Best/worst Sci Fi Movie

frostytheplebe

frostytheplebe

Seventh Part of the Seal
Best: The last Star fighter

Despite an extremely limiting budget and crappy graphics, this movie paved the way for higher budgeted films. The story line has been parodied many times over and is a true classic movie made with a small time cast.

Worst: Flash Gordon

Never have I seen a cheesier 80s sci-fi flick. The music made me want to pull my hair out, the storyline was ridiculous, and the characters were flat and annoying! Even with a better budget and slightly more impressive cast, this movie was found wanting in my opinion! It had close to nothing to do with the Original Flash Gordon series in the 50s that actually had class... in summation... IT SUCKED!!
 
Despite an extremely limiting budget and crappy graphics, this movie paved the way for higher budgeted films.
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I think the preceding Star Wars trilogy may have had a *bit* more to do with higher budgets for sci-fi in the 1980s than Last Starfighter. :)

I do like the 1980 Flash Gordon movie... it's just *so* different from everything else made at the time. It was a huge risk compared to the Star Wars copies everyone else was doing with the influx of money for science fiction around that time (Frank Herbert actually worked on the script, IIRC, which is awesome.)

Worst: Starcrash
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Imperial battleship... prepare to halt the flow of time!
 
Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits has to enter this discussion at some point. I'm just not sure which column it falls in...
 
hmm,

I'd a have to vote for one of the best is the 70s The Black Hole by Disney (and or DUNE, I have copy of the extra long version with the comic book intro)..

that and It was my very first Sci-Fi movie, I was I think 7 at the time.... I think the Robot the drilled that guy in the chest gave me nightmares fore a few nights after it.....

As for worst...I'd have to say none as just watching any Sci-Fi movie is to me a "good" time weather I am laughing at it or kept silent by it because of how good it is. Think about all those 80s direct to video post nuclear war movies for examples..
 
Farbourne said:
Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits has to enter this discussion at some point. I'm just not sure which column it falls in...
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This is funny, actually because I was just discussing this thread with LOAF and said that the worst movie probably has to involve time travel in some way. I don't think I'd put anything Terry Gilliam's ever done on any worst list, but there you go.

Which brings me to my next point. I think we need some ground rules here. I'm not going to say we should definitely enforce that time travel must be an element of the worst movie, but I'll put it out there. One rule I definitely believe we should observe, however, is that we limit our selection.

Star Crash is kind of funny to rag on, but at the same time it's this crazy Italian movie from 30 years ago. It's a lot easier to forgive than something shitty made in Hollywood. Movies that aren't so spectacular because of their budget or because they're from somewhere like India, for example, should be exempt.
 
I'm not going to spend time defending it, but I also don't think it's the worst out there is Battlefield Earth... And boy is it stupid. But I found myself strangely enjoying the awfulness of it and the last hour is an awful lot like Independance day.

A time travel movie that I would put on the good list is Terry Gilliam's 'Twelve Monkeys."
 
WCblitz said:
(...)
I'd a have to vote for one of the best is the 70s The Black Hole by Disney(...)

that and It was my very first Sci-Fi movie, I was I think 7 at the time.... I think the Robot the drilled that guy in the chest gave me nightmares fore a few nights after it(...)
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Same here! I actually haven't had the courage to rewatch it yet. :)
 
I don't remember much of The Black Hole other than it got really really wierd in the end. I haven't seen it in forever.

Best SciFi movie, hard to say. Wrath of Kahn was probably the first one I've seen and I have alot of fond memories watching it with my friends. As for the worst, hands down, Space Truckers. I had a friend in middle school who loved it, and wouldn't stop talking about it, I saw it at his house and it pains me that I won't get that time back.
 
It's actually pretty hard to make a descent sci-fi flick, you need not go overboard on just one subject, space truckers fits in thesame category as "Ice Pirates". They overdid the jokes on that as well, but that would be the case of a bad director. And indeed, the quote from starcrash Loaf mentioned is indeed completely over the top. Poor David Hasslehoff, I bet he hates the movie.

All those "bad" movies are pretty entertaining, we have a touring cinema festival overhere where you can see a selection of these cultmovies in a marathon, so you get to see german softporn movies(that actually have a story), or a japanese action movie like Riki-oh, and you can buy dvd's with clips from these movies to preview them and look them up, i have added a lot of these to my collection, if I can find them, someone mentioned Flash Gordon, well you should see "Flesh Gordon".
 
Best: Cannot decide, really. There are so many of them. I'd probably say Matrix (part one only obviously) right now if forced to pick.

Worst: Immortel (Ad Vitam)
Dunno where to start. You are going to loose 20 IQ point by watching this pile of shit. Only positive to say is interesting visuals. That doesn't mean good ones. They are just - well - exotic.
 
Frosty said:
I don't get how you can say that. Crappy compared to what? The effects and a whole lot else were amazing.

Anyway, everyone knows that Life Force was both the best and the worst science fiction movie ever.
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Crappy compared to star wars, star trek, things like that.

Black hole... I actually just picked up a copy of that recently. I love that movie. I actually thought the USS Cygnus bared a small resemblance to the TCS Tarawa.
 
I'm going old school and put in a vote for the 50s version of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Still a classic to this day, and much better than the remake.

Worst sci-fi movie: Solarbabies - such a waste of time except for one scene where there was a machine that could give you your worst nightmare. Some close candidates though, and I'm purposely avoiding any Sci-fi channel movies because a LOT of them could win this category.
 
A few thoughts.

Some candidates for best:

- Forbidden Planet. Forbidden Planet may be the perfect science fiction movie -- beautiful art direction, amazing effects for the time, a completely serious and interesting story... and it's clearly the archetype for the original Star Trek! Please, JMS, stay away.

- Starship Troopers. SST usually tops my 'favorite movie' list (... aside from Wing Commander... yeah...). It's simultaneously both the most fun movie in the world *and* probably the most intelligent post-Vietnam anti-war movies.

- Star Wars. Well, duh, someone had to say it. I know cynicism is at an all-time-high and we're supposed to flick our wrists and talk about how awful it was that Jedi was so toyetic and how we heard a rumor that the original movie was only great because it was edited down after Lucas got done with it and blah blah blah blah I hate you. The Star Wars movies changed all of our lives in some significant way... and they're still great to watch today.

Some candidates for worst:

- The two Matrix sequels. Succinct proof that the folks behind the (excellent) first one were flying blind and had no idea what made their movie special. Imagine if Empire Strikes Back had been focused grouped like these movies. We'll reveal that instead of a struggling band of relatable good guys, the rebel alliance is actually a completely insane alien civilization that spends its time having creepy sex and extended raves for some reason! And since Darth Vader was such an interesting villain, we'll have ONE THOUSAND Darth Vaders at once! Also, follow any engrossing pop philosophy with page after page of incomprehensible gibberish...

- Armageddon. One of the most overwrought, manufactured movies ever made -- which is saying something in a genre where the occasional overwrought manufactured film is a lot of fun (Independence Day! Men in Black!). I would think it were *brilliant* if there were some slight indication that the schmaltz were ironic or parodic or something... but it seems to take itself entirely seriously.

- Alien 3. I know we're all supposed to retroactively love David Fincher and pretend this movie is some kind of secret tortured genius, but were any of you satisfied when you saw it in 1992? No, you were not.

- Star Trek Nemesis. I've often repeated (... mostly during Voyager's run...) the joke that Star Trek is a lot like sex; even when it's bad it's still pretty good. Nemesis sure proved me wrong -- an embarassingly awful film. It has a story that makes no sense in every direction it goes, cinematography that's about as far from Star Trek as possible (... I still don't know what the Romulan mother ship looks like)... and on and on. I'm soneone who will defend the 'odd numbered' Star Trek films quite vehemently, and I can't *stand* Nemesis. I feel almost personally betrayed looking back on the various cast members insisting pre-release that this would be some amazing farewell movie and that it was inspired by Wrath of Kahn. It wasn't just a dull movie (like the entirely forgivable Insurrection), it was a movie that hurt Star Trek.
 
I love how on the back of the Last Starfighter cover, the prose hypes up 'rising star Lance Guest...'

Seriously, though, the visuals from that film were revolutionary for the time. In an odd way, I think they hold up quite nicely. The only thing I really had issue with was the utter size of the Gunstar. In the end though, who's to say how big a starfighter is *supposed* to be.

My useless and disorganized contribution to this thread:

My candidate for best? Probably a close tie between Alien and Aliens. I think it is one of those rare situations where the sequal is just as great as the original for completely different reasons; suspense vs action. The casts of both were pretty good, and I am completely entertained everytime I watch them ("It's GAME OVER man!!!")

I also secretly love The Final Countdown; but I know that is not an honest candidate for the best, and it does feature time travel. :rolleyes:

The Abyss, on the other hand, I always thought was incredible and deserves to be on the 'good' list. Same with (dare I say it) Predator. "The thing that's hunting us ain't no man." Classic stuff!

It's really hard for me to pick the worst. I always try and find the good in whatever it is I'm viewing. I hated Solaris the first time I watched it, but now I'm not so sure. Battlefield Earth has already been mentioned - but I still enjoy Travolta's rediculous character. Maybe I need to watch more in the genre to find more of the bad. :confused:
 
Best: Empire Strikes Back
Runner up: Starship Troopers and Aliens

Worst: Battlefield Earth (Scientology at its worst *shudder*)
Runner up: Star Trek 5
 
Bandit LOAF said:
- The two Matrix sequels.
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The two Matrix sequels actually achieved something that I never thought could happen - they were so terrible, they actually made me hate the original Matrix, which by itself was great. I watched the original Matrix three or four times before the sequels came out - and never watched it since. It's completely ruined.
 
Some candidates for worst:
"Starship troopers 2"?(like battlestar galactica remake, but with more talk and less action)

"Moontrap"(Ash from evil dead and Chekov facing a horde of borg-like creatures)

"Ice Pirates"(water was so precious that people haunted it, and yes it includes time-phase shifting)

"Star Trek generations"(featuring none other then malcolm mcdowell facing of captain Kirk and Picard at thesame time, using some sort of timetravel)


"Inframan"(a guy gets implanted with microchips and turns into a power ranger)

But starcrash, has to be the worst display of a story i ever saw so far.
 
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