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SCI FI's Top 20 Films of the Decade
The SCI FI community has spoken. We asked our bloggers and forum members to tell us their top ten films of the past tean years and the results have been compiled into the definitive top twenty list below. The only provison was that all films must fall into the SCI FI remit, which means sci-fi, horror and fantasy. Perhaps the big surprise is to see four films from this year in the top ten.
20. Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000)
19. The Fountain (Darren Aranofsky, 2006)
18. The Chronicles of Riddick (David Twohy, 2004)
Probably the most surprising entry in the list. Over budget, pretentious and derided by critics - you may not believe it but David Twohy and Vin Diesel's Riddick love-in actually stands up to repeat viewing. Yes the dialogue is bad, the acting corny and the storyline undeniably bland, but in terms of visuals and action The Chronicles of Riddick is a class act.
Peter Holley
17. Minority Report (Steven Spielberg, 2002)
16. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (Steven Spielberg, 2001)
15. Night Watch (Timur Bekmambetov, 2004)
14. Batman Begins (Christopher Nolan, 2005)
After the double horrorshow that was Batman Forever and Batman and Robin this franchise needed an overdose of darkness, and thankfully that's what it got. The overbearing level of grimness wasn't wholly realised until The Dark Knight yet the first film in Christopher Nolan's franchise set the tone and more than made up for the atrocities served up by Joel Schumacher. Batman Begins succeeds by taking its own subject matter seriously. The action scenes were class but this film brought the superhero flick into new realms with added emphasis on characterisation.
Peter Holley
13. King Kong (Peter Jackson, 2005)
12. Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001)
11. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004)Had a bad breakup? Who hasn't! But what if you could get rid of the hurt by erasing the entire relationship from your memory? Jim Carey and Kate Winslet star as the mismatched lovers who take us on a journey through the various stages of their relationship at breakneck speed. Bonus points for casting against type here, with Carrey as the befuddled straightman and Winslet as the alluring kook, and Michel Gondry's ability to create insane visual effects in-camera adds a wonderful touch of French class. Beautiful, magical and deeply touching, this film made me laugh and cry in equal amounts.
Amelia Tyler
10. Serenity (Joss Whedon, 2005)
9. Star Trek (J.J. Abrams, 2009)
8. District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009)
7. Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)Romance blossoms when bullied schoolkid Oskar meets the mysterious Eli, but is their love stong enough to overcome their differences? Violent and utterly beautiful, this movie took 'creature of the night' movies to a new level. Forget 'Twilight', screaming tween hordes - THIS is real vampire romance.
Amelia Tyler
6. Moon (Duncan Jones, 2009)
5. Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki, 2001)
4. Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006)
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
2. The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008)
1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)One film to rule them all. Or three to be exact. In our fantasy poll back in August we counted the Lord of the Rings films as separate films, but due to constant insistence from the bloggers and forum members we've decided to include them as one entity here. And what an entity it is. Everyone is talking about Avatar as the film to change Hollywood at present but it's hard to forget the impact the Lord of the Rings trilogy had at the beginning of the decade. A perfect blend of stunning scenery, epic sets and state of the art CGI. The rings trilogy were the films that finally brought fantasy out from the shadow of sci-fi.
Peter Holley
Written by Peter HolleyEditor
Pete wrties for syfy.co.uk. Favourite films include Blade Runner, Akira, The Thing, Videodrome and The Shining. Favourite guilty pleasure - Highlander 2. Has a belief that anything featuring Michael Ironside is worth watching.
Comments
Isn't there another year to go in the current decade? I thought a decade had to start with a 1 and end with a 0? If so we could easily include Avatar in this list.
No. 01 - Donnie Darko
@7:00:23AM 12/26/2009
I think you missed DESCENT
someone must have had way too much to drink because it makes no sense that the first ever decent star trek movie is not the first ; while the list has too many fantasy/horror movies.
Well you won't be surprised to hear I'm extremely happy to see Spirited Away and Crouching Tiger in there! Pan's Labyrinth makes me feel a bit better about Hellboy II missing out and Star Trek getting some respect is cool too. 1 & 2 and the rest are different films and good in different ways. The films not on the list (Avatar would surely have been in the top 5 at worst) show what a truly magnificent decade we've had in both film and Genre film. Not just good sc-fi & fantasy and horror, but Oscar winning, Oscar & award worth films. For all the stench of the Matrix sequels and Star Wars Episode II (Wow that film was bad!), we got more than our usual share of quality films.
Where was Hellboy 2 ??!?? Surely it deserves it place in there.
great choices
hummm - I'm quite surprised as there are some interesting but really (Really) weird choices for the decade's top Ten? ?????(- as in Good as they are, I would never have figured them in.... ? Lexa
You got your Christmas wish Mr H with Chronicles - you must have been a good boy this year.
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