My favorite science fiction movies

I saw X-Men: First Class last Friday, and it was pretty great!  (Read my full review here.)  Watching it got me to thinking about how much I liked X2, which reminded me how much I love superhero/science fiction film, which reminded me of how much I loved putting that animated films list together, which led to this!

Science fiction is a pretty big component to my life - it's most of what I read, my friends are all nerds, I was president of the club in high school (no joke!  I also like going to conventions when I have the money.).  And since recently there has been a spat of TRULY EXCELLENT science fiction film produced, it made sense to me to do my top ten favorite sci-fi flicks.

Remember: this list and a (hypothetical) list of what I would consider the top ten BEST sci-fi movies are probably not the same!  But these are the ones I go back to over and over again - partially because they're really good movies, and partially because they're fun or enjoyable and I like watching them over and over.  (This is why there are no Star Wars films here - I do not deny their superiority in the genre, but when it comes to a movie I want to watch on an average Saturday night, Star Trek wins every time.)

Also, these are not ranked because I kept changing my mind.  So I just ordered them alphabetically.

District 9 (2009)

2009 was a wonderful year for science fiction film, and ALSO for summer movies, which are two of my favorite genres.  District 9 and Star Trek both opened to critical acclaim - expected for D9, less so for Star Trek (which you'll see further down the list), but both ended up being far better than anyone really thought.  And D9 does a lot of things incredibly well: yes, the apartheid metaphor is rather heavy-handed what with it being set in South Africa and all, but D9 starts obviously and works its way into the subtle, even while the movie becomes less mockumentary and more flat-out action.  By the end you don't know who to root for, because you've seen deplorable as well as sympathetic behavior from all the major parties involved.  It's too easy to hate the humans, and D9 doesn't ask you too - like Vickus, our main character, is forced to, it asks you to give everyone a fair hearing.  And it breaks your heart a little, too, and I'm a sucker for that.

Equilibrium (2002)

 

I think everything I love about Equilibrium can be summed up in a scene about a quarter of the way through the film, when Christian Bale rips the frosted sheet off his window and looks out at the city he lives in really for the first time.  It’s raining, but the view is also bathed in sunlight, and the whole thing is rich and emotional and beautiful.  It’s one of the first things to affect Bale’s character in an emotional way, and he makes you feel that with every heaving breath and wide-eyed stare.  He’s almost suffocating in beauty.  While Equilibrium can feel a little overwhelming at times (there are a lot things that are never explained, like where exactly this is all taking place), but the story at its root is deceptively simple and ultimately beautiful: it’s a movie that wants you to celebrate in the things that make you feel.

Also there is a puppy.

The Fifth Element (1997)

 

Of the two big sci-fi adventures that Bruce Willis is part of, this one is clearly superior (not that I don't love Armageddon, because I do, but let's be serious here).  Willis strikes just the right tone as our embittered, reluctant hero, getting dragged along to save the world despite his own preferences or his best interests.  Mila Jovovich has never been more charming, either before or after, and her character Leeloo has rightly become iconic.  The amount of asskicking this woman does is BREATHTAKING.  

But what I really love about Fifth Element is how COLORFUL it is.  It's a joy to watch, not just because of the wonderful characters and dialogue or the tense action, but because every shot is a neon beam of color against the outer space backdrop.  The visual style is akin to a Vegas light show, which is perfect for the pulpy feel and elemental themes of the whole adventure.

Inception (2010)

Is it a dream or reality?  If you really get bent out of shape over that very last image, you're missing the point.  And the point is an extraordinarily well-told and well-acted film with hyperactively memorable effects that excavates the depths of human imagination.  This is a movie that definitely rewards repeat viewings, as you're going to miss little background details the first time you see it while you're trying to process the story.  There are moments when it's a little too in love with its own cleverness, sure (the hospital scene springs immediately to mind), but overall this is going down in film history as the movie that pulled science fiction out of the "genre film" box and into the mainstream in a way that even Star Trek couldn't.  It also cements the notion that big summer blockbusters can *gasp* be Best Picture material; unfortunately, even though District 9 was nominated the year before, it didn't really have a chance at the title.  But Inception did, and hopefully people will remember that in Oscar seasons to come.

Independence Day (1996)

Yes, the science in this movie has problems.  But I fall firmly on the side of, "In a movie about an alien invasion, why are you worried about what kind of vehicles Will Smith can actually pilot?" and "They blew up the WHITE HOUSE, people.  WHO CARES if Jeff Goldblum wrote a fake virus on a Mac that somehow works on an alien computer system?"  In other words, if you're complaining about the realism of the hard science elements, you're probably thinking too hard.  I firmly support rollicking violent movies with lots of explosions, and Independence Day hands those out like candy.  Fortunately for us, the violence is side-by-side with  truly brilliant and sympathetic characters, and one of the best "We will survive!" speeches this side of Return of the King.  It's hard not to get a little teary when Bill Pullman is pulling out all the stops like that, and when you have actors as likeable as Pullman, Smith and Goldblum, it's impossible to resist pumping your fist in the air victoriously after the final confrontation.  Give in to the fist-pumping, my friends. 

Jurassic Park (1993)

I had originally intended to write a thing about how compared to any other movie that came out in 1993, Jurassic Park is still easily the best looking of the bunch, but then I looked at a list of everything released in 1993 and there were some supremely excellent releases then (Nightmare Before Christmas!  Dave!  True Romance!  Benny & Joon!).  SO.  New plan.  I would still like you to consider the effects in Jurassic Park, though, because movies are made NOW that don't look this good.  The tension in this movie is just so well done - never before has a single cup of water been so terrifying.  The way light and shadow are used to enhance the prey-like feeling of being stalked by dinosaurs, and the use of animatronics, still make this one a great late-night scare.  Plus, awesome performances from Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum, two of my favs.  There will LITERALLY never be a moment as breathtaking as when Neill sees the brachiosaurs for the first time, jaw open and fumbling with his sunglasses.  Even thinking about it recalls the swell of music and that soaring, breathless feeling you get with pure, cinematic joy.

The Matrix (1999)

why martha do you like dystopian future movies NO WHY DO YOU ASK.

If you asked me what I thought the defining film of my generation is, my answer would be The Matrix.  Not only is it a technical marvel wrapping up a fairly simple story that's saturated with intriguing philosophical questions, but it manages to capture the human/technology relationship in a captivating way.  From the beginning the machines are running the show - think about it, when's the last time you woke up in the morning and didn't check your e-mail first thing?  The Matrix makes all of those little decisions (checking your e-mail, updating Facebook, even punching in a Google search) a little bit chilly when you think about how much you rely on various tech to get through your day.  But instead of continuing this thesis on why The Matrix is RELEVANT, I can tell you short and sweetly why I love it so, so much: exciting action, empathetic characters, amazing effects.  Oh, and also its cultural relevancy.

Minority Report (2002)

Tom Cruise gets a lot of flak from people, and to be fair, dude is sort of nuts.  But he's definitely a brilliant actor and Minority Report showcases some of his best work.  One of the few cases where (in my honest opinion) the adaptation eclipses the original work, this film shows two sides of science fiction to great effect: you get the high-tech glossy side, with shiny technology and gleaming metal surfaces, and the seedy, dirty, dystopian worldview that remains so popular today.  While classism isn't necessarily the point of the movie, it is an integral part of the world the movie takes place in, and if there's one thing I love it's rich, complex world-building.  And heart-pounding chase scenes!  Also a good dose of clever cinematography, such as when Cruise and the pre-cog are on the run in the mall and she keeps foreseeing little details like the umbrella.  Sometimes I feel like I get a new detail every time I see this one, it's like a film that keeps on giving.

Star Trek (2009)

I confess to literally not caring AT ALL the first time I saw a teaser for this one.  I have never been a Star Trek fan; I'd seen a handful of episodes, mostly for an anthropology class I took in college (I know, right?), and I was not really impressed or charmed by Shatner or the kitschy feel of it all.  But then the release date was announced for my birthday, and we actually got to see bits of the footage in trailers, and I'm completely in love with Chris Pine, so you know.  These things happened.  And I saw it opening night, and I LOVED it.  Pine is the PERFECT Kirk, with all of Shatner's fratboy bravado but none of the scenery chewing, and Zachary Quinto encapsulated Spock's cool logic while bringing a good dose of human sensitivity to everything.  The only issue I had with it was that I wanted Eric Bana's Nero to be more...something, I don't know.  It's like, they try to make him a sympathetic villain, but then also try to cash in on the Kirk/Khan relationship, and both end up not quite getting there.  But otherwise this movie is one of the finest ensemble casts in years, and provides scads of entertainment every time I watch it.  Which is a whole lot.

X2: X-Men United (2003)

Technically, I suppose superhero movies are their own subgenre of film at this point, but X-Men has too many science fiction tropes going on for me to leave it off this list.  I also happen to consider X2 one of the best superhero movies to have been made this side of The Dark Knight.  It's pretty much the perfect sequel - it picks up a few loose threads from the first film but also has its own stand-alone story, and William Stryker makes a much better political foe than Senator Kelly does in X-Men.  I really enjoy watching Magneto and his Brotherhood circle warily with Professor X and his X-Men, as they figure out how to work together out of necessity; plus I have always been enamored with the relationship between Professor X and Magneto (which, as a side note, is mostly why I loved X-Men: First Class so much).  Finally, it's hard for me NOT to love this movie, since Nightcrawler is my very favorite X-Men character and in general I think the movie does a really good job with him.

Oscar Rehash, and How I Did on My Predictions

Let's talk about the ceremony, which I didn't find nearly as terrible as most people seemed to. It had its ups and downs, but doesn't it every year? You may remember I made a couple of predictions about how things would go down - let's see how I did.

1. THAT co-hosting was so full of awkward moments that I can't actually count all of them. (Anne Hathaway dances "The Dance of the Brown Duck" (in tap shoes!) while James Franco wears a HORRIFYING body stocking! Franco appears in a...hot pink evening gown and Marilyn Monroe wig! That is a thing that happened.) Add in Anne's hillarible angry song directed at Hugh Jackman and I'm calling this 85% win...but for the lack of real dancing, and no Neil Patrick Harris (WHO SHOULD TOTALLY HOST NEXT YEAR, ACADEMY. TAKE NOTES.)

2. Hathaway wore Valentino on the carpet (maybe because 8 trillion other women were in Marchesa), but went for a total of 7 dress changes. Most of them were actually MUCH better than the Valentino, including a gorgeous gold shag column from Oscar de la Renta. So this one gets a 50% win.

3. NO 127 Hours jokes, AT ALL. I didn't think this was fair, although it may have been because Ben Stiller didn't even come to the show. With all the potshots our hosts took at every other film, though, it did seem like Franco's own film was left out of the fun because of his hosting duties. To which I say: dude was STONED, people. He probably would have laughed, too. 0% win.

4. Hailee Steinfeld did look adorable in her custom fitted Marchesa. I could wax rhapsodic about how much I love this girl, but I'll just say for now that it's ok she didn't win Best Supporting Actress as I look forward to her long and varied movie career (get this girl under contract for The Hunger Games, and do it NOW). I was VERY DISAPPOINT she and The Dude didn't have a red carpet moment (that I saw on E!, anyway). But that's ok, I think they've had those before other shows and they're probably sick of each other by now. Not that Steinfeld would show it, though, because she's SO poised and collected during interviews. 33% win.

5. COLIN FIIIIIIRTH. Helena Bonham Carter's dress looked more like it walked off the set of Sweeney Todd than Alice, and the camera didn't pan to Rush but that was because Firth was too busy being adorable and amazing. There was no bromance shout-out, but I'm tempted to call this a win because of when Firth said he needed to go backstage and dance. 100% win for movies and the world, 33% win for me.

6. I think Andrew Garfield was there? Jesse Eisenberg definitely was, because I asked my family if he had an entire security detail when he arrived on the red carpet. TRENT REZNOR FOR THE WINNNN, I don't CARE how y'all feel about Hans Zimmer (who I love, but seriously, the score for The Social Network was haunting and beautiful and a seamless part of the spectacle onscreen. Reznor deserves this.). I wish we'd gotten that red carpet pose, but oh well. The carpet on the whole was pretty boring. 50% win, because Mara wasn't there and I'm free to speculate that it's because of her Dragon Tattoo getup.

7. 100% win, although this is also 100% lose because my heart really is broken. I just want to watch How To Train Your Dragon over and over and over again.

8. I was honestly shocked that The Wolfman won Best Makeup - usually, when a movie like this gets nominated for something it actually deserves, it loses to the more obvious Oscar bait (I was also surprised by Alice in Wonderland's Art Direction win). It was thrilling to me to see the Academy award truly brilliant work (in the Makeup respect; Wolfman was a good movie, but I would hesitate to call it brilliant). Sadly, Benicio del Toro was not there, lupine-looking or not. 0% win, but a pleasant outcome so I'll take it.

9. Where on Earth was the cast of Inception? Nolan was there, the camera panned to him a couple of times, but I was CHEATED out of Marion Cotillard's dress and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a suit. Which is a TRAGEDY. Inception did win some big awards, though: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. 0% win for me, but much more win for Inception (and genre film).

10. It's hard to categorize my percentage of win in this case because NO ONE CAME TO THE SHOW. Seriously, I felt like E! was showing me the same 12 people on the red carpet because they had no one else to interview. Four of my predictions for worst dressed didn't even show up, and the fifth (Hilary Swank) looked really, really good in her Marchesa feathered ballgown. Of my five best dressed predictions, only two showed; although Helen Mirren DID look fantastic, and I liked Melissa Leo's dress (although I might be the only one).

Overall I did not do well. But! I had fun watching the show, and now all I want to do is watch movies forever (can The King's Speech come out on DVD now, please?). And really, that's what the Oscars is all about, isn't it?

10 Oscar Predictions!

Not necessarily movie related.

1. Anne Hathaway and James Franco will have no less than five hilariously awkward co-host moments, probably relating to the fact that they're both tremendously beautiful people who aren't used to sharing the limelight. One of these will be a song-and-dance routine, in which Neil Patrick Harris will have a cameo. (Can we please just have him host next year? God, he would be SO GREAT.)

2. Anne Hathaway's dress will be Marchesa on the red carpet, but she will go through at least three costume changes. Probably more - one for every time she's on stage. (I really, really desire this to be true.)

3. There will be at least one 127 Hours joke made, but probably not by Franco. I'm betting on Ben Stiller, who needs something HUGE to top that Na'vi horror show he put on last year. I'm thinking fake blood and a ruined designer suit.

4. Hailee Steinfeld will look adorable, and will win Best Supporting Actress. It will be a fashion victory for all members of the Dakota Fanning School for Starlets. She and Jeff Bridges will probably have an awesome red carpet moment, where he gets to be fatherly and wise and she gets to be endearingly nervous.

5. Colin Firth will win Best Actor. Helena Bonham Carter will not win, but her dress will look like it walked off the set of Alice in Wonderland (which will then win Best Costuming). After his win the camera will pan to Geoffrey Rush, who will then get a shout-out from Firth for their historical bromance.

6. Rooney Mara will not be attending because of her costuming for Dragon Tattoo. Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield will be there, in tremendously adorable slim-cut suits, and (PLEASE GOD) they will pose on the carpet with Trent Reznor (who will then win for Best Original Score, a comprise a replay of what happened when "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" won Best Song for Hustle & Flow).

7. Toy Story 3 will win Best Animated Film and it will break my heart. (Seriously. Pixar must have an entire room for their statuettes by now. How To Train Your Dragon was better, Academy. They were both good, but Dragon was better. Please, please show me that you can be innovative and recognize artistic achievement that's not just a creature of habit. PLEASE.)

8. Benicio del Toro will be in attendance, but The Wolfman will not win Best Makeup (even though it SHOULD, oh my GOD, it was BRILLIANT). He will probably look strikingly like a werewolf.

9. Inception will not win any awards except technical ones, because the Academy has forgotten how to recognize truly brilliant science fiction. Leonardo DiCaprio may not even show up, but Christopher Nolan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt will look dapper and gracious and (hopefully) shame the Academy so that they think harder about their Director nominees next year. Marion Cotillard might get a red carpet moment with Nolan, and I hope she wears a dress like that white mermaid thing she wore when she won for La Vie En Rose.

10. The following women will be fashion disasters and I will love every minute of it: Cameron Diaz, Kristen Stewart (if she gets an invite this year - unless she's presenting, she might not even go), Hilary Swank, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Ellen Page (I want her to look awesome SO BAD, but her history is against her). The following women will look AMAZING: Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anna Kendrick, and Melissa Leo.

A Letter to the Academy, or, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID

I was working on an in-depth look at my top ten films from 2010, but really, there aren't any surprises on my list - I tried really hard to include The Wolfman, Daybreakers, and Kick-Ass, but in the end it boiled down to:

10. The Other Guys
9. Easy A
8. Scott Pilgrim v. The World
7. The Runaways
6. Toy Story 3
5. Inception
4. The Fighter
3. The King's Speech
2. How to Train Your Dragon
1. The Social Network

Then I planned this impassioned defense of why things like True Grit and Black Swan and Winter's Bone aren't on here, but let's be real, we all know a few things about me: a. I love kid's movies; b. I love dragons, c. I didn't like True Grit, and d. I sweat Jesse Eisenberg and Christian Bale. All of which really explains just about everything up there.

But I'm a procrastinator, and I lost my window to make that discussion relevant. Luckily for me, new things are happening in film media all the time, and I have been hand-served a topic rife with controversy just this morning.

So let's talk about the Academy Awards.

It's hard for me to explain my devotion to the Oscars. I've watched the entire telecast, front to back, including the red carpet show, every year since I was 14 (Fellowship of the Ring had a lot to do with that). I love the spectacle, true, but as I've learned more about film and become more able to view it critically and, most importantly, discuss it intelligently, I've been able to watch the Oscars critically as well. Especially because the more often I watch the awards, the more "awards fodder" I take the time to watch. It's a feedback loop - I enjoy movies, so I watch the Oscars; I watch the Oscars, so I see awards-bait to put them in context.

My boyfriend laughs at me because I take film too seriously (which I do, no doubt), but...there's something to being able to watch the ceremony on an informed basis. I like being able to see the nominations and say, "Well, I agree with this this and this, but this is clearly my pick for the win, because of this." The more I know about the nominees, the more fun it is.

What happened today is appalling. For the most part, I was neither surprised nor displeased with the nomination results - I may not like True Grit, but the rest of Hollywood does. The Social Network, The King's Speech, these have always been the front runners. Sure, there were a few (pleasant) surprises in the acting categories, but not many, and none I actively disagreed with. I'm sure at this point you all know where I'm headed with this, but I'm plowing onward anyway.

Dear Academy,

Why, oh why, didn't Christopher Nolan get nominated for Best Director? Why nominate Inception AT ALL if you're not going to recognize that Nolan was the reason it was so great? You know as well as I do that in less capable hands, Inception would have been a confusing, stuttering mess. Nolan was able to take a handful of psychology, some talented but disjointed actors, and an exposition-heavy script and turn it into a visual, thrilling masterpiece. The script itself is not enough to elevate this film to its exceptional levels; even the (admittedly stunning) visuals by themselves didn't make it great. Nolan did.

This is also not the first time that Nolan has taken an ensemble cast and a fabulous backdrop and produced something amazing. I understand why The Dark Knight didn't get much love from you - I didn't agree with the decision, but I know summer blockbusters, even when they are exceptional films, aren't really part of the Academy image. Which begs the question: why nominate Inception, which was just as much of a big-budget spectacle as TDK, at all unless it's partly an apology to Nolan for not recognizing his work last year? And if you're going to take that step, why the directorial snub? Your choices make no sense.

Nolan deserves that statuette, Academy. Not just the nomination he was so clearly robbed of, but the win as well. The Social Network will clearly win the Best Picture award, and I'm fine with that. But please, please start giving credit where credit is due. TSN is Best Picture material because of outstanding acting, a phenomenal script, and handling such topical material with deft panache. Inception is Best Picture material because of Nolan. And not recognizing that just makes you blind.

God help you if Nolan produces a hat trick of greatness with The Dark Knight Rises, and you continue to sit on your red velvet pedestal and look down your nose at a man who not only makes entertainment, but great entertainment.

Inception, and the Problem With Trailers

I saw Inception last night, but that's not what I want to talk about right now. I think the major media outlets and the rest of the world are doing a really good job of promoting how awesome and well-conceived and visually stunning Inception is, so it's really enough to say that I agree with them and think you should all go see the movie right now. What I WOULD like to talk about is the distressing habit of trailers to ruin movies.

Before Inception I watched three trailers: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, The Social Network, and The Town. Wall Street is a sequel, so it's a pretty good guess that the film will be about Shia LaBeouf following Michael Douglas into nefarious money-making schemes and Carey Mulligan saving them all by being adorable. The Social Network is about all those privacy and copyright issues we've all grown to know and love because we use Facebook every day. These movies are being marketed on their familiarity to us - the trailers can tell us anything because we already know everything. And that's ok.

But The Town has potential to be surprising and exhilarating. Ben Affleck is a bank robber trying to make good in a small New England town, girlfriend and everything. Except that his girlfriend was the hostage in an earlier bank robbery, and it turns out that Affleck was one of the robbers in that incident. Instant drama. But how thrilling would it have been to be watching that movie, and to not know that that connection existed? What a reveal that could have been! Except that it's in the trailer, and now the film pretty much has no surprises for us.

Somewhere, at some point, movie producers decided that audiences didn't want surprises. The biggest evidence of this is the staggering number of sequels and remakes being pumped out of Hollywood; they're practically no-risk, because the litmus test has already happened. And now trailers are performing the same function, by using what should be key plot points as artificial hooks. It makes me feel like studios don't trust me as an audience member, which is ludicrously condescending.

And what's more, we know have PROOF that this doesn't need to happen. What did you know about Inception from the trailers and ad campaigns? Practically nothing - in fact, Christopher Nolan banked the whole profit of the film on not telling us anything. And it worked. Inception made $64 million in its opening weekend, and continues to profit by that endangered species, word-of-mouth publicity. Nolan trusted us an audience to choose to see his film even though (and more importantly, because) we'd be surprised by it. Not only did this make me want to Inception pretty desperately, but it also makes me more inclined to see films Christopher Nolan makes, because he has made me feel like he respects me as an audience member more than other directors or studios. And I appreciate that immensely more than I appreciate being spoon-fed an idea because someone doesn't trust me to "get it."

You know who else makes trailers like this? Trailers that give you a taste of a concept, without telling you much of the story and certainly without giving any plot keys away? Pixar. Remember the first teaser for Wall-E? Some starscapes and that adorable robotic voice. Later, we got to see the little dude gazing soulfully up at the sky, and finally we learned that he'd developed imagination and a personality. That was all. Wall-E made $63 million on its opening weekend. I could also quote you stats on UP and Toy Story 3, because they're similar stories. This isn't quite the same animal, since at this point Pixar has basically proved that they can't actually make BAD movies, but the point is the same: Pixar gives us a taste and a striking visual and trusts us to come to the theater on those legs alone. And it WORKS.

I hope it's a lesson other studios can learn.