The other night a new acquaintance mentioned that there are no good recent sci-fi movies. Nobody came up with a good counterexample, so we talked about a few of the classics from 20-40 years ago.
Well, here’s your chance to prove him wrong. What good sci-fi movies have been produced in the last 10 years or so?
Edge of Tomorrow is still in theaters.
YMMV but I liked War of the Worlds.
Also, the first Star Trek movie. I didn’t like Into Darkness, but a lot of people did.
Serenity was an awesome movie, particularly if you were a Firefly fan. I can watch it any time.
Avatar is seen by many as a good movie. I’m not one of them, but there you go.
District 9 was a very good flick.
Inception was very good.
And there is also the current release Edge of Tomorrow which is simultaneously intelligent and action packed with great SFX.
You and your friends didn’t try very hard.
I thought Moon (2009) was pretty good.
Children of Men, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. An outstanding film, not only from the storytelling point of view, but the direction is superb.
Gravity was the greatest movie of 2013. Just my opinion, but it was.
Moon is also very good.
Agree with Gravity and Moon, and I’ll add Europa Report.
I was surprised at how much I liked Ender’s Game, despite it being a kid’s movie.
I thought Oblivion was pretty good, and Tom Cruise, who usually annoys me, was pretty good in it.
Oblivion had a lot of things going for it, they filmed most of it in Iceland and it was beautiful. The bubbleship was cool as hell, and I really want to live in that sky tower thing.
The plot was interesting, and I only had one minor issue with it, but since I can’t get that spoiler thing to work, I’ll leave it alone.
Well heck, I forgot all about Gravity.
I forgot about Avatar too. I liked it a lot, but I doubt it would have made the cut from the others at the table.
Thanks for all the suggestions; keep 'em coming! Also, please point out any of them you consider great rather than merely good.
Quote my reply to see how:
just enclose in spoiler brackets like this
I’ve always thought that Minority Report and I Robot were excellent films. Does Gravity count as science fiction? I’m not sure if there has ever been a truly great science fiction film.
There’s one unusually specific recent SF genre - time travel romantic comedies featuring Rachel McAdams: About Time, Midnight in Paris, The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Looper was excellent, and its concept of time travel was very well done (though, admittedly, there’s a plot hole at the end).
There’s also Safety Not Guaranteed, which is cute and quirky.
Beasts of the Southern Wild is a terrific film, though it can be debated if it’s science fiction.
John Carter was much better than its reputation. It’s flawed, and the title sucks. It does help if you read A Princess of Mars (on Project Gutenberg) first, though.
Overall, though the best are Children of Men and District 9.
I’ll agree with
Moon
John Carter
District 9
Gravity (from what I’ve heard)
and add
**Source Code
** and especially**
Cloud Atlas**
Thanks!
What bugged me about Oblivion:
The way they handled the reveal with the scavengers was cheating, at first they make them appear non humanoid, the first few glimpses of them, they looked like six legged creatures, and then all of a sudden they are humans.
Otherwise, great movie. The score and soundtrack were also really good, and the closing song, by M83, and the closing credits sequence was spectacular.
Like I said before, they filmed in Iceland, and the way they blended CGI was awesome.
Here are a bunch of science fiction films that many people liked that were released between 2004 and 2014:
District 9
Avatar
Inception
Wall-E
V for Vendetta
Her
Gravity
Star Trek
Moon
Serenity
Children of Men
Star Trek into Darkness
Safety Not Guaranteed
Slither
Sleep Dealer
The Host
Snowpiercer
Primer
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Pitch Black
War of the Worlds
Prometheus
A Scanner Darkly
Edge of Tomorrow
Sunshine
For a period of ten and a half years, this is all right. Ask your friend to name a period of the same length with significantly better science fiction films. Don’t let him cheat by comparing the past ten and a half years with some period of twenty years or whatever. Nobody claims that all the science fiction movies of the past decade are all utter classics, but they compare respectfully with the science fiction movies of any equal period.
Add Looper, Oblivion, John Carter, and Source Code to my list.
Amazing somewhat recent sci-if:
Edge of Tomorrow
Moon
District 9
Children of Men
Her
Gravity
Flawed but still interesting:
Under the Skin
Inception
Sunshine
Donnie Darko
I still haven’t seen Looper, Primer, the South Korean “The Host” or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
I liked Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Looper was pretty cool and I did like how they had a little fun with the time travel concept.
It is worth watching for how it makes you think of the concept of time travel.