AFI had a show on last night listing their top ten in ten different genres. For science fiction, they chose:

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968.
2. Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope, 1977.
3. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, 1982.
4. A Clockwork Orange, 1971.
5. The Day The Earth Stood Still, 1951.
6. Blade Runner, 1982.
7. Alien, 1979.
8. Terminator 2: Judgment Day, 1991.
9. Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 1956.
10. Back to the Future, 1985.

I recall a poll here some time back. I think 2001 was the BAUTers' top pick, too.

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
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Star Wars isn't really SF, I don't think. I question some of the rest, as well.

To me, "Science Fiction" generally gives a central place in the narrative to some specific or general technological advance, and then considers how human society might adapt to such a technological change.

Thus, Star Wars, which works equally well set in Feudal Japan, the Wild West, or the Golden Age of Buccaneers, is less science fiction than Doctor Strangelove, which depends heavily on specific technological considerations--everything from the protocols for authorizing the release of nuclear weapons on a strategic bomber, to the geopolitical implications of nuclear arsenals, to the ad absurdum logical conclusion of a doomsday weapon--for the strength of its narrative.

It's not a bad list. Yes Star Wars is really "science fantasy", but all the science fiction films that came after it owe it a big debt for popularizing the genre and therefore allowing them to be made in the first place.

Also I feel the first Terminator is slightly superior to Terminator 2, especially when considered from a "which is the better science fiction film."

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

hmm--I have seen all but Day the Earth Stood Still--I guess I'd better watch that for completeness! This does seem a good list of movies. I'd put a couple others in as well for their merits, though their merits are more literary than movie-ish: Dune (I know, not as good as the book), Destination: Moon.

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Todd (Bowie, MD, US, North America, Earth, Sol System, Vega region, Local Bubble, Orion arm, Milky Way Galaxy, Local Group, Virgo A Cluster, Virgo supercluster, the universe in which spock is clean shaven)

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

personal page: http://blog.astrosketches.info

There are many arguments about what is "real" SF but, in my opinion, science fiction is no different in its aims to any other fiction - to tell a story that examines some aspect of the human condition, in an unusual or unique way. In that regard, the only difference between 2001 and Star Wars, or for that matter Blade Runner and Citizen Kane is what aspect of humanity is being examined. Any fiction that fails to do this is generally quickly discarded as meaningless.

Like many others here, I despise stupidity in the movies and TV - that's why I find the likes of Armageddon so appalling - but when the storyline is compelling, then I'm happy to accept spacecraft flying like WWII Spitfires, loud bangs in space and sword fighting with energy beams. It's all about the premise. In Star Wars, the premise is that determination and belief in oneself can overcome the most powerful opposition. In Armageddon, the premise is that if you spend enough money on visual effects, you can make enough people sit through a pile of impossible, meaningless dross and still make a profit.

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

I have not done a sci-fi movie poll. I've done best sci-fi TV series but this list is merely the top Space Movies:

1. Apollo 13
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Star Wars (for the whole trilogy)
4. Alien (for the entire series)
5. Forbidden Planet

I believe I decided that I didn't want to wade into definitions of sci-fi and run through a hundred movie poll.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

I've seen all of them! How delightful!

Seriously. Terminator 2? I am taken aback. I don't even know where to start.

ETA: I looked it up; I've seen 67 of them. It's the not having seen most of the sports and gangster movies what done it.

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Great call on Forbidden Planet. Id flick T2 and put this in its place.

Space Movies. T2 is not a space movie.

edit: oh, wait, nevermind. You meant that you would replace T2 with Forbidden Planet. That I'd agree with.

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Keeper of the Jabberwock

I like the list!

Seen all except "Body Snatchers".

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Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

"Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it so that the other half may reach you."

I agree, I'd also argue Star Wars did at least as much for the genre as many of the other films as far as popularizing it goes, whether one considers it a 'true' SF film or not.

Oops, my bad memory. Still, if you use just the science fiction movies, we did put 2001 first.

Yeah, Forbidden Planet should be on the AFI list, not T2.

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
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My own list (for today at least)....

1. 2001
2. Alien
3. Metropolis
4. Bladerunner
5. John Carpenter's The Thing
6. Back to the Future
7. Planet of the Apes
8. The Empire Strikes Back
9. The Terminator
10. Ghostbusters (stretching the category, but what the hell)

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Time cube is evil.

pretty interesting list

Where are Contact and Gattaca?? These are far better Science Fiction movies than some on those list.

I too cannot understand why T2 would make this list - it was so inferior to the first.

I would drop it in favour of Silent Running - but that would be a purely personal choice.

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There is no light in space. - Moon Man

I didn't much care for Silent Running. What can you say about a supposedly well-educated botanist (well educated enough to program robots to play poker, at least) who murders all his crewmates to save an artificial forest and then forgets that plants need sunlight? Stupid hippie.

The first Terminator has the nifty stable time travel paradox at its center, plus some great action and remarkable effects for its low budget. And Ah-nold's signature role.

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

I liked Terminator 2. The third one sucked badly and I pretend it doesn't exist.
Silent Running is just stupid for so many reasons.
Gattaca was a very good movie but doesn't really have the same impact as the likes of Star Wars and 2001.

That's the thing with Top 10 lists, isn't it? No-one other than the lister will really agree with them.
Metropolis?
Things To Come?
1984?
Bicentennial Man?

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This is not an idea to be tossed aside lightly - it should be thrown with great force

My top ten:

1. 2001 A Space Odyssey
2. The Matrix
3. Serenity
4. Planet of the Apes (NOT the remake)
5. Star Wars (either 4,5 or 6 - can't decide)
6. War of the Worlds (NOT the remake!)
7. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
8. The Day the Earth Stood Still
9. Fahrenheit 451
10. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

^^^ lol, you'll soon have to add "(Not the remake!)" for The Day the Earth Stood Still as well!

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Time cube is evil.

What? No one's mentioned "Spaceballs" yet?

Oh my, should be interesting.
They can really screw up that one, if the War of the Worlds remake is any indication...

oh, oh, just seen the trailer.
Can you say Keanu Reeves? So right away we know that Klaatu will be deadpanning a lot - monotone voice, blank extended stares, not the personality of a Michael Rennie.

Can you say Keanu Reeves? So right away we know that Klaatu will be deadpanning a lot - monotone voice, blank extended stares, not the personality of a Michael Rennie.

Huh, you sure he wasn't signed to play Gort?

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

No, I saw the trailer. It would be even more of a travesty if he did.

But, just maybe it will turn out to be a good film.
The only silly part of the top of my head in the first film was how the spacecraft was left so unguarded.
Oh, and as in all sci-fi films, the part where the army is firing at the flying saucer/monster and when seeing that their bullets and missiles doesn't even scratch it, they keep firing instead of running away. I mean 'retreating'.

Its called suppression fire