! i liked how you guys picked films based more on the content of the story rather than visual fx which is why i’m assuming Avatar didn’t make it. Was delighted to see Moon in the top 10.
“The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy“?
No Tomorrowland? Sound of My Voice or I Origins? Avatar?
Not even going to mention Predestination?
This is actually one of the more decent lists!
Good job, no list is perfect but you put some of the right ones in here for sure.
I agreed with children of men, but felt too many of these were… ok sci fi films.
‘Code 46’ (2003) by Michael Winterbottom.
What’s wrong with you..some of the movies in this list are very low in scifi and very high in drama..Especially the first two movies under the skin and children of men…These two are more in drama than in scifi..Based on your predictions I watched these two and was very disappointed because I thought these movies more like a scifi like that of some serious stuff only to found out that it was full of drama..damn you for wasting my time..
My God, that list was about as bad as such a list could imaginably be. Not having Interstellar where it should be (#1) or at least in the top ten???????? I guess the science in that one was beyond this author’s ability to comprehend. It is funny seeing a list comprised mostly of fantasy films that calls itself a sci-fi list. Meanwhile, numerous hard sci-fi films like Europa Report and the aforementioned Interstellar are either laughably low or left off altogether. SMGDH. I guess expecting otherwise was asking too much.
Wtf did this list?? No Prometheus? ?
Predestination deserves a spot here.
Zero Theorem, Turbo Kid, Iron Sky, Space Cop??? Remove all that horror crap from the list.
The writer of this list must not have seen “Predestination”.
The Fountain anybody?
Solaris is a little bit high here, also would have added Oblivion, Mr.Nobody, Arrival, Blade Runner 2047, The Tree of Life. Also would have considered Knowing.
Btw., just saw that there’s a Harrison Bergeron (2006) short… And I’m hoping everyone reading this has read the short story at some point already. =)
“Arrival” and “Mr Nobody”!