# Best SF Film you have seen **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 13, 2018, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514 "2018-08-13T14:00:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Batano](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@Batano](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batano)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514/61 "2018-08-15T01:33:47Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Like the science is any better in many, if not almost all, of the films mentioned? At least 2001, The Martian, Gravity, Moon, Close Encounters, and Ex Machina tried. The Black Mirror series is another attempt to look at the implications of science and technology. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514/62 "2018-08-15T01:35:24Z")
But not outstanding enough to be nominated before K-Pax. 😉 The blight was ill-thought out. The fact the yahoos had plenty of gasoline for their trucks, even though much of mankind had died, was silly. The idea that the best solution would be a self-contained space station was bonkers (especially one created in a world where children were taught that science was verboten). The “love is the most powerful force” musings of Ms. Hathaway was banal and cliched. And on, and on, and on. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514/63 "2018-08-15T02:02:29Z")
At the risk of being redundant, my top five, in order: \*2001: A Space Odyssey Forbidden Planet Inception\* (the best Philip K. Dick story that he never wrote) _War of the Worlds_ (the 1953 version; not to diss Spielberg’s effort) _Aliens_ Anyone who ever gets around to lensing a decent version one of Ian M. Banks’ Culture novels will have a good shot at getting my vote. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2018, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514/64 "2018-08-24T23:35:28Z")
Time Travel: Terminator I (perfect loop; the rest should not have been made) Humanized Tech: Blade Runner (what does it mean to be Human?) Inside the Brain: Inception ("…or am I a butterfly dreaming I’m a man?") or Total Recall (what is memory/dream) Earth’s Humanity’s Future: Serenity, with or without \*FireFly \*behind it. (though not very optimistic about authority’s behaviors) Visitor(s) from Space: Close Encounters of the Third Kind and/or E.T. (though – well, see above) Life Beyond Earth: Planet of the Apes ? 🙂 Dune ? 🙂 Perhaps Avatar (even though it was _Ferngully in Space_). Parallel Dimensions: The One (no, it was BAD; I only watched it because it’s a Jet Li martial arts flick). –G! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514/65 "2018-08-25T01:45:05Z")
I think _They Live_ is the best Philip K. Dick movie that didn’t actually come from anything by Philip K. Dick. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514/66 "2018-08-25T01:48:36Z")
> [@Uniqueorn](#): > > I really like the Fifth Element. While there are fantasy and comedy elements galore, the fact that the little, daily things have been given a thought, make the film special (long cigarette filters, fast microwave ovens, etc.) > [@Chronos](#): > > … _The Fifth Element_ was not a good movie, but what it was was an extremely fun movie. It hit that very fine target, impossible to aim for if you try, where everyone involved _knew_ that it was bad, but didn’t care, and camped it up. I like it precisely for the reasons the **Uniqueorn** mentions. Things like the layout of his dwelling, the way police can check on the inside of the dwelling without opening the door, the way traffic was handled, things like that. To add to **Dropo** ’s list of monster movies, one that is rarely mentioned but that I like is _The Monolith Monsters_. Just alien rocks, that grow hugely tall and then fall over, shatter and the pieces start growing again, all based on contact with water (sort of the reverse of _Day of the Triffids_) and no discernible intelligence. People either get crushed or turned into stone. I don’t remember how the people won this one, it was something clever I think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-sf-film-you-have-seen/819514.md?page=3)