It has to be Independence Day. Super corny and patriotic but boy I loved it. Still watch it.
And yes I know Blade runner and the likes are cult classics but still Jeeze it was fun.
And did you get the connection in Prometheus which I loved and the replicants of Blade runner. I heard a follow up making the connection is in the offing.
Oh and yes the first Star Wars knocked my socks off.
Moon was a pretty good recent one.
Starship troopers, awesome.
The Abyss, Terminator 2, Pitch Black, Galaxy Quest, Matrix, 5th Element, Event Horizon.
[edit] Cant forget Day of the Triffids. Sooo scared of triffids when I was a kid.
I remember seeing 2001 Space Odessy when it came out and I was 19. People were coming out of the theatre going WTF. But I got it ,I think.
Sitting watching Battle Los Angeles and it's pretty good.
Went and saw G.I. Joe Retaliation in 3d 2 days ago
loved it....
lot of BIG guns and I actually liked Bruce Willis in this one ( don't like him in other movies
)
Transformers, Firefly, Avengers or pretty much all the marvel movies. Will watch any Sci-fi so to many to list.
2001.
My dad took me when I was just 7 (!) He thought I'd like the space ships, but it melted my tiny mind. It's stayed with me ever since and I love it to this day.
Oh, and it is a masterpiece of film making too.
Battleship was good. Just saw The new GI Joe this week and it had great special effects and seeing it in 3D was good fun.
Apollo Moon landing on TV was quite convincing,
only rivaled by Orson Welles Martian invasion radio transmittance( with the difference that the second hoax was discovered in the matter of days, legacy of the first last till nowadays
)
Worst would be Battlefield Earth. Voted at the 2010 Razzies as the worst film of the decade 
^^^ agreed. Awful. The book was just as bad, I read it because I was interested to see if L Ron was as good at writing Sci-Fi as he was at creating awful cults. The answer is NO. It was just simplistic yankee-patriotic tripe, Johnny the all american hero defeats the aliens singlehandedly while winning the girl, saving the earth, etc.
I have never watched a Travolta or Cruise movie since then. Stupid scientologists.
FWIW: Just saw Oblivion with the wife and 15yo son. We all really liked it - something different and not what you expect... 8.5/10
You are all wrong, wrong, wrong.
For special effects, suspense, drama, storyline, cast and director it can only be Spaceballs.
It's the first DVD I bought and even now when installing wheelhouse instruments I label them Mr. Radar.......,also has the greatest evil bad guy of all time[}:)].
Star Wars IV - A new hope
Star Wars V - Empire strikes back
Close encounters of the third kind
Predator
Alien(s)
original Total Recall
"solaris".
i didn't watch the movie though, because i can't stand clooney, but its the best of sci fi novels i ever read. (second would be "the sirens of titan").
its about an alien planet. there is nothing there but an ocean.
and the ocean actually is the alien. it plays some bizarre tricks on the space station crew's minds.
^ Hey man, pull your head in. I'm pretty sure Sci-Fi is all about special effects and futuristic looking computer interfaces and sexy chicks in sexy outfits and awesome weapons systems and flying cars and just saving the world with seconds to spare. And explosions. In space.
What you're talking about sounds like actual science imagined into the future interwoven into proper storytelling. I don't know what that's called these days. Probably something like "not profitable".
(you'll like/already know this short story: http://filer.case.edu/dts8/thelastq.htm)
Prometheus was the best sci-fi of late, except that the science sucked and the fiction was dreadful. (that said the overarching idea was excellent)
P.S. NO it was really that bad I've come back for more. The list of dreadful science and fiction is just enormous for that movie. The ones that really stand out are of course the biologist's reaction to a fossilised body, he freaks out, but then not 15 minutes later he's all cute and cuddly with a giant snake-like creature that is obviously in a very hostile threat posture. A biologist. And this being the first meeting with an alien species, setup with what is apparently limitless funding, they pick the biggest bunch of dimwits they could find? I mean, these guys are just plain stupid. The guy who gets lost while his 'pups' are making the map, and have already mapped the way they came, gets lost and then decides this is a good time to get stoned. WTF? And then the other guy gets infected by some alien sludge and deciders to keep it a secret. And then one comes back as a zombie. This is terrible, terrible fiction because the characters are so incredibly unbelievable all I can see is actors spouting bad lines. Not only did it take me out of the illusion it made me groan in embarrassment every five minutes. Besides that why are they there at all based on a handful of 'star maps' in caves anyway? As if that's some kind of evidence of anything.
As for the science. They got there faster than light. That surgery machine stitched her up like it was 1970. Stars move over time and yet the maps in the caves were all the same. They took their ****ing helmets off. What were the maggots, anyone? The scientists kept wandering around opening everything and exposing it to the atmosphere. They took their helmets off. They had a map that even indicated where other life forms were, but they couldn't direct them out of the cave the same way they came in? They took their ****ing helmets off! The architect at the beginning kinda exploded, apparently in some attempt to convey he was seeding a planet with life, but that's not at all how DNA works. And so on...
...oh yeah. When landing on an alien planet and upon discovering an alien construction the crew was all annoyed and perhaps bored and a bit all pissed off with attitude. WTF?
...oh yeah, they took their helmets off. Biologists. Cream-of-the-crop hand picked team to meet aliens first time; yep, let's take our helmets of and breathe. WTF?
...Oh yeah. Protagonist gets an abortion, is stitched up with staples, and then goes running and jumping around the place for the next 20 minutes exhibiting feats of extreme human endurance. And doesn't even bother mentioning "hey, I just had an horrific experience. Help." Nup, just brush it off.
I dunno, there's just simply too much to laugh at. You can go on for hours it was that bad,. It's like it was written by 12 year olds. I hope they get decent writers for the next one.
/coffee.
If you're looking for good sf you're going to have to read
Good sci-fi movies or series are so few and far between. 14 years since The Matrix came out!! Any time they seem to get a reasonable series going it get's cancelled so that we can have more glee and 3 hour american idol time slots. Why bother taking the risk on a sci-fi when they can just knock out another 20 rom-coms a year and the sad saps will keep coming back for more. That way you don't even have to write a new script.
A few books I've tried recently:
James S.A. Corey - Leviathan Wakes, nothing too deep but action packed and good entertainment.
Neal Stephenson - Anathem
- The Diamond Age
- Cryptonomicon
Great writing and some very different ideas.
Or go back to the classics like DUNE and Red Mars.
Otherwise try Iain. M. Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Orson Scott Card, Dan Simmons.
ha ended up being a major thread hi-jack.
Definitely like District 9, Matrix and Minority Report for the very different/original concepts in them. Especially the Matrix.
Many of the ones talked about above are about people running from an alien, or a "thing" or trapped by a "thing" etc etc. In that sense they are copies of 2001 or Alien
Many are just a slasher/screamo horror movie but with tech/science undercurrent.
To add one to the list, The Island was good
Tron and Dune take me back - they really messed with my head as a kid. Spaceballs would have to be the best all-star-cast low budget scifi sp00f.
Starship Troopers has all bases covered (action/adventure/nudity) and ridiculous story line.
