What's the Greatest Science Fiction Film of All Time?

There's a poll from SciFiNow asking, "What's the greatest science fiction film of all time?" It's already been narrowed down to 10 finalists. I can't help but think that some great films have been left off that short list, but I love many of the movies that did make it. I don't put much stock in these polls anyway. I just like what I like and appreciate what I appreciate, and it doesn't matter if it matches what others think. Still, the list does provoke thought.


Among the films that made the cut is the original Planet of the Apes. Rod Serling was one of the screen writers of this adaptation of Pierre Boulle's novel. (Please don't confuse this with the awful remake from 2001.) Over the years, some have minimized Rod Serling's contribution to the final script after screen writing great Michael Taylor took over. However those who have examined drafts of the script contend that Serling contributed more to the final product than people generally realize. The novel ended with a twist, but the movie's twist is considerably different. Turns out that it was Serling's idea to utilize a certain statue. Some of the major changes from Serling's version were the dialogue style and the technological level of the ape civilization. Serling followed the novel's lead, and made the apes' civilization more advanced.


Other films in the poll are Forbidden Planet, Alien, Blade Runner, The Empire Strikes Back, 2001: A Space Odyssey, E.T. the Extraterrestrial, Star Wars, Terminator 2: Judgement Day, and The Matrix.


Some of the films on the list are favorites of mine, but I notice one of my all time favorites, the original The Day the Earth Stood Still didn't make it. (Yet another film not to be confused with its remake) Neither version of The Thing From Another World made the list. (Yes, that one had two good versions.) What about Slaughter House Five? What about THX 1138? What about The Andromeda Strain? The original The War of the Worlds? The first two versions of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?

As it is, Forbidden Planet, hailing from the 1950s is the oldest movie on the list. What about Metropolis from 1927? That's right, Caprica, one of your major plot elements (robots disguised as humans) is at least 83 years old. Oh yeah, and one of your major themes is also 83. This isn't to say Caprica or the remade Battlestar Galactica are bad TV shows, it's just to show how important Metropolis is to filmed science fiction coming out even today in 2010.

The Terminator, which saw one of its sequels land among the top ten, only followed Metropolis's lead 57 years later, beating Caprica by 26 years. Of course, The Terminator, ended up owing so much to two Harlan Ellison written Outer Limits episodes from the 60s, that The Terminator's production company and distributor ended up paying Ellison a cash settlement and giving him a credit on later video and cable releases. Just about every story owes a debt to earlier stories, but they should add something new along with the things they borrowed. At the least, they should expand on the earlier ideas. But, maybe The Terminator has too little originality to qualify as great. Consider the definitions of greatness that could apply to movies. Is The Terminator series first rate or excellent? How can it be? To be excellent means to surpass others, but The Terminator only follows. Is The Terminator important or highly significant? Again, how could it be important or significant to films that have followed it? Any film borrowing from The Terminator is really just borrowing from everything The Terminator copied. It's not that The Terminator movies are bad. They're just not great. Does one of them really belong on the list? Sorry, but "the special effects were cool" doesn't impress me. Some people could raise the same objections about the two Star Wars movies on the list even though I love both of them and grew up watching them.

Then again, the rule of thumb is that filmed science fiction lags at least 20 years behind written science fiction. Take one of my favorite movies, The Planet of the Apes from 1968. Sure, it's adapted from a novel, but the idea of talking, intelligent animals running a world once ruled by humans goes back farther. Some might think of even earlier examples than mine, but I'd cite the pulp story "Day of Judgement" by Edmond Hamilton from the September 1946 issue of Weird Tales. That's 22 years before The Planet of the Apes movie. In Hamilton's story, two astronauts return to an Earth where mankind destroyed itself in an atomic war, and the animals have taken over. Now some might cite H.G. Wells's The Island of Dr. Moreau first published in 1896 for an earlier science fictional use of evolved, intelligent animals. You might even point to the intelligent, talking animals of fable. But look at the progression, with new things added along the way. Fables have intelligent, talking animals. H.G. Wells gives a science fictional reason for the animals' intelligence. Finally, Hamilton has the intelligent, talking animals taking over after mankind destroys itself. Something new gets added each step, and of my examples, Hamilton's ends up being the closest to The Planet of the Apes film, but still predates it by over 20 years. (Again, I know there might be other examples I haven't thought of or don't know about. Also, some might cite George Orwell's Animal Farm from 1945, but that seems more like a direct descendent of the animals of fable or fairy tales, with the animals now being used to make a comment about Stalinism.)

Also, that statue Serling used? It's been showing up ruined in printed stories going back to at least 1889. I don't know if anyone else used it for a twist ending the way Serling did.

Back to the unlisted movies I mentioned. That's just to name a few without even trying. I've probably not even scratched the surface of science fiction films that I'd choose over a couple of the ones on the list. Also, what definition of science fiction was used for the poll? Could super hero movies like Spider-man or Superman have been included? Then again, were I to make a list, I might have trouble picking out ten films.

I note that the majority of movies on the short list come from 1977-1991. It almost seems like someone born in the late 70s or early 80s picked childhood favorites from the movies that would have been in heavy television rotation or new to video in the 80s and early 90s. There isn't any information on who exactly compiled the short list. But if it was an editor at SciFiNow, I'd suggest a reboot. Instead of having "industry writers" championing films from that short list, why not have screenwriters, critics, and directors each choose what they think are the ten best science fiction movies? Then compile your shortlist from the ten films that appear on those lists the most often. I still probably wouldn't completely agree with the short list, but at least it would come from a broader perspective of the genre.


See:

http://www.scifinow.co.uk/news/the-greatest-sci-fi-film-of-all-time-is-2/