The Most Influential Scifi Movies Ever Made

Discussion in 'Movies & Televison: Reviews, Discussions & Debate' started by Panchyprsss, Sep 26, 2015.

  1. Panchyprsss

    Panchyprsss Clogg's LORD PROTECTOR

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    These are the films that in my humble opinion shaped the way for not only future genre films, but many aspects of the modern society. In this list I will reluctantly leave out Star Trek because as influential as it is, its phenomenon started as a tv series, not a film.

    With that said, lets begin:


    A Trip To The Moon (1902) French filmmaker George Me'lies silent 14 minutes epic was the first science fantasy film to boast an astronomical (for its time) budget of $10, 000. It also became one of the first films to get international release mainly due to piracy (another first) since the film became immensely popular and played non-stop for months. Loosely inspired on Jules Verne's book "From Earth To the Moon". Since the film is mainly a comedy and not a serious attempt to portray space exploration, its sets and special effects marveled audiences that had never seen anything like that before. Its image of the rocket landing on the Moon-face eye remains iconic even today.

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    Metropolis (1927) German expressionist Fritz Lang made over a hundred films, but the one that stands above the rest is his grand scale science fiction masterpiece about a future society. The film boasted the biggest budget of its time ($2 million) and was met with such critical backlash which caused panic among theater owners and got limited release which resulted in one of first and biggest box office bombs of that time. But the film like its robot Maria had a life of its own and kept coming back in limited rereleases through out the following decades. The film's special effects remained unsurpassed for a long time and they are still acceptable for today's standards. Now the film is considered among the best films ever made and directly influenced such classics like Flash Gordon, Frankenstein, Star Wars, Blade Runner and The Hunger Games just to name a few.

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    Things To Come (1936) Science Fiction great H.G. Wells was one of the most vocal critics of Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis' so he was presented with a challenge: can you do something better? So he partnered with filmmaker wizard Alexander Korda and the Spielberg of the 30's director William Cameron Menzies and a cast of solid Hollywood actors, the result was this film based on his speculative book 'The Shape of Things to Come'. While extremely ambitious in its attempt to portray the progress of mankind in a hundred years into the future through the eyes of a family of scientists, the Cabals, the film pace dragged at times and the plot suffered from the very same pitfall sins that Wells bashed the Fritz Lang movie for. Reservations asides, the film was a technical marvel from an almost accurate depiction of the bombing of London that didn't occurred for real until 4 years later to the descent into barbarism and then the scientific explosion that brings progress to mankind culminating with the first manned mission to the moon. The sets, special effects and some of its costumes are awesome (I don't particularly like the Roman togas for the future sequences though). 'Things To come' was the first attempt to bring a serious somber look into future with not a single hint of humor in it. For that it got a lot of detractors as well as many fans. 'Logan's Run' from example, copied a lot from this film.

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    Frankenstein While now is viewed as a horror film, the 1931 film was mostly a science fiction parable of a scientist playing God with horrific results a theme that continues to be emulated even in modern films. While the Mary Shelley novel utilized alchemy to bring life to the creature, the film version went with electricity to do the job. If you watch the film you will notice that it is Colin Clive the main actor who dominates the screen from start to finish and that the actor that portrayed the creature, Boris Karloff, did not even got a screen credit only a question mark!!! Ironically Karloff became a superstar while Colin Clive achieved very little.


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    The Day The Earth Stood Still Arguably the best science fiction ever made. Forget the disastrous Keanu Reeves remake, the original 1951 film based on the short story 'Farewell to the Master' directed by Robert Wise and starring Michael Rennie remains unsurpassed in its theme and depiction of first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. The phrase 'Klaatu Barada Nikto' and the robot Gort remain icons of 50's science fiction cinema. The film message is still as powerful today as it was during its Cold War era.

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    War of The Worlds (1953) Every invasion from space movie ever made owes a debt to George Pal's rendition of the H.G. Wells book. Filmed in Technicolor and set in its then present time, Pal delivered a version that brought the near demise of mankind at the hands of superior alien forces with a sense of doom and paranoia rarely matched in subsequent imitators. His decision to bring a Japanese model maker to create the Martian war machines was a stroke of genius as he avoided the 50's popular flying saucer look and ships looked genuinely out-of-this-world.
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  2. Panchyprsss

    Panchyprsss Clogg's LORD PROTECTOR

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    Forbidden Planet (1957) While Gene Roddenberry always credited getting the idea for 'Star Trek' as a 'Wagon Train' to the stars, the truth is that he copied heavily from this classic MGM film. This was the very first movie that its plot takes place in the 25th century and its protagonists travelling to one of the farthest corners of the galaxy, planet Altair IV, to check on the status of a human colony that was established there decades before. Everything in this film was created from scratch: sets, costumes, props, etc. Its iconic Robbie the robot was the most 'realistic' robot on film until the arrival of Star Wars robots 20 years later. The film has a solid intelligent plot, great visual effects, smoking hot Ann Francis and young Leslie Nielsen as the ship's captain. From the enormous alien Krell subterranean laboratory to the Id monster this film shits on most of current trash that tries to pass as science fiction.

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  3. Xplosive

    Xplosive X-MOD Bad Motherfucker

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    Judgement Day has to rank pretty highly on this list.
     
  4. Panchyprsss

    Panchyprsss Clogg's LORD PROTECTOR

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    The Time Machine (1960) Another H.G. Wells story that was produced by George Pal. Rod Taylor stars as the time traveler in the best version made to date. The film successfully depicts the time travel sequences in believable yet fun way until its climatic action sequence with the cannibalistic Morlocs against Taylor and their prey the Eloi. This was actress Yvette Mimieux first acting gig ever and was underage when she was cast in this film and while the filmmakers were keeping quiet about her real age (she was not legally allowed as a minor to work a full shooting schedule, much less play the main romantic interest of the film opposite a mature actor), they kept her mom on the set the whole time to oversee that they treat her daughter well.

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  5. Panchyprsss

    Panchyprsss Clogg's LORD PROTECTOR

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    This one???

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  6. Rich ´Money´ Mustard

    Rich ´Money´ Mustard DIE!

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    Forbidden-fockin-Planet!!!
    I love that movie.

    The Day The Earth Stood Still is amazing - Gort takin' names:

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  7. meetthefeebles

    meetthefeebles Drunken Geordie Bastard

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    Every alien invasion film is based on War of the Worlds. I love Independence Day - it's glorious, jingoistic nonsense - but it's an absolute clone of WOTW.

    MTF
     
  8. meetthefeebles

    meetthefeebles Drunken Geordie Bastard

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    The Day the Earth stood still is fucking epic, also.

    MTF
     
  9. Panchyprsss

    Panchyprsss Clogg's LORD PROTECTOR

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    :bears:
     

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