20. Looper
This is my go-to example of terrible advertising for a great movie. The trailers left me so disinterested at a time when I didn’t yet know who Rian Johnson (Director) was. It looked haphazardly made and would quickly be forgotten soon after its release. But luckily through early word of mouth I was intrigued enough to give it a chance and it ended up being not only one of the best sci-fi movies ever made, it is one of the best time travel features as well. It’s a brilliant, dramatic, action-packed thriller with fantastic practical effects, flawless prosthetic work and pitch-perfect acting from its three leads, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. The most surprising performance however was from newcomer and child actor, Pierce Gagnon. He turns in a nuanced, complicated and very mature performance that is all at once fragile and undeniably intimidating. This story makes you feel the weight of every decision these characters make demonstrating that everything has consequences.
19. Interstellar
Christopher Nolan is the master of combining dramatic arthouse and blockbuster storytelling to create something pretty much everyone can find merit in. He created a three-hour film about the creation of the atomic bomb and not only was it extremely successful at the box-office it cleaned up during awards season. Interstellar is more thriller oriented than Oppenheimer but it still provides the dramatic beats of a familial drama who just so happen to be separated by unimaginable distances and time itself. He pieces together actual science with cinematic exaggeration in thrilling harmony alongside a tremendous cast featuring Matthew McConaughey, Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway, among many others. It is a tale of our possible doomed future as well as a more personal story of family and what it means to truly be there for someone. This is one of Nolan’s most profoundly exciting, insanely in-depth films he will likely ever make. This is the kind of movie that feels almost too good to be true when you hear of what it wants to deliver compared to what it actually achieves. In this case, the hype was real.
Fury Road is an action masterpiece. It’s also a science fiction extravaganza filled with world altering implications too massive to imagine. Rather than concern themselves with the bigger picture, these characters are concerned with survival in a place that seemingly strives to snuff any hope of such a thing. It’s a timely allegory of the so-called elite and the every-man struggling to fight for any semblance of equality. As with all things related to the powerful, they require violent aggression to properly adjust their worldview and Furiosa and her newfound sidekick, Max, intend to do exactly that. First up, Immortan Joe and his crazed army of War Boys. They hoard perhaps the single most important natural resource on the planet earth in a time when its scarcity elicits full blown violent retaliation. Witness Me!
This is when Spielberg took the premise of friendly, otherworldly visitors and made it a much more personal experience. Say hello to the most unique duo in the galaxy with Elliott and E.T. A heart-warming adventure about a boy trying to help his newfound alien friend make it back home. Of course time is of the essence as the U.S. government begins to circle like bloodthirsty sharks. In the meantime, there’s no reason they can’t get into some hilarious hi-jinks. I think the important lesson here is the transcendence of friendship beyond the restrictions of language and species barriers. If you move through life with good intentions and an open heart, your people, or alien, will find you. Make no mistake, however delicate and silly this movie can be, the emotional weight of watching E.T. face imminent death is gut-wrenching. If you’re looking for the inspiration behind Stranger Things, here is a pivotal stop in your journey of discovery.
16. Annihilation
In most instances movies pick and choose what kind of story they want to tell. A dramatic one, a thrilling one, a horror or maybe something more arthouse with ambiguity and innuendo at the forefront of what its characters must endure. In the case of Annihilation, directed by the brilliant Alex Garland, they decided to throw all these elements into a pot of pure science fiction euphoria. The themes of duality, alienation, lust and depression are prevalent throughout. Then there’s the elements of abstract horror featuring one of the most haunting creature sequences ever put to film. It explores the concepts of what it means to be human and what it is to have a place in this world that is so often overwhelmingly hostile. It provides glorious visuals featuring extraordinary bursts of color and sound design all with the intention of discomforting immersion. To highlight the bizarreness of such unprecedented occurrences is an unforgettable musical score that is its own oddity. All of this together creates, with tremendous performances from Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac, a nightmarish trip into a world blurred by mental and physical turmoil. It becomes an abomination of time and nature itself and the results are downright frightening.
If you asked me, I think the best time travel movies ever would come down to Back to the Future and Terminator 2. I realize these are anything but flawless when it comes to the science of it all, but that isn’t the point here. T2 is a continuation of a plethora of world building, character development, visceral action sequences and heady prophecy of a future we might face in some capacity. And the point is it’s likely a lot closer to being a reality than we might hope. This time, the T-800 has been captured and reassigned to protect man’s greatest hope in the future war against a world-wide A.I. uprising. With his mom, Sarah Connor, newly freed from a psych ward and a new terminator to play with, John has his greatest teachers for the uncertain future awaiting him. However, in their very real present, the machines have sent back their own contingency in the form of the T-1000, a more advanced killing machine whose singular mission is to locate and terminate John Connor. Epic score, unforgettable action sequences, fascinating characters and perfect use of visual and practical effects make T2 one of the best to ever do it.
14. Inception
If you were to decide which of Nolan’s movies is his most ambitious, I think you could make an argument for several of them. Without question, Inception is in the conversation. Much like Interstellar, Inception is the rare effort that delivers on its promise to not only entertain, but to create questions speaking to our humanity and the need to surround ourselves with other people. We are social creatures after all. It explores themes of loss, guilt and catharsis. It emphasizes the power of dreams and the importance of their often obscured meaning. But of course it’s also endlessly entertaining as well with Bond-like action in the midst of dream state physics where gravity itself is merely a suggestion. Its cast is eclectic and effervescent with Leonardo DiCaprio leading with angst but never without hope. Even in the face of immense loss, as Cobb, he pushes forward for the simple hope of reaching his long lost children, isolated from him through great tragedy. It is a feast for the eyes as well as the mind. Blockbusters with a heart and mind, Nolan’s bread and butter.
13. Edge of Tomorrow
I just want to start this off by saying that if this movie doesn’t receive a sequel, there is no justice in this world. That said, Doug Liman, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt combine forces to create one of the freshest, most engaging action Sci-Fi's ever made. It’s endlessly ingenious, breathlessly entertaining and features one of the greatest character arcs ever put to film with Tom Cruise as Cage transcending from coward to war hero in convincing fashion. It’s surprisingly funny, it utilizes time as a tool to an amazing extent and visually it’s ceaselessly stunning. This is one of Tom Cruise’s best and it’s criminally underseen. This is a prime example of people being straight up liars when they scream about demanding original ideas and then skip over them entirely. Here it is, that fresh idea you were (supposedly) looking for and so many of you moved past it with a heaping of indifference. For those that have seen it, you don’t need any convincing.
12. DUNE
How lucky are we to be in the era of Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve. To have both directors making their respective masterpieces feels like an embarrassment of riches. Dune is the start of a magnum opus if I ever saw one. With Part Two now available to us, among other things, it proved that Part One was anything but a fluke. Greg Fraser is cinematographer creating epically large, beautifully futuristic landscapes from the abundance of the Atreides home planet, Caladan, to the endless oceans of sand and unforgiving heat that is Arrakis, also known as Dune. Villeneuve directs a cast of new and timeless actors fully fleshing out an intricate world so heavily detailed by writer Frank Herbert. The effects are seamless and the story complex and brimming with betrayal and discovery. It’s prophetic and substantial with so many characters paying such importance to an origin story that is anything but simple or clear. The cast is perfect, the director brilliant, the cinematographer at his peak, the story fully enveloping and is infinitely cinematic. Aligned with Part Two, together they create the pop culture moment of the decade. The impossible was made possible and Villeneuve and company did it twice with a third on the horizon. Star Wars who? (Just kidding, please don’t hurt me.)
11. DUNE: Part Two
Part Two starts immediately where Part One ends. With it comes an insane amount of promise and expectation. A rarity in Hollywood, it delivers and surpasses everything we could have ever hoped for. It is an amped up, massive upscale of its first chapter and more than simply going bigger visually, it expands the world and the characters that inhabit such unique, impossible worlds. The complexity of the story grows but also becomes clearer as its characters discover truth from prophecy and where the two combine emboldening believers and alienating others. It’s a blossoming love story surrounded by planet politics and Shai-Hulud, along with the always threatening Harkonnen attempting to overthrow the entire balance of a galaxy. It is the end of the origin story of a boy that became a man, who rose from the ashes a warrior and took his place as a revolutionary leader, a fully realized prophet and messianic conqueror. The question remains, will he stay a good man or become the very thing he swore to destroy? This is the end of the first Dune book and as a two part epic, it’s undeniably one of the best modern science fiction stories ever brought to the big screen.
So that's Part 4. Thoughts? Hatred? Let me know! If you like my list, my name is Chase. If you hate it, my name is Jimmy Palmquist.
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