What makes "The Best Sci-Fi Movies" to you?

Popular Mechanics recently released a list of The 10 Best Sci-Fi Movies—As Chosen By Scientists.  I shared it on my Facebook page, of course.  And as tends to happen, a conversation broke out among my friends pointing out films that were omitted from the list and those that should have been.  Basically, the sort of thing you'd expect to happen when anyone makes a list of the 10 best anything.

But it got me thinking... what makes "The Best Sci-Fi movies"?  Surely if there can be a *best*, you  must first define the criteria by which the things are judged.  So I thought I would set down what makes "The Best Sci-Fi Movies" to me.

1) It has to be be art, damn it!

That seems pretty obvious, right?   Whether it's the gorgeous cinematography in Close Encounters of the Third Kind or the incredible production design that built  Metropolis, "The Best Sci-Fi Movies" should be able to stand up against the artistry any other genre.


2) It should be technically innovative.

From Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon to Alfonso Cuarón immersive Gravity, sci-fi  movies have pushed the bounds of what can be done in the medium of film for over 100 years. And that's something to be proud of, I think.  To be called "The Best", a sci-fi movie needs to "wow" the audience and give them something that has never been seen before.

3) It needs to have something to say.

I'm sorry to all of the space cowboys and star princesses out there, but sci-fi has always been an amazing vehicle to examine the human condition.  War? Religion? Class? Politics? All are fair game.  "The Best Sci-Fi Movies" should give you something to chew on that goes deeper than the laser blasters and witty one-liners.

4) It has to be fun!
You can also substitute "exciting", "engaging", or "something that won't cause your friends to murder you for having subjected them to it."  Unfortunately, that's where films like Star Trek: The Motion Picture and nerd-favorite 2001: A Space Odyssey suffer in comparison to the likes of Star Wars (1977) or Star Trek (2009).  While we geeks may love to spend several ponderous hours watching characters gape in awe at stunning visual effects sequences and contemplate the meaning of existence while slow classical music inevitably thrums in the background, films of that type have very limited cross-over appeal.  And shouldn't that be the point?  Why make a movie at all if next to no one wants to watch it?  And what right do we have to complain about the success of Duck Dynasty or the latest romcom  if the movies we feel are more deserving of that success are... you know... freaking boring?  Ultimately, "The Best Sci-Fi Movies" should be accessible to all comers, whether they be Academy Award judges or a group of friends gathered around the tube with  pizza and beer on a  Friday night.

So, can any sci-fi movies meet each of these criteria?  I would humbly suggest that Planet of the Apes (1968) excels in each category.   Can your favorite sci-fi movies say the same?  And what do you make of my list?  Did I leave something off?  Or should I have?

What makes a "The Best Sci-Fi Movies" to you?

This is my first attempt at recreating 1960's televison visual effects with $5 worth of craft supplies. The results are actually promising!

If you've never seen "The Tholian Web" (shame on you, btw) but this is what I'm going for... http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Loskene

Being a grown-up kinda sucks.

I remember when I was a kid- I used to spend my time writing stories, drawing cartoons, creating my own board games and toys.  When my parents couldn't afford to buy a Ninja Turtles' lair, I built my own.  If wanted a robot to play with, I created one out of the junk in my grandmother's hall closet.  I brought my sister's toys to life and gave them all distinct personalities, I dreamt up monsters, and had adventures through space and time.  You may not know this, but I was the creator of the comics "Fungi and the Frog Force" and "Mothman." I was the author of "Time Flux" and "The Beast" (both of which won Young Author's Fair Awards).  I could do anything in those days and  I just knew that when I grew up I'd become a filmmaker or a cartoonist or a writer or a puppeteer... or maybe all of those things.  What ever happened to that kid?  Is that really him, sitting at a desk everyday and staring at numbers on a computer screen that elicit no emotional reaction whatsoever?   I don't think so.

The purpose of this blog is to find that kid again.  Over the past few years I've managed to beat back the mundanity of my day-to-day life a bit and I've started to pursue my dreams.  It's time to take it further.  I don't just want to do a few of the things I've always longed to do- I want to do them all!  I live in an age where the tools to create anything I want and show it to the world are right at my fingers- it's time to do exactly that.

-Kelso