Top 10 Sci-Fi movies
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- Charlie Flake’s version
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By Charlie Flake
If you are like me, the word science does not conjure good memories (Bunsen burners and big plastic glasses?), but when you look at how the Sci-Fi genre has been portrayed in films, you realise just how interesting and diverse the subject really is.
×E.T (1982)
Need I say more? This was the first Sci-Fi film I remember that did not force me under my bed covers and instead sent me exploring my garage as a child. The warm hearted alien encounter directed by Steven Spielberg explores the possibilities that the Extra Terrestrial could actually be welcoming and friendly creatures rather than a danger to us Earthlings. E.T was the best film of the 80s and arguably the best Sci-Fi film of all time.
×Apollo 13 (1995)
Based on fact, this heart rendering movie starring Tom Hanks should be congratulated just because it received such success at the Box Office even though most people knew the ending. It was the explorers inside us who wanted to get a taste of what it is really like in space that welcomed this movie with open arms due to its realism and lack of aliens. Many argue that because it is fact based, it’s not fiction, but in my opinion, there’s no better way to quench my thirst for wanting to know what’s out there than something closely related to the truth.
×Terminator (1984)
Nobody plays an evil robot better than Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is why the first of the four made to date is the best of the bunch. To be honest, I never knew, and still don’t know what the hell is going through half of it, but director James Cameron created an excellent movie on a tiny budget. Basically it’s all about saving the future but the Terminator visits the past to stop Sarah Conner from doing just that – I think. Still brilliant though.
×Jurassic Park (1993)
Again, it was the first of these series of movies that gets top marks. Based on Michael Crichton's novel about an island amusement park populated by cloned dinosaurs, the special effects enable us to really see these creatures in the flesh for the first time. You don’t have to think too much about the characters either, just the man-eating, flesh ripping monsters that Steven Spielberg created to make a thrilling adventure story. Its success is evident in the amount of times its repeated on terrestrial TV – at least weekly!
×Independence Day (1996)
Personally, anything with Will Smith in baring his muscular arms is a hit in my eyes, but to be fair, the modern day hostile alien invasion movie is one that everyone has in their DVD collection. Hugely cliché and obvious, Independence Day still includes all the ingredients for global success – heroism, disaster, patriotism, some off-beat humour, guns, corrupt CIA officials, stereotypes and romance. On a serious note, it touches on the effects of terrorism and on a lighter note, it provides the perfect family escapism.
×Avatar (2009)
James Cameron’s Avatar propels us into a future that relates so closely to current global affairs that you almost believe it could happen. Earth has run out of natural resources and a venture into space discovers Pandora, an exotic world of minerals, but already inhabited by Smurf-like creatures. It turns into a ruthless quest to destroy their world to save ours. Rumoured to cost in the region of £300m to make and featuring some of the most advanced cinematic and 3D technology the world has ever seen, there’s no way Avatar was not going to make the list. I was slightly apprehensive when I went to see it, mainly because of how hyped up it was prior to release, but I wasn’t disappointed.
×Armageddon (1998)
This is one film that I will watch over and over again and love it more each time. It’s funny in that the team of deep core drillers employed by NASA are wonderfully weird; it’s romantic in that Ben Affleck and Liv Tyler are in love; it’s heroic in that Bruce Willis gives up his life for his daughter’s happiness and to save the world; it’s dramatic in that lives are lost and saved and it’s great, because its so glossed over that it makes the greatest Sci-Fi film for girls!
×The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
The beauty of Sci-Fi films like this is that by taking global issues such as climate change to extreme levels and personifying it with characters results in excellent viewing. Environmental doom descends upon the world and climatologist Dennis Quaid tries to warn an ignorant government before setting out on a trek across America to save his son (Jake Gyllenhaal) from the next ice age. Perfected with awesome special effects, this disaster movie is great, even if the causes of global warming aren’t addressed.
×Predator
This thriller combines the Sci-Fi and slasher genre to make an intense blood fest with the one and only Arnie as the hero. No sequel or remake is a patch on the first which is action packed with fighting, goriness and terror. Being hunted by anything is scary in itself, but when you have an immortal and invisible killing machine on your tail, you get an ultraviolent and highly tense movie that will have you riveted to your seat.
×Minority Report (2002)
If you are an avid movie-goer than Minority Report not only offers a complex story line and lots of dialogue to follow, but also plenty of high paced action. Starring Tom Cruise and another of Spielberg’s successes, the movie is a futuristic detective epic where clues to crimes are seen before they happen but when an officer is framed for something he didn’t commit, he strives to prove the technology wrong. The reason I like it so much, is it is not based on unrealistic or outlandish ideas – this could really be the future!
