Top 10 Best Sci-Fi for Gen-Zero'ers

 

Offering nothing to the world since 1997

 It was suggested to me from a rather wise shaman-woman that I shouldn't be so harsh on today's ignorant youth, what with their must-have cellular demands and inability to read a Triple-A map, so for them, to get them inducted into sci-fi, I give you...

It's from Robocop (1987) kids.  Sheesh.

The Top 10 Best Sci-Fi for Gen-Zero'ers!
 
  This list (everyone loves to read lists, it seems) is directed towards the odd revulsion Generation Zero kids have against imbibing anything older than themselves.  Though this advise is only best for scotch, I acquiesce and will assume the twitchy kids out there have this given proof as standard.  Indeed, most readers don't know what life was before the internet, or even Facebook.  Yep, people had to go outside and have a life.  Luckily, you don't have to do that anymore, cyberpunks!  Here's a nice list that is within your lifetime that you should try-out before you get to the "big boy" previous list.  Be advised, of the 150 movies I reviewed that were sci-fi-esque since 2000, almost none of them were really any good, either because they were campy or just plain retarded.  I'd seen all of them;  all 150 (to my horror).  Because of this I am an expert.  Say it to yourselves, "Mike is an expert."  Very good.  Of the 150, they were all horrible, except for these 10.  This will get you started.  If you can think of one not listed, feel free to add in the comments below (so I can tell you you're wrong).  jk.. L0LZ!!!1!one

1. Pitch Black (2000)
  Ship carrying photosensitive prisoner crash-lands on a world with 3 suns which set only once every 22 years, and it's due.  What's in the dark?  Modern action star Vin Diesel gets a leg-up career-wise with this elaborate city-mouse, country-mouse setup with everyone an anti-hero angle.  Great use of lens-play make a saturated landscape art-piece.

2.  Equilibrium (2001)
    Dystopian, George Orwellian future (read 1984 kids, it's a good novel) has "clerics" as police who learn gun-kata, a beautifully-created-for-the-film, gun-based martial-arts form.  All goes well until one forgets to take is ambivalence pill, then the truth is revealed!

3.  Firefly (TV series) then watch Serenity (2005)
    Probably the best sci-fi series ever made by The Avengers director Joss Whedon, the final film is ultimately the final episode, tying everything together, so it's best you watch the single 1 season first in a gorge-watch-session on Netflix before the movie-viewing.  Some call it "cowboys in space" but it works (unlike Space Cowboys and Cowboys and Aliens which were unwatchable); about a darker future and a mysterious, shy girl with a past (the key ingredients of any anime).  Find out why everyone raves about it.  The character development is better than almost anything ever made, and I've never met anyone who hated this series and film, even those dead inside.

4.  The Island (2005)
    At first when I started watching this film, I thought it was a discount Logan's Run (1976), ah but it's much more than that (and less, in other ways, and not as dreary, and no "Box").  I won't give away the plot but Ian Macgregor, Scarlet Johansson, and Steve Buscemi make for an interesting near-future ride about escape from a domed-city Paradise.

5.  Children of Men (2006)
    Rather panned-over in 2006, the attention to subtle detail, such as the instrument cluster in a futuristic car showing correct "telemetry" is time-consuming brilliance.  Mankind cannot breed anymore and time is running-out for the human race, set to extinction.  One woman could save the world?

6.  The Dark Knight (2007)
    I know this is a comic-book film, and it's DC (give me one sin-point, as I'm a Marvel true-believer) but honestly, I've never seen a battle of Lawful Good versus Chaotic Evil pulling at a True Neutral character so expertly and seamlessly before.  Almost perfect (except for the BatCycle up-the-wall turn-around) I was totally engrossed in its believability and genuinely good acting for a change in this genre (a few others exist).  Heath Ledger's last role as The Joker is expertly played-out to it's finality.  Batman has never been told in such grace, nor will it ever again.  A work of art, truly.

7.  District 9 (2009)
    Though a simple, kind mirror of apartheid in South Africa, this prejudistic alien-invasion become slum-like unwanteds as a lesser-race, until things start to change.  Gritty and a good use of CGI make for an involving plot that will leave you wanting a sequel.

8.  Repo Men (2010)
     I know this one is based on a better version a few years earlier, but I just loved it.  Men are hired to repossess medical organs if payments are not made on-time, until there's a mistake in this near-future tale.  Forest Whitaker plays hardcore and Jude Law the anti-hero along with stunningly exotic Brazilian Alice Braga (Moraes) in this Canadian (?!) dystopia.

9.  Gravity (2013)
    Out just a bit ago now, these two actors, Sandra Bullock and George Clooney were huge 20 years ago as a last-hoorah film for them both.  Two astronauts on a repair-mission in near-earth orbit deal with catastrophic failure.  Released in IMAX 3D make for a stunning spectacle.  If you have the technology at home to watch in in 4K 3D, you should.  If you watch it on a normal TV, as Count Floyd from SCTV would say, "You're only be seeing this thing in.... 1/2 D!"

10.  Interstellar (2014)
    I've said it again, Disney's The Black Hole (1979) mixed with Silent Running (1972) is almost the same film, though composer Hans Zimmer makes great use of pipe-organ ambiance depicting a treacherous super-black-hole as a wormhole opens near Saturn to another galaxy for mankind's survival against a crop blight that devastates all food sources.  Don't worry, it's not Jody Foster's stupid  Contact (1997[now])! Very intense and interesting, though scientifically inaccurate (black holes will crush your face/soul in quick (or no) time if you get close), it still delivers an interesting tale about time relativity issues and space-travel.  A good watch.

Gen-Zero approved!

  Okay, so there you have it.  Watch these for fun.  I left-out Guardians of the Galaxy and X-Men: Days of Future Past because they were a bit not right for the list, but also good watches in my opinion, especially if you're a Marvel Comic fan.  If you don't know X-Men at all, the latter will be a bit confusing, but for me, who grew up on it, pure syrup-y goodness.  I left out Hobo with a Shotgun because you're not ready for what that represents until you watch everything John Carpenter has done, then love that, then you can watch it.

DUH!

  Have at it, Gen-Zero'ers, and it's okay to bring your iCrap with you, because I know you can't focus on one thing at a time.  It's okay, (petting head), I need you to work at fast-food forever (petting head).  If you liked these, you'll love the original list as well I warrant!

Honorable mention:  Dredd (2012) and Space Battleship Yamato (2010)





Out!

One real one for the ladies, "You like my sci-fi, baby?!  Do yuh?  I'm stuck on this metal table.. um.."