Entertainment Weekly's Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies/TV Shows of the Last 25 Years

Cafe Society
21

[QUOTE=Fiver]
The blatantly lesbian antics of the Intendant were schoolboy pandering, and don’t further your claim that Trek has seriously looked at homosexuality within its universe.
[/QUOTE]

But that isn’t my claim. And “schoolboy pandering”? Are you saying there’s no such thing as a highly sexual bi woman when no schoolboys are watching? Is it only pandering if they are? Anyway, my claim isn’t that they’ve seriously looked at it, but that they’ve glanced slightly in its direction for longer than almost anyone else.

22

So what does this list look like next year?
#3 Blade runner (1982)
#5 ST:Whath of Khan(1982)
#7 E.T. (1982)
#10 The Thing (1982)

4 of the top 10 fall off the list, to be replaced with what? Not with anything recent, as has already been discussed. (Unless it’s deserved)
What was #26-29 from the past 24 years?

23

For convenience, the list all together:

25: V the miniseries
24: Galaxy Quest
23: Doctor Who
22: Quantum Leap
21: Futurama
20: Clone Wars
19: Starship Troopers
18: Heroes
17: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
16: Total Recal
15: Firefly/Serenity
14: Children of Men
13: Terminator I and II
12: Back to the Future
11: Lost
10: The Thing
9: Aliens
8: Star Trek: The Next Generation
7: E. T.
6: Brazil
5: The Wrath of Khan
4: The X-Files
3: Blade Runner
2: Battlestar Galactica
1: The Matrix

As usual for lists like these, some absolutely idiotic decisions. Starship Troopers? When most of the folks who should have been the hardcore fans absolutely hate it, shouldn’t that maybe tell you something?

The Matrix was the epitome of the eye-candy movie, which arguably should have earned it a place in the list, but #1? For my #1 spot, I’d at least expect some philosophical depth to go with that eye-candy.

The Next Generation was only a shadow of how good Star Trek could be. It feels like they only included it to have a token Trek presence… But they already had Khan for that. The original addressed issues; Next Gen only pretended to (Slavery? That’s still an issue? Not).

And Back to the Future wasn’t a bad example of a sci-fi comedy, but I can’t imagine anyone who thinks that it rigidly adheres to all the best time-travel rules. Heck, Harry Potter has done better with the time-travel theme than Back to the Future ever could.

On the other side of the coin, I’m not surprised that 12 Monkeys didn’t make the list. That movie was seriously mismarketed, and few have discovered it. But it should have. You want a good time travel movie? I don’t think anyone has ever done it better.

And where the Zha’dum was Babylon 5? All those groundbreaking social issues they say Next Gen addressed, B5 actually did. Plus it had great action, effects, scripting, and acting, and brought the concept of a closed story arc to television.

And regardless of the choices made, some of the write-ups were ridiculously lazy. I’m sorry, but “the entire second half” doesn’t count as a “best bit”. If you can’t think of anything specific, either take it off the list, or turn it over to someone who can.

24

Oh, I also happen to think that Gattaca was a pretty darned good movie, at least compared to many on this list.

I admit I haven’t seen it in ten years, but I think it was a great attempt at a non-action sci-fi movie in recent years, despite some of its logical faults.

25

I see that abominable Verhoeven flick lissener likes, whose name I refuse to even type lest I seem to be associating it with the Dean’s work, is on the list.
I shall have my revenge.

26

No Farscape. Bah.

27

[QUOTE=Chronos]

And where the Zha’dum was Babylon 5? All those groundbreaking social issues they say Next Gen addressed, B5 actually did. Plus it had great action, effects, scripting, and acting, and brought the concept of a closed story arc to television.

[/QUOTE]

I’m starting to suspect that B5 is the Billy Joel of science fiction TV. The fans know it’s great, but the critics inexplicably hate it and it has a largely undeserved reputation for beeing cheesy and derivative.

28

[QUOTE=Alessan]
I’m starting to suspect that B5 is the Billy Joel of science fiction TV. The fans know it’s great, but the critics inexplicably hate it and it has a largely undeserved reputation for beeing cheesy and derivative.
[/QUOTE]

Alot of the critics probably grew up on Star trek TOS ,Blake7, Doctor Who and a host of other pre-80’s Scifi. B5 was the contender for the title enough that the Star Trek Franchise elevated DS9 to compete with B5.

Like a lot of rock bands , B5 is probably going to be listed as an influence for quite a while, and will probably outlive the critics.

Declan

29

hmmm…Star Wars???

30

[QUOTE=Devorzhum]
hmmm…Star Wars???
[/QUOTE]
If you’re referring to the oriiginal, that was made 30 years. If you’re referring to the recent ones, see below.

The Matrix definitely is #1 from that list. After the travesties of #2 & #3, it’s easy to forget how mindlblowing that movie was when we all first saw it. It is easily the most influential movie from that list.

Hardly any of you have ANY RIGHT to complain about this list at all. The attack of the clones has done its part in keeping Episodes 1 - 3 off the list. You should all give yourselves a big ol’ pat on the back. The internet cry babies won. Unless I’m missing some kind of odd criteria for selection to this list, it’s ridiculous that at least one of these aren’t on the list. Bumped by Heroes? Get off it.

Great inclusion of Back to the Future. Still a completely entertaining movie.

Lastly, Starship Troopers should be higher.

31

Yeah, ST:TNG deserves to be there and STII:TWOK does too, but …

I don’t think the people doing the voting really kept up what was popular in Sci-Fi TV. Because DS-9 and the non-trek B5 ended up being extremely popular, bringing soap opera story arc-ness to Sci-Fi TV. In fact, judging by message boards I’ve seen, including this one, those two shows were more liked by internet people than TNG was. Maybe that’s because of coincidental timing, airing as the internet was taking off as opposed to TNG predating the web explosion, but leaving them out seems wrong. Esp when compared to some other things that were included.

As for Arnold, the Terminator series needs to be his solo appearance in this list.
As for #1, I would have made it a huge tie. yeah, the Matrix stuff really influenced the industry and watchers, but was it #1? How about the Aliens action sequence taking up nearly the whole back half of the movie? Or the pessimism of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Blade Runner permeating the consciousness of Sci-Fi?

Some of the other choices, Heroes, Clone Wars, Children of Men, etc … show the problem many lists such as this have, namely, a bias towards the newest. Someone needs to ask real Sci-Fi fans what WE think, instead of trying to tell us what THEY think we think.

32

[QUOTE=NoClueBoy]
Some of the other choices, Heroes, Clone Wars, Children of Men, etc … show the problem many lists such as this have, namely, a bias towards the newest. Someone needs to ask real Sci-Fi fans what WE think, instead of trying to tell us what THEY think we think.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, get over yourself.

Clone Wars is on there, but not Revenge of the Sith. This list is straight outta the bi-mon-sci-fi-con.

33

[QUOTE=Trunk]
Oh, get over yourself.

.
[/QUOTE]

No

34

[QUOTE=Chronos]
For convenience, the list all together:

[/QUOTE]

Thank you. I refuse to put up with those page-through-one-entry-at-a-time “lists.” I really just wanted to see how high Babylon 5 placed. Buncha dumb bastards.

35

[QUOTE=Trunk]

Hardly any of you have ANY RIGHT to complain about this list at all.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, come on! I thought the point of these lists was to complain about them! :wink:

And, I agree that Back To The Future belongs there. An oft-forgoten movie in the genre.

36

[QUOTE=Eonwe]
Oh, come on! I thought the point of these lists was to complain about them! :wink:

[/QUOTE]

And as with many topics in Cafe Society, our posts are generally very much IMHO and YMMV. It’s the nature of the beast.*

  • IMHO, YMMV :cool:
37

[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus]
12 Monkeys
Dark City
A.I.

These should be on the list instead of Starship Troopers, Quantum Leap, and Heroes
[/QUOTE]

Agreed on Dark City, to be sure. Sci-fi Noir is a delicious subgenre. I’d similarly want to include Minority Report, albeit low on the list. Possibly replacing Starship Troopers (which I enjoy as an absurd guilty pleasure, but not as good sci-fi). Minority Report was definitely a popcorn flick, but it had some meat stuck to its bones, with a story about redemption, pseudo-Christian overtones, clever reworking of Dick’s original story (the whole “Anderton kills a General” of the short story seems pretty inferior to me), and that whole last half hour or so that may or may not just be imagined by Cruise’s character while he’s in the detention stasis.

One more TV series that I’d love to see on there, as a fun exercise in alternate history with a really compelling story line (and with the big break for sci-fi femme fatale Jeri Ryan), is Dark Skies, which unfortunately is obscure enough that it does not yet have a DVD release (I hear one is planned for this fall, though).

38

[QUOTE=RikWriter]
Including Starship Troopers was a huge travesty.
[/QUOTE]

If by “huge travesty” you mean awesome sandwich then you are correct.

39

[QUOTE=Potato Pancakes]
If by “huge travesty” you mean awesome sandwich then you are correct.
[/QUOTE]

Sort of.

[QUOTE=Marty DiBergi]
The review for “Shark Sandwich” was merely a two word review which simply read “Shit Sandwich”.
[/QUOTE]

40

12 Monkeys TOTALLY shoulda been on the list. And did I miss something, or did they exclude Alien in favor of Aliens? Those movies should have shared a spot.

Whoever hates Back to the Future is no friend of mine. Or maybe was watching it while being beaten.

The one that would absolutely be top five for me is Jurassic Park. It and Terminator 2 were the early-90s fenceposts from which all future special effects were hung. (weak metaphor but you know what I mean) For my money, JP was Spielberg at the top of his game.