Under-Rated Sci-Fi movies.

ductonius

ductonius

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I have always held the opinion that Sci-Fi is not well received by the majority of the population. Thus, I think a good number of Sci-fi films go chronically under-rated.

In no particular order:

Judge Dread
Johnny Mnemonic
Soldier
FF:The Spirit Within
The Fifth Element

others when I think of them.
 
Space Ball, might count.. I found it a very dramatic movie.

Also, 5th Element was a really good movie. Everyone should watch it.
 
4 words: logan's run

(btw cross your eyes if you wanna see 4 words)

edit: woooo 200 posts...not that that means anything hehe
 
Judge Dread - Meh.
FF:The Spirit Within - Underrated but only for the graphics. Deserved critism for being nothing like FF whatsoever
The Fifth Element - Meh.
 
ductonius said:
Judge Dread
Johnny Mnemonic
Soldier
FF:The Spirit Within
The Fifth Element

others when I think of them.
Click to expand...

I love 3 of those. I like Contact, which you never hear about. I think the Matrix sequels are being under rated...

And don't get me started on the sad cancellations of top-rate TV series, like ReBoot and Farscape.. :( (at least we'll get a mini series of Farscape this year...)
 
Contact is GREAT. umm matrix series, i agree, it's better than the credit that is given to it. i mean the backstory... it's like an entire microcosm of human nature. we see something different, we get paranoid, and mistreat it. (ie the whole thing with the robots being second class citizens).

i'd like to mention Logan's Run again... Soylent Green was cool... not necessarily underrated since it's kinda classic... (although the movie wasn't depressing/dark enough for my tastes) ummm there was this pretty sci fi dream i had, where there was nuclear war, the earth became a series of islands (figuratively, little islands of population, and literally, water levels had risen so the land mass was ~%20 of its current total) ... and i lived for about 200 years along with a couple other people, and we were trying to take out certain areas where evil individuals had taken control of the populations yadda yadda....

logan's run. hehe
and total recall (but is it underrated? anyways, whatever)
 
FF: Spirits Within wasn't supposed to be like FF. Ppl that criticize it b/c of that are just too stickied to the FF stories. It was more like anime.

Contact was not underrated, lots of ppl loved it (including me)
The Matrix sequels - they made the winds that caused the hurricanes.
The 5th Element - Great stuff.
Space Ball - Its nice. And not very underated. Mel Brooks just isn't very good with his "silly humour".
Logan's run - never heard of it.

And one more - Titan A.E.
 
Sprafa said:
FF: Spirits Within wasn't supposed to be like FF. Ppl that criticize it b/c of that are just too stickied to the FF stories. It was more like anime.

Contact was not underrated, lots of ppl loved it (including me)
The Matrix sequels - they made the winds that caused the hurricanes.
The 5th Element - Great stuff.
Space Ball - Its nice. And not very underated. Mel Brooks just isn't very good with his "silly humour".
Logan's run - never heard of it.

And one more - Titan A.E.
Click to expand...

logan's run was one of those 70's or 80's bad future sci-fi's... it's real interesting :)
 
hmm, well two pop immediately to mind: The Arrival and Imposter. both are quality movies that didn't get much attention, though i think The Arrival did pretty well on video. Imposter is a p.k. dick adaptation, so there are a bunch of losers out there who decry it not living up to the text, but it's still a fairly interesting and well-done film, imo. i wouldn't call fifth element underrated exactly, it was a summer blockbuster in it's day, if i remember correctly..

also, not a movie but TV series, Firefly was a surprisingly well written sci-fi western thingy (done by the same guys who did angel and buffy, which i dislike personally). they canceled it after one season and it got a huge following of people with no lives that have websites and stuff. the dvd sold really well i think. my boss gave me a copy for xmas (his wife is one of those losers w/o a life :)) and it's actually pretty cool (for TV especially).

not exactly underrated, but sorta old and lost to some is Escape from New York. tbh, i haven't seen this one in forever, and don't really remember much about it other than it was really cool and very "80s". but i was a lot younger last i saw it, so who knows.. along similar lines a super great movie from new zealand (maybe) is The Navigator: A Medieval Odessey. if you can find that one, definitely check it out.

oh and Dark City. i've heard so many people call this one 'underrated' and a 'modern classic', that i doubt you could really call it "underrated" anymore, but it did fly under the radar in the theatres, as did Donnie Darko which has been discussed in some recent post i think. personally, i thought Dark City was just "OK". not sure if The Ninth Gate falls into the sci-fi category or not, but i really enjoyed it. not sure if it's underrated, b/c it got ****ing deep-sixed by almost every last critic out there, so maybe it actually is terrible. but i thought it was fun and the satanic occult stuff is always a hoot, imo.

also, not underrated but everyone should see any and every sci-fi movie terry gilliam has done, especially Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys, and Brazil. ok, i'm done.


edit just to get this off my chest: contact was not underrated b/c it sucked.. long and hard. so did minority report. ugh.. i'm gonna be sick :x oh and i'd also agree that soldier is underrated, not really in the class of the others i mentioned, imo, but still underrated.
 
Titan A.E. was pretty average, the storyline was lacklustre, even in the animation department it wasn't tops. The 2D fused with 3D approach was done pretty poorly too IMO =/

Not underrated but K-Pax still remains one of my favourite sci-fis... although it's not totally sci-fi.
 
I say we string up Sprafa by the earlobes for that Mel Brooks comment. :D
As long as we're throwing out Sci-Fi stuff, I was a nut for a while for Roughnecks: Starship Troopers Chronicles. It was a TV series that followed on the heels of the Starship Troopers movie, but had very little to do with the film. It was incredible for an entirely computer generated show in 1998 (or 1999, I can't remember). Definitly good sci-fi, and although it never finished its first run it had an impressive thirty something episodes in one season. You can still find the DVDs around.
 
I agree Dire wolf, the Starship Troopers series were G-R-E-A-T!!!

They did much things better than the mov.

But what are u a Mel Brooks fanboy? The guy had his time, and its not now.
 
the starship troopers thing is really good, if you've read the book(which you SHOULD) the CG followed it almost perfectly. with some of the bug designs from the crappy movie.

Equalibrium is by far the most underrated SF movie EVER! It combines alot of dystopian ideas, and tons of two fisted gun battles. It never got a wide release, but is now on DVD.

The old school planet of the apes is great(not underrated, but great) the remake is just HORRIBLE. The reason I put it on here is because some of the younger people don't know about the old school classics.

also good, the running man, with ah-nold

alos I just saw red dawn, kinda scifi ish, but more post apoc, still good.

more later.
 
I loved Starship Troopers. I have the TV version. I am not allowed to see R movies......:|
 
2010: The Year We Make Contact, don't know if it's really under-rated, but many I know haven't heard of it before.
 
I saw 2010.
It's not very up to date since it talks about the Cold War and alll...

edit - And of course The Spirits Within
It was a great movie, that unfortunately only attracted FF fans, that hated it for having nothing to do with any FF...
 
erm, can you say Equilibrium?
that movie was astounding.... unfortunately not many people have heard of it.
 
Equilibrium had some nice stuff, but its ambitions to Matrix-style blew it.
 
Dark Crystal was a bit Sci-Fi.

Tank Girl only did well in Australia, where we absolutely loved it.
 
Mars Attacks indeed, whoever said that? I wanna make love to Tim Burton!
 
Brian Damage said:
Dark Crystal was a bit Sci-Fi.

Tank Girl only did well in Australia, where we absolutely loved it.
Click to expand...

Hey, I loved Tank Girl. The only thing that stopped me from buying it last night at HMV was the fact that my money had to go towards my sisters birthday present.

Add that one to the list!!
 
DarkStar said:
Would Dark City be considered under-rated?
Click to expand...

Yup. Most people havent seen it, yet its pretty damn good.

Screamers <--whos seen this one (no its not pron)
 
Equilibrium!!! Seconded :)

Although it's more action than sci-fi it still has a place in here for being too underrated. I don't think it took from the Matrix too badly at all, no bullettime, just some snazzy kungfu and gun-kata :D
 
Screamers...ah it's been a while since I've seen that one. (i'm assuming you're talking about the one with the robots, there were a couple different movies with that title and thats the one i saw)

And another movie I have trouble remembering, called "not of this world" or something, some alien that could travel through electrical wires or something, I saw it as a kid and it freaked me out
 
haha "tank girl" was a funny movie, ive only seen it 1 time, but it was funny as hell.
 
Virus.
yeah its the aliens are killing humans on a ship but its cool. I liked the biomechanoids, and AK-47s. :)
The plot is kinda thin and has almost as much gore as ghost ship did but its a cool kind of gore. The Special Efects are great. There are some points where the dialog needed to be left out.

Heres some pics.
Pic 1

Yeah they took the borg off star trek but its cool.

Pic 2

Pic 3

And it did Piss me off decasue they killed the hot russian chick. :(

In short its another aliens ate my brain movie but i liked it. :) in some parts it had the feel of ghost ship. (Yeah ghost ship wasnt special but it was kinda cool)
 
My Top 5 Favorite Movies

#1 - Aliens (Not really under rated, but in my opinion an almost perfect movie.)
#2 - Apocalypse Now (I case no one knew...) ***Highly Reccomended***
#3 - Stalingrad (From the Director of Das Boot, very good.)
#4 - The Pianist (Great new WWII movie but very graphic.)
#5 - Matrix (Yeah I liked it, just the 1st one)
 
1. Equilibrium
2. Virus
3. Event Horizon
4. The Last Star Fighter
5. Star Wars Episode 2
6. Star Wars Episode 1

:)
 
Space Balls, ahh one of the best Sci-Fi comedies there is.. Can't believe how anyone could dislike it.

Mars Attacks is pretty funneh too.
 
Dark Star - If you have not heard of this then your not a film fan. John Carpenters first film and also the funniest sci fi film ever made.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004RCLH/ref=sr_aps_dvd_1_1/202-8841966-5283016

eXistenZ - An absolutely thought provoking film from david cronenberg which deals with virtual reality in an organic and almost hallucinogenic way. This films makes you question your existence ( no pun intended) and reality more so than The Matrix ever could.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...2267/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_10_1/202-8841966-5283016

The Twelve Monkeys - A film from Terry Gilliam that is underated soley because many people find it difficult to follow the plot and can take several viewings before its brilliance comes to the forefront.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...03070/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_2_1/202-8841966-5283016

When worlds collide - for anyone over the Age of 50 this film stands along side 'The day the earth stood still' as a classic of the era. Ive included this film in the list because so many people around my own age of 26 or younger have not even heard of this film which saddens me.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos...4203/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_10_2/202-8841966-5283016

Will post more when i can be arsed...
 
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