Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus will soon be upon us, and if the quality of a film may be measured by the eagerness of fans to buy tickets, it will quickly take its place near the top of the science fiction pantheon- and that pantheon has become quite the densely populated place. Uniquely suited to maximize the dazzling impact of 3D and/or CGI special effects, the sci-fi genre has become about as go-to for Hollywood studios as supernatural love triangles and comic book adaptations (themselves often lumped into the sci-fi category, at least by non-purists). Financially, sci-fi flicks are a safe enough bet that someone even greenlighted the based-on-a-boardgame Battleship, just because it features giant, swimming alien robots… okay, so maybe eight-year-old me liked the idea.
So what makes a good science fiction? Well, traditionally they’ve been set in the future, or at least some distant past, far away galaxy facsimile of the future. However, nowadays future is a nebulous concept. The first science fiction film was made over a hundred years ago. Le Voyage dans la Lune (recently reminding us it was famous in Scorsese’s Hugo) told the futuristic tale of a rocket flying to the moon. Considering this very act was actually accomplished in real life more than four decades ago, that storyline now reads more like something best suited for the History Channel.
Contemporary science fictions have had to cope with the fact that we already live in the future. By our best literary estimations, we have been since 1984, though it’s possible Al Gore invented it in the late 70’s. Theories may abound, but it’s tough to argue that by the time the odometer tuned over onto the 21st Century, the future was now, and sci-fi cinema has increasingly had to up the ante to stoke our dystopian fantasies without reminding us too much of our dystopian realities.
Fortunately, some fairly talented screenwriters and filmmakers have helped to redefine the genre, either with the help of special effects, elevated moviecraft or sheer conceptual genius. Here are the top ten Science Fiction Movies of the 21st Century, so far. And I’ve left out comic book adaptations as well as horror flicks; not because I’m a purist, but because there are way too many of them to count, and I didn’t want to crowd out any of the fine and original concepts featured below with flourishes of capes and fangs.
Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002)
I’m sort of contractually obligated to begin this list with a title from the Star Wars franchise. I couldn’t bear to choose Revenge of the Sith because it’s tough to praise what amounts to a Jedi snuff film. And Phantom Menace is disqualified because it was released in 1999- just kidding, Menace was already nixed because it sucked. But of the three, Clones turned out to be the porridge that was just right. It’s essentially a private detective noir with Obi Wan Kinobi leading an investigation that reveals the origins of the storm troopers (and how they relate to the heredity of iconic Boba Fett). It kicks off with a high speed, flying urban car chase and concludes with the bare midriff of Natalie Portman leading an alien monster-riddled gladiator sequence. What more could you want? Oh yeah- the moment that all geeks truly looked forward to the most from the very moment production of the prequel trilogy was announced: Yoda, in his prime, kicking ass with a light saber! When this gets re-released in 3D early next year, George Lucas will officially become richer than the Jabba the Hutt.
Minority Report (2002)
You don’t need to tally collective box office gross to know that Steven Spielberg is the greatest science fiction director of all time. When he’s not shooting World War Two dramas or Tom Hanks vehicles he’s busy making dinosaurs, aliens and robots alternately terrifying and adorable. However, where this Philip K. Dick adaptation deviates from the rest of his work is that it lacks his trademark saccharine elements- no precociously cute kids, no utopian suburban backdrop. Just a fugitive Tom Cruise evading capture with the help of a kidnapped clairvoyant and somebody else’s surgically implanted eyeballs. It’s a fast paced frame-job murder mystery steeped in hi-tech action and wrapped up in the kind of sci-fi concept that can keep geeks in argument late into the night: once you can predict the future, is it possible to change it?
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
The careers of Jim Carey and Kate Winslet seemed unlikely to converge before Michel Gondry matched them in this quirky sci-fi flick posing as romantic comedy, but the surreal pairing lends to the film’s constant sense of puzzlement. A nonlinear narrative follows the on-again/off-again couple as they meet, fall in love, make beautiful memories, drift apart and ultimately split up. So when does this deviate from a Lifetime movie plot? Well, when Charlie Kaufman starts writing the screenplay, for starters. But more importantly when each half of the couple opts to have all memories of the other erased by a mad scientist played gently by the always sublime Tom Wilkinson. Sci-fi movies are rarely funny on purpose, and neither are rom-coms for that matter, so give this one extra points for forcing the Universal Studios marketing team to think outside the box.
Shaun of the Dead (2004)
Remember what I just said about sci-fis not being funny? Apparently 2004 didn’t get the memo. While this zombie flick parody genuinely works as a zombie flick; it just happens to combine the incredible attention to detail of a Coen Brothers film with the gleeful absurdity of a Monty Python sketch. The premise? When a man-made virus renanimates the corpses of its victims, stuck-in-a-rut sales clerk Shaun doesn’t really notice right away. After all, how many differences are there really between a hungover Englishman and the undead? Eventually, Shaun and his dwindling group of ragtag survivors embrace routine as a condition of their humanity, rather than the slow strangling death of it. Which, in its own way, is rather less bleak than most sci-fi conclusions.
Children of Men (2006)
Set in a not too distant future wherein humanity has lost the ability to reproduce, Alfonso Cuarón’s stylish depiction of the PD James novel extracts more thrill from the notion of maternity than anything we’ve seen since Jr. High sex-ed class. Whether it’s an elaborately constructed single shot action piece or a drastically hippied out Michael Caine exhorting the virtues of Strawberry Cough while listening to the “Classic Rock” of Radiohead, the film endures repeat viewing with an onslaught of finely wrought details and impeccable direction. Perhaps more remarkably, it packs a heftier emotional punch than most films in this genre will ever be capable of, despite the perfectly realized stoicism of Clive Owen in a lead role.
Avatar (2009)
Apologies to James Cameron for me previous comments re: Spielberg. After all, Cam has proven his sci-fi mastery and then some by following up The Terminator with an Aliens sequel that might possibly be better than Scott’s original. No one will ever settle that argument for sure, but I may say this with certainty: until Prometheus proves otherwise, Avatar is the best 3D movie you’ll ever spend 15 bucks to see. Nothing has ever been so utterly immersive, so steeped in alien culture, and so visually stimulating. The plot could literally just have been three happy go-lucky scientists taking a nature walk around Pandora for three hours and I’d have gone back to see it twice. As it happens, the plot instead featured an all out natives vs. invader battle featuring science fiction’s most notorious villain: the greedy corporation.
Inception (2010)
I’ll let you in on a little secret, if you spend enough time trying to figure out what the end of Inception means, you will have been inceptioned. So intricate is the setup that the first half of the movie is basically an instructional video teaching you how to understand what’s taking place in the second half, which is psychologically thrilling. I could go on about the film’s cleverness, its intricately detailed layers, its zero gravity fight choreography- but instead I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that this movie’s popularity made us, as a nation, feel pretty smart for a change. Strike that- seeing as the final credits roll on an audience reduced to staring with eager anticipation at a spinning children’s toy, maybe we’re not so bright as all that.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
How often does the seventh film in a franchise even merit consideration as the best of the bunch? Rise isn’t the first prequel to the original Planet of the Apes, nor is it even the first 21st Century update to the classic 70’s series about a bunch of gorillas who speak and wear clothes and basically think they’re people. But it’s far and away the best. One of the reasons this flick succeeds where previous renditions had campily failed is the brilliance of Andy Serkis. The guy has made a niche for himself as Hollywood’s go-to thespian in CGI skin, and at this point in his career he deserves several best actor trophies, or at least his own Oscars category. Here his performance as hyper intelligent chimpanzee Caesar reads as more human than Charlton Heston’s manly, tooth-gritting lead in the original. And when Caesar grows up to be the Moses of his peopl- er, primates? Well, anytime you’re rooting for monkeys in a fight against humans, you’re watching sci-fi gold.
Chronicle (2012)
The most recent entry to this list kinda catches you by surprise. Lo-fi by most current standards, the film adopts the sort of “found footage” conceit that’s given a number of low budget horror movies commercial success over the past several years. For the most part, this means all the excitement of a teenage boy recording himself and his friends with a video camera as they discover a mysterious radioactive object that makes their noses bleed. Oh! And also grants them superpowers. One could easily reduce this to a simple superhero origins story, but the real focus here is how the lads learn to use their newfound abilities, and how they must adapt, morally, to the earth-shattering, capital-P Power they have as a result. And if there’s one thing that defines a science fiction above all else, it’s painting an allegory about just how humankind must bear the responsibility of potentially destructive technologies and the risk we could obliterate ourselves.
Prometheus (2012)
Okay, I’ve established that we live in the future, so why not review a movie we haven’t seen yet? Here we have an outer space prequel with human origin overtones, the shadow of corporate negligence, a classic pulling-at-the-thread-of-the-unknown-with-dire-consequences-motif, 3D special effects, a very of-the-moment cast and one of the most revered science fiction visionaries of all time at the helm. What could go wrong? Well, many a sci-fi flick has asked this very question and come up with all too many convincing answers, so I can’t guarantee Prometheus will earn its spot on this list. However, I will lay down a bet right now: that I don’t have to revisit this list to replace Prometheus’s spot with the new Men In Black movie.
