Favorite Sci-Fi action movie from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and 00's

[Sentinel X]

Why are people picking more than one movie for each decade?

I mean in all honesty most people will agree (in general) what were the best scifi films of the decade. For example: 90s is (give or take) T2, The Matrix, Jurassic Park, and Gattaca . I find it more interesting in seeing that list narrowed down to one movie

 

[Mass Nerder]

Oh I'd like to add Escape from New York to my 80's list. I know I guess its not tech. a sci-fi movie but for the most part it all falls under the same genre. And also I think I'm way to obessed with the 80's

 

[Mass Nerder]

Why are people picking more than one movie for each decade?

I mean in all honesty most people will agree (in general) what were the best scifi films of the decade. For example: 90s is (give or take) T2, The Matrix, Jurassic Park, and Gattaca . I find it more interesting in seeing that list narrowed down to one movie

He's right even though I keep adding to my 80's list and I started the thread lol

 

[Metallo]

My favorites from each decade

1050's: The Day the Earth Stood Still
1960's: 2001: A Space Odyssey
1970's: Star Wars
1980's: Aliens
1990's: Terminator 2
2000's: Pitch Black

It was almost impossible for me to pick for the 80s. Damn good decade for sci fi movies.

 

[WolfCypher]

I just realized that nobody has mentioned two all-time great remakes for the '80s: The Thing and/or The Fly. Very interesting.

Proves you didn't read my post

 

[jjgravitas]

• 70s: Superman The Movie.
• 80s: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I also liked Supergirl despite the negative reviews & have been looking for a copy ever since
• 90s: The Fifth Element (very original sci-fi, great chemistry between Milla Jovovich and Bruce Willis)
• 2000s: Bandidas (comic Mexican-Western starring Salma Hayec and Cruz as good girls gone bad in the 1800s)

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

70s: Close Encounters of the Third Kind
80s: Blade Runner
90s: The Truman Show
00s: The Prestige

 

[Incrediblejeff]

Why are people picking more than one movie for each decade?

Eh,It shouldn't really matter.It's not like this is something serious,It's just a fun list.

 

[Secret_Riddle]

70's: Star Wars (although I prefer Empire)
80's: Blade Runner (No-brainer, really. One of the most influential films of all time.)
90's: The Matrix
2000's: Still a bit too soon to judge lasting impact, but it's a toss up between District 9, Moon, and Children of Men. Serenity and Star Trek were also great, but they make up part of a bigger whole. They don't really stand alone for me.

So far in this decade, only Inception and Source Code come to mind. Of those, Inception is better.

 

[bullets]

Oh I'd like to add Highlander and The Road Warrior to my 80's list.


And no offesnse to anyone but, Bullets, how is ET a Sci-fi ACTION movie?

I guess i got caught up making my sci fi list and forgot about the action element.

 

[DACrowe]

Ah, I forgot about Serenity. That is now my No. 1 pick for the 2000s above Minority Report. I love me some 'Verse and I love m'e some Firefly awesomeness on the screen.

 

[redhawk23]

While beyond a doubt my favorite scifi film of the past decade is Children of Men, I would simply like to say that while it isn't the best, A.I. Artificial Intelligence does not get enough love.

 

[Secret_Riddle]

Ah, I forgot about Serenity. That is now my No. 1 pick for the 2000s above Minority Report. I love me some 'Verse and I love m'e some Firefly awesomeness on the screen.

Serenity and Firefly, considered together as one giant miniseries, make for the most entertaining SciFi saga in a LONG time. An original and incredibly entertaining look into the future.

 

[redhawk23]

My deal with Children of Men is that other than the whole lack of babies thing, it is probably the most plausible vision of the future I have ever seen. Like I realize it wasn't portraying some super far off distant time, but thats the point. It seemed like our modern times, or at least the modern time of 2006 still had reprecussions in that future. I loved especially how in the special features one of the designers talks about how if you look at some of these poorer countries and refugee camps you very often see styles of clothing lingering on or clothes simply being reused from 20 years ago and how they implemented that in the movie by having our styles be represented in the camps, or how at one point you actually see a fairly nice tv by our standards sitting in one of the immigrants living rooms. Its nice, flatscreen but still a cathode ray tv, on the way out now but by that time would be basically archaic. Its a small touch but one I love.

 

[Secret_Riddle]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence does not get enough love.

It's an interesting film for Kubrick and Spielberg completionists, and it's definitely intriguing in its own right..but something about that movie is just lacking compared to the best science fiction from both their libraries. It's not as influential as movies like Close Encounters and 2001. For my money, it's also not as thematically satisfying as Minority Report, which Spielberg did in the same decade.

As good as it is, it wouldn't seem right for me to call it one of the best science fiction movies of the decade when it doesn't really stand up to what the best of Spielberg and Kubrick have done before. There's more to it as well, I just don't feel it's that great a movie. It's a film you can study, but it's not an amazing film, at least for me.

I could get into this in more detail, but at the end of the day I'm sure we'd both agree on the strengths and weaknesses..and I don't really feel like trying to prove that a movie's simply "good", and not great. Haha.

 

[Secret_Riddle]

My deal with Children of Men is that other than the whole lack of babies thing, it is probably the most plausible vision of the future I have ever seen. Like I realize it wasn't portraying some super far off distant time, but thats the point. It seemed like our modern times, or at least the modern time of 2006 still had reprecussions in that future. I loved especially how in the special features one of the designers talks about how if you look at some of these poorer countries and refugee camps you very often see styles of clothing lingering on or clothes simply being reused from 20 years ago and how they implemented that in the movie by having our styles be represented in the camps, or how at one point you actually see a fairly nice tv by our standards sitting in one of the immigrants living rooms. Its nice, flatscreen but still a cathode ray tv, on the way out now but by that time would be basically archaic. Its a small touch but one I love.

Yup. As far as Science Fiction goes, it's perhaps the most authentic and believable vision out there. It serves as an excellent warning. I also love how the film almost seems like its narrative is being filmed by documentarians. Gives the entire thing an "in the moment" feel. The camera becomes a character. Very unique.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Serenity and Firefly, considered together as one giant miniseries, make for the most entertaining SciFi saga in a LONG time. An original and incredibly entertaining look into the future.

The thing about that particular 'saga' is, the fact that Wehdon very successfully managed to fit his whole 4 or 5 series plan into a two hour movie, tells me that this story did not really have enough there conceptually to sustain that kind of ambition. Because, when i was watching the tv show(b4 the movie was released), it seemed very flawed and flimsy conceptually, I would say that only two of the episodes(Out of gas and objects in space) measured up to his previous work on Buffy and Angel, while the others felt like they were treading water somewhat and were a bit boring as a result.
Yeah, the first series of Buffy was not that great, in comparison to the later seasons anyway, but it was still miles better than Firefly, and Whedon was jusy finding his television feet then.
I thought he put too many constraints on himself, while trying to be a smartass about things, y'know, being a little too smart for the show's own good.
Things like ruling out any contact with aliens whatsoever on the show and never using sound during space travel or battles.
You might think i am being 'lowbrow' in thinking a space/sci-fi show should leave itself open for those standard tropes, but he basically had them in the movie, which was much better than the show. He chickened out keeping to the 'no noises in space' credo for the movie, moving the big 'space' battle to the outer edge of the atmosphere so you could have laser and explosive sounds, I mean, c'mon, those sounds are fun, why try and be the first guy to make space scenes a little bit boring in that respect? and the Reavers took the role of the aliens essentially.
And as I said, the big plot of the series, concerning River, it did not feel like the kind of thing they could have touched on over 4 or 5 series substantially.
I did enjoy the movie a great deal when i saw it at the cinema, he did very well with the limited budget and managing to wrap up his story, i thought it was better than the series, or at least, as good as those two good episodes i cited.
I think they did him a big favour in cancelling the show, so he could distill the story into movie form. Also, y'know, it gave him some practice for the Avengers.

 

[The Morningstar]

My deal with Children of Men is that other than the whole lack of babies thing, it is probably the most plausible vision of the future I have ever seen. Like I realize it wasn't portraying some super far off distant time, but thats the point. It seemed like our modern times, or at least the modern time of 2006 still had reprecussions in that future. I loved especially how in the special features one of the designers talks about how if you look at some of these poorer countries and refugee camps you very often see styles of clothing lingering on or clothes simply being reused from 20 years ago and how they implemented that in the movie by having our styles be represented in the camps, or how at one point you actually see a fairly nice tv by our standards sitting in one of the immigrants living rooms. Its nice, flatscreen but still a cathode ray tv, on the way out now but by that time would be basically archaic. Its a small touch but one I love.

Yea Children of Men is very believable. It's scary. It could even be prophetic (apart from women going infertile which is a bit more out there). It's a masterpiece.

 

[Secret_Riddle]

The thing about that particular 'saga' is, the fact that Wehdon very successfully managed to fit his whole 4 or 5 series plan into a two hour movie, tells me that this story did not really have enough there conceptually to sustain that kind of ambition. Because, when i was watching the tv show(b4 the movie was released), it seemed very flawed and flimsy conceptually, I would say that only two of the episodes(Out of gas and objects in space) measured up to his previous work on Buffy and Angel, while the others felt like they were treading water somewhat and were a bit boring as a result.
Yeah, the first series of Buffy was not that great, in comparison to the later seasons anyway, but it was still miles better than Firefly, and Whedon was jusy finding his television feet then.
I thought he put too many constraints on himself, while trying to be a smartass about things, y'know, being a little too smart for the show's own good.
Things like ruling out any contact with aliens whatsoever on the show and never using sound during space travel or battles.
You might think i am being 'lowbrow' in thinking a space/sci-fi show should leave itself open for those standard tropes, but he basically had them in the movie, which was much better than the show. He chickened out keeping to the 'no noises in space' credo for the movie, moving the big 'space' battle to the outer edge of the atmosphere so you could have laser and explosive sounds, I mean, c'mon, those sounds are fun, why try and be the first guy to make space scenes a little bit boring in that respect? and the Reavers took the role of the aliens essentially.
And as I said, the big plot of the series, concerning River, it did not feel like the kind of thing they could have touched on over 4 or 5 series substantially.
I did enjoy the movie a great deal when i saw it at the cinema, he did very well with the limited budget and managing to wrap up his story, i thought it was better than the series, or at least, as good as those two good episodes i cited.
I think they did him a big favour in cancelling the show, so he could distill the story into movie form. Also, y'know, it gave him some practice for the Avengers.

As far as I know, Serenity was originally intended to be a key plot line from the second season...not 4 or 5 boiled down. Maybe I'm misinformed? As for the Reavers taking the role of aliens..this is..incorrect? Plain and simple. They're frontier folk, cut off from society for so long that they've become uncivilized. They're more Western than SciFi. Regardless, one of my favourite aspects of Firefly was how it combined Scifi and the Western genres. Also, giving up on some of those tropes you mentioned made the entire series feel more unique..they did him a favour by canceling it? I think at the very least, we probably missed out on the best of what the series had to offer regardless of how Serenity turned out.

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

As far as I know, Serenity was originally intended to be a key plot line from the second season...not 4 or 5 boiled down. Maybe I'm misinformed? As for the Reavers taking the role of aliens..this is..incorrect? Plain and simple. They're frontier folk, cut off from society for so long that they've become uncivilized. They're more Western than SciFi. Regardless, one of my favourite aspects of Firefly was how it combined Scifi and the Western genres. Also, giving up on some of those tropes you mentioned made the entire series feel more unique..they did him a favour by canceling it? I think at the very least, we probably missed out on the best of what the series had to offer regardless of how Serenity turned out.

I know what the Reavers are, I just meant that they took on the role of 'alien invaders' in the film(and the show, when they were referred to), where for all intents and purposes they could have been an alien race on any other sci-fi show, in the way they were utilised. So, even though he said he did not want aliens on the show, he used them like that in the movie. Their presence is one of the reasons the movie is better than the tv show, is what I'm saying, and the show would have suffered without that kind of presence in an ongoing space 'exploration' show.
Same with the lack of sound in space.
Yes, it gave it a unique feel sometimes, in those little moments of silence in space as the ship drifted by and whatnot, but, you know what, if he wanted moments like that, he could have just used artistic licence, because sooner or later, he's gonna want to do a good old space barney, and it would suffer from lack of sfx, hence why he chickened out and moved the big battle in the movie to the upper atmossphere.

and as for the show's plan being distilled into the film, I read that in a sci-fi magazine review of the movie, sfx magazine, that the movie was his show plan distilled, so maybe they were wrong about that, or perhaps I mistook their meaning in regards to it only being a season plan distilled.

 

[Sentinel X]

Eh,It shouldn't really matter.It's not like this is something serious,It's just a fun list.

I know its not that serious (hence the smiley) I was saying that it'd be more interesting to see people's favorites since 9/10 times everyone will agree with what were the best sci-fi movies of a decade but not every one will agree with what you think is the ultimate scifi movie of any given decade

nevermind, I'm talking too much

 

[hopefuldreamer]

1970's - THX 1138, Star Wars, Superman
1980's - Terminator, The Running Man, Superman 2, Star wars 2 and 3, Flash Gordon, Dune
1990's -Total Recall, The Fifth Element, Matrix, Men In Black, Independence Day
2000's - Pitch Black, I Robot, Aeon Flux, Serenity, Gamer

 

[Thebumwhowalks]

Aye, there is definitely a more interesting thought process going on if you try to distill your choice down to one film, that's why i thought the threadstarter posed the question of one movie from each decade only.
For instance, that is why i eschewed Star Wars and comic book adaptations, as they would be an easy win for me.
So, instead of going for SW for the 70s, my two choices came down to Alien and Silent Running. Y'know, I basically know whay I chose SR, and that is because is gives me the more emotional response, tugs at the heart strings, hell, when a wee robot, who is basically an eletric heater on legs, dies, they manage to make it totally heartbreaking, wihout being overly sentimental of stupid in any way.
Alien has been one of my fav sci-fi films since i was a little kid, i don't care much for any of the sequels, and like to think of it as a stand alone movie. I think it is an almost perfect movie, but, the last time I watched it, i did think it was a little rushed at the end, i think they could have gotten more mileage in the suspense, ie I didn't think they should have killed off Yaphet and the woman so quickly.
It's aesthetics are phenomenal, but I also love the aesthetics of SR, like, if Alien is the Pink floyd album 'Dark side of the moon', all precise and pristine, 'Silent Running' is an early Bowie album, like 'Ziggy Stardust atsfm' or the 'Space Oddity' album, conjuring up the sci-fi/future, but at the same time, it's aesthetics remain firmly in it's era of the 70s, but I like the 70s a lot, so that appeals to me a great deal.
Like IAL, the story of one man trying to do the right thing, trying to preserve something very important, and struggling with those problems, as well as himself, also appeals to me a great deal.

 

[DarkSovereignty]

70's-star wars
80's-terminator
90's- Jurassic Park
00's-Avatar, (i think that came out in 09)

 

[hame4479]

Wow only two people mentioned avatar in a catagory about great sci fi action, along with district 9 it is hands down delivers some of the best, if not the best, pure balls to the walls sci-fi action of any of the films mentioned that were released during the 00's. Giant mechs vs. giant cat aliens, **** yeah!