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Serenity
Monday 2nd April, 2007 14:34 Comments: 3
I'm surprised and very glad to discover that Serenity has beaten Star Wars to the title of best sci-fi movie in an SFX magazine poll of 3,000 fans. The futuristic release from 2005 was based on the short-lived TV series Firefly (yes, I have both the TV and movie on DVD). Both were the work of Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator (the amazing) Joss Whedon. SFX editor Dave Bradley said it was a "massive surprise" to see Serenity beating Star Wars.
  1. Serenity
  2. Star Wars
  3. Blade Runner
  4. Planet of the Apes
  5. The Matrix
  6. Alien
  7. Forbidden Planet
  8. 2001: A Space Odyssey
  9. The Terminator
  10. Back to the Future
Source: SFX magazine
Avatar Fab - Monday 2nd April, 2007 14:47
That is a surprise. But to be honest, in any statistics, you will always find the most recent popular film/music doing disproporionately well. Check again in 5 years time and if Serenity is still up there, it can earn the title. I bet it won't be. ;)

It is still a real shame that they pulled the plug on Firefly.
Avatar Yamahito - Tuesday 3rd April, 2007 09:44
Best Sci Fi Film? No.

Best Sci Fi Series? It's right up there with BSG, I think
Avatar Robert - Tuesday 3rd April, 2007 10:14
It is a controversial result. The top movies aren't just standalone movies: Serenity was a single movie that came after the TV show (right now it seems very unlikely that there'll be a sequel); Star Wars has half a dozen movies, graphic novels, fan-fiction and lots of other things that draws people into it; there have been lots of Planet of The Apes movies too (seven of them?); The Matrix is a trilogy, and then there's The Animatrix; Alien is a quadilogy; The Terminator and Back To The Future are also both trilogies. It's hard to decide whether the poll should discount such movies (in which case we'd be left with just Blade Runner and Forbidden Planet), because they're not standalone sci-fi movies, but at the same time you could argue the many sequels, prequels and related material is because the films are so successful.

I loved Serenity, it had great dialogue, great special effects, great music, but it's hard to directly compare against older movies like Star Wars, and those with a different target audience. Do you compare the special effects directly, or do you compare them relative to the technology at the time? In terms of music, Star Wars had a great score by John Williams. Do you take into account the target audience? Back To The Future is great for kids. Star Wars always seemed more family friendly, I think Serenity seems to target an older age group, while Blade Runner is almost definitely aimed at an older market.

I don't think anyone would be happy with any results. You can't please everyone. But I think we can all agree that the top 10 films are very good films (the IMDb ratings are very high for all the movies).
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