Forbidden Planet is, indeed, fantastic. I first saw the film on Boston Common (yes, outside) the summer I was playing in Return to the Forbidden Planet, a musical adaptation with 50s do-wop and the aforementioned Shakespeare and science fiction.

This reviewer hated it, but I had a lot of fun, so if you ever get a chance to see the play, I'd say it's worth it.

I find it telling how Alien to the power of 3 must not be spoken of in your presence and yet you don't even acknowledge the existence of Alien: Resurrection (and rightly so).

My personal vote goes for Aliens. It was my first sci fi movie ever and it had a profound effect on me. You know, besides the nightmares.

Why are there no votes for Spaceballs? -pouts-


:)

I wholly agree and thank you for making the point, sir.

I concur, and now runs to Netflix to add "Forbidden Planet" to my queue.

While I agree that the Leia/Han romance was probably added after the first movie, I just want to say this about the whole "I am your father" issue: in Dutch, the name Darth Vader translates literally as Dark Father. I think you have to give the point to Lucas on that one..... : )

Yes, Alien/Aliens forever! I love the dark realism (or whatever you call it) and Ripley is a great character.
Recently I liked Will Smiths; I Robot. Although I have never read the book so not sure how it maches up..

I never thought of Star Wars as being genuine science fiction, but as far as being a fantasy film I can't think of many better examples of cinematic storytelling (all the films together, that is, not just the first.) Retrofitting or not, the character revelations that occur throughout the trilogy feel entirely organic. The whole Darth Vader/Luke conflict at the end of "The Empire Strikes Back" was satisfying because it came as a surprise...it denied the truth of the universe as we knew it, defied expectations (both ours and the protagonist's), while making complete sense (both logically and emotionally) in retrospect. By the end of the third film you really do feel as though you've experienced a character journey of sorts, which I think is more than can be said about even the most thought-provoking of science fiction films.

I do like 2001, but for entirely different reasons. As pure cinema it's nothing short of gripping...I love the long stretches of silence/music, and the use of minimalist sound effects (for example, the astronauts' breathing) to completely engross/unnerve. I haven't seen Forbidden Planet but it sounds intriguing!

For those attending the event, you can use this link to get to it in SL(if you have an account).

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Sheep%20island/122/30/25

I took the time to register to add 12 Monkeys !

I love the original trilogy but I still love the cult classic Blade Runner. I don't know what went through Dick's mind but his books are great. Some of the movies don't live up to his name but that is a different story.

I'd like to suggest to you my favorite SF film, in the off chance that you haven't seen it, Serenity.

Science fiction can be a tough genre to define, but for my money, no other sci-fi flick can hold a candle to The Matrix.

The sequels on the other hand...

One of the few memories I remember clearly as a 10 year old kid, is going to see Return Of The Jedi at movies. No other movie has impressed me as much since , and probably no other movie will ever do. It was like a first kiss ;) . For me Star Wars is not the best Science Fiction movie , its the best movie period.
Hell I even loved the new trilogy. It doesnt hold a candle to the first one , but the new movies are some of the best adventure movies of the last 20 years. Crap now I have to go watch all six again hehe.

PS sorry about my english , I spell better in greek :)

Maybe it doesn't count as film, but the new Battlestar Galactica does it for me.

I agree about Star Wars. But I didn't much like Alien either, just a splatter movie.
Forbidden Planet was a good movie, and certainly better than Star Wars and 2001.

I have seen very few good SF or fantasy movies recently; they re-write everything and take away all the literary surprises. I hated the movie version of "The Lord of the Rings," not because of character changes, but every possible surprise was ruined; war scenes made no sense; Aragorn's and the Hobbits' offers of service were turned into kidnapping; etc. etc. (Sorry, I also felt that Sandkings as a movie did not have the pathos and sarcasm of the original story.)

Good movies (besides Forbidden Planet):
The Day the Earth Stood Still, Bladerunner, The Lathe of Heaven (original version, not the horrible re-make), and even Baron Munchausen for its vision, and Dragonslayer for its sarcasm.

My all time favorite? Two movies: both the Russian and English versions of Solaris, spectacular, disturbing, but more clear ending than 2001.

Aliens is a horror film plain and simple.

The Star Wars films are movies for children.

Forbidden Planet and The Day the Earth Stood Still were OK, but you only need to see them once.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind was the best sci-fi movie ever done.

Period.

End of Story.

per "starlog," who reprinted earlier interview w/lucas [before or after iv's release], lucas said vader is luke's father. in "revenge/return of the jedi," leia asked luke if he remembered their birth mother & how she was so sad. does the force help them remember what their mother looked like on the day that they were born? i liked "revenge of the sith." when anakin was w/the emperor @ a theatre, the emperor said that he once knew a sith lord who could bring life from mitochondrians? i think the emperor's master[before the emperor killed his master in his sleep(i think it was)] was that sith lord. pick a slave, use mitochondrians to get her pregnant, knowing that the child wouldve a hard, difficult life, which could result in the child becoming angry/hateful/full of hurt, which could lead someone 2 the dark side, or according to "300," could make 1 a very good Spartan ;P

as for han shooting 1st, i agree. he wouldnt live very long shooting 2nd. iv-vi were a lot of fun. 'though ford couldnt act @ that time, his improv lines regarding his thoughts on the force, &, "i know," made iv-vi more fun & left a gaping hole in i-iii. i dont think lucas ever meant to have han shoot 2nd, or spielberg meant for the agents in "et" to have walkie talkies instead of guns, or children dressing up as hobos instead of terrorists. i think it was revisionist history at work after 9/11.

"2001" is visually stunning & has beautiful music, like "fantasia." "2001" is boring, yet intriguing to me.[when the year 2001 started, i thought we'd find a monilith on the moon. haven't read the book yet.]

my best science fiction films list: "Forbidden Planet" ['though it has been a very long time, & i only saw most of it, but wow!], "The Day The Earth Stood Still" [would a mother actually allow a stranger to take her daughter to the movies?], "War Of The Worlds" [the original, havent seen spielberg's remake], "Solaris" [the original, havent seen the remake yet, but wanted to see the original 1st, because i normally hate remakes. (i like george clooney)], "Blade Runner" [went to see it because i love the whole concept, & liked harrison ford before i saw this film & liked rutger hauer after seeing this film], "The 5th Element" [i heard this was a remake, of what, i dont know. but to me, this was so original to me, it's one of those films i can see again & again], "Serenity" [1 of my very best friends recommended it.this film is awesome/original], "1984" [because "1984" is now & has been since 1948 (at least)], "Gattaca" [our impending future], "Hardware Wars," "Spaceballs," "Terminator 1 & 2," "The 6th Day," "Imposter" [like "blade runner," based on a Philip K Dick story], "The Empire Strikes Back" [definitely the original, i prefer when luke takes a step off of the plank, defiantly, telling his father he refuses the dark side, not falling clumsily in the reworked version], "Revenge Of The Sith" [if anakin hadnt walked in, mace windu wouldve killed the emperor], "V For Vendetta" [1 of my favorite films. period.(see "serenity")], "The Matrix" [until ii(which was ok)] & iii [which ruined "the matrix"(i wished i couldve my $$ back on iii)], "Metropolis" [except for the music], "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" [without this film, what would we be watching?]

2001:A space odyssey was one of the slowest movies of any kind ever made. I absolutely hated it. TDTESS was a much better film. I also enjoyed The Forbidden Planet. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (hayao miyazaki)was easily my favorite sci-fi/fantasy film ever.

JMO, but star wars was'nt meant to ever be science fiction. It's
fantasy in space. High Fantasy, they have Kings and Queens and Knights and Laser SWORDS. I don't believe that it was ever meant to be considered Science by any stretch.

Couldn't agree more.

=]'

Haha, as I was reading the beginning of this post, I said to myself, "But what about Forbidden Planet?!" Glad to know you agree.

I still remember seeing Star Wars the first time- I was 7 years old and my best friend and I got dropped off at the theater on some horribly sticky hot afternoon. We sat in the front row and I remember swinging my head from side to side as I tried to see all of the introductory scroll and read it. And then there was the Imperial ship, just going on and on and on as the theater rumbled... Afterwards, we bought rolls of SweeTarts and pretended they were light sabers as we waited to get picked up. Best movie experience of my life. To this day, whenever I'm watching a movie and the screen goes dark and I hear the music for 20th Century Films, there's this tiny surge of adrenaline and the thought, in the very back of my mind, "Star Wars!" Just for a second, I'm seven years old again. I swear, it happens every single time.

I'd have to call Blade Runner the best Sci Fi movie, though. Other favorites, all of which are previously mentioned; Terminator I and II, Alien (still scares the crap out of me), Aliens, Wrath of Khan, Empire Strikes Back, Predator (what other movie stars 2 future governors?), and Serenity. One minor thing about Serenity that bugs me: you could hear the explosions in a vacuum, a detail that Firefly got right. I loved the complete silence.

It's always very enlightening to read (either books or select journals like this)

I agree with most of the quoted films here, but what really disturbs me is the fact that all really good sf (and fantasy) movies are quite old (exceptions like LotR included). Newer movies are numerically rare and overburdened with CGI effects, leaving no room for either character evolution or a real description of the world outlined. I, for one, am very interested in hints at what keeps the world I see on the screen running (not much time for the director to get them in in 120 minutes worth of movie-time, of course).
A good example is Bladerunner, while watching you get a good impression of the world that is outside the main story.

The director of the remake of Raumpatroullie Orion (german classic 50s sf series) said in an interview that for a modern audience you have to show a fast pace. The original series had a spaceship launch scene that went on for over 3 minutes, the remake had to cut it down to about a minute or so because the audience wouldn't watch a launch for a longer time without falling to sleep.

While movies nowadays really lack in terms of world detail, the TV-shows make use of long storylines, good examples are Battlestar Galactica and Firefly, but also the imo underestimated Dark Angel series. Sadly those incredibly rich stories seem to impede the popularity, which means they get dropped after one or two seasons, or don't get the finale they deserved like Babylon 5.
My greatest hope at the moment is that Battlestar Galactica won't die on the way to earth (or somewhere else).

Sorry George, have to disagree, because my criteria for this kind of fiction is "do I want to go there?" If the magic portal appeared in my closet and it led to Middle Earth, I'd go. To Westeros...in a bare minute. To any Star Wars planet...in a heartbeat. To Star Trek...I'd take a leak against the doorpost and close it.

Star Wars is important for the mythos. Who cares about the crappy dialogue? I'm watching the rest of the world unfold in all its gritty detail. This is what drew me and keeps me interested in the Ice and Fire story...except thankfully your dialogue is much better :-)