My two favorite movie genres are horror and believe it or not, science fiction. Many people cringe at the thought of science fiction, and well, find it incredibly nerdy because they supposedly do not make sense. I think if I want every thing to make sense I’d just watch the news. I love that these movies defy my imagination and yet still are able to retain a lot of humanity and that to me is what movie making is all about. How even with the most advanced of technologies, we struggle with day to day problems with love, family, insecurity, feelings of validation and friendship. Sometimes just reminds me how we are all connected no matter where we are, and when we’re born. It’s just raw humanity.

Anyway here are my top 10 favorite science fiction movies of all time (in no particular order):

1. Bicentennial Man (1999)

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Truly one of my all time favorites! I have watched this movie a million times and it has never failed to make me late for dates and meetings! It’s really feels like everytime I watch it, I discover a new emotion or new dimension I have not seen before. It’s a movie adapted from a novella by Isaac Asimov. Despite how much I love this movie I’ve actually never read the book. I cannot imagine anyone other than the absolutely awesome Robin Williams to bring the character of reserved and restrained yet witty Andrew, the bicentennial man, to life. This is definitely one of his best works to date.

2. The Time Machine (2002)

One of the earliest sci-fi movies I’ve ever watched, adapted from a book by HG Wells. I especially remember the theory of temporal paradox in time travel. Let me see if I can explain this coherently: Alexander time travels to the past to save his fiance from being murdered by robbers. But he realises that if he saves her one way, she’ll still die another way. This is because that event (his fiance’s death) has to happen in order for him to build the time machine that allows him to save her. If she hadn’t been murdered, Alexander would not have built the time machine and he could not have gone back in time. Thus the paradox! Hehe. But the moral is the same, we cannot change our past, but our actions today, will dictate our futures. A philosophy that I truly firmly believe in.

3. Gattaca (1997)

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I first watched this movie when I was 11 or 12 and I remember finding it awesome. I could identify then with Ethan Hawke’s character, Vincent, who was not born perfect yet managed to live his dream of becoming an astronaut. I was enamoured by such a movie. I remember then it was the era of Will Smith and Men in Black (which was very enjoyable!) but Gattaca for sure stood out from them. Now I’m not 12 anymore, I realise that no one is born perfect but everyone is born different. But I also realise that this is a very thoughtful movie that pokes fun at how the law is so easilly manipulated, politics, racism (though manifested in the movie as ‘genetic discrimination’ and a big topic (trending topic if we had Twitter back then) in the 90s which was genetic engineering (it was the time of Dolly the cloned sheep).

4. The Astronaut’s Wife

First and foremost, I’m just gonna say, Johnny Depp and Charlize Theron is a phenomenal pairing. I’m surprised they don’t make movies together anymore. This movie has not much substance as did the last 3 movies but I don’t know why I love it so much. It has its moments, especially one before Johnny Depp’s character flew off.

5. Star Wars (1977)

Of course I love Star Wars!!! How could I not? Truth be told though, I was not interested in Star Wars at first because I simply could not understand the plot. But after a bit of reading and an accidental Star Wars marathon on Star Movies, I’m not ashamed to say I’m completely hooked! Don’t you just wanna be a Jedi??? Hehehe. My favorite Star Wars movie has got to be the third one: Revenge of the Sith. It’s just really really awesome!

6. The Terminator (1984)

Here is a fact: the first three Terminator movies were all AWESOME. I am seriously a great great fan of Sarah Connor, omg!!! I just love women being portrayed as these awesomely strong, independent women in movies. Why are there not more movies made like these? I love that the Terminator series, by James Cameron, had awesome story lines and character development, and yet has awesome thriller action chase scenes. I didn’t really like the new Terminator Salvation, but then again, it had a lot to live up to. But despite the strong cast, story was weak as opposed to the first 3 movies in the series. Quite surprised though, expected something more from Christian Bale who always delivers stellar performances. Perhaps the next one will be better. Or maybe we just need James Cameron.

7. District 9 (2009)

I’ve just watched this movie recently and I love it cause this is the first time I see aliens in movies portrayed that way. We always assume that aliens are intelligent beings who’ll either kill us all or give us new technology. Well here’s a movie that portrays aliens as these primitive beings, emotionally driven and eats garbage. Eww. And yet, they’re not! It’s just the media portraying them that way and actually they’re good and intelligent and they have awesome technology. Huhuhu. So many layers to their characters. Anyway, it’s a very thoughtful movie about discrimination and even contains political commentary about outsourcing the military to private companies. Awesome.

8. A Clockwork Orange (1962)

This movie is actually introduced to me by my friend and muse, Fizah. Well, actually she didn’t but she had it as her MSN nick for a long time and I googled it. Found out it’s a movie, and then as fate would have it, found a cheap BN$2 DVD of it at the Communist Shop in Gadong (haha!). Watched it a million times because despite it being in English, it’s a very strong kind of slang English. Aside from that, it’s seriously the most VIOLENT movie I have ever seen! It’s so ultra-violent yet in the movie, the main character Alex De Large, just does about his violence like he’s doing laundry. But despite the violence, or ultra violence as they call it, it is a satirical movie on free will in the very distant future. It’s one of those movies where you discover something new, every time we watch it.

9. Cocoon (1985)

I remember watching this with my cousin during one of our girly sleepover sessions. Very unusual compared to other movies produced by Hollywood because of the elderly cast. The movie is an endearing piece about life, and though it does get a bit sentimental. It does touch a bit on human greediness when all the oldies found out about the life pool and swarmed to swim in it, killing the cocoons. Greedy!

10. Avatar (2009)

An awesome movie I’ve just watched recently. It was absolutely beautiful and my favorite scene was when Jake first threw away the torch he lit up for protection only to realise that the forest he was in is actually glowing in many beautiful colours (I believe ‘bioluminescent’ is the exact word to describe this). That was a really special moment. The irony is I actually didn’t want to see this movie in the first place. The name “Avatar” reminds me of lame cartoony characters with big heads people use in social networking websites. But glad I did watch it. 😀 Was really awesome. Of course the environmental degradation themes within the movie helped it become extra awesome. Oh! There’s this one scene where the giant bulldozing machines wanted to clear the trees away that reminds me of Michael Jackson’s video “Earth Song”.

*****

So these are a few of the most memorable science-fiction movies I’ve ever watched. 😀 I was pondering about it last night and thought about why I like sci-fi so much and realised I’ve been into it eversince I was in my primary years because of my favorite blue cat, Doraemon! I love the whole shindig: awesome gadgets, time travel, aliens and trying to fit in ordinary life with them.

Thank you Doraemon!