Favorite Sci-fi/fantasy movies

[Diana Levin]

List your favorite fantasy/Sci fi films and why you like them

My favs are LOTR, Nightmare before Christmas and Blade Runner.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Salute Of The Jugger

great post-apocalyptic sports film similar to Roller Ball

 

[Aerandir]

List your favorite fantasy/Sci fi films and why you like them

My favs are LOTR, Nightmare before Christmas and Blade Runner.

You didn't say why you liked them.

LOTR because it put one of the greatest trilogies on film. Peter Jackson, and all the crew did a great job on the films. I've watched them at least 10 time.

Star War because it was made by a risk taker, and a lot of college kids. The skill it took to do the stop animation is outstanding. It changed movie making as we know it and opened the door for many other great movies.

Dragon Slayer because it was well ahead of it's time. I still think the dragon looks better than must CG dragons in recent films.

 

[Diana Levin]

You didn't say why you liked them.

Hehe your so right.
I love LOTR because it was the movie that first inspired me to draw and write fantasy.
Nightmare before christmas because I love halloween, I thought the animation was really unique and fun, and I don't get tired of watching it. Puts me in a good mood.
Blade Runner because I loved the whole film noir/postmodern scene set in a futuristic distopia. I have a thing for distopian society movies.

 

[Foxbat]

I have so many favourites but ones that spring to mind right now are Metropolis, Silent Running and Quatermass And The Pit.

 

[mightymem]

Aliens : because the movie is a piece of art, and is also fun. The effects are still amazing and its quite shocking.

 

[manephelien]

Lord of the Rings, especially the extended editions: they're such beautiful, believable movies. Middle-Earth really comes alive in those movies, and I really wish I could see some of those places for real.

The Abyss: just the director's cut, because the theater release has such a twee ending. It's a story of humanity, love, and the sacrifices people are willing to make for love, in an absolutely fantastic environment. The huge underwater set is absolutely astounding.

Star Wars: The OT is a lovely description of a galaxy decaying under an evil empire, with wonderfully believable characters. The PT movies are entertaining, but not quite as wonderful as the originals.

Blade Runner: a fabulous dystopian description of the world, scary in a way but a story beautifully told.

Aliens: astounding cinematography and wonderful heroism, and really quite terrifying aliens.

I'd give an honorable mention to Apollo 13. It's fictionalized history rather than sf, but it's still one of my favorite movies, and some of the effects are on a par with the best sf. I love the fact that they shot the space sequences in 20-second installments on the "vomit comet".

 

[Quokka]

My favourite fantasy movie is The Princess Bride still one of the funniest movies ever made and without doubt my favourite family movie.

 

[Soggyfox]

The Abyss: just the director's cut, because the theater release has such a twee ending. It's a story of humanity, love, and the sacrifices people are willing to make for love, in an absolutely fantastic environment. The huge underwater set is absolutely astounding.

as a diver i too love this film, even though you have to ignore some fundamental physics of diving, but on the whole it is a good film.

my list is close to many others.

Starwars - i was a kid growing up at the time these came out and they encalpsulated everything i would dream of, extraterrestrials, spaceships, hero's and villains and sexy princesses.

Bladerunner too, the whole film had and air of 'this is how its going to be' that i loved, also the dark and dismal setting i always felt was more true to our future than the standard Hollywood fresh and clean.

 

[daisybee]

Bladerunner-because it is brilliant and still fascinates me no matter how many times I've seen it. I love the way it looks, sounds, the story it tells, I just love that film.

 

[manephelien]

I completely forgot The Princess Bride. It's one of the best animated features I've ever seen in any genre, if not the best.

 

[iansales]

The Princess Bride is not animated.

 

[Nesacat]

Flight of Dragons is an all-time favourite. I was hooked when I first saw it way back in school. There's dragons and knights and wizards. What's not to love.

BladeRunner because after all these years and for being watched over and over again it still holds a deep fascination.

Princess Bride, which is one of the first fantasy movies I'd seen and I've since come to love the book.

Clash of the Titans simply because it was the first fantasy movie I remember watching. Played truant from school too. My dad came and got me and we went to watch it. I still love it. Same goes for the Sinbad movies. They hold some very warm memories. I've got them all on DVD and watch them regularly.

Nightmare Before Christmas because of Jack Skellington and my abiding love for autumn and Halloween.

 

[iansales]

Er, The Princess Bride doesn't have Tom Cruise in it. That would be Legend.

 

[ravenus]

Fantasy is rather broad as a genre...unless you mean only the elves and dragons sort of fantasy...Most of those movies were too twee to want to see them more than once...I did like John Milus' Conan the Barbarian movie a great deal, because, like Howard's books, it was so manly and un-twee in most part

In the SF arena let's see, I quite liked...

Solaris (Soderbergh) - Brilliant exploration of a man's dilemma of choice between living sad reality or a potentially happy fantasy

Them! - Darn good low-budget brit movie about non-giant ants taking over the world. Like the Alien series, it's a little more horror than SF but still.

Alien, Alien3 - Liked these more than Cameron's film, which was also nice in the popcorn vein.

Dark City - Sort of like the Matrix movie, but I like this a whole lot better, and it doesn't have an annoying guy keeping going on about "what is real?" till you want to punch him in the face

I'm sure there 're more but as I think of them...

 

[j d worthington]

There are a huge number on this list for me, since I've been watching the stuff since before I could walk (which puts it at about 48+ years....) so I'll only name a few....

Harryhausen's films, especially 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts -- certainly two of my earliest favorites, full of warm memories (indeed, indeed, Nesa!), not to mention some of the niftiest stop-motion animation ever put on the screen, a wonderful fairy-tale/legend story, and those absolutely superb Bernard Hermann scores....

Curse of the Cat People -- because it captures perfectly the wonderful, strange imaginative world of the special, gifted child, and is almost heartbreakingly beautiful.

Death Takes a Holiday -- a wonderful blending of comedy, romance, horror, fairy-tale, and deep insight into the human heart; coupled with On Borrowed Time, two of the best films to date on the subject of death and its place in our lives, both good and bad, with superb performances to boot... (Outward Bound runs a close second there, by the way....)

I'll have to go with The Nightmare Before Christmas myself... love that film (I, too, have a passion for Halloween, and fall is my favorite time of the year). The animation, Danny Elfman's score, the characters, the story... just a delight, that one. (I'm also going to put The Corpse Bride up there close to it... I'm a sucker for this sort of thing....)

2001: a space odyssey -- because it remains one of the most fascinating, beautiful, and enigmatic sf films ever made... not to mention one of the most intelligent.

Silent Running -- sf (ostensibly), but more of a parable, really... a film that just shouldn't have worked, it has so many logical flaws... yet somehow it manages to get to you... partly because of the chemistry between Lowell (Bruce Dern) and those little drones....

Blade Runner -- one of the most beautifully imagined futuristic milieus ever put on film, great performances, lots of mythic layers, broad yet subtle interpretation... just a lovely film

The Fellowship of the Ring -- while I quite like the entire set (despite some serious flaws), this is my favorite... because it is closest to capturing the essence of Tolkien's world (I'm speaking of the extended version here -- I don't care for the theatrical version, I must admit... too hectic); again, beautifully set forth on the screen, and that confrontation with the Balrog....!

The Golem -- one of my favorite silent films of the fantasy genre (I wonder if people realize just how many fantasy films there really were in that era?)... a lovely atmospheric study, a fairy/folk tale very well told, visually captivating, and full of quirky humor as well....

Metropolis -- simply a stunning film... visually, emotionally, in so many ways. Yes, it suffers from the rather histrionic acting at times, but somehow even that often works within the context of the film... and there's always the Ultima Futura, who has long been a pop-cultural icon...

I'd include some of Lon Chaney, Sr.'s films here, but really there's little true fantasy to them... the closest being The Phantom of the Opera, one of my favorites, certainly; but he was one of the earliest stars of the allied field of the weird/horror film, and I simply love watching Chaney work....

 

[Hawke]

For me its got to be:

LOTR Return of the King: Mainly beacuse of the ending, I loved the epic feel of it and the ultimate sacrifice that people were prepared to make.

The Matrix: But only the first film, I didn't like the other two at all, the first was so well done

Dune: Even though its an old film its very much one of my favourites, it wasn't as fully explained as it was in the book, and the way they replaced the weirding way (martial art kinda thing) with guns was a bit of an annoyance but I can see why it was done.

Stargate: I first saw this movie on tv a long long time ago, and I just though it was brilliant, the whole concept was pretty original (as far as I had seen)

300: Although this was a historical event I list this as fantasy because to be honest there was very little historical content actually in it, it was more based of the mythology than anything. I just loved the way it was filmed. the effects used.

 

[Overread]

Ok I will make this simple as I really can't choose - it hurts my head, plus my room is frezzing (UNI) and thus I don't have the hand motions to type out every film I like (yes my list would be that long) so here is my list

every film mentioned so far excluding the following
Salute Of The Jugger
Dragon Slayer
Metropolis
Silent Running
The Abyss
Quatermass And The Pit
The Princess Bride
Bladerunner - I'm kinda embaressed about not seeing this one, its on my list of to watch though
Flight of Dragons
Solaris - the only one on the list that I have seen and did not like
Them
Dark City

 

[Tilion]

Flight of Dragons is an all-time favourite. I was hooked when I first saw it way back in school. There's dragons and knights and wizards. What's not to love.

Wow, I am so glad someone mentioned this marvellous gem of a movie. It's not just one of my favourite fantasy movies/animations, it's one of my faves period!

Here's a scene featuring Ommadon, the evil red wizard, who I think is an excellent villain, and was voiced by the wonderful James Earl Jones:

YouTube - Flight Of Dragons Ommadon and Byraugh.

And here's another clip with the opening scene of the movie to give the rest of you who haven't seen it (YET ) an idea of what to expect:

YouTube - The Flight of Dragons Opening

My other favourites include Star Wars and The LOTR films, but among others not yet mentioned:

The Labyrinth - outstanding fantasy movie featuring David Bowie, George Lucas and Jim Henson in one way or another.

The Lord of the Rings (1978!) - Yeah, yeah, most people hate this one, but I LOVE it! Soron, Seleborn and Aruman , as well as other inconsistencies or inadequacies never really bothered me, though I think one's liking of this movie has to do with whether one has seen it as a child or an adult, and I was a wee bit laddie back then, so there you have it.

The Last Unicorn

 

[wanderer085]

LOTR - Simply an epic masterpiece, and I've read the trilogy a couple of times, I wish they'd make an equivalent version of "The Hobbit" which in many ways is the best of the four books.
The Matrix - Very original and entertaining.
ALIEN - The first one was the best, the alien spaceship was one of the most eerie things I've ever seen.
STAR WARS - Again, the first was the best, I guess because the special effects were so spectacular at that time.
A Clockwork Orange - Simply years ahead of its time, the music was outstanding.