Best Alien/ Scifi movies?

Not sure if they fit the category, but Robocop (the original), The Terminator, Forbidden Planet (basically the prototype for Star Trek)

 

Apart from the obvious classics (Alien, Aliens, ...) I always liked Pitch Black.

Pandorum was pretty decent as well, when looking at recent titles.

Other recent sci-fi flicks I really liked: Moon, District 9 and Prometheus.

All of these have flaws, mind you, but all sc-fi does.

 

Krull

it has aliens and magic !!!

 

I remember that one. Flying castles for the win!

Seriously,

Event Horizion is a decent Science Fiction horror.

 

2001 A Space Odyssey anyone?

 

And high-tech / sci-fi stuff, if I remember correct.

 

In terms of just sci-fi in general, a few come to mind, some well-known and others not so much. The main ones I would recommend watching are:

Gattaca
Blade Runner
Moon
Alien

I have a soft spot for A Scanner Darkly. Some of the stuff from the 50s is also pretty great. Never seen 2001, but do plan to.

In terms of alien movies in general, there isn't much that I'm aware of. There are a few films that I watch for fun like Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Men in Black, etc.

They do.

 

An underrated film but 'Pitch Black' is a fairly competent monster/alien movie.

Not so much an alien film but 'Event Horizon' is again underrated and is easily by far Paul W S Anderson's best work - easily (mainly because everything else he's ever directed is utter shite.)

 

Armageddon, if that counts. I also thought Red Plant was a pretty good movie.

 

Yup. I liked the Solaris in the same way.

Here's another tip for underrated sci-fi: Sunshine. There's some supernatural mumbo-jumbo, but anyway.

Not bad, even with that stupid romance plot. There are some eye-catching effects. Still, I consider a B-category movie Moon 44 to be much better, for instance.

 

Sunshine is a very good little sci fi, really enjoyed it in the cinema when it came out.

 

I've never liked Event Horizon. It's just Hellraiser in space, which I'm not sure even qualifies as science fiction. I admit the art direction is good though.

I'd add to the recommendations for Blade Runner and Gattaca.

I also like Dark City and Outland (the Sean Connery movie from the 80s, not the Jim Caviezel movie from a few years ago), for some lesser-known gems.

And of course the original Planet of the Apes, which is a masterpiece.

 

A bit dated now but one old sci fi movie I also liked was Fantastic Voyage.

 

Outland was awesome, watched it a zillion times and still do occasionally. The atmosphere in Event Horizon is what makes that movie really worthwhile, one hell of a spooky ship, and I actually noticed many of the imagery that made it that way, like the coffin shaped doorways.

I sure liked Space Odyssey, as I like most if not all Kubrick films, if for lack of a better reason I believe the photography in his movies is unparalleled to anything else even today, and is my belief that 2001 inspired much of the sci-fi cinema that appeared after in one way or another.

 

Amazing film Outland - again highly under-rated I actually consider it to be in the same universe as Alien - it feels almost exactly the same in setting.

Connery plays a good part aswell.

 

Another underrated and less known pieces: Pilot Pirx's inquest (1979). It's a Polish/Ukrainian movie, based on story Test pilota Pirxa, written by Stanislaw Lem. Digging deeper into the history, we'll find Icarus XB 1 (1963), pretty good Czech sci-fi movie based also on story written by S. Lem. Perhaps some of the effects are aged a little, but the rock solid stories can beat Armageddon and other supercool modern crap any day.

 

I would also add Colossus: The Forbin Project as another good film that I enjoyed quite a bit. Tend to forget this one since I've only seen it once.