Board 8 > Gauntlet Crew Ranks Science Fiction Films I

(+) Yeah! (+)

Every night as a young child, my father would tuck me into bed while regaling me with the tales of Isaac Asimov and Larry Niven. He retold these stories of grand empires and spaceships, aliens and supernovas, cultures facing major tipping points in their lifespans. For me, science fiction was bred into me at a young age, and I marveled at the worlds that could be. As an adult, I look for science fiction to ask questions that could bog down modern society. Science fiction at its best explores the issues of the next decade and the next century. It shapes our understanding of what may be to come, and it reframes the problems of now in a petri dish where asking the question isn't met with hostility.

For nearly 100 years, filmmakers have taken to the genre of science fiction and consequently it has evolved yearly, shaping both filmgoers and filmmakers alike. Whether the outlook is bright and bleak, science fiction serves as the prognosticator for our hopes and our fears in a way that no other genre can really embody.

Starting today, Gauntlet Crew will rank 40 science fiction films on the first of what will eventually be multiple science fiction film lists. This particular list brings a snapshot of science fiction from across history, starting with films from 1925 and reaching all the way until today. Here's a list of the films we watched together, in chronological order:

Metropolis
The Day The Earth Stood Still
When Worlds Collide
Forbidden Planet
Fantastic Voyage
Barbarella
2001: A Space Odyssey
Planet of the Apes
Westworld
Soylent Green
Logan's Run
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Alien
Outland
Blade Runner (Watch 2007 version if possible)
The Terminator
Back to the Future
Aliens
RoboCop
They Live!
Total Recall
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
12 Monkeys
Independence Day
Gattaca
The Fifth Element
Men in Black
Dark City
The Matrix
Donnie Darko
Equilibrium
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Sunshine
District 9
Moon
Attack the Block
Gravity
Interstellar
Edge of Tomorrow
Ex Machina

The participants included:
charon
Genny
Inviso
Johnbobb
JONA
Karo
KBM
Scarlet
Snake
Stifled
Wickle

I hope you stick around to hear our thoughts and share your own as we travel through science fiction history together.
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For you gauntleteers, here are the traditional cumulative points for each film unattached to the names of their respective movies:

97
119
125
134
148
155
155
156
162
164
172
176
177
179
182
182
203
203
207
208
224
226
228
237
241
257
257
267
277
278
282
292
292
296
301
305
337
359
383
387

For those of you keeping track, that's 5 ties on the list, which might be a record.
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This is gonna be good!
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Hype
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oh boy
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Only 1 film kept it under 100, huh?
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tag
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For those of you keeping track at home, there are 40 movies.

There were 10 different #1 picks.
35 out of 40 movies were ranked in a Top 10.
38 out of 40 movies were ranked in a Top 20.
Every movie was ranked in a Bottom 20.
33 out of 40 movies were ranked in the Bottom 10.
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God DAMN. This was a really good list if those requirements were met.
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Inviso posted...

God DAMN. This was a really good list if those requirements were met.

Nah, some of you are just bad.
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I'm gonna predict...Back to the Future is our winner.
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I'll guess Judgment Day
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its a little too early to be guessing the winner imo
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The average placement of number one is 8th.
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Tag
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I'm guessing the most polarizing will be 2001. When I did a rate the movies series there were lots of 10/10 and lots of 2s and 3s. Of course that topic was like 10 years ago (!)
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I will give one more hint based off of that last post:

We had a #1 that was also a #39.
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Hm
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Could definitely by my number 39.

But it could also be my number 1.
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I definitely won't be involved in that scenario, I wouldn't think at least.
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I can't imagine I would be either.

Hyped!

I can imagine I would be
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PrinceKaro posted...

I can imagine I would be

This sounds about right I bet.
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I will add however that this was, overall, the most quality list we've done. But that's simply because unlike all the other lists we do, this one isn't dictated simply by what a specific company releases. With that sort of setup, it's easy to have some bad films slip into the mix (usually in great number) because no company has a flawless track record, even one like Disney. Of all 40 films on this list, I'd consider really only maybe 4 of them actually rather "bad" from my viewpoint.
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There is really only one irredeemably bad movie on the list, there are movies that are boring, sexist, unoriginal, have aged poorly, and even one I have moral objections to.

But only one was like the movie-watching equivalent of having a root canal.
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Yeah I agree this was a really good list. I enjoyed 35/40, disliked two, and hated three.
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Hint for #40: This film received no last places votes.
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Ew...
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Inviso posted...

Ew...

Gross
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My gut reaction from the beginning told me the oldest would go first, regardless of quality. So Ill guess Metropolis.
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This looks fun

Tag
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Tag

I'm gonna guess...Forbidden Planet.
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Inviso posted...

I'm gonna guess...Forbidden Planet.

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I will throw a guess to When Worlds Collide
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I still maintain my guess from long ago that When Worlds Collide would be last place
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I'm gonna guess They Live! Seems like the type of movie that would irritate a lot of people in this crowd but it doesn't have glaring flaws that would make it be last.

Also tag.
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this is obviously back to the future

come on guys
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getcha ass to mahs
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#40 - When Worlds Collide (1951)
JONA - 24
Inviso - 27
Wickle - 34
Johnbobb- 35
Karo - 37
Stifled - 37
Charon - 38
Snake - 38
Genny - 39
KBM - 39
Scarlet - 39

Total: 387

"The movie has a neat premise and its intriguing to see how humanity can react to this hypothetical situation, with both good and bad intentions and both of those intentions being understandable because of the desperate situation. Its cool to see the different ideas and plans for reacting to the rogue star. The love triangle in the movie somehow felt both out of place and like it fit right in. The special effects were also pretty neat. While its not the most exciting movie, it has a good amount of intrigue due to the focus on humanity rather than the sci-fi event itself." ~JONA

"Id never heard of this film before this project, so when it came time to watch it, I didnt really have any expectation whatsoever. And yet, it continues the streak of strong films on this list. Its still weaker than the other two Ive watched (or else it would probably be more famous), but this one was fun to watch. As someone who has grown up with tons of modern sci-fi movies, the trope of world-ending disaster is a common one, but usually the solution involves firing a ragtag group of heroes into space to blow up the asteroid/meteorite/sun. In this case, theres no saving the Earth. Its just saving a small handful of people from destruction. Which makes the stakes that much more interesting. The human element means dealing with how different people react to the situation, from the scummy, wheelchair-bound millionaire, to the selfless pilot, right up until the hundreds of laborers realize theyd rather escape than escape the fickle finger of fate, and try to attack the escaping rocket. Its interesting, and feels relatively unique, so I enjoyed it." ~Inviso

"So they are basically starting creationism on a new planet, with more knowledge of technology. This would have been what it looked like if we had no time to prepare for the end of the world and just had to guess, we do not really have to guess anymore, but it would be nice if we do find a new planet to colonize. It would be nice to see that happen in our lifetime. Anyway, as with some old movies, eventually it is tough to see what matters in the characters and it is such a short movie with a fairly big cast you basically see a name and a face and then they disappear, only maybe to be recognized again." ~Wickle

"I'll give credit where it's due for having impressive world-destruction effects for a 50s movie, but there's not a ton more I can give it. It certainly wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly fun or even intriguing to watch. The dialogue was solid but the underlying plot was predictable and left me without strong feelings for any of the characters. " ~Johnbobb
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"Astronomers suddenly discover that another star is on a collision course with our solar system, and even more surprising, it is not immediately blamed on the Soviet Union.
The people of the world decide to save the human race (well, the caucasian race at least) by launching a rocket to a planet orbiting the invading star, which conveniently is exactly the same as earth. Note that they didn't know this to be the case beforehand, and made no preparations for a non-optimal environment whatsoever.
The science used in this movie is so far beyond questionable that it is absolutely laughable. For example, we have these two celestial bodies that are moving at such an astounding speed that earth only has a few months of warning, yet it is weeks between the passing of the planet until the collision with its star. When they launch the rocket everyone just sits upright as they nonchalantly pass out from G forces in the most gentle liftoff ever. Everyone bemoans the lack of fuel when they launch at the last minute for dramatic effect, rather than launching when the planet passed so close to the fucking Earth a week ago that it caused worldwide earthquakes.
All of this nonsense frames a generic love triangle between boring 1950's people. Zzzzzzzzzzzz." ~Karo

"I had a really big problem with this movie. So the end of the world is coming right? Where is the urgency? There was a ton of boring, borderline emotionless jibber jabber. Science this and science that. But where was the urgency? It felt like a bunch of people making a rocket to space just as a fun project. The only real conflict came from the rioting towards the end, but even that was tame. The two main characters were really fun and had great chemistry, but they were hardly featured! Most of the screen time went to the scientists explaining everything instead of showing it to me. I could have very easily taken a nap during this one and missed nothing important.

Traviss Opinion: Travis gave me hugs and asked me to play Pokmon. He also ran around the living room Naruto style and asked me how fast he is. He has never watched Naruto." ~Stifled

"Ah, that bygone age of white male dominance. It's good to know what race of humans survived the end of the world there writers and/or directors. There's some stuff in here that makes little to no sense, you know, not counting the entire infeasibility of the plot to begin with. A star coming into this close of contact with the Earth wouldn't NEED to make a direct hit on it to destroy it, or you know, any weird roller coaster plane to a planet that just so happens to pop into an orbit. I felt bad for the ultimate cuckold guy here, very pathetic really... noble but random and sad. Movies from this era are ripe with women falling for these archetypes like Randall. The special effects here are lackluster, and even for the time period I felt other films on the list did better from the same general time period. Really, it was pretty trite and predictable and filled with characters I didn't like." ~charon
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"A surprisingly exciting race against time, When Worlds Collide is an exercise in mood and ideas rather than strong story or characters. Like a lot of sci-fi, When Worlds Collide puts humanity under a microscope and shows our true colors under extreme duress. Some dated visuals dont distract from the strong central messages of the film. " ~Snake

"I took several issues with When Worlds Collide. Namely that dude totally cucked himself for no discernable reason. Also that old benefactor was a [Editor's Note: At this point Genny used a banned word that began with C] and never should've even been humored. Also also how does a sun pass by a planet without scorching it to cosmic dust and why is the star even moving? Also also also the worlds never collided! It was earth and Ed Bellus, Zyra's star which orbits it for... reasons. Sigh..." ~Genny

"A runaway star collides with the Earth, but it's okay because about 40 boring white people manage to escape to safety. The best parts of this movie are the scenes of carnage in the second half, which feature some really impressive miniature work that won the effects team an Oscar. Unfortunately, like a lot of '50s sci-fi movies, the first half is old men in lab coats standing around and hand-wringing about a poorly-defined doomsday. The only character in this I cared about was Richard Derr as the everyman pilot character, who did have some genuinely likable moments and actually made me laugh out loud a few times with his delivery. But that wasn't enough to get me to really care about what happened to these people, and I spent most of the movie bored, just waiting for the effects sequences and major setpieces to start happening." ~KBM

"What It Is: Based on the famous 1930s science fiction novel, humanity attempts to save a portion of its populous as a rogue star races towards its inevitable collision with the Earth.

Why It Matters: One of many precursors to the burgeoning industry science fiction filmmaking nowadays, When Worlds Collide is recognized as an influence among many science fiction filmmakers of the 1960s. It was extremely well-received in the cold war paranoia of the 1950s, and it even went on to win an Academy Award. Other movies such as Deep Impact and Armageddon credit their origins in When Worlds Collide.

What I Think: While it certainly is dated, I think When Worlds Collide is an extremely effective parable for the era in which it was released. While science fiction is deep in the heart of B-movie territory at this point, the story reminds me of the early salvos of science fiction writing. When you look at the written genre of science fiction, it always appears to be two decades ahead of its film medium counterpart. In the 50s, science fiction was just beginning to find its genesis in film, and while still years before The Twilight Zone, When Worlds Collide certainly is a crude forerunner of what is eventually to come. The writing is clunky and reminiscent of a dime pulp fiction comic, the acting wooden and lacking real chemistry. But it certainly stands as a pioneer in a genre that will eventually produce some truly thought-provoking pieces. So I give a respectful nod to a forerunner." ~scarlet
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The Outlander Game
It's outliers with a theme!

JONA - 16
Inviso - 13
Wickle - 6
Johnbobb - 5
Karo - 3
Stifled - 3
Charon 2
Snake - 2
Genny - 1
KBM - 1
Scarlet - 1

JONA quadruple-quadruples the last placers in the intial tally.
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I expect to get a high amount of points in outlier.
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Good start! And Im really enjoying the extra flair scarlet is putting into the posts.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsV500W4BHU" data-time="

This is a more entertaining "When Worlds Collide", and it's science fiction. I'd have ranked this far above this film.
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I didn't even notice the racial imbalance that so many people are finding fault with >_>;;
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Zyra's star which orbits it for... reasons.

i forgot this was a thing

did these filmmakers sleep though science class
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Inviso posted...

I didn't even notice the racial imbalance that so many people are finding fault with >_>;;

Outside of one movie pre-70's, there's literally a massive racial imbalance in all of them.
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Im glad someone tossed in a Powerman 5000 reference! I forgot to mention them in my write up and felt sad when I realized.
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