Board 8 > Gauntlet Crew Ranks Sci Fi Films I-2

(+) Yeah! (+)

Alien
The Terminator
Back to the Future
Aliens
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
12 Monkeys
The Matrix
Donnie Darko
Sunshine
District 9
Moon
Gravity
Interstellar
Edge of Tomorrow
Ex Machina

Not a bad top 15
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For sure.
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My #30 could leave and I'd be happier with it but yeah.
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I'm very happy to see District 9/Edge of Tomorrow/Ex Machina all in the top 15.

Now let's get them as the top 3 please.
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I really wanted to like Gattaca more than I did.
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v_charon posted...

My #30 could leave and I'd be happier with it but yeah.

Likewise, my #35 can drop any time now. Other than that, though, y'all are pleasantly surprising me with your overall good taste on this list. Some older stuff is definitely way too low, but recency bias is to be expected (especially considering it's pretty clear that some of you have never seen a movie made before the '80s outside of these lists).

Snake5555555555 posted...

I really wanted to like Gattaca more than I did.

Also yeah, this. I'll have to rewatch it sometime when it isn't the fifth movie I've watched that day in order to finish my list on time, but there were some really clunky elements that held it back for me as compared with most of the rest of the stuff I watched that day.

And I'm very glad Dark City made it into the top half - SUCH an underrated movie.

There's only one movie left I don't like, although I also haven't seen three others. Fairly solid top 15 assuming all three of the ones I haven't seen aren't ass either way, though.
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That...is a good list.
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Surprised to see Gravity outlive so many stonecold classics.
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Seconded, Gravity and Interstellar have become notorious for how much post-release backlash both films have gotten.

Though that seems to be more or less par for the course for modern blockbusters.
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I only want my 39 to drop at this point.
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#15 - Alien (1979)
KBM - 1
Inviso - 5
Snake - 7
Johnbobb - 8
Scarlet - 14
Karo - 15
JONA - 20
Charon - 21
Genny - 24
Stifled - 30
Wickle - 37
Total: 182

"Straight-up one of my Top 10 movies of all time. Alien is a legitimate triumph of atmosphere, a brilliantly designed horror sci-fi filled with dread. The slow burn is pitch-perfect, as the Nostromo takes on its own distinctive character, with all its dark corners and vents. It feels like a real place, just as the characters feel like real enough people that it's genuinely terrifying and tragic when they fall one-by-one, slasher-style, to the vindictive aliens all except for one of film's greatest fucking badasses, Ellen Ripley. There's an appeal to the simplicity here, too part of the reason the characters feel so fleshed-out is because the screenplay doesn't waste time sitting around explaining what the alien is or where it came from. We know that it's bad fucking news, we know that it's got dozens of ways of killing people horribly, and we know that it likes to use them. We don't even really need to be too clear on who sent our heroes out here and why. All of this, of course, has since been expanded upon in countless pieces of Alien-related media, which has ranged from great to atrocious (...mostly atrocious, really). For me, though, this is a clear case of the original continuing to reign supreme. It's funny to me that the idea for this movie came from the B-plot of John Carpenter's underrated directorial debut, the comedy Dark Star, in which the alien resembles nothing so much as a big, squishy red beach ball.

As a side note, I do slightly prefer the original theatrical edition to the director's cut. There's not too much of a difference between them, and the movie is great either way, but the director's cut trims some scenes that I prefer to let linger a little longer, in order to make room in the runtime for a couple additional scenes that are interesting but basically unnecessary. I suppose it depends on whether you prefer the long, creeping panning shots that lend themselves to the atmosphere, or the more solid information about the alien and its abilities (including a creepy scene where Ripley is forced to flamethrower Dallas to death... minutes before he would probably have died anyway, but I suppose she couldn't've known that)." ~KBM

"Alien showcases how well you can push the slasher concept, without the need for earthly serial killers like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. The claustrophobia of space ensures that there is no place safe, no place to run to. Its just your crew, and an alien monster you have no understanding of. Ellen Ripleys final girl shatters genre expectations, whilst classic scares like the chestburster make the best use of practical effects and tension-building. Maybe the alien looks plastic and stiff compared to modern day interpretations, but to nitpick that is to completely miss the point and to cover up the fact that yes, it still scared you! " ~Snake

"I like Alien a lot, and I think that can mostly be summarized by the MU/TH/UR room. In a ship that's almost entirely dirty and outdated and claustrophobic, MU/TH/UR, the room-sized computer, somehow appears warm and somehow better than everything else. The whatever-tech covering the walls looks like soundproofing, making the room feel like the one safe place in the rest of the horrifying ship. When you realize it's not, it feels like a betrayal, because it is. It's this kind of attention to detail and atmospheric structure that makes Alien such a great movie." ~Johnbobb
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"What It Is: A lone creature attempts to fend off a spatial incursion as things start to get dicey. Luckily it survives the melee of the film, as well it should have. Everyone likes cats.

Why It Matters: This is a genre kickstarter, pioneering the way for sci fi horror and engineering the sorts of genre staples that have influenced everything from Battlestar Galactica (the remake) to Avatar. Ridley Scott's vision of the future has become a crucial waypoint in our perceptions of science fiction convention.

What I Think: Absolutely fantastic despite a deliberate pace, I'm really enamored with the performance of good ol' Ian Holm primarily. In fact, I've always found androids in the Alien franchise to be vastly more interesting than Xenomorphs. After all, Xenomorphs really don't have much depth to them, but there's really a lot to puzzle over when it comes to the minds of these robotic lifeforms of a sort. I'm vastly more haunted by Ian Holm's severed head than anything else in this movie, although everything else in this film is sufficiently frightening and haunting. The atmosphere is great, taut with unadulterated panic. Great stuff." ~scarlet

"So there's this crew of a mining spacecraft on the outer rim, and they are all chain smokers because they want to die in an explosive oxygen fire.
Anyway, a series of similarly unwise choices leads to an alien life form being taken aboard their ship, and after a rousing speech about sticking together, half of them immediately wander off alone to get eaten.
One of their other bright ideas is that maybe the alien doesnt like hot temperatures (they dont actually have any fucking clue) so the best course of action should obviously be to build flamethrowers and spray them throughout the innards of their ship. It is a miracle that these people managed to survive in deep space for even this long.
Still, its a nice little movie that does all the things it sets out to do, and though it might be just a rather dull 'idiots get mauled by monsters' story it still has an amazing atmosphere that makes it very watchable." ~Karo

"What this movie does the absolute best is its atmosphere. Ill admit that Ive actually never watched this movie before the project and already knowing the nature of the alien did take away a bit of the mystique. Still a great movie even if some of the cast is forgettable." ~JONA

"I have to say, the original film in the Alien series hasn't held up particularly well. It's a rather slow, plodding journey through a confined spaceship with dull backgrounds and characters that don't end up very memorable to me. Of course, coming into this film you already know bigger, badder things are out there and this enemy is in effect a rather typical one that Ripley will literally be faced with hundreds of later on. I still enjoyed it, but yeah, it just feels at times that the pacing is so lethargic and not much is happening. What does happen isn't always particularly exciting either." ~Charon
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"I can see where Ridley Scott was going with this, I really can, but in an attempt to seamlessly blend the genres of horror and sci-fi Alien ends up as kind of a lackluster attempt at both. Yes the one scene of the chest burster is iconic and eerie, but I can't help but think the crew outside of Ripley was extremely stupid to bring him on board. Also they didn't try anything else to get the face hugger off after cutting it failed, even though they had access to a taser and probably other methods." ~Genny

"On one hand, having the alien escape and be loose on the ship as an ominous predator was a cool idea. It adds a ton of suspense to the latter half of the movie and makes it a lot more fun to watch. But on the other hand, there was surprisingly little alien on the screen for a movie called Alien. I think a better balance would be welcome here. Not to mention it took this thing way too long to get going. I get they need to set things up, but the pace was far too slow early on for my liking. If not for the first half being so slow, this is pretty on par with the sequel, though Id still prefer Aliens by a hair even if Alien was paced better.

Traviss opinion: I watched this while he took a nap on the couch. It was both cute and creepy cuddling with my sleeping son while an alien brutally murdered people. Yay family bonding? " ~Stifled

"I dont like horror, the alien was gross and so was its first kill. Any other deaths I didnt really watch since ya know squeamish. It annoys me that even the smart one of the crew ends up as a dumbshit by the end. Just small word of advice, if you ever find morse code, get someone to translate that actually knows morse code to translate it instead of pretending its an SOS signal. To explain my dumbshit comment, so three people are left after they defeat the robot, which was a stupid plotline and then the other two are attacked and killed, leaving her the last one alive. She saves the cat and continues to head off to the escape pod, sees the alien and runs back to shut off the self-destruct sequence. Honestly WHY? THIS FUCKING THING IS A THREAT TO HUMANITY AND COULD STILL SNEAK ONTO THE ESCAPE POD WHEN YOURE THE ONLY ONE WATCHING FOR IT JUST TAKE THE SACRIFICE AND TRY TO KILL IT WITH THE SHIP. Dont need to be the last surviving member of a crew and invite the danger of the alien onto a new crew." ~Wickle
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The Outlander Game Part XXVI: "In ranks, no one can hear you scream."
Wickle - 279
Stifled - 263
JONA - 255
Snake - 234
KBM - 222
Genny - 206
Inviso - 203
Karo - 182
Scarlet - 179
Charon - 173
Johnbobb - 167

Despite a pretty heated battle at the top, the rest of the placements are stagnating. Will the top of the list provide a shake-up?
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Scarlet I'm just letting you know you missed Vis' write-up.
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how the hell do you end up with the sequel above the original
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That is just a massive, MASSIVE boo. Particularly at Wickle >_>
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PrinceKaro posted...

how the hell do you end up with the sequel above the original

In this group, I expected Aliens over the original.

Also, there goes bracket
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Snake5555555555 posted...

Scarlet I'm just letting you know you missed Vis' write-up.

Thanks.
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PrinceKaro posted...

how the hell do you end up with the sequel above the original

By the sequel being the better film? That actually managed an Oscar nod despite Academy genre snobbery?
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"The ONLY thing that bothers me about this movie is how much people are willing to put their lives on the line for a goddamn cat. Brett gets killed going off in search of Jonesy, and Ripley winds up dragging a cumbersome cat carrier through the ship as its preparing to self-destruct. That being said, the rest of the movie is amazing. I love the cast because they feel like real people. Youve got some stuffy business-types, but then youve got people who are more willing to bend the rules and let emotion rule. Plus youve got Parker and Brett constantly bitching about how theyre getting paid less than everyone else. Throw in a genuinely terrifying alien (black, flexible, and impervious to most weaponry), and youve got a claustrophobic setting with a deadly killing machine, and nothing but time and victims to slaughter.

I also love how, Jonesy-aside, the cast ACT like real people. Dallas/Lambert want to get Kane in the ship to help him with the face-hugger, but Ripley is thinking about the rest of the crew, so she says no. Ash lets them in however, because as we later learn, hes a double agent working against the rest of the team. Once Kane dies, the group plays it very smart, working in groups until it becomes clear that theyre not dealing with a tiny alien anymore. Brett is the SOLE victim that feels like he got got for being stupid, but even then, given the information he had at the time, going off alone wasnt THAT dangerous of an idea. Its just really intense and Sigourney Weaver does a GREAT job at making Ripley into a no-nonsense badass. She and Parker carry the film together. And not to get all SJW or anything, but I find it kinda cool how the movie is a cast of 4 white guys, 1 black guy, and 2 women, and the last ones standing are the women and black guy. Its a nice reversal of your typical slasher movie fair." ~Inviso
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I'm really glad you focused on the realistic crew Vis, I completely forgot to include that part in my write-up. I think that's one of the best aspects of the film actually.
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Also, rather than just booing Wickle, Id like to point out that, due to the dim lighting and cutaways, the chestbuster is the only real on-screen death (Ash is a robot, so I dont count his jerk ass. Hmph.)
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Come to think of it, every single entry in the Alien canon has to rely on at least one member of a scientific crew doing dumb shit, or trusting someone they should have every reason to doubt. Or both! I guess that's my problem with the franchise: the formula has gotten stale.

There's a way to make scientists err without making them seem completely incompetent (see: Sunshine or Interstellar) but Scott has lost the capacity to do this. I mean in Covenant a dude actually takes his helmet off and gets a good whiff of a spore-bearing alien flower like wt absolute f...
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What dumb thing does a science person do in Aliens? The only person with scientific knowledge in that movie is Bishop.
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The best part of Alien was the cat surviving. I was so worried about him the whole time and it made me like Ripley 10x more when she took the time to rescue him.
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no dumb decision in the first movie tops them literally leaving nobody left on the orbital spacecraft in Aliens

'oh wow we're all going down to this planet infested with an unknown organism.. i hope we dont ever need backup or rescue or anything'
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PrinceKaro posted...

no dumb decision in the first movie tops them literally leaving nobody left on the orbital spacecraft in Aliens

'oh wow we're all going down to this planet infested with an unknown organism.. i hope we dont ever need backup or rescue or anything'

Eh, theyre all dumb marines except the newbie lieutenant, the robot, and the civilians. The only person with experience and intelligence is the sergeant dude whos clearly busy keeping the marines in line.
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I mean literally booing the guy that skipped horror and almost didn't want to do martial arts for gore for ranking a film that has an alien burst out of someone's chest and is a horror movie really low is kind of like believing Karo's list was the best list we've done.
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I meeeeean, if Im being honest, I had a ton of fun with Karos list until the unnecessary drama at the end. Watching a lot of my childhood favorites with my son has been my favorite memory made with these lists so far.
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I don't even remember unnecessary drama.
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Yes Stifled, but would you ever consider movies of childhood shows better than childhood Disney movies (even if you weren't here for that list), or some other companies?
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WickIebee posted...

Yes Stifled, but would you ever consider movies of childhood shows better than childhood Disney movies (even if you weren't here for that list), or some other companies?

Overall, no. The top 4 or 5 on Karos list are very high favorites of mine and can hang with Disney, but the other lists had higher overall quality.
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Boo. BOOOOOOO!

Exactly, my point isn't saying Karo's list was 100% bad, but that it's very obviously a list few would consider a top list. Just as it was obvious before the list came out that Alien would be ~bottom 10 for me.
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About Ripley, I think she really wants to just survive herself. And she might not be thinking straight at the time.

Alien, Aliens, and Terminator 2 are probably among my top 5 films of all time. But Alien was not very well-received on release, so again don't worry if you didn't like it.
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During sex, I'm sometimes not well-received on release too.
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I have a habit of making kids on release. I try not to put out too many movies.
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LMS, have you actually SEEN Alien/Aliens/Terminator or did you just watch a Lets Watch of them?
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Wowscarletspeed7 posted...

The ONLY thing that bothers me about this movie is how much people are willing to put their lives on the line for a goddamn cat.

This.

I have no idea why I predicted it as #2. Honestly, what? There goes my bracket.
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Alien > Aliens > Prometheus > Alien 3 > Alien: Covenant > Alien vs. Predator > AVP: Requiem > Alien Resurrection

There are rather large gaps in quality in several places - Covenant downwards are all pretty terrible (with Alien 4 being one of my LEAST favorite movies of all time). Whether you're an Alien > Aliens person, or whether you're wrong, I think we could all probably agree that they're both better than the rest of the movies.

...Actually I take that back y'all have some weird opinions sometimes.

Ive only seen Alien and Aliens, but the rest seem like total ass based on what Ive read. So I probably wont.
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Prometheus is ok
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I have a soft spot for the Alien 3 assembly cut, it might be worth giving that one a try (even though I wouldn't go so far as to say it's a good film, it's at least entertaining). And I do really like Prometheus, despite the internet's disproportionate rage when it came out. The dumb shit people complained about regarding Prometheus directly led to the boring, overexplained drivel we got in Covenant.

#14 - Sunshine (2007)
Karo - 6
KBM - 8
Inviso - 12
Johnbobb - 13
Scarlet - 13
Genny - 15
Stifled - 16
Wickle - 16
Snake - 17
Charon - 24
JONA - 39
Total: 179

"A riveting film about a group of astronauts tasked with jumpstarting a dying Sun and the perils of human error and equipment failure that they must overcome on the journey.
The characters in particular are very well done. They all feel like real people, and all have distinct personalities and weaknesses. The ship and how it works is very neat and believable, and provided some great flavor to their trials and tribulations.
In short, it is pretty much a perfect movie... until the last 30 minutes.
At this point they stop to examine the wreckage of a previous failed mission and discover everyone has gone cuckoo for coco puffs and there's this stupid burn victim bogeyman who somehow survived all this time with his horrible injuries and he goes around stabbing people and theres a lot of shaky cam and silly blur effects. Why for the love of all things holy would you take this beautiful movie and turn it into a cheap slasher flick?
It is a stunning film with a big, ugly, hairy mole planted smack dab on its face in the form of this awful and out of place plot element, which should have been stuck right where the sun don't shine." ~Karo

"A terrific ensemble film from Danny Boyle and Alex Garland. I imagine we're going to have a lot of write-ups for Sunshine bitching about the third act. As a fan of slasher movies, I'm just gonna say I had a good time with the last third and leave it at that. A group of astronauts led by Dogen from LOST set out to reignite Earth's dying Sun, in the very unwisely-named ship Icarus II. The very fact that the first Icarus disappeared might have been a clue that they'd want to retire that name and come up with a slightly less ironic moniker, but I suppose leaning into the irony is also always an option, and there's definitely some good gallows humor to be had here, as this crew is overflowing with personality. Scarecrow, Captain America, Ellen Parsons, Captain Georgiou, and Travis Manawa all show up, just to name a few people who retrospectively lend this some serious genre pedigree." ~KBM

"Cillian Murphy turns in an excellent performance as the quiet and brilliant physicist, in a story thats non-stop tense and really gets to the nitty-gritty of human psychology aboard a claustrophobic spaceship. Every performance feels real, the concept here is brilliant and the visuals are absolutely stunning. The strong theme of religion makes a different type of sci-fi film than your average fare." ~Snake

"I dont recall ever hearing about this movie before, and for whatever reason, I kept getting it confused with The Core. And on paper, it fits right in line with The Core, Armageddon, and I feel like several other the world is ending, so we need to launch a ship someplace deadly in order to save the planet movies. But while THOSE films are hokey, this one feels like they put just a little bit of extra effort into making the plot feel realistic, kinda. Granted, the idea of jumpstarting the Sun is a little farfetched, BUT they made it feel like a legitimate possibility rather than slapping some bullshit together (again, like The Core.)
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But another thing I liked about the film was the cast. There were eight crew members on the Icarus 2, and they all felt distinct, with their own motivations and personalities. Its a lot like my favorite episode of the Doctor Who reboot, The Waters of Mars: you have a diverse cast and you know that eventually theyll all be picked off, but it still makes their struggles feel important, and youre rooting for someoneANYONEto make it out alive. The conflicting personalities among the crew made for dynamic storytelling, and I very much appreciated that. The only real flaw was the introduction of bizarre sunburn man as the endgame antagonist, but I guess the characters were too competent to deal with anything nature could throw at themso they kinda NEEDED a sentient antagonist. And thats fine. It was still a solid movie in its own right." ~Inviso

"Sunshine is an easy contender for the most gorgeous movie of the 2000s. Everything about this is a sight to behold, both on the ship and off of it, to the point where it's surprisingly easy to identify with Searle's obsession over the light. It's hard not to immediately mention the odd third act turns, but it's also hard to hold them against the film, especially given how heavily Pinbacker's return was foreshadowed. Even then, instead of Pinbacker appearing as just a guy with a knife, Boyle presents him as an otherworldly being, destroyed by the sun and obscured by the film itself, to the point where I simply can't believe he was nothing more than a crazy man. Boyle never hesitates to present the hopelessness of the lives of all the crew, and more importantly, never tries to make villains of those who understand their circumstances." ~Johnbobb

"What It Is: Someone sent the Human Torch relight the sun. Apparently they've never read All-Star Superman and forgot Brandon Routh needed work too.

Why It Matters: Okay, it probably doesn't matter that much but I couldn't pass up throwing in a little Danny Boyle on this list. We've got so many other great directors, why not him?

What I Think: In 2009, I was on a super-huge Cillian Murphy because my roommate Kerry and I insisted on watching movies all the freaking time. We kind of started to like-cycle together, and our opinions on movies started really syncing up. One of the upshots of our obsession and friendship was that we discovered we were both insanely huge fans of Cillian Murphy. And so it was that we decided to watch Sunshine. It's almost a religious experience. Light as been the source of so many primal cults and religions for centuries, and this movie provides it in the most copious, deadly, potent form. In fact, it's this phenomenal reversal of the classic metaphor. Prometheus delivered the fire of the gods to humans, and now humans are reigniting the gods' fire in return. To me, the intense spirituality of the movie drives the entire event in a way that few movies allow. Fire and light become such a central aspect of the first half of the movie, and the home stretch is a little weird, a little fun, a little scary, but never predictable. And sometimes I like to turn on a Black Taxi song and stare up at the night sky and imagine a universe where everything has inherent meaning and that my life is of value. This movie says, 'That's okay.'" ~scarlet

"Sunshine surprised me with its happy ending and elements of horror. I don't understand why there was so much tension between the brilliant minds that made up the crew from the jump. You would think with their entire world at stake they'd be smarter than arguing over the pettiest things. Also wtf was with Searles' fixation on sunlight? Was that supposed to be parallel with the captain from the first crew, and why didn't the movie explore that instead of killing him off?" ~Genny
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"Holy shit its a horror moviein space! I was already sold on Sunshine being a really good space exploration movie where Captain America battles Scarecrow to determine who is smarter while Moira MacTaggert watches in disgust and Wai Lin grows plants. But when the crazy horror elements got tossed inwow. This is a really unique type of movie that I did not expect. I was impressed.

Traviss Opinion: I had Travis skip this one. I wasnt convinced it was necessary until about halfway through when the crazy stuff started happening. Then I was happy I chose to watch it while he was napping. Its a little too violent for a toddler. Not to mention hed be sad Captain America was such a dick through most of the film. " ~Stifled

"Sad story, Johnny Storm is a real jackass, I was annoyed when he instantly blamed Capa for all the deaths, when it was Treys idea overall, and Capa was only meant to weigh the odds. The villain was a bit insane, and it made him a kind of good one. Plus most of the acting was pretty good, though it was hard to grasp who all the characters were towards the beginning, like in the observation deck I dont know if it was the captain or Searle." ~Wickle

"I want to like this more than I do, but predicting how much of a downer this movie was at the end makes it hard to put too high since I don't tend to like things that end this way. But what other way was it ever going to end? I enjoyed some of the characters, hated the ones I'm sure I was supposed to hate. Turning it into a quasi-horror movie near the end was a bit of an interesting twist, though I'm not certain how Pinbacker survived the way he did, especially after in full brilliance of the sun. Not to mention this is another one of those unfeasible sorts of films; a film about future technology is speculative, and you can allow yourself to believe that. But a movie about the sun dying while humans still haven't figured out how to leave Earth for good, yet they HAVE figured out how to have a craft survive on the Sun's surface? Hard to fathom honestly. The acting was great though, even if the plot was hard to believe. Oh and those creepy ass still-frames added into the film when the board the first ship. Yikes." ~Charon

"The movie has a cool premise, but the movie feels like its premise isnt good or entertaining enough to carry the entire movie. Because of this, the plot gets distracted with the movie going in a different direction that another writeup will likely spoil and it doesnt match the tone it first sets. The characters are rather forgettable, although I feel like they had the potential to be memorable if the movie gave them more focus. Apparently, theres a manual that gave the characters more backstory. Would have been nice to see that implemented in the movie. " ~JONA
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The Outlander Game Part XXVII: Total Eclipse of Good Art
Wickle - 281
JONA - 270
Stifled - 265
Snake - 237
KBM - 228
Genny - 207
Inviso - 204
Karo - 190
Charon - 183
Scarlet - 180
Johnbobb - 168

The normally low-end JONA is once again crawling back into contention with that #1 spot as we lumber towards unlucky number thirteen.
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Aww. I really liked how unique Sunshine was for a movie of its genre.
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