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So, Empire magazine are doing a 'Top 10 Most Influential...' series. Looks like the first up is going to be Sci-Fi, so here's my chance to pre-empt them and list the ten films I reckon should be in there. These are in no particular order, by the way, and all the links are to the IMDB.
Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
The film that launched a thousand clones (sorry), spoofs, parodies, and wannabes; the first truly mass-appeal Sci-Fi film, and the first Sci-Fi film in the opening wave of Summer Blockbusters that was started by Jaws.
The Terminator (1984)
Robots and computers had been the bad guy before, but not quite in the same vein as James Cameron's classic. Never before had Sci-Fi been so violent, either.
The Matrix (1999)
Breaking new ground in special effects, posing quasi-deep philosophical questions, and changing the way Hollywood made its action movies. The Matrix managed to do all that, and look damned good doing it.
Alien (1979)
The first true space horror flick. I'm pretty sure Frankenstein and Dracula have made it into space at some point in the past (and I'm not going to check, either), but HR Geiger's monstrous, yet beautiful, creation was an original creation that struck fear into the hearts of cinema goers, and made stars out of Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott.
Blade Runner (1982)
Every film following this that portrayed the Earth as a dismal, festering ball of mud washed with rain owes itself to the look and feel created, once again, by Ridley Scott. This film dashed forever the notion that the future of our world was destined to be some blissful Utopia.
Metropolis (1927)
In many ways, Blade Runner owes as much to this title as it does to the Philip K Dick short story that it was based on. Vast cities, androids with personality disorders, Sci-Fi that made you think - Fritz Lang was doing it long before anyone else.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1969)
The thinking man's Sci-Fi film, the first in the genre to inject realism into spaceflight: long journies, rotating space-ships to create artificial gravity, oh and a very strange ending.
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
Quite simply the film that said 'Sci-Fi can do cute'.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
The original 'Little Green Men' movie, without which we probably wouldn't have had the likes of Independence Day or Signs. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is debatable.
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Okay, so it's perhaps not as influential as the previous nine. However it's one of a clutch of 50's Sci-Fi movies that helped shape the genre, and of those, it's my personal favourite. So in the list it shall go.
Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)
The film that launched a thousand clones (sorry), spoofs, parodies, and wannabes; the first truly mass-appeal Sci-Fi film, and the first Sci-Fi film in the opening wave of Summer Blockbusters that was started by Jaws.
The Terminator (1984)
Robots and computers had been the bad guy before, but not quite in the same vein as James Cameron's classic. Never before had Sci-Fi been so violent, either.
The Matrix (1999)
Breaking new ground in special effects, posing quasi-deep philosophical questions, and changing the way Hollywood made its action movies. The Matrix managed to do all that, and look damned good doing it.
Alien (1979)
The first true space horror flick. I'm pretty sure Frankenstein and Dracula have made it into space at some point in the past (and I'm not going to check, either), but HR Geiger's monstrous, yet beautiful, creation was an original creation that struck fear into the hearts of cinema goers, and made stars out of Sigourney Weaver and Ridley Scott.
Blade Runner (1982)
Every film following this that portrayed the Earth as a dismal, festering ball of mud washed with rain owes itself to the look and feel created, once again, by Ridley Scott. This film dashed forever the notion that the future of our world was destined to be some blissful Utopia.
Metropolis (1927)
In many ways, Blade Runner owes as much to this title as it does to the Philip K Dick short story that it was based on. Vast cities, androids with personality disorders, Sci-Fi that made you think - Fritz Lang was doing it long before anyone else.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1969)
The thinking man's Sci-Fi film, the first in the genre to inject realism into spaceflight: long journies, rotating space-ships to create artificial gravity, oh and a very strange ending.
E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)
Quite simply the film that said 'Sci-Fi can do cute'.
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
The original 'Little Green Men' movie, without which we probably wouldn't have had the likes of Independence Day or Signs. Whether that's a good or a bad thing is debatable.
The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951)
Okay, so it's perhaps not as influential as the previous nine. However it's one of a clutch of 50's Sci-Fi movies that helped shape the genre, and of those, it's my personal favourite. So in the list it shall go.
