Recommended Viewing

Instead of lists of recommended reading, this time io9.com has come out with a list of recommended viewing. Written by Charlie Jane Anders, 50 Brilliant Science Fiction Movies That Everyone Should See At Least Once is exactly what the name says.

Unlike most of the recommended reading lists I have been posting, I have actually seen most of these movies.

The list, and Anders's comments on the ones I haven't seen:

1. Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang)
2. Frankenstein (1931, dir. James Whale)
3. The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951, dir. Robert Wise)
4. The Man in the White Suit (1951, dir. Alexander Mackendrick)
   
   One of the classic “Ealing Comedies” starring Alec Guinness, this is a very different sort of “mad scientist” film than Frankenstein. Guinness plays a man who’s determined to invent a fabric that can never rip or get dirty, so he can free millions of people from drudgery. But his invention will also put a lot of people out of work, because eliminating drudgery means eliminating jobs. This is science fiction at its most thought-provoking—and it’s funny as hell, too.
   
   
5. Godzilla (1954, dir. Ishiro Honda)
6. Forbidden Planet (1956, dir. Fred M. Wilcox)
7. Doctor Strangelove (1964, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
8. Planet Of The Apes (1968, dir. Franklin J. Schaffner)
9. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir. Stanley Kubrick)
10. Solaris (1972, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
11. Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, dir. Steven Spielberg)
12. Alien (1979, dir. Ridley Scott)
13. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980, dir. Irvin Kerschner).
14. The Lathe of Heaven (1980, dir. David Loxton and Fred Barzyk)
    
    Based on the novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, this made-for-TV movie is a rock solid piece of science fiction as well as an unsettling psychological drama. Despite the PBS production values, this story of a man whose dreams start coming true in the real world manages to pack in a lot of strangeness and wild visions. Plus it asks the kinds of huge questions about the nature of reality, and how our perceptions shape the world, that science fiction often asks at its best.
    
    
15. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981, dir. George Miller)
16. Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan (1982, dir. Nicholas Meyer)
17. Blade Runner (1982, dir. Ridley Scott)
18. E.T. (1982, dir. Steven Spielberg)
19. Tron (1982, dir. Steven Lisberger)
20. Back To The Future (1985, dir. Robert Zemeckis)
21. Brazil (1985, dir. Terry Gilliam)
22. Enemy Mine (1985, dir. Wolfgang Petersen)
23. RoboCop (1987, dir. Paul Verhoeven)
24. Predator (1987, dir. John McTiernan)
25. They Live (1988, dir. John Carpenter)
26. Akira (1988, dir. Katsuhiro Otomo)
27. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, dir. James Cameron)
28. Jurassic Park (1993, dir. Steven Spielberg)
29. Ghost In The Shell (1995, dir. Mamoru Oshii)
    
    Like Akira, this is one of the first anime films to hit the U.S. and make a big impact, and impress on U.S. fans how powerful anime film-making was becoming. It’s spawned a huge franchise, which for the most part hasn’t diluted the awesomeness of the concept at all — Stand Alone Complex is considered one of the greatest science fiction anime shows, and it wouldn’t exist without this film. With its theme of possibly false memories and cyber-weirdness, it had a huge influence on both cyberpunks and memory-altering works like Dark City and Dollhouse, but it turns into an amazing examination of the theme of sentience and the definition of life.
    
    
30. Twelve Monkeys (1995, dir. Terry Gilliam)
31. Gattaca (1997, dir. Andrew Niccol)
32. The Fifth Element (1997, dir. Luc Besson)
33. The Matrix (1999, dir. the Wachowskis)
34. Galaxy Quest (1999, dir. Dean Parisot)
35. Primer (2004, dir. Shane Carruth)
36. The Incredibles (2004, dir. Brad Bird)
37. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004, dir. Michel Gondry).
38. Serenity (2006, dir. Joss Whedon)
39. Children Of Men (2006, dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
40. The Host (2006, dir. Bong Joon-ho)
41. Wall-E (2008, dir. Andrew Stanton)
42. Moon (2009, dir. Duncan Jones)
43. District 9 (2009, dir. Neill Blomkamp).
44. Inception (2010, dir. Christopher Nolan).
45. Looper (2012, dir. Rian Johnson)
46. Her (2013, Spike Jonze)
47. Predestination (2014, dir. Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig)
    
    And here’s a sort of companion piece to Looper and Twelve Monkeys—the Spierig Brothers took Robert A. Heinlein’s classic, defining story of time travel and transformation, and actually managed to turn it into a powerful, satisfying movie. What makes this film more than just the clever closed-loop time travel scenario its title implies is the intense performance from Sarah Snook as the “Unwed Mother.”
    
    
48. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014, dir. James Gunn)
49. Ex Machina (2015, dir. Alex Garland)
50. The Martian (2015, dir. Ridley Scott)

This isn't a terrible list; it has many of my favorites, including the much underrated Enemy Mine. I am also glad it included Robocop, which I like as an economist for the portrayal of the problems of private provision of public goods. As Anders says, it is: "A surreal blend of cyberpunk, Frankenstein and action movie, this film remains Verhoeven’s greatest statement." Well, maybe I would disagree with the last statement as some great Verhoeven films were left off the list.

It is a strange list in some ways, too. Most notably for me, it includes a lot of space opera while excluding a bunch of great works of speculative fiction, such as some of the many movies based on the work of Philip K. Dick. There are also no horror or live action super hero films (although The Incredibles does make it, deservedly) on the list, probably by design.

Here are some others I would have included:

1. The Truman Show (1998, dir. Peter Weir). Written by Andrew Niccol, I think this is an excellent example of near future speculative fiction.
2. Stalker (1979, dir. Andrei Tarkovsky). Based on the Strugatsky brothers novel, Roadside Picnic, this is what the best of all speculative fiction can be.
3. Edge of Tomorrow (2014, dir. Doug Liman). Maybe the best time travel movie ever made, I cannot understand why this wasn't both a bigger hit and more critically acclaimed. I also cannot imagine anyone other than Tom Cruise in the main role.
4. Terminator (1984, dir. James Cameron). The sequel was awesome too, but the original blew my mind.
5. Aliens (1986, dir. James Cameron). The directors cut improves over the already excellent theatrical release. 
6. Starship Troopers (1997, dir. Paul Verhoeven). Although not at all faithful to Heinlein's brilliant novel, this is a sly subversive masterpiece in its own right.
7. Minority Report (2002, dir. Steven Spielberg). More thought provoking speculative fiction based on a Philip K. Dick novel. Spielberg adds some wonderful speculative elements about our near future society.
8. Impostor (2002, dir. Gary Fleder). Another film based on a Philip K. Dick novel.
9. Total Recall (1990, dir. Paul Verhoeven). Stay away from the stylishly filmed but ultimately terrible 2012 remake directed by Len Wiseman. This might be my favorite SF film of all time. Also based on a Philip K. Dick idea.
10. Gravity (2013, dir. Alfonso Cuarón). Much better than the snoozer Children of Men that did make the list above.
11. Avatar (2009, dir. James Cameron). I know many people have problems with this movie, but the breathtaking visuals and the transformative effects of the new 3D technology it used requires that it be listed here.