4v291o

Easy to compare to Casper. Adapting charming comics, but inserting cliched villains searching for treasure to try to flesh out a movie.

The strong cast and humor allow me to somewhat overlook the awful plot here. And I'm inclined to me more generous in rating than I was to Casper. (I think I was a little hard on Casper.) Part of the difference is the stupid villains consume less screentime here. The focus of the movie is on the characters and humor, which are quite strong.

Watched on Saturday May 17, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday May 14, 2025.

Watched on Sunday May 11, 2025.

Watched on Sunday May 11, 2025.

Watched on Saturday May 10, 2025.

I hadn't realized this was a complete remake. Often scene by scene and sometimes line by line the original.

But changing the setting means that instead of a kid from New Jersey schooling some California yuppies in Karate, a kid from Detroit schools the entire nation of China in Kung Fu after two months of practice.

Were people as upset with this as a woman starring in Star Wars or Ghostbusters? Did they just not have the internet or social media to tell us about it? Did they just have to seethe silently in their rage?

These grow increasingly redundant. The villains increasingly cartoonish. They seem to spend most of this movie giggling.

Pretty good as sequels go. At its best when they are chilling in Okinawa and learning the culture. At its worst when the villains are being cartoonishly evil.

I appreciate where the climax went. And would have respected the movie a lot if they skipped the last fight, defying all structure and expectation.

An extra half star if the girl had finished her dance and the credits rolled.

I don't know. Think I can get through all, what, five of these before the next one comes out?

And maybe all of Cobra Kai.

We'll see. I suspect this is the only good one.

That was very enjoyable. A bright spot amongst Marvel's many stumbles this decade.

I didn't think Taskmaster worked very well in the Black Widow film, so I wasn't sure she'd work here. But I liked what they did with her a lot.

Maybe expectation management is the secret to all things. This has an awful reputation. And I tend to hate Shyamalan films. He's my #2 least favorite director after Zack Snyder.

But I found it perfectly decent and enjoyable. Straightforward but engaging kid needs to get from point a to point b premise.

But then, there is this to think about: theonion.com/perhaps-the-gimmick-of-my-father-and-me-starring-in-a-m-1819584865/

I like to think this movie inspired Shyamalan to do a follow-up with Trap, thinking if Will Smith can promote his son...

Aliens have set up a base on the moon from which to launch an invasion of Earth. Our only hope is a brave rocket crew heading to the moon to bring the battle to the aliens.

Not sure what more I want from science fiction.

Well, maybe one thing. I rented this from Amazon for $2. But Amazon only had a dubbed version. Badly dubbed, of course. And I don't think it was obvious when I bought it I couldn't get the original language.

I'll confess to a misunderstanding on my part. I really like Dan Simmons, the novelist. Hyperion is one of my favorite sci/fi novels, and I also enjoyed the Ilium series. I was aware of this movie and that Simmons had a sci/fi novel called Hollow Man, and always imagined they were connected. I think part of why I'd put off this movie was to read the book first.

They are not connected. The book is not about invisibility. The title and genre are the only connection.

Another thing I didn't know. Josh Brolin was in both this film and Mimic, treating me unexpectedly to Josh Brolin two nights in a row as part of Sci-Fi April.

There's really no excuse at this point for there having been a Paul Verhoeven sci/fi film I hadn't seen.

A thing I noticed about this and Mimic, that's true of many a sci-fi film, including one of my favorite films, Jurassic Park... is that the structure focuses on science fiction early in the film, but for the purpose of setting up a thriller, so that by the end you have an action/thriller film.

First couple acts, lots of science and talking about science. Final act, characters in danger.

This is fine, but the credits then roll immediately when the danger is over. I think I'd prefer that we circle back to some of the ideas that had started the film. Bring the focus back to science fiction for the wrap-up.

The good guys were plainly the families who got woken from their beds and just wanted to protect their kids.

Not sure about anyone else.

The focus was ultimately on the horror, trying to survive in the face of giant bug monster things. But it did a good job balancing that horror with the science fiction set-up. It was sufficiently interesting how this all came to be, from a plague to decisions to consequences. With enough focus on entomology and epidemiology.

First one was better. The mystery here was overly convoluted and contrived. Ben Affleck gave a better performance that was more understated last time.

But this was sufficiently entertaining, and I liked the kids with their computers.

Watched on Monday April 21, 2025.

I think this was good. Affleck's performance was sufficiently understated. The conspiracy didn't take too long too entangle. It was all just the right amount of time to each element. Nicely unhurried. One of the better "Taken"s.

The first talkie adaptation of the classic novel, and definitely a good one. As I recall the 1920 version, Jekyll was offended by his lustful desires and sought to purge himself of them. Whereas this Jekyll is looking for a way to safely indulge in them, which is closer to the novella. The original story started more in the middle than either film, with Mr. Hyde already around. The movies try to show us what led Jekyll to create Hyde.

You can tell this is 1931 and pre-Code just by the amount of skin and side-boob we see of the prostitute.

And apparently I've been pronouncing Jekyll's name wrong for over 40 years and nobody has ever told me. Perhaps they were embarrassed for me.

This was a cool discovery. The 1930s had a number of great science fiction films, and Destination Moon kicked off the golden age of science fiction in 1950. But the 1940s is a wasteland for science fiction. Letterboxd lists but 90 entries in the genre. Many superhero shorts or serials, other adventure serals, sequels to things like Frankenstein or Invisible Man, or many movies that have just a glimmer of sci/fi in the premise.

So it's always exciting to find one of the rare true 1940s sci/fi films.

This adapted from Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak. I'd seen the 1953 version a decade or so back without recognizing it was a remake of this. Indeed this film's title hides its origins and made me think I wasn't going to find science fiction here. And I'd gotten it in a horror box set, so I expected a horror focus.

But I found science fiction. The mad scientist. The unethical experiments. The bizarre results.

Really happy to have watched this.

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

I came looking for science fiction, and this had the genre tag, but minimal to no science fiction. It is directed by William Menzies, who directed one of the great epics of science fiction, Things to Come.

What we have instead is a good movie. A Cold War mystery and thriller. Perhaps an early prototype of the action genre. A reporter in a small town with lots of suspicious happenings, and nothing quite what it seems.

I'm going to confess that I preferred the white folks' music. Wild Country Thyme is my jam.

To pull wild mountain thyme
All around the blooming heather,
Will you go, lassie, go?

I wasn't sold on the first movie in this reboot franchise. Seemed like some nostalgic fun. The next two were great. This one in particular had the most sophisticated and compelling story of the trilogy.

I appreciate that the outcome of a battle between monsters may lie in the soul of one child.

And I appreciate that Iris is the cat.

Watched on Thursday April 17, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday April 15, 2025.

A lot to like about this Frankensteinian thriller, but a couple absurdities I struggled to get past. That they got away with this insane experiment in the room next door to an active lab seems absurd. The storage room solution seemed absurd. Leaving the creature alone for as long and frequently as they did was absurd.

I'm fine with the mad scientists pushing the boundaries of science beyond reason or caution. But some sensible precautions would have helped with what is on the cusp of being a great sci/fi thriller.

Good and disturbing ending. Good stuff about the relationship between science and capital. Lots of good stuff, really.

This feels like at least an attempted return to his roots. If Clerks was based on his life in his 20s, this seems inspired by his memories of being 16. He's lost a little something in the 30 years since Clerks. But this film is cute and has its charms.

Watched on Wednesday April 9, 2025.

I always loved Looney Tunes, but I know it best as shorts, and this felt a little long to me, when compared with a trim masterpiece like Duck Dodgers.

But it's weird to me that Warner Brothers as a company has fallen so far that they were incapable of releasing a Looney Tunes movie. These vulture capitalists will destroy us all.

Way better than the last film, by pretty much every measure. Great use of editing and music to build tension. Better creature effects and visuals. The best effects, then as now, come from mixing computer with practical effects. The film, like films today, is at its worst in a few scenes where the creatures seem entirely computer-generated.

And just a better story. Stronger melodrama. A fight it's not clear Gamera can win.

The film's final observation about Gamera is great. Gamera is not the defender of humanity, but the defender of Earth... and they realize the danger inherent in that truth.

Taking part in Sci-Fi April #9. Have to review the movies I watch as part of it. Which means I need to come up with things to say about this Roger Corman film. This film. Positive or negative.

Let's focus on the positive.

* The title is accurate.
* The film's only an hour long.

Amazon marks this as for ages 13+. I think they massively underestimate the ability of young children to deal emotionally with crab monsters.

Watched on Sunday April 6, 2025.

I think the original Godzilla is one of the greatest films ever made, and I have some appreciation for the massive genre it spawned, including the original Gamera.

This isn't really part of that genre, as it's too genre-aware. To me, the difference between genre and these meta-genre films is how they feel about the tropes. In a genre film, you're not intentionally copying tropes; you just aren't making an entirely original movie, because entirely original movies are hard. In these meta-genre films, you want to use all the tropes. That's the goal.

This is over 40 years after Godzilla, and seemingly made to coincide with the 30th anniversary of Gamera, the Giant Monster, and probably made by people who grew up watching the genre as kids, who bring a lot of nostalgic affection to the film. Solid craft here, but a lot of heart.

I have more appreciation for the older films blazing the way, and some of the newer films like Shin Godzilla that seem to do a bit more with the genre than fawn over it.

But there's plenty to like here. I appreciate the extent to which the humans are the bad guys, always trying to destroy the monster that's trying to save them. And I appreciate that the monster is undeterred by how little his efforts seem appreciated. He's going to keep defending humanity because that's what he does, whether we deserve it or not.

Been a couple decades since I read Second Variety. I ed some of the basic twists of the story, so I knew who David was right away, and was glad they didn't drag out the reveal.

I pulled a collection of Dick stories off the bookshelf, to jog my memory on the old story. The films seems a pretty faithful if expanded adaptation. They open the same way. The biggest difference is the movie moved the setting from Earth to a colony world, and separated itself from the Soviet/Cold War politics of the prose to a capital/labor dispute that escalated.

Overall, it's a solid adaptation from a script point of view. Like much of sci/fi, it didn't seem to have the budget to match its ambition, and this shows in places in the acting and production value. And the ground covered here has mostly been covered in film in movies like The Terminator or The Thing. But an irable effort overall.

Watched on Wednesday April 2, 2025.

At least it has a style it commits to. But you can say the same about the Snyder films.

Perhaps not the best film to Val Kilmer by. But I've seen movies like Heat, Top Gun, Willow, and True Romance recently enough. And The Saint wasn't readily available to stream, so I've ordered the blu-ray, and will watch it soon.

Best part of this film is the Seal song.

I appreciate when the crowd in the streets rose up and killed the evil billionaire who was bringing destruction upon them. Inspiring.

Watched on Sunday March 30, 2025.

Watched on Sunday March 30, 2025.

Watched on Saturday March 29, 2025.

Before Deadpool, before Green Lantern, before Wolverine, before Blade... we have here Ryan Reynolds' first comic book movie.

Watched on Thursday March 27, 2025.

Well, that was another masterpiece. How do I even rank Kurosawa?

Coming out the same year as Braveheart, the medieval battle scenes here look cheap and silly.

And Julia Ormond is 30. Richard Gere is 45. Sean Connery is 65.

Her only age-appropriate suitor that year was Greg Kinnear in Sabrina, but of course she chooses the 53 year old Harrison Ford instead.

Gere, Connery, Ford... these were very good looking old men as old men go, at least.

Watched on Friday March 21, 2025.

Watched on Thursday March 20, 2025.

Watched on Tuesday March 18, 2025.

"In joyous celebration of Akira Kurosawa’s King Lear re-imagining, Ran, re-releasing in select US and Canadian theaters for its 40th anniversary, this week’s Showdown is straight-up Shakespearean. To thine own self be true as you pen a list of your ten favorite adaptations of the Bard’s plays—be they contemporary teen rom-coms or period-accurate costume dramas. All the world may be a stage, but no pro-shot theatre, please (with apologies to National Theatre Live). This means that Ethan Hawke’s Hamlet is eligible, but Andrew Scott’s isn’t. Alack!"

1. The Lion King
2. Ran
3. Forbidden Planet
4. Throne of Blood
5. 10 Things I Hate About You
6. West Side Story
7. The Northman
8. The Tragedy of Macbeth
9. Romeo + Juliet
10. Romeo Must Die

Alphabetical by director. 5 favorite films per director, ranked by preference.

For any director for whom I've seen at least 5 films.

• Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Star Trek
• Super 8
• Mission: Impossible III
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
• Annie Hall
• Midnight in Paris
• Magic in the Moonlight
• A Rainy Day in New York
• Sleeper

...plus 765 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Here are all directors for whom I have seen at least 5 films, represented by my favorite films of theirs.

I have devised my own scoring system. They gain points based on how many of their films I have seen, how many are among my 100 favorites, how many I judge to be masterpieces or genre-defining, how many are among my top 10% of films, what percentage of their films are great (losing points if that number <50%), the average rating (losing points if rating below 3.0), percent of their films I have seen, and losing points for the number of films I judge bad. They also lose points for making superhero films, to correct for my genre biases.

The scores are normalized on a Snyder->Hitchcock scale.

Still tweaking the precise formula. But it's getting closer to capturing what I want.

F - how many from distinct franchises are among 100 favorite films (from here)
T - How many in top 10% (See here)
M - Number of "masterpieces" (from here)
G - percent of their films I judge great
R - my average rating
B - number of their films I judge bad
W - number of their films I have watched
P - percent of their films I have watched
C - Number of their live-action Marvel/DC superhero films I have seen
S - Number of their shorts I have seen.
A - Number of their anthology/team-directed films I have seen (not including common directing partners like Powell and Pressburger but including things like Disney films where a whole crew of directors is at work)

Compute a raw score:
raw = 2W + 5R + 10T + 30(F + M ) +0.5P + 0.9G - 10B - 5C - S - A

Compute a, the raw score for Alfred Hitchcock, and z, the raw score for Zack Snyder.

The final normalized score is
100 x (raw - z)/(a - z)

Note this gives Hitchcock a score of 100 and Snyder a score of 0 by definition.

Latest update to formula: December 10, 2022

1. Psycho

   100

2. Jurassic Park

   91

3. Harakiri

   83

4. Memento

   68

5. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

   68

6. High and Low

   64

7. My Neighbor Totoro

   60

8. Before Sunrise

   59

9. The ion of Joan of Arc

   57

10. Blade Runner

    54

...plus 145 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is something of an experiment. I started it in September 2018.

I attempt to assign each film I watch a score 0-100. These correspond to the star ratings I had already been giving them, a 10 point range for each half-star rating. For example, 50-59 corresponds to 3 stars, with 53-56 representing a confident 3 stars, 57-59 representing a leaning toward 3.5 and 50-52 representing a leaning toward 2.5

I then rank the films according to those scores, making judgments within ties. And see how everything falls. Sometimes I decide I mis-scored something based on its ranking. I do not edit the score. I will make a note if I think the score was probably too high or too low. I change the scores only upon rewatching the film.

I'm curious how a variety of films that are hard to compare to each other fall out. Old and new films. Shorts vs feature-length films. Science fiction and superhero films against the rest.

We'll keep track of the top 1000.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

   99

2. Blade Runner

   98

3. A Few Good Men

   98

4. Bambi

   97--too high

5. Jurassic Park

   96

6. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

   96

7. The Big Lebowski

   96

8. Apollo 13

   96

9. The Paper

   96

10. Mad Max: Fury Road

    96

...plus 990 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Current as of May 18, 2025.

An accompaniment to the Letterboxd Top 250, which contains just a few science fiction films.

Extracted from here

The rules

No shorts, no TV series or TV movies, no YouTube videos, no filmed stage productions, no commentary track versions, no compilations of TV show episodes, no behind-the-scenes documentaries, nor anything else that isn't really a full film. All entries must be at least 40 minutes in length.

No reissues/redits unless substantially different films.

Films must be rated by at least 3,000 s and with at least 100 likes.

The films must be categorised as "Science Fiction" by Letterboxd.

Related lists

A list of films not classified as science fiction. I'd appreciate discussion on that list about what should and shouldn't count: Not science fiction

A list of feature-length films deemed ineligible: Top Sci/fi films that don't count

A list of eligible sci-fi films under 1,000 ratings.

A variation on this list.

If I may humbly offer my own opinions on the best science fiction films: 100 greatest sci-fi films

See also: Letterboxd's Top 250 Horror Films
Letterboxd's Top 250 Action Films
Letterboxd's Top 250 Documentaries

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
3. Interstellar
4. Stalker
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
6. The Empire Strikes Back
7. Dune: Part Two
8. The Thing
9. Children of Men
10. Terminator 2: Judgment Day

...plus 240 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This is the dark weeds of the Top 250 sci/fi list. Those highly rated films that are TV tie-ins or TV movies episode compilations or whatever. Also documentaries.

Sci/fi movies that aren't significant feature-length narrative theatrical films.

Also includes some films with incomplete Letterboxd entries or a dearth of internet information that I just can't tell what they are.

Note that sometimes movies are on here because they are duplicative of a proper movie, e.g. a director's cut of an eligible film. Letterboxd will sometimes combine the rogue entry with the proper one, and the proper film will then appear on this list. So if you see something like Alien here, that's why. Just let me know and I'll remove it.

1. Serial Experiments Lain
2. Attack on Titan: The Roar of Awakening
3. La Jetée
4. Magnetic Rose
5. Magnetic Rose
6. Gurren Lagann the Movie: The Lights in the Sky Are Stars
7. Black Mirror: White Christmas
8. Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds
9. Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor
10. Sense8: Amor Vincit Omnia

...plus 221 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Or under 100 Likes.

* Over 2000 ratings
** Over 2500 ratings
*** Over 2900 ratings

1. Wasteland
2. Space Runaway Ideon: Be Invoked
3. Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Overture to a New War

   *

4. Barber Westchester
5. I-Be Area
6. The Last Angel of History

   *

7. The Falls

   *

8. Os Bagunceiros
9. Gridman Universe
10. Lesbian Space Princess

...plus 128 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

For an ordered top 100, see: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/chris_coke/list/my-top-100-films/

• 10 Cloverfield Lane
• 12 Angry Men
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 25th Hour
• About Time
• Adventures in Babysitting
• A.I. Artificial Intelligence
• Alice in Wonderland
• Alien
• Aliens

...plus 317 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"As the tagline for the comedy Friendship says: “Men shouldn’t have friends”. Prove ‘em wrong with this Showdown! Turns out, the cure to male loneliness is coming up with a list of ten of your favorite movies about guys being buds. These amigos can range from superbad boys to GoodFellas—either way, they’re hitting the mean streets in search of excellent adventures together. So have another round Goonies, outsiders and other guys, and never stop never stopping! For inspiration in selecting your midnight cowboys on their midnight runs..."

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. The Big Lebowski
3. The Lion King
4. Toy Story
5. Clerks
6. RRR
7. The Sandlot
8. Stand by Me
9. The Goonies
10. Explorers

An alternative to: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/chris_coke/list/letterboxds-top-250-science-fiction-films/

Sorted by average rating on films with at least 10,000 ratings.

Made judgment calls on what is/isn't science fiction.

Excluding Casino Royale. Excluding Adaptation. Excluding Memento. Excluding Bacurau. Excluding Mauvais Sang. Excluding Labyrinth of Cinema. Excluding Nowhere.

Excluding specials that tie in to TV series or miniseries that spawn series: Doctor Who, Battlestar Galactica, Samurai Jack, Sense8, Black Mirror.

Excluding extended music videos or album tie-ins. Dirty Computer and Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem to focus on narrative films.

Short films are included as some key science fiction films are shorts. Miniseries which form stand-alone films and don't tie into ongoing series are included.

I find Letterboxd inconsistent on whether nuclear holocaust films count as sci/fi. I tend to say yes. They tend to say: sometimes. When the Wind Blows is sci/fi per Letterboxd. But I think by that logic so are Dr. Strangelove and Fail-Safe.

If Frankenstein is sci/fi, surely Young Frankenstein is a blend of comedy and sci/fi.

Zombie movies remain a point of contention as well. I call zombie movies sci/fi.

To note where this list differs from Letterboxd's genres, I've placed a * next to all films which Letterboxd does not recognize as sci/fi.

---------------------

Some statistics.

By decade:
1900s -- 1
1910s -- 0
1920s -- 1
1930s -- 2
1940s -- 0
1950s -- 1 <-- How bizarre
1960s -- 9
1970s -- 11
1980s -- 21
1990s -- 10
2000s -- 16
2010s -- 17
2020s -- 11 <-- Also kind of weird

Earliest film on the list is A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la Lune). Newest is Poor Things.
-

The list includes 5 short films under an hour long. Shortest film at 15 minutes is <A Trip to the Moon. Longest is the German TV miniseries World on a Wire at 213 minutes.

-

Christopher Nolan is the most common director on the list with 4 films, but there are a lot of caveats. The Dark Knight is a film not labeled as sci/fi I chose to include; Memento is also not labeled as sci/fi and I excluded it. So he has between 3 and 5 films, depending on your definition of sci/fi.

Directors with 3 films:
Stanley Kubrick, James Cameron, and Denis Villeneuve

Directors with 2 films:
Hertzfeldt, Tarkovsky, Scott, Russo Brothers, Zemeckis, Bird, Jonze, Gilliam, Miyazaki, Frankenheimer, Romero

I have no idea why people don't appreciate Steven Spielberg or David Cronenberg.

-

There are 4 Spider-Man films from 3 different film series.

Several franchises are represented with 3 entries.
The Star Wars franchise has 3 entries
There are 3 Evangelion films, two from the reboot film series.
There are 3 Marvel Cinematic Universe films

The following franchises have 2 entries:
Alien, Terminator, Blade Runner, Living Dead, World of Tomorrow

There are also 2 unrelated Frankenstein films.

-

The list includes 21 animated films.

-

10 Notable absences based on the following list: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/darrencb/list/vote-best-sci-fi-films-of-all-time/
E.T. <-- Duh, people
Under the Skin
Annihilation
Close Encounters of the Third Kind <-- C'mon!
Guardians of the Galaxy
District 9
Gravity
The Martian
Edge of Tomorrow
12 Monkeys

10 Other notable absences based on my own humble opinions: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/chris_coke/list/100-greatest-thought-provoking-science-fiction/
Upstream Color
Things to Come (1936)
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Dark City
Forbidden Planet
Destination Moon
The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
The Last Man on Earth (1964)
Island of Lost Souls

10 Other notable absences based on the thoughts of emeritus Letterboxd reviewer extraordinaire, Adam Cook: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/lordcookie/list/100-favourite-sci-fi-films/

(Link seems to be broken; trust me there was a great sci/fi list there once. I wish I had written down more entries from it.)

Total Recall
Silent Running
Starship Troopers
Memories
Escape from New York
Altered States
L'invenzione di Morel
Re-Animator
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Alphaville

1. The Dark Knight

   *

2. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
3. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

   *

4. Interstellar
5. Stalker
6. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
7. The Empire Strikes Back
8. Dune: Part Two
9. The Thing
10. La Jetée

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

My favorite 5 films from any franchise I've seen at least 5 films from.

• Casino Royale
• Goldfinger
• Dr. No
• From Russia with Love
• You Only Live Twice
• Alien
• Aliens
• Alien: Romulus
• Alien³
• Alien: Covenant

...plus 100 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Mark of Zorro
• Destiny
• Nosferatu
• Safety Last!
• Sherlock Jr.
• The Lost World
• The General
• Metropolis
• The ion of Joan of Arc
• Woman in the Moon

...plus 96 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Some stats-

By franchise:
MCU -- 9
X-Men -- 4
Star Wars -- 3
Before... -- 3
Lord of the Rings -- 3
Toy Story -- 2

Other:
Walt Disney Animated Studios -- 4
Pixar -- 4
Studio Ghibli -- 3

Science fiction -- 33

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
2. Blade Runner
3. A Few Good Men
4. Jurassic Park
5. The Usual Suspects
6. The Big Lebowski
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
8. Bambi
9. Apollo 13
10. The Paper

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Psycho
• Spartacus
• Inherit the Wind
• The Magnificent Seven
• Peeping Tom
• Judgment at Nuremberg
• The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
• The Guns of Navarone
• The Hustler
• Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Rebecca
• Fantasia
• Pinocchio
• A Wild Hare
• His Girl Friday
• The Lady Eve
• Sullivan's Travels
• The Maltese Falcon
• Adventures of Captain Marvel
• Superman

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Current as of May 4, 2025.

Ranked according to average rating.

Limiting to feature-length english-language films with at least 500 ratings.

What's included?

Marvel/DC properties, including Kingsman and Kick-Ass.

From other publishers: V for Vendetta, Invincible, Crow, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dredd, Men in Black, Rocketeer, Hellboy, Mask, Invincible

Not from comics: Zorro, Powerpuff Girls, Incredibles, Birdman, Unbreakable, Chronicle, Megamind, Darkman, Toxic Avenger, Dr. Horrible.

General rule is to focus on comic book properties with limited exceptions.

Including both super-powered heroes and masked vigilantes.

on omissions or improper inclusions welcome.

Statistics
Marvel: 35
DC: 38 (23 animated)
Other comic publisher: 13
From novels: 3
From television: 1
Original: 10

(Double-counting Batman vs. TMNT above; counting People's Joker under DC)

Live-action: 66
Animated: 34

1. The Dark Knight
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
3. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
4. Logan
5. The Incredibles
6. Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
7. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
8. The Batman
9. Avengers: Infinity War
10. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• The Empire Strikes Back
• Altered States
• Airplane!
• Kagemusha
• Superman II
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• Mad Max 2
• Scanners
• Heavy Metal
• The Evil Dead

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I didn't worry too much about what was and wasn't a superhero film. If it was based on a comic, I leaned toward yes. If not, I leaned towards no.

Here is every one I recall seeing in some approximation of an order.

D'oh! For the second time, I seem to have screwed up and accidentally sorted the list by average rating. It will take some time to put back in the correct order.

1. Avengers: Endgame
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming
4. Avengers: Infinity War
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
6. The Dark Knight
7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
8. Black Panther
9. X2
10. Iron Man

...plus 247 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Avengers: Endgame
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming
4. Avengers: Infinity War
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
6. The Dark Knight
7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
8. Black Panther
9. X2
10. Iron Man

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

*modern era, starting with Blade
*based on comics from DC/Marvel
*theatrical releases only
*feature-length films
*excluding properties published elsewhere, then later acquired or licensed by DC/Marvel (Spirit, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Transformers, GIJoe, Dredd, Men in Black)
*We will count Black Adam, as it features so many DC-originated characters.

1. Avengers: Endgame
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming
4. Avengers: Infinity War
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
6. The Dark Knight
7. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
8. Black Panther
9. X2
10. Iron Man

...plus 101 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Avengers: Endgame
2. Spider-Man 2
3. Spider-Man: Homecoming
4. Avengers: Infinity War
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
7. Black Panther
8. X2
9. Iron Man
10. Spider-Man: No Way Home

...plus 69 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Avengers: Endgame
2. Spider-Man: Homecoming
3. Avengers: Infinity War
4. Black Panther
5. Iron Man
6. Spider-Man: No Way Home
7. Spider-Man: Far From Home
8. Captain America: Civil War
9. Avengers: Age of Ultron
10. The Avengers

...plus 26 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Batman
• Darkman
• The Rocketeer
• Batman Returns
• Batman: Mask of the Phantasm
• The Crow
• Judge Dredd
• The Phantom
• The Batman/Superman Movie: World's Finest
• Blade

...plus 27 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• Sinners
• Thunderbolts*
• Companion
• Warfare
• The Legend of Ochi
• Mickey 17
• The ant²
• Captain America: Brave New World
• The Gorge
• Black Bag

Great or iconic films from 2022 or before I saw for the first time in 2025.

• Kingdom of Heaven
• Written on the Wind
• Almost Famous
• The Quick and the Dead
• Rob Roy
• Arthur
• Hoosiers
• Modern Times
• The Grapes of Wrath
• Get Shorty

...plus 11 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Looking for good science fiction? These are the films to watch, in my opinion.

VERY MUCH a work in progress, probably for some time to come. Many more sci/fi films to see. But you may as well see the progress as I make it.

Some big gaps include: serials, anime, and short films.

• The X-Ray Fiend
• The Astronomer's Dream
• A Trip to the Moon
• The Impossible Voyage
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• A Trip to Mars
• Frankenstein
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• Falling Leaves
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

...plus 490 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"The sixteenth-annual TCM Classic Film Festival just kicked off in Hollywood, and this year’s theme is “Grand Illusions: Fantastic Worlds on Film”. For this week’s Showdown, create a list of your ten favorite sci-fi and/or fantasy films released a long time ago in a galaxy not-so far away—i.e. during or before 1980, the debut year of TCM Fest’s opening-night film, The Empire Strikes Back. Harken back to a land that time forgot, where effects were practical, green screens weren’t yet popularized and dancing penguins were hand-drawn rather than CGI… But hey, some things never change: King Kong and Godzilla were still goin’ at it."

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Alien
3. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
4. King Kong
5. Night of the Living Dead
6. Godzilla
7. Star Wars
8. The Wizard of Oz
9. Fantasia
10. Planet of the Apes

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I'm looking for the introspective, more than the cinematic.

To clarify, these aren't my favorite films that one may place into the broad genre of science fiction. These are the films where I think the science fiction itself is strong. These are the movies I think ask questions first, and the movies whose strength is based upon those questions.

Science fiction involves extrapolation of the technological/political/social/philosophical/ethical/legal consequences of science, particularly new inventions, discoveries, illnesses, or natural disasters/phenomena; or of major changes in the social/economic/legal/cultural structure of our society.

The question is which movies do that the best?

Often particular ideas in science fiction have become accepted as tropes of the genre: robots, aliens, spaceships, time travel. The mere presence of these common sci/fi ideas does not score the movie points here. It must extrapolate on them, explore them in a new way, rather than use them as a springboard to a different type of film, such as one focusing on adventure, romance, mood, allegory, or aesthetic.

Points are awarded for being the first film to explore a particular sci/fi idea. General filmmaking quality was taken into when deciding between films of comparable science fiction merit.

If what I said above doesn't make sense, it is because I am still working on my own definitions, constantly trying to refine and articulate my criterion, and constantly reconsidering films. There are also probably a couple dozen films that belong in the top 100 omitted simply because I have not seen them. For these reasons, this list remains a work in progress and will be for some time.

I am sticking literally to the "fiction" part of science fiction. Thus absent are films like Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, and Awakenings.

I generally judged sequels and remakes as not sufficiently original. In the case where a work of another medium was adapted multiple times, I picked the best adaptation, though displayed some preference for selecting the earlier one. That said, notice Curse of Frankenstein was chosen over any earlier adaptation of the work. The 1954 version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was included in an earlier draft of this list, and the 1916 version on an even earlier one. "Who Goes There?" is the only story with two adaptations currently in the list. 12 Monkeys and Black Panther were included in an earlier draft of the list. We do have Quatermass and the Pit and Dune Part 2.

is appreciated.

Go here to find the films that missed the cut: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/chris_coke/list/other-great-science-fiction-films/

----

The list is stable enough to start recording statistics.

1900s -- 1
1910s -- 0
1920s -- 2
1930s -- 4
1940s -- 0
1950s -- 14
1960s -- 15
1970s -- 15
1980s -- 11
1990s -- 12
2000s -- 11
2010s -- 13
2020s -- 1

Steven Spielberg is the most represented director with 4 films.
Ridley Scott, David Cronenberg, and Christopher Nolan each have 3 films.
Villeneuve has 3 films from 2 franchises.
With 2 films: Carruth, Arnold, Kubrick, Verhoeven, Lang, Tarkovsky

• Blade Runner
• Upstream Color
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• Things to Come
• The Incredible Shrinking Man
• Alien
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• Dark City
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind
• Forbidden Planet

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I made a list of what I considered the 100 best science fiction films (that is to say the films with the best science fiction elements, not the best films that have science fiction elements, two very different lists).

letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/chris_coke/list/100-greatest-thought-provoking-science-fiction/

That list is continually evolving, so this one will be too.

This is the list of films that didn't make it. Great science fiction films, where the science fiction wasn't quite prominent enough/smart enough/unique enough to make the top 100. Many of the movies on this list tended to have some decent science fiction ideas, but chose to focus their energy more on action/adventure than exploring those ideas. Others are on here perhaps because I don't them well enough. Perhaps a rewatch will convince me to let them graduate to the top 100. And of course many are films I would love to have found room for in the top 100. But 100 films just isn't a lot given the breadth of great science fiction out there.

And unfortunately plenty of films are not on either list simply because I haven't seen them. I continually work to correct the most obvious oversights.

• A Trip to the Moon
• Black Panther
• The Skin I Live In
• Open Your Eyes
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes
• 1984
• Creature from the Black Lagoon
• Fail Safe
• THX 1138

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I am constantly shocked by how many good science fiction movies I have not seen. Here is a collection of noteworthy omissions of mine, recommended either on this site or on others.

1. Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
2. Just Imagine
3. The Magnetic Monster
4. The Mind of Mr. Soames
5. The Mysterious Island
6. Mysterious Island
7. One Million Years B.C.
8. Reptilicus
9. The Rocky Horror Picture Show
10. Time Bandits

...plus 477 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
2. One Life
3. Oppenheimer
4. The Boy and the Heron
5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
6. Robot Dreams
7. Hit Man
8. Wonka
9. Chasing Chasing Amy
10. Killers of the Flower Moon

...plus 114 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"As Sacramento and The Ballad of Wallis Island release in the cool world of theaters, this Showdown is all about location, location, location. If you 🎹 wanna be a part of it 🎹, make your own atlas by listing your ten favorite films named after a landmark, a neighborhood, a city, a state, a country, even a continent. One rule: it must be a specific place. This means no No Country for Old Men, no Nomadland, no North by Northwest. Also, while there are scores of stories titled after spots in filmmaking hubs like Los Angeles and New York, we encourage you to go more global! If you need a road map, explore these lists by Energetic_nova, HDorrittie and Logan (though keep in mind that not everything in these lists are eligible—looking at you, Dune)."

1. Judgment at Nuremberg
2. Casablanca
3. The Prince of Egypt
4. Paris, Texas
5. Fargo
6. Tokyo Story
7. Brooklyn
8. Meet Me in St. Louis
9. The Last Black Man in San Francisco
10. Train to Busan

What follows is some high-ranking films that are science fiction or sc/fi-adjacent or controversial, not categorized as Science Fiction on Letterboxd. I'd like them to prompt discussion about what should and shouldn't be on the The Top 250 Sci/Fi Films list.

Some categories that tend to be missing/controversial:
* Zombie movies
* Superhero movies
* Animation
* Nuclear disaster films
* "Lost World" films
* Films set in the near future without a lot of technological progress.
* Films involving human experimentation to create peak humans
* Time travel films where the time travel element is unexplained.
* Comedies
* Films focused on non-flashy inventions (a new synthetic fabric, a new codebreaking capability, or a new submarine silencing system)
* Films that are kind of weird, but seem to maybe have like aliens or space or something like that.
* James Bond films

1. The Dark Knight
2. Gintama: The Very Final
3. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
4. The Truman Show
5. Fail Safe
6. Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
7. Angel's Egg
8. Get Out
9. Gintama: The Movie 2: The Final Chapter: Be Forever Yorozuya
10. Flow

...plus 53 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
3. The Wild Robot
4. Anora
5. Flow
6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
7. A Complete Unknown
8. Nosferatu
9. Civil War
10. A Real Pain

...plus 72 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Taking part in this activity..

• The Whip Hand

  Under 2025 views

• The Lady and the Monster

  Under 2025 views

• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

  Top 250 scifi

• Gamera 2: Attack of Legion

  Top 250 scifi

• Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris

  Top 250 scifi

• Mimic

  Action/verb

• The X Files: I Want to Believe

  Action/verb

• Screamers

  Action/verb

• Frankenstein Created Woman

  action/verb

• Re-Animator

  poster

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Supplement to this list: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/chris_coke/list/director-scoring

Films by directors on that list that are:
* Absolute classics
* Near-perfect films
* Genre-defining, including for directors who are a genre unto themselves

In this context, I really mean films that get a bonus in my scoring system.

• Psycho
• Rebecca
• Rear Window
• Vertigo
• North by Northwest
• The Birds
• Dial M for Murder
• Jurassic Park
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

What I've seen

1. High and Low
2. Ikiru
3. Red Beard
4. Seven Samurai
5. Rashomon
6. Ran
7. Kagemusha
8. Drunken Angel
9. Throne of Blood
10. Sanjuro

...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Little Women
2. Leave No Trace
3. Women Talking
4. Booksmart
5. Falling Leaves
6. The Prince of Egypt
7. Lady Bird
8. Persepolis
9. American Splendor
10. The Matrix

...plus 90 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

These are the films I've selected. Can't vote for them twice!

Poll

• Newsies
• Rocky
• Cinderella
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Dune: Part Two
• Avengers: Endgame
• Night of the Living Dead
• Blade Runner
• The Lion King
• Psycho

...plus 41 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
3. The Wild Robot
4. Anora
5. Flow
6. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
7. A Complete Unknown
8. Nosferatu
9. Civil War
10. A Real Pain

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. The Paper
2. The Astronomer's Dream
3. Mortal Kombat
4. Destination Moon
5. Adventures of Captain Marvel
6. Superman
7. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
8. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
9. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
10. Piper

...plus 6 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Newsies
2. The Paper
3. The Astronomer's Dream
4. Mortal Kombat
5. Destination Moon
6. Spider-Man: Far From Home
7. One Life
8. Adventures of Captain Marvel
9. Superman
10. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

This can be hard for different reasons. What is better? A great film with surface sci/fi elements or a merely decent film with great sci/fi ideas?

Add to that that good sci/fi comes in spurts. Some years have a dearth: 1952, 1967, 1974, 1992, 1996. I decided to leave off the 1940s entirely.

And then sometimes you get 2001, Planet of the Apes and Night of the Living Dead all in one year. Or Blade Runner, E.T., The Thing and Star Trek II.

I put runners up in the notes. No more than 2 honorable mentions per year. So, sorry Barbarella, you just picked the wrong year to come out.

welcome. In particular, if there is a year where you think there's a better film and it's a film I haven't seen, I definitely wish to know that.

• Destination Moon
• The Day the Earth Stood Still

  Contenders: The Thing from Another World and Man in the White Suit

• Red Planet Mars
• It Came from Outer Space

  Contenders: Invaders from Mars and Beast from 20,000 Fathoms

• Godzilla

  Contenders: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Creature from the Black Lagoon

• This Island Earth

  Contender: Quatermass Xperiment

• Forbidden Planet

  Contenders: Invasion of the Body Snatchers and 1984

• The Incredible Shrinking Man

  Contenders: Curse of Frankenstein and Quatermass 2

• The Fly

  Contenders: Invention for Destruction, Revenge of Frankenstein

• Journey to the Center of the Earth

  Contender: The World The Flesh and the Devil

...plus 66 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

1. Won't You Be My Neighbor?
2. Whisper of the Heart
3. Love Actually
4. Newsies
5. The Paper
6. X-Men: Days of Future Past
7. Spider-Man: Homecoming
8. Serenity
9. Crimson Tide
10. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

...plus 92 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

I participated in the Letterboxd Oscars nominations: letterboxd.sitesdebloques.org/darrencb/list/vote-the-letterboxd-oscars-2025-nominations/

These were my nominees. in the notes, see my ranking in each category for each film.

I had not yet seen A Real Pain.

• Dune: Part Two

  1. Picture
  1. Director
  4. Actor -- Chalamet
  3. ing actor -- Butler
  1. ing actress -- Zendaya
  2. Adapted screenplay
  1. Production design
  1. Costume design
  1. Cinematography
  1. Visual effects

• Hit Man

  2. Picture
  2. Director
  1. Actor -- Powell
  1. Adapted screenplay

• Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story

  3. Picture

• The Wild Robot

  4. Picture
  4. Adapted screenplay
  1. Animated feature

• Anora

  5. Picture
  3. Director
  2. Actress -- Madison
  1. Original screenplay

• Flow

  6. Picture
  2. Animated feature

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

  7. Picture
  3. Cinematography
  4. Visual effects

• Nosferatu

  8. Picture
  5. Director
  2. ing actor -- Dafoe
  2. Production design
  2. Costume design
  5. Cinematography
  2. Visual effects

• The Bikeriders

  9. Picture
  4. Director
  3. Actor -- Butler
  3. Actress -- Comer
  4. ing actor -- Hardy
  4. Costume design

• Here

  10. Picture
  5. Adapted screenplay
  3. Production design
  2. Cinematography
  3. Visual effects

...plus 18 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Capturing for posterity where the list stood December 16, 2024.

1. Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
3. Dune: Part Two
4. Stalker
5. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
6. The Empire Strikes Back
7. Interstellar
8. The Thing
9. Children of Men
10. Everything Everywhere All at Once

...plus 240 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Some rules. Mostly set near Christmastime, with numerous Christmas references and motifs, preferably with some strong Christmas themes.

Discounting films with great Christmas scenes that take place over a period of time, e.g. Meet Me in St.Louis or Little Women. May make a separate list for those.

1. Die Hard
2. Love Actually
3. Home Alone
4. While You Were Sleeping
5. The Nightmare Before Christmas
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas
7. It's a Wonderful Life
8. Miracle on 34th Street
9. How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
10. The Muppet Christmas Carol

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Great or classic films from 2021 or before I saw for the first time in 2024.

• The Best Years of Our Lives
• Michael Collins
• Edward Scissorhands
• Odd Man Out
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• Incendies
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
• Ed Wood
• The Killers
• Meshes of the Afternoon

...plus 25 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

A ranking of all animated films from Walt Disney Animation Studios which feature a single narrative. Not including any of the package or anthology-style films.

Note that I think most of these films are good.

Excluded based on format: Fantasia, Saludos Amigos, Three Caballeros, Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time, Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Fantasia 2000

1. Bambi
2. The Lion King
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. Pinocchio
5. Lady and the Tramp
6. The Little Mermaid
7. Cinderella
8. Big Hero 6
9. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
10. Alice in Wonderland

...plus 44 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"

With The Brutalist on the horizon and Interstellar re-releasing in IMAX, we’re living la dolce vita by celebrating the art of the long film. Whether you’re a wolf of Wall Street or a humble fiddler on the roof, go the extra green mile and make a Schindler’s list of your top movies (no miniseries!) with titanic runtimes of 150 minutes (2.5 happy hours) or more. Listen to the sound of music in your heart and select your favorite not-so-short cuts that bring the heat from Nashville to Dogville, that sweep you away, gone with the wind until the end of the world. These are the pictures that elicit a wondrous “That flew by!” in the cinema lobby afterwards: always good, never bad, sometimes ugly.
"

• The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
• Judgment at Nuremberg
• RRR
• Avengers: Endgame
• Braveheart
• Interstellar
• Dune: Part Two