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Science Fiction

A genre of film embracing one or more of the following elements: speculative fiction, futurism, technology, and space travel. Early science-fiction was primarily concerned with man's exploration of the universe but soon found competition in a more paranoid strain of films in the 1950s. Fifties science-fiction dealt mostly with invasions of Earth by hostile aliens or giant radioactive mutations. Reactions to the testing of the A-bomb and Cold War paranoia were often reflected allegorically in these films. The 1960s and '70s saw a more hopeful strain of film emerge, as pessimism was briefly replaced again by the thrill of space adventure. Mounting ecological concerns, however, led to the 1970s "ecokill" cycle, featuring natural forces (mostly predatory animals) rebelling against their polluted environments. By the 1980s, this strain had evolved into the "dystopia" film, which dealt with the aftermath of an ecological or nuclear disaster, often speculating the formation of totalitarian governments or man's return to savage barbarism. As technology has increased, the ideological content of science-fiction film seems to have decreased, with special effects becoming an end in themselves rather than a means to make a point.

Major Works
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Rating
Year
 Title
 
 Director
  9 Stars 1999 The Matrix   Andy Wachowski
    9 Stars 1962 La jetée   Chris Marker
  9 Stars 1981 The Road Warrior   George Miller
  9 Stars 1951 The Thing   Christian Nyby
  9 Stars 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment Day   James Cameron
  9 Stars 1984 The Terminator   James Cameron
  9 Stars 1977 Star Wars   George Lucas
  9 Stars 1972 Solaris   Andrei Tarkovsky
  9 Stars 1968 Planet of the Apes   Franklin J. Schaffner
  9 Stars 1927 Metropolis   Fritz Lang
  9 Stars 1956 Invasion of the Body Snatchers   Don Siegel
  9 Stars 1931 Frankenstein   James Whale
  9 Stars 1980 The Empire Strikes Back   Irvin Kershner
  9 Stars 1982 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial   Steven Spielberg
  9 Stars 1951 The Day the Earth Stood Still   Robert Wise
  9 Stars 1977 Close Encounters of the Third Kind   Steven Spielberg
  9 Stars 1971 A Clockwork Orange   Stanley Kubrick
  9 Stars 1935 The Bride of Frankenstein   James Whale
  9 Stars 1985 Brazil   Terry Gilliam
  9 Stars 1982 Blade Runner   Ridley Scott
  9 Stars 1965 Alphaville   Jean-Luc Godard
  9 Stars 1979 Alien   Ridley Scott
  9 Stars 1987 Akira   Katsuhiro Otomo
  9 Stars 1968 2001: A Space Odyssey   Stanley Kubrick
  8 Stars 1996 Ghost in the Shell   Mamoru Oshii
  8 Stars 1979 Stalker   Andrei Tarkovsky
    8 Stars 1957 Not of This Earth   Roger Corman
  8 Stars 1982 The Thing   John Carpenter
  8 Stars 1976 The Man Who Fell to Earth   Nicolas Roeg
    8 Stars 1932 Island of Lost Souls   Erle C. Kenton
  8 Stars 1933 The Invisible Man   James Whale
  8 Stars 1957 The Incredible Shrinking Man   Jack Arnold
  8 Stars 1956 Forbidden Planet   Fred Wilcox
  8 Stars 1986 The Fly   David Cronenberg
  8 Stars 1983 The Day After   Nicholas Meyer
  8 Stars 1986 Aliens   James Cameron
  7 Stars 1954 Gojira   Ishiro Honda
  7 Stars 1998 Dark City   Alex Proyas
  7 Stars 1902 Le Voyage Dans la Lune   Georges Méliès
  7 Stars 1995 12 Monkeys   Terry Gilliam
  7 Stars 1983 V   Kenneth Johnson
  7 Stars 1966 Seconds   John Frankenheimer
  7 Stars 1978 Superman: The Movie   Richard Donner
  7 Stars 1983 Le Dernier Combat   Luc Besson
  7 Stars 1951 When Worlds Collide   Rudolph Maté
  7 Stars 1973 Westworld   Michael Crichton
  7 Stars 1982 Videodrome   David Cronenberg
  7 Stars 1989 The Venus Wars   Yoshikazu Yasuhiko
  7 Stars 1936 Things to Come   William Cameron Menzies
  7 Stars 1975 Shivers   David Cronenberg
  7 Stars 1954 Them!   Gordon M. Douglas
  7 Stars 1980 Superman II   Richard Lester
  7 Stars 1984 Starman   John Carpenter
  7 Stars 1991 Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country   Nicholas Meyer
  7 Stars 1986 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home   Leonard Nimoy
  7 Stars 1972 Slaughterhouse Five   George Roy Hill
  7 Stars 1981 Scanners   David Cronenberg
  7 Stars 1987 Robocop   Paul Verhoeven
  7 Stars 1983 Return of the Jedi   Richard Marquand
  7 Stars 1959 On the Beach   Stanley Kramer
  7 Stars 1971 The Omega Man   Boris Sagal
  7 Stars 1979 Mad Max   George Miller
  7 Stars 1993 Jurassic Park   Steven Spielberg
  7 Stars 1958 The Fly   Kurt Neumann
  7 Stars 1981 Escape from New York   John Carpenter
  7 Stars 1975 Death Race 2000   Paul Bartel
  7 Stars 1985 Cocoon   Ron Howard
  7 Stars 1971 The Andromeda Strain   Robert Wise
  7 Stars 1924 Aelita   Yakov Protazanov
  7 Stars 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four   Michael Radford
  6 Stars 2001 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence   Steven Spielberg
  6 Stars 2000 Pitch Black   David N. Twohy
  6 Stars 1997 Gattaca   Andrew Niccol
  6 Stars 1997 Contact   Robert Zemeckis
  6 Stars 1995 Strange Days   Kathryn Bigelow
  6 Stars 1975 The Stepford Wives   Bryan Forbes
  6 Stars 1953 The War of the Worlds   Byron Haskin
    6 Stars 1960 Village of the Damned   Wolf Rilla
  6 Stars 1982 Tron   Steven Lisberger
  6 Stars 1990 Total Recall   Paul Verhoeven
  6 Stars 1979 Time After Time   Nicholas Meyer
  6 Stars 1971 Silent Running   Douglas Trumbull
  6 Stars 1978 Invasion of the Body Snatchers   Philip Kaufman
  6 Stars 1966 Fantastic Voyage   Richard Fleischer
  6 Stars 1966 Fahrenheit 451   François Truffaut
  6 Stars 1983 The Dead Zone   David Cronenberg
  6 Stars 1984 The Brother from Another Planet   John Sayles
  6 Stars 1979 The Brood   David Cronenberg
  6 Stars 1975 A Boy and His Dog   L.Q. Jones
  6 Stars 1980 Altered States   Ken Russell
  6 Stars 1989 The Abyss   James Cameron
  5 Stars 1999 Gamera 3: Awakening of Iris   Shusuke Kaneko
  5 Stars 1999 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace   George Lucas
  5 Stars 1999 eXistenZ   David Cronenberg
  5 Stars 1998 Deep Impact   Mimi Leder
  5 Stars 1997 Cube   Vincenzo Natali
  5 Stars 1997 Men in Black   Barry Sonnenfeld
  5 Stars 1997 The Fifth Element   Luc Besson
  5 Stars 1992 Tetsuo II: Body Hammer   Shinya Tsukamoto
    5 Stars 1996 Terminator 2: 3-D   James Cameron
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