All lists are subjective, and Rolling Stone’s debatable 150 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All-Time is no exception.
The list was compiled by 17 RS writers. There are a few interesting choices here. The best thing I can say is that they seem to have, mostly, picked the right 150 films, but just not in the right order.
It’s all in good fun to dissect the f*ckups — like “Jurassic Park” (#106) ranking below “The Last Jedi.” Also, “Starship Troopers,” a great film, is ranked very highly (#11) — which is amusing. I’ll never complain about Verhoeven being too high on a list.
Doug Liman’s “Edge of Tomorrow,” a strong modern-day genre flick, is ranked too high (#15) — there’s no chance that it should be deemed better than “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” (#16), “The Thing” (#21) or “Brazil” (#28).
I guess Jonathan Glazer’s masterful “Under the Skin” (#6) should be considered for this list, but it’s not a film that immediately shouts “Sci-Fi!” to me, especially when RS puts it ahead of genre classics, “Alien” and “Blade Runner.”
Ok, I’ll stop, I could just go on and on. If you ask me, the 10 seminal science fiction films, that changed the genre, are “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Blade Runner,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Metropolis,” “Alien,” “Children of Men,” “The Matrix,” “T2: Judgment Day,” “Star Wars” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956).
The List:
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stalker
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Blade Runner
Alien
Under the Skin
Children of Men
Metropolis (1927)
Star Wars
The Matrix
Starship Troopers
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Arrival
Edge of Tomorrow
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
Planet of the Apes
Solaris (1972)
The Thing (1982)
The Empire Strikes Back
Snowpiercer
Minority Report
Quartermass and the Pit
The Fly (1986)
Alphaville
Brazil
Ex Machina
Mad Max: Fury Road
La Jetee
Akira
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
Aliens
Her
Forbidden Planet
Godzilla
Inception
Wall-E
The Terminator
Videodrome
Back to the Future
They Live
Gravity
A Trip to the Moon (1902)
The Brother From Another Planet
Looper
The Road Warrior
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Martian
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
A Clockwork Orange
Dune: Part I
War of the Worlds (2005)
Seconds
Primer
Moon
Robocop
A Scanner Darkly
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial
12 Monkeys
Contact
Avatar (2009)
Interstellar
Annihilation
Liquid Sky
Fantastic Planet
The Andromeda Strain (1971)
Fahrenheit 451 (1966)
Escape from New York
Logan's Run
Ghost in the Shell (1995)
Total Recall
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
The Host
Donnie Darko
High Life
Nope
Galaxy Quest
Tetsuo: The Iron Man
Day of the Triffids
Strange Days
THX 1138
Paprika
Sunshine
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Blade Runner 2049
Scanners
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Cloverfield
Dark Star
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
The Iron Giant
Silent Running
Another Earth
Soylent Green
Rollerball (1975)
Predator (1987)
Starman
Westworld (1973)
This Island Earth
Space is the Place
Destination Moon
After Yang
Jurassic Park
Colossus: The Forbin Project
Invaders from Mars (1953)
Barbarella
Existenz
Serenity
Gattaca
Death Race 2000 (1975)
Them!
Rogue One
The Vast of Night
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Beast from 2000 Fathoms
The Time Machine (1954)
Dark City
Pi
Time Bandits
Phase IV (1974)
Attack the Block
Things to Come
God Told Me To
World on a Wire
Time after Time
Never Let Me Go
The Fifth Element
Ad Astra
2046
District 9
Born in Flames
Repo Man
Tron
Zardoz
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
Independence Day
Dune (1984)
Idiocracy
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai
Men in Black
The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Last Starfighter
The Running Man
Species
Demolition Man
The Omega Man
Tank Girl