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Welcome to Denver 2008 !!!
Thanks very much for visiting our site where all things Sci Fi are welcome. To give you an idea what we’re about, we’ve done some Top 10’s.
Or, to be precise, The American Film Institute in Los Angeles, California, in 2008 honored America’s 10 greatest films in 10 classic film genres, including Sci Fi. The jury was asked to choose up to 10 movies per genre from a comprehensive list. To compile the final list, the AFI distributed a ballot with 500 Nominated Films (50 per genre) to a jury of over 1500 leaders from film artists (directors, actors, screenwriters, editors, cinematographers), critics and historians.
AFI asked the judges to consider the following criteria :
- Feature-length: Narrative format typically over 75 minutes in length
- American film: English language film with significant production and creative elements from the US. Additionally, only films released before January 2008 were considered.
- Critical Recognition: Formal commendation in print, TV, and digital media.
- Major Award Winner: Recognition from competition including awards from peer groups, critics, guilds and major film festivals.
- Popularity Over Time: This includes success at the box office, TV and cable airings, and DVD/Blu Ray sales and rentals.
- Historical Significance: A film’s mark on history via narrative devices, technical innovation or other ground-breaking achievements.
- Cultural Impact: A film’s mark on US society in matters of style and substance.
AMERICA’s Top 10 Science Fiction:
We describe science fiction as “the marrying of technological or scientific premise with imaginative speculating. Whether it’s a UFO whirling through space or on a distant planet, at the core of all Sci Fi is the provocative question, “What if…?” Science fiction presents stories that tap into our hopes and fears about what might - one day – turn out to be true.”
Nominees: 22 of the 50 movies contained an alien presence.
Winners: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) ( 1), Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) ( 2), E.T. – The Extra Terrestrial (1982) ( 3), A Clockwork Orange (1971) ( 4), The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951) ( 5), Blade Runner (1982) ( 6), Alien (1979) (7), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) (8), Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) ( 9), Back to the Future (1985) ( 10).
Comments: Planet of the Apes (1968) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) should be there as well as The Matrix (1999). Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), although it had Sci Fi elements, was mostly an action film. Dark City (1998) should really have been a nominee.
Dangerous and sinister nature of knowledge (‘there are some things Man is not meant to know’) (i.e., the classic Frankenstein (1931), The Island of Lost Souls (1933), and David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986) - an updating of the 1958 film directed by Kurt Neumann and starring Vincent Price ), and issues about the nature of mankind and our place in the whole scheme of things, including the threatening loss of personal individuality (i.e., “>Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), and The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)). Plots of outer space conspiracies (Capricorn One (1978)), super computers threatening virus (Demon Seed (1977)), the results of germ-warfare (The Omega Man (1971) ) and laboratory-bred viruses or plagues (28 Days Later (2002)), black hole exploration (Event Horizon (1997)), and futuristic genetic engineering and cloning (Gattaca (1997) and Michael Bay’s The Island (2005)) show the range that Sci Fi can delve into.
Strange and extraordinary organisms or mutant monsters (‘things or creatures from space’) may be unveiled, either created by mad scientists or by nuclear havoc ( The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953)). Sci-fi tales have a predictive nature (they often attempt to figure out the future) and are often set in a speculative future timeframe. They often provide a grim outlook, portraying a dysfunctional view of the world that appears grim, decayed and un-nerving (i.e., Metropolis (1927) with its underground slave population and view of the effects of industrialization, the portrayal of ‘Big Brother’ society in 1984 (1956 and 1984), nuclear annihilation in a post-apocalyptic world in On the Beach (1959), Douglas Trumbull’s vision of disaster in Silent Running (1972), Michael Crichton’s Westworld (1973) with malfunctioning androids, Soylent Green (1973) , suburbanite wives in The Stepford Wives ( 1975), and in Rollerball (1975) the gladiatorial sport of 2018 ).
Science fiction often expresses the potential of technology to destroy humankind through world-ending events, wars between worlds or disasters (eg The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951), When Worlds Collide (c. 1951), The War of the Worlds (1953), the two Hollywood blockbusters Deep Impact ( 1998) and Armageddon ( 1998), and The Day After Tomorrow (2004)). In many Sci Fi tales aliens or beings take the mythical fight to new dimensions or planes, depicting a struggle or battle (good versus evil) that is played out by recognisable archetypes and warriors (eg, Forbidden Planet (1956), the space opera Star Wars (1977) , The Fifth Element (1997), Solaris (1972 and 2002)). Beginning in the 80s, science fiction began to be populated by cyber punk films, with characters including hackers, cyber-warriors, virtual reality dreamers and druggies, and underworld low-lifers in night-marish, un-real worlds (i.e., Blade Runner (1982), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), Strange Days (1995 ), The Matrix ( 1999)).
At the moment, here’s what we think’s in the Top 10:
Top 10 Subjects
- Star Wars
- Star Trek
- Blade Runner
- Harry Potter
- The Matrix
- AI
- HG Wells
- Aliens
- I, Robot
- Stargate SG-14
Top 10 Media:
- DVD
- Blu Ray
- Books
- XBOX
- DS
- Posters
- Bed linen
- T-shirts
- Download
- DS
