What is the best SF film?

[Elliot Kane]

There have been a ton of SF films over the years, but let's face it most of them just are not very good and a lot more are totally over-rated. So - what do you think is the best ever SF film?

I've missed a ton off the list, obviously, but I think I got most of the main suspects. I await the inevitable disagreement with interest... ;D

Thanks to Hec for inspiring this one

[Alrik]

I voted for Galaxy Quest, was fun.

[killerzzz]

Starship Troopers, totally. ;D I LOVED that movie.

Galaxy Quest might be a close runner-up for me. It was indeed hilarious. ;D

For the sake of voting from the list, I'm gonna pretend Star Wars and The Matrix don't exist.

Killerzzz

[Elliot Kane]

...OK, yeah, I forgot Star wars... Different shelf! ;D Matrix, too! Oops? ;D

As far as the SW films are concerned, it'd have been ESB anyway. FAR the best of the SW films.

[hector]

Star Wars isn't science-fiction.

And I don't think I have ever seen Timecop or Demolition Man in a best of anything list before.

[Elliot Kane]

While Star Wars is primarily a fairy tale, it's also SF. Why would you say otherwise, Hec?

[hector]

Because it isn't. Lightsabers and spaceships doesn't make science fiction. I suppose you could strip away every single characteristic that defines Science Fiction to shoehorn Star Wars in that category, but that doesn't make it fit that well at all. A lot of people have tried to find the 'science' in Star Wars (even Astrophysics Doctorates) but that doesn't mean there is really there at all. Maybe in some of the books, but the movies? Not at all.

Also, Battlestar Galactica was/is a TV show.

[Galadriel]

Demolition Man!!! No doubt! I loved Wesley Snipes as the evil character and Sandra Bullock played very well too. And we still don't know how to use those damn *ticket* sea shells ;D

[Elliot Kane]

I could have sworn Battlestar Galactica started with a film, same as Buck Rogers did. IMDB says you're right though, Hec.

On Star Wars: 'Hard' SF requires a scientific base, yes, but most SF is 'Soft' SF - which is to say that technology is more or less taking the place of magic in the story. It's enough for a thing to have space ships & ray guns for it to be considered SF, really.

[hector]

galadriel said:

And we still don't know how to use those damn *ticket* sea shells ;D

Now you do

[hector]

admin said:

I could have sworn Battlestar Galactica started with a film, same as Buck Rogers did. IMDB says you're right though, Hec.

The pilot was released in Europe and Canada (I think) as a feature film before the series premiered there.

On Star Wars: 'Hard' SF requires a scientific base, yes, but most SF is 'Soft' SF - which is to say that technology is more or less taking the place of magic in the story. It's enough for a thing to have space ships & ray guns for it to be considered SF, really.

But it's not even soft. You have to create an even 'softer' category of Science Fiction to put Star Wars in it.

Or you could just say it's Fantasy, like it is.

[Elliot Kane]

Aha! That's why I remember BG as a film!

Star Wars - attempts to be SF. Most people would say it was. I prefer to call it a fairytale with SF trappings, which is closer to the truth. It's 'Fantasy' in the same way as Rapunzel or Snow White.

[Galadriel]

hector said:

galadriel said:

And we still don't know how to use those damn *ticket* sea shells ;D

Now you do

Thx Hec!! I'm sooo happy that I finally know this
Can you imagine if you got diarrhea if you need to scrape that much ;D

[Alrik]

I agree to Hector in some parts, with the remark that the book "Splinter of the Mind's Eye" probably cauht the "fairy-tale aspect" of Star Wars most, imho.

Since the time around the Millennium, authors of Star Wars Novels have begun to imho

- (more and more) destroy the SW universe I knew and loved

- shifted it more and ore towards Sci-Fi, letting the "fairy-tale aspect" totally fall down and out.

That's why I haven't read SW novels for several years anymore (except the Republic Commando novel "Hard Contact").

A different thread touching this from a quite different perspective is this one:
forums.starwars.com/thread.jspa?threadID=263641&tstart=0