Best Sci-Fi Movies

These are my favorite science fiction movies, sci-fi being one of my favorite genres…

…of course, I don't really like much sci-fi in movie form as Hollywood generally stinks at making good science fiction.  I grew up reading 'hard' science fiction authors like Arthur C Clark and Isaac Asimov, and have been regularly disappointed by film treatments of the genre.  Science fiction is essentially really smart, highly educated people thinking about the possible ramifications of future technologies and edgy scientific theories; as Robert Heinlein defined it, "realistic speculation about possible future events, based solidly on adequate knowledge of the real world, past and present, and on a thorough understanding of the nature and significance of the scientific method."

I loved (and still love) the mind-bending concepts, philosophical conundrums, and existential puzzles that are at the core of the genre.  Hollywood, somehow, manages to take that and turn it into explosions in space, or monsters in space, or cute teens in space, or wizards in space, or superheroes in space, or… you get the idea.

So here is my list, its loosely arranged from most favorite on down, but they are all pretty interchangeable.  For something to make my list it must meet the following criteria:

1) I've seen it.

2) It's science fiction.  It is actually speculative about the universe in some way, while simultaneously consistent with what we know about the universe, and the other elements of the film (action, special effects, character development, cinematography, etc) don't overshadow the science fiction.

3) I like it.

So here goes…

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My Favorite Science Fiction Films

     The Matrix
     Primer

     District 9

     Time Crimes
     Minority Report
     Predestination
     Moon
     Arrival (2016)
     Planet of the Apes (1968)
     Contact

     Europa Report

     12 Monkeys
     Edge of Tomorrow

     Looper
     Alien
     Total Recall (Both versions)
     The Martian
     The Forgotten
     Gattaca

     Dark City

     Children of Men
     Serenity
     Inception

     Eternal Sunshine on the Spotless Mind

Yup, the Matrix is number one.  The reason for that is simple.  I had been disappointed time and time again by Hollywood "sci-fi" and was jaded.  I had seen the trailer that made the film look like sexy, leather clad, ninja-hackers, with guns, performing physically impossible dance moves and ritualized fight scenes.  I had no interest in watching the movie.

Finally, a friend of mine (who had horrible taste in movies) wanted me to go see it with him because he was really into the rave scene and loved the clothes and the music, I went to pacify him.  I walked into the theater expected typical drivel and was blown away.

In some ways I walk into every movie going experience hoping to match what happened to me the first time I saw the Matrix.

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Sci-Fi Movies I Didn't Like

Interstellar - I really liked the film's attention to detail, and its the first film I can think of that deals with the reality of time dilation (which is actually pretty standard fare for science fiction literature).  But the absolutely bizarre "love transcends the space-time continuum" plot device completely ruined the movie for me.

2001 - I am aware of the fact that I can't really judge this film outside of the period in history during which it was made.  But I saw it in the 90s and it just fell flat for me.  It may very well be phenomenal as a film, and it objectively impacted both the industry and out culture.  I just didn't like it as either film, or as science fiction.  The homage to visuals and effects that are no longer awe-inspiring detracts from the story which Kubrick never really tells because he is too busy emoting.  When I finally read Clarke's treatment of the film, I loved the story, but never have re-watched the movie.  I recognize that this probably says a lot more about me (and what I want in a movie) than it does about the film, so be it.  I didn't like it.

Snowpiercer - I just couldn't get past the absurd premise of "a post-apocalyptic world where train tracks never got destroyed, or need repairing."


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Movies that Aren't Actually Science Fiction!

Star Wars - This is pure fantasy.  There is absolutely no attempt at scientific accuracy, or speculation about the universe, or technological prognostication.

Jurassic Park - Technically this would be science fiction as it is an exploration of the possible dangers of cloning technology.  But that really is only the device by which the film explains itself.  The film is actually a man vs dinosaur movie.  I would argue that the negligible science fiction elements are completely swallowed up by the film itself.

Gravity - Its a film about an accident in space.  It fails to be speculative in any way about the nature of the universe, or future technology.  It could actually be classified as "historical fiction," seeing as how the first fatality in space occurred almost 50 years ago, and the technology depicted in the film is outdated.

Super Hero Movies - Pure fantasy.

Easter: You are Worth Fighting For!

We watched this recently, and, while I thought the movie as a whole was 'good' this scene was 'great.'  God ministered to me through it; helping me to experience the brokenness of humanity, and the power of the gospel.

Comfort Anesthetizes the Conscience of Justice...

(...sorry about the foul language!)





Good movie, this scene is a great illustration as to how the consent of the willfully ignorant majority is the power that enables a fundamentally unjust system to perpetuate itself. We live in a world where "two-thirds of the world is starving to death, while the other third argue about sex;" we are the top of the food chain, and our cultural prestige is maintained by the efforts of those at the bottom.

Sure, we don't do it intentionally, sure we don't see the injustice. ...but intuitively we know. Our whole system is fundamentally unjust but we try to maintain the status quo by shunning those who question it. We keep our hands over our eyes, and our fingers in our ears, and we get mad at those who try to pull our hands away. We talk about 'individual responsibility' while we shop for sweat-shop-manufactured-goods. We deify 'personal property rights' in an era with the highest rate of slavery in world history. We talk about 'social mobility' when the American poor grow up in the midst of violent neighborhoods, sub-standard medical care, twinkies and doritos for dinner 5 nights a week, and illiterate parents.

"From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked."
Rabbi Yeshua bin Yusef
(tortured to death in Palestine for threatening the status quo)

"When I feed the poor they call me a saint, when I ask, 'Why are they poor?' they call me a communist."
Bishop Romero
(assasinated in El Salvador for speaking out on behalf of the oppressed)

Sense and Sensibility

I just watched this with my wife...

My children and I had purchased it (along with Ever After and some smelly candles) for Mother's Day.

After we finished the movie, I turned to my wife and facetiously said, "we can never let our daughter watch this until well after she is married!"

As we were getting ready for bed we talked about our daughter and her romantic sensibilities. She is incurable. She has already had her first brush with heartbreak.

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In the movie is a character, John Willoughby, who romances one of the leading characters named Marianne. He is romantic, dashing, and handsome. His passion and wit are exactly what she is hoping for, and her passion burns bright alongside his. It is then revealed that he has an illegitimate child from another woman, and has set aside his feelings for Marianne for the money he will receive if he marries another woman.

Marriane is crushed.

But she then discovers another, a man who has been there all along, who loves her deeply and constantly. The heartbreak of her first romance allows her to reflect on her own foolishness in judgment, and to see more clearly those attributes in a man that are truly worthy of love and admiration.

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After talking through the movie with my wife, I realized that this is the perfect movie to show my daughter, (perhaps in another few years!) to open the door to deeper reflection.

I pray that my daughter can learn enough from watching the fictional Willoughby action, such that she will never fall into the hands of a flesh and blood Willoughby...

Mulan 2

I just happened to catch a little of the movie my kids were watching:

One of the princesses in the film (who is being sent to meet her husband for the first time) asks the main character, 'Fa Mulan, how do you chose between your duty and your heart?'

She did not want to marry for duty, but instead wanted to marry for love.

Mulan responds by telling her that she has discovered, 'My duty is to my heart.'

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Now, I don't plan on arranging marriages for my children, but (setting aside for the moment the cultural in-sensitivities of the film) it is precisely this message that is destroying so many lives...

If my duty is to my heart, then what is my course of action when I no longer want to provide for my children, remain faithful to my wife, pay my taxes, or answer my employers questions with integrity? Obviously, if my duty is to my heart, then my course of action is to simply do whatever I feel like doing, whenever I feel like it!

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The interesting thing is that the movie refuses to portray the actual effects of such a moral philosophy. There is no scene where the princess tries valiantly to remain dutiful to her fickle and inconsistent moods. Nor is there the discussion of a love that runs deeper than emotional desire into the realm of willful action.

So much for learning wisdom from cartoons!

Rainmaker

I watched this film the other day, at the end, Matt Damon's character states:

"In every case a lawyer finds himself crossing a line that he doesn't really mean to cross, if he crosses that line enough, it will disappear." (my paraphrase from memory)

What this points to is the human capacity for spiritual development. In this particular instance the development is both negative and unintentional, however, it is entirely possible for spiritual development to be both positive and intentional.

Our spirit is the core of our being, the seat of our desires and our will. Every decision we make has an impact on it, whether that impact is negative or positive, whether that decision is intentional or accidental.

Allowing ourselves, in the heat of the moment, to make decisions that we disaprove of, will lead to us eventually approving of the behavior in question (in this case a law-abiding lawyer justifies breaking the law in order to bring justice, and soon finds that he no longer needs to justify breaking the law as it has become acceptable behavior). So too, chosing to do the right thing, even when we don't feel like it, will lead to us eventually desiring to do the thing in question (chosing to give away money because I recognize my own wealth and others need, even though it causes personal discomfort, has lead me to the place where I enjoy giving away money).

We can even take this to the level of intentional and practical discipline. Instead of simply waiting for those 'moments of decision' to arrive on our doorstep unnanounced, we go forth seeking them out.

What are the lines that you don't want to cross? How can you set up boundaries in your life to prevent you from doing so? (Don't try to say, "no" to sex in the back seat of a car; simply decide beforehand not to end up in the back seat in the first place.)

What are the lines that you do want to cross? How can you find creative ways to 'practice' doing those things? (Set aside a regular time each week to write encouraging notes to people; this will help you to be more encouraging throughout the rest of your week as well.)

This is why Christians engage in discipline; to allow God to form us into the proper image, the truly human image, that of Jesus.

Renounce your Citizenship!

The other day I watched JFK for the first time, in it is a scene with Lee Harvey Oswald in a Russian embassy renouncing his American citizenship as an act of antagonism and protest against the US. It got me thinking about the call to follow Jesus, and how Christians were first perceived in the larger Roman world of their day...

What if becoming a disciple of Jesus was no less (but rather more) a defection from citizenship in this world, and this nation. This amounts to 'traitors in the midst' to the government in Rome! This is why Rome destroyed so many Christians they were a political threat...


What do you do with people who have dedicated themselves to the overthrow of the established order? They propose an alternative way of living that is based around loving service instead of power and control. Their lives are so beautiful and attractive that they (by simply being who they are) are inviting people to ignore the status-quo and shift into their paradigm... But they aren't approaching the city with swords, nor are they attacking with diatribes, they don't wish to leave and start an alternate community but proclaim their intention to subvert this one from the inside, and they are unwilling to compromise, they won't bow to threats of death, nor cave in to promises of reward... such a people must be eradicated, or else they will be the cause of the greatest political/social upheaval in world history.


This is why for centuries Christians went into the flames, in front of the gladiators, and in the midst of the wild beast, while jeering crowds or cool aristocracy looked on...


Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here!

- Jesus of Nazareth

Christian Paganism: Cinderella and Original Sin...

I had an opportunity to discuss the concept of 'original sin' with a woman who used to be a Christian, but is now an atheist. Her understanding of the doctrine is essentially that the world is evil, there is nothing good in it, especially in humanity. We are totally evil, with no redeeming features whatsoever. (Helen, if you are reading this and I mis-characterized your characterization, feel free to correct me...) This was one of the things she criticized about Christianity, its focus on evil; pointing out the problems in the world, and ignoring the beauty...

I responded that my understanding of Jesus' spirituality was quite contrary to this bleak view of the universe, and that I was compelled by my spirituality to see the world in terms of it's inherent beauty, power, and goodness. The ensuing dialogue rumbled about in my brain, sparking along the dusty synapses, and shining light into the remote regions of my intellect...

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The next morning I was deeply engaged in a wonderfully insightful film with my three year old daughter. I was suddenly struck by the relationship Cinderella had with the creatures living in and around her home. She sang with the birds, cared for the mice, chided the cat, loving them and evoking love in them in return.

The rusty four-cylinder engine between my ears turned over once or twice again...

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Pagans (loosely defined) see gods behind everything. There is a god in the elm and the maple, a god in the water and in the sky; the salmon and the osprey are manifestations of divine spirits; the moon and the stars are filled with spiritual significance and power. We can interact with these powers, calling them forth, making demands upon them and submitting to their demands; calling upon them for aid, and looking to them for guidance. The universe is alive with divinity, beauty and potency spring forth from every rock and flower; mysterious energy is present in all things.

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One of the first major intellectual challenges the disciples of Jesus faced in the early centuries of Christian thought was brought upon the spiritual community by a group who came to be called the "gnostics." They espoused a fundamentally Greek view of the Universe. A dualism between matter and energy, between the physical world and the spiritual world, was the backdrop for their understanding of Jesus. They believed matter and everything associated with it to be inherently evil. Jesus was not a man at all, but pure spirit, sent to rescue us from a material world of pure evil. They at times encouraged highly ascetic practices, giving up sex completely, eating sparse and restricted diets, avoiding pleasure.

This stands in stark contrast with the Universe of the ancient Jewish scriptures...

In the beginning God creates a world of dirt and plant, water and fish, birds, flowers, stars, clouds, and all manner of things; His spirit/breath is present within this Creation. God creates Adam and Eve, breathing His spirit into them, they bear His image and are responsible for the world arround them. Adam is in intimate relationship with the plants and animals, He 'names' them, and rules over them as a king over subjects. He is duty-bound to protect them and provide for their care; and they honor Him as the reflection of the Creator. The world is alive with divinity, beauty and potency spring forth from every rock and flower; mysterious energy is present in all things. God pronounces this caucophany of material and spiritual union, 'very good!'

...and so, when the first Christians were faced with the gnostic framework for seeing the Universe, given the spiritual and intellectual heritage they had as followers of a Jewish prophet-king, they naturally rejected such a view. Jesus came to affirm and bring 'life to the full,' not to reject it.

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The simple reality is that the western world (and western Christians within it) have unreflectively embraced the gnostic paradigm. We have not rejected an intimate Creator outright, but we have embraced a cruel mechanistic world, and so (unintentionally) God has no place in our conceptual framework. We have become deists...

Afraid of the messy comedy, raw sensuality, and blatant hedonism of the natural world, we have slayed it with our dissecting scalpels, our microscopes and telescopes. We have tamed the gods of the trees and the rocks. We have killed the sea god, 'analyzed' and 'studied' the heavens, and demystified the animals. The beasts and trees, the rocks and skies, still sing, but we have lost the ability to hear the melodious voices. The Spirit of God still 'hovers over the waters,' the Breath of God still whispers throughout the earth, but our cold eyes are closed the very medium of His goodness...

...and yet, if we are approached by the God who invented garlic and cumin, roses and peaches, nebulae and waterfalls, children and laughter, alcohol and orgasms, rhythym and melody; then perhaps He can awake in us the sense of divine play, the capacity for joy and energy required to hear the voices of the trees again.

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...and so we should not be surprised at the growing interest in pagan ideas (neopaganism, wicca, etc.) in fact, we should not even be that alarmed. Christians worship the Lord of Life, to any and all who seek to find true power and beauty, they are pursuing Jesus, the giver of new wines and new eyes, the waker of the dead, the party-goer, the True Vine, and the Spring of Living Water. The call to follow Jesus is the call to awaken our hearts to the haunting melodies, the inventive harmonies, and the heart-pounding rhythyms to be found in life; embracing wonder and awe at the awakening of the trees, the glorious skies and the monsters of the deep floor of the sea; embracing the joy and pleasure to be had simply by breathing in and out, exploring the wonderous diversity that humanity and its home has to offer.

What a terrible horror that ever did occur (were it even in but one mind, although it has unfortunately been in many) that Christianity became confused with asceticism, that the warm embrace of a loving Creator became the dark chastisement of a vengeful and distant Progenitor. How could we ever think that God doesn't enjoy that which He has made, and that we are invited to enter into His joy...

"A nightmare, long engendered in the modern mind by the mythology that follows in the wake of science, was falling off him. He had read of 'Space': at the back of his thinking for years had lurked the dismal fancy of the black, cold vacuity, the utter deadness, which was supposed to separate the worlds. He had not known how much it affected him till now - now that the very name 'Space' seemed a blasphemous libel for this empyrean ocean of radiance in which they swam. He could not call it 'dead'; he felt life pouring into him from it every moment. How indeed should it be otherwise, since out of this ocean the worlds and all their life had come? He had thought it barren: he saw now that it was the womb of words, whose blazing and innumerable offspring looked down nightly even upon the earth with so many eyes - and here, with how many more! No: Space was the wrong name. Older thinkers has been wiser when they named it simply the heavens - the heavens which declared the glory - the

'happy climes that ly
Where day never shuts his eye
Up in the broad fields of the sky.'

He quoted Milton's words to himself lovingly, at this time and often."

Out of the Silent Planet

ASK ME WHY YOU ARE GOING TO HELL!

A man stood off to the side, surrounded by a group of 15 or so people crowding in on him, squeezing close, from afar there appeared to be a quiet intensity about that little huddle of people not the least of which included the large sign he carried, bordered with flames...

Across from this group were thousands of oblivious concert-goers. Not knowing, or not caring, to hear what this man had to tell them.

I stood observing him for five or ten minutes. To give him (and those around him) credit, there did not seem to be any shouting or intimidating going on, but there was plenty of tension, plenty of angry tones, plenty of hostility, toward him and his message, as well as from him.

I and a friend drew closer to listen, joining that little crowd of people (this group was gaining and losing people every moment, but there were a few faces who remained the entire time I was there) who were variously trying to argue, trying to belittle, finding something to laugh at, finding something to be angry at, being confused, and being agravated, or just listening...

A few faces stood out to me::

A young gothic teenager and his gothic girlfriend, he seem angry and frustrated; the girl told me she was a Christian when my friend asked her, she was not happy with this man's presence.

Another gothic man, perhaps my age, wearing a set of handcuffs, a red tee-shirt, and a shaved head. His face more than any other stands out in my mind's eye. The entire time I was there (20 minutes?) he never said anything, he had a very meek demeanor with folded hands, as though he didn't want to provoke, and he wore (what seemed to me) a pained expression on his face. I did not speak to him, but it seemed to me as though he wanted to listen, to understand why he was destined for hell, as though he wanted to hear what this man said, almost out of self-loathing...

...I want to speak to him.

Other faces, mocking and jeering, arguing and confronting; I am sure that my own was somewhat twisted with anguish...

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Earlier I had watched the movie with Denzel Washington, Man on Fire. Now, you are going to have to grant me some leeway here, which I think is warranted by Jesus own way of speaking; the Parable of the Unjust Judge is an example of Jesus speaking of God in a way that gets at a truth, even though it speaks of God in other ways that aren't necessarily true; so bear with me here.

In this movie Denzel Washington plays a broken man, a drunk haunted by evil things he has done, it is hinted at that he was involved in covert military operations. He sporadically reads the Scriptures and at one point he asks, "Can God forgive us for what we have done?" He lands a job as a body guard for an elite and wealthy family in Latin America. His primary role is to protect their young daughter from kidnapping. At first he presents the young girl with a gruff exterior, but her love for him wins him over, he comes to love her. When she is kidnapped, and then killed, he unleashes upon her killers with vengeance.

He is relentless, and goes to any lengths to rescue her, and then avenge her, without concern for the risk or cost to himself. He will not be dissuaded from his course of action, he has found the one thing in life that has made it okay for him to live, and now she has been harmed.

Perhaps it was simply the plot itself and the acting of Mr. Washington, and yet, I know that it was aided by the portrayal of the young girl by a blond-haired, blue-eyed little girl, similar to my own beautiful daughter Zoe; for whatever reason, this film touched me. I couldn't help but cry at several points in the film, and even afterward... and I felt that God was saying to me, "Steve, my heart loves like this, my heart hurts like this; tell them that I love them like this!"

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...and so, when I saw these people listening to this man explaining to them why God wants to torture them for eternity, I was moved... I don't know how to respond. I didn't really respond then in any way other than to listen, and be sad. It demands a response. People have to know, they need to know that God desperately loves them, He yearns to be with them.


Isn't that the point of the Parable of the Lost coin, the Lost Sheep, and the Lost Son? Isn't that what we hear whispered in the name of Jesus? Isn't that what we see when we look to the cross? At the anguish of God, desparate to recover to himself, his dear children?

Rent

I watched this movie last night called Rent, it is a modern day version of the opera called La Boehm. God broke my heart with this movie. It’s about these people, there is Rodger who is this young guy who loves to play guitar, his roommate Mark, who is making a documentary of the goings on in New York. A girl named Mimi, who is a 19 year old stripper who is heavy into drugs, she lives in the apartment downstairs from Mark and Rodger. Then there is Maureen who used to be Mark’s girlfriend, but she left Mark for a lawyer named Joanne. Then there is a guy named Tom , who gets beat up right off the bat, and also has AIDS, then there is a guy named Angel, who is a gay cross-dresser, that has AIDS and he meets Tom and they hang out a lot and go to AIDS support groups, and end up becoming more than just friends. All these people are all trying to scrape up money to pay this huge rent bill that they have and they are also trying to protest this building that is going to go up in their neighborhood. Pretty much they are just trying to make it in life and they are doing it apart from God. This movie was just so sad to me. The girl Mimi, is a stripper at 19 and she is doing all sorts of drugs and she is on them and off them again depending on whether or not she has a boyfriend. There is one scene where she is going through hard withdrawals and she is violently shaking and sweating all at the same time. There is a part where she is trying to fight herself from taking more drugs and she has the needle there right in her hand waiting and she is shaking. Then there is this sequence of the movie where they play a song and time passes and you get to see things happen, and there is part where they would show clips of the AIDS support groups and each time they showed a new clip one person would fade away, symbolizing that this horrible virus claimed another victim. I cried my eyes out for the whole last half hour to 45 minutes of the movie. Then it goes to this scene of the male gay couple, Angel and Tim, and they are on a subway train and Tim is holding tight to Angel who is shaking with a fever that he couldn't fight off because of how AIDS weakens your immune system. Then it shows Angel in the hospital sick with an oxygen mask and smiling with all his friends around him having a good time. Then it shows him in the arms of his lover and at this point he is dead, and Tim is rocking him back and forth in his arms in the hospital bed. I wept over this sight. I couldn't hold back the sobs. I was so shocked at how horrible life can be when left to fend for ourselves. The movie only got worse it seemed and I could not stop crying. I wept for quite a while after the film had ended. Then after I had stopped crying my roommates came home and said they had heard me crying about the movie and I started crying again.
What do I do about this? What part can I play? I will pray, but that isn't enough. I want to be right there with people like Tim and Angel, I want to rock that dead gay man. That is were Jesus would be. I want to rock him before he is dead and pray over him as he dies in my arms. I want to hold that hurting young girl who is shaking so violently and sweating so bad because her body is trying come down from a high. I want to befriend the gay men and women I want to love them and be there for them when life craps in their faces. I want to go to AIDS support groups to really offer support. I was so stirred by this movie last night. I was angry, it was this righteous anger at the people that the enemy gets a hold of. I don't want to see another gay person die alone from AIDS. I want to be there to hold their hand. And the thing was this gay man had more joy that all the rest of the people, where did he get it? He didn't know Jesus. I want to do something about this. What does God have for me in all of this? I want to be sent out into the AIDS community and into the gay community which in some cases go hand in hand. I want to educate myself about this virus so that I might be able to help some one, or even be able to know something about it for relatabilities sake. I would love to give my life to helping out people with AIDS. I am not going to sit around idle and not do anything about this. God created me to reach out to people. God created me with a story about him, not just to be kept to myself. God created me to love, he gave me a heart, that with his help has the capacity to love the unlovable. The things that happened to these people doesn't have to happen anymore. That girl on drugs doesn't have to do them anymore. She can come to know Jesus and be rocked in such an indescribable way." Jesus loves the outcasts, he loves the ones the world just loves to hate." That's a quote from a song by Relient K. I want to love the outcasts. What would it look like if a gay man or woman came to a church and got saved? What if we got to disciple them? Lord send us those people so that we can learn how to disciple them and forgive us for not letting them in or bringing them in when they cried out for help. I want those people in my life and Lord you show me how to love them in a way that best represents you and if you Lord are calling me to give my life to the Gay and AIDS community then lets do this thing!