Ten Truly Underrated Sci-Fi Movies

The original Gojira which is finally available in this country, sans Raymond Burr, is a very moving flick, right up there with the original King Kong.

I agree wholeheartedly. I figured the US version would be more easily recognized. I recommend Gojira over King of Monsters for sure. Nice call AdipicAcid.

If you want to see the director of Gojira do something interesting, try renting Matango. The special effects are rather laughable, but the movie is just plain creepy. It's based on a William Hope Hodgson short story, as well. Honda could be a pretty serviceable director. Not nearly as good as his good friend Kurosawa, but the fact that they were lifelong friends and colleagues does say something, I think. He kind of got pigeonholed on the cheap scifi spectaculars, but when allowed a little freedom could do some very interesting pictures.

Cool adipic, I'll hop on Matango. My son is a huge monster film fan, so I think he'll enjoy this too.

Andimia, Gammera is a great film. My oldest watches that at least once a week. Gammera and Gigan, from Godzilla, are his two favorite monsters.

Just realize there are no giant monsters in Matango. It's far more of a commentary on modern (in)humanity.

Andimia, you must see Gattaca.

With all the Japanese Monster flick talk that followed, I didn't want this comment to be lost. Gattaca is an outstanding modern SF flick!

It's very much what SF is best at: take a current technology, extend it logically, do a story about the result.

As for the Japanese Monster flicks, certainly not silly in a bad way. Whether you consider them SF, to me, seems based on how hard core your are in movie classification. A lot of people lump anything not currently real under SF. Others break SF down into Vampires, Zombies, Monsters, Space Opera, etc.

I tend to be more of a lumper-with-sub-categories. :-)

Just realize there are no giant monsters in Matango. It's far more of a commentary on modern (in)humanity

Thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind now that you've mentioned it. I'll check it out first before I watch it with the kids.

Gattaca is an outstanding modern SF flick!

You're absolutely right Chris. I think Gattaca is not only a genuine sci-fi film, but a great film all around. If anyone hasn't read it, check out the outstanding article Chris wrote on the subject of sci-fi here

Haha yeah that one shocked me too. Aeon Flux is terrible in all it's forms.

I liked the original animated Aeon Flux, but the live action move was HORRIBLE.

Yeah, Aeon Flux was really bad. Though I like Charlize Theron, especially with that hair cut.

Primer took me a few days to figure out and I'm not sure I truly did.

Primer is incredible. I've seen it 5 times or so and still am not sure exactly what happens.

Primer is one of those movies you finish and think, "that was pretty good but I have absolutely NO idea what just happened."

It doesn't matter how many times you see it, that's still the result.

I just watched it for the first time last night. I rented it a week or so ago after seeing it recommended on another thread and then was reminded to actually sit down and watch it by this thread. Really enjoyed it. I was following along just fine until they said something about putting one of their 'coffins' inside another. My mind was pretty much blown after that. Has to be the best ultra-low budget movie I've ever seen...

I think that is what makes Sci-Fi fun, you are sometimes left guessing. I'm going to try to get one of those on the list. I liked League of Extradinary Gentlemen.

Thanks.

Is Blade Runner actually "underrated," though? I believe it is one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever ... one of the greatest movies ever. But I thought it was considered a true classic already by many sci-fi fans. Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott, Darryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer ... how could it miss? Great film, regardless.

My choice for an excellent, but underrated sci-fi film would be Outland from 1981, Directed by Peter Hyams and starring Sean Connery and Peter Boyle. It's visually arresting, and plays out sort of like High Noon in space, with a bit of Die Hard (which came later) in it as well.

Policeman Marshal William T. O' Niel has been transferred to the mining outpost located on Io, one of Jupiter's moons. And O' Neil is about to have the worst time of his life at the mining outpost, when he is assigned to investigate the violent deaths of miners, only to discover the miners have died of drug overdoses from a lethal drug. As O' Niel sets out to find the drug dealers, he finds himself the target of hired assassins, whom have been hired to assassinate O' Niel. With no help from the Police Force, O' Niel sets out to stand against the drug dealers, as he begins to suspect the outpost's corrupt administrator Sheppard may be involved with the drug dealers. Written by Daniel Williamson

Is Blade Runner actually "underrated," though? I believe it is one of the greatest sci-fi movies ever ... one of the greatest movies ever.

Totally agree. Blade Runner is at or near the top of pretty much every "Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time" list I've ever seen. Nowhere near underrated. Widely considered a classic.

Points well taken. I may have misunderstood the premise. I am not arguing that WE underrate Blade Runner, but we are the choir. I was aiming my thoughts at those who like to poo-poo Sci-fi and Epic Fantasy films and underrate anything that is based in imagination rather than reality. I apologize for misreading. Attribute it to half a century of feeling defensive about my preference for the genre. Cheers, good people.

Cheers to you, UD! I think Sci-Fi is getting more and more respect in the general culture, thanks to people like yourself who have kept faith.

This genre is under-rated, probably because much of it occurs in a post-political universe which doesn't always reflect the pessimistic reality many of us "grown-ups" assume once we are released into the wilds of society.

The irony is that so much of the best SF revels in the political aspects of society; Dr. Strangelove is one obvious example. Others include 1984, Brave New World, THX-1138, etc.

George Lucas earned a permanent place in history for making SF films mainstream, but it's unfortunate that so many view SF as "long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away."

That opening is semantically identical to, "Once upon a time."

Yep, I have that CD, but never saw the movie. Great music ... I need to see the film. Wasn't that Wem Winders?

I also liked Screamers: not especially deep, but worked really well as a sci-fi thriller. Think The Thing meets Aliens.

I nominate Dune -- underrated and widely disliked!

Seconded, provided we're talking about the long cut of the film ;-)

Yeah, THX1138 is no longer underrated, although early on it was, before Lucas became a superstar director. Now, sci-fi clubs rent moviehouses occasionally and go watch it.

I nominate Dune -- underrated and widely disliked!

Rightfully so, IMO. :-)

(We're talking the David Lynch one, right? Not the SF channel one (which wasn't bad).)

David Lynch version, absolutely. I really liked that the mini-series tried to stay closer to the text; however, Lynch's vision of Dune is an absolute masterpiece.

Actually I think the Sci-fi version is the better of the two, but then again I also think they are both a bit dull.

Lynch's vision of Dune is an absolute masterpiece.

In the same sense that a dog's vomit after eating its own crap is a "masterpiece." Neither adaptation of Dune is any good, as a book with as much internal monologue as it has is nearly impossible to film. It would be something like trying to film The Sound and the Fury: no matter how good the director and writer, the resulting picture is still going to be horrid.

Lynch's vision of Dune is an absolute masterpiece.

I couldn't disagree more. I thought it was a very unfortunate adaptation of one of Science Fiction's true classic works. Dune is a hugely challenging work to try to film, and in my opinion Lynch failed miserably. (FWIW, Rotten Tomotoes gives it a 63% rating.)

As just one example, Lynch's Baron Harkonnen is a physically a grotesque monster. The "real" Hardonnen was opulent in his decadence. Evil = Ugly is first level interpretation which any hack can achive. Understanding that Evil is incredibly attractive is the mark of master storytelling.

I'm in the "love it" category where Lynch's Dune is concerned - but I view it as a separate thing from the book - a reimagining, if you will - and on that level it's a very well crafted, beautiful, stylized movie, with good acting. I'm not a Dune purist and while I liked the book(s) well enough they're still just, well, average (IMHO), I never did get the cult that arose around them. So I didn't feel the insult or whatever that fans of the books felt. I just accepted it as a movie, and nothing more. And on that score it was a spectacle, especially for its age - reminds me of "Excalibur" in that way. Has a timeless quality.

I liked the Sci Fi channel version of Dune better than the other one. Personally, and I know you'll all hate me, I was not happy with the LOTR treatment. There were parts of it that were very good, but that just made the parts that weren't even more unbearable. I've never really been happy with the movie version of any book I've ever read.

I liked the Sci Fi channel version of Dune better than the other one. Personally, and I know you'll all hate me, I was not happy with the LOTR treatment. There were parts of it that were very good, but that just made the parts that weren't even more unbearable. I've never really been happy with the movie version of any book I've ever read.

The trick in my opinion is accepting that different mediums tell stories differently. A book and movie may tell the same story but the details are going to be different.

Yeah, but the remake of Aeon Flux didn't tell half the story the original animated series did. Of course it had a hot chick in black leather (?) -- but that's not what this list is about. ;)

Dark Star would be on my top ten also.

I would also add The Last Starfighter to the list. Early eighties computer graphics that were phenomenal.

I loved Last Starfighter! I had forgotten that one...thanks for reminding me.

he Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension?

OMG!! I totally forgot about that movie. Renting it on netflix now! Sweet! good call snwodttam

Where's The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension?

"I don't care if you did drive through a mountain in Nevada. This is New Jersey and you guys better rock."

"Why is that watermelon there?"

"Remember, no matter where you go... there you are."

ha! just found a copy of buckaroo at blockbuster vid for $7.99. rockin' it jersey-style tonight :-)

Oh man Buckaroo Bonzai...what a great movie!

I have had this in VHS for years and recently found the DVD at store - this is one of those you just keep a copy around to see again and again - it is soooo funny! Red lecdroids, black elecdroids; is there anybody who didn't get that one?

"Can we really trust him? The man drove through solid matter, for Christ's sake!"

Buckaroo Banzai rocks!

Good call. Very underrated, and very good.

Serenity (and Firefly with it) is one of those movies in a grey area. There's a group of people who think it's one of the greatest movies ever (I'm in that group), and there's a group of people who think "What's Serenity?"

Not sure quite how to categorize it, though.

and there's a group of people who think "What's Serenity?"

Hence the underrated tag. It was a blip on the radar, not in theaters long enough for most people to notice, and if you weren't already a Firefly fan, you probably had no idea it even existed. Show it to the uninitiated, though, and many of them will come away impressed.

another DVD I got as soon as it came out; watched firefly - the whole series and had to have it

Heh, heh, Haiku.

One thing becomes clear.
tigerblade and I diverge;
on SF movies.

We seem to be on opposite sides when it comes to a number of SF films. :-)

I thought eXistenZ was okay and I was delighted to see Silent Running called out in the list, as it's an old friend.

Oh, you posted your link. Well, now it's on here twice :-)

Abby,
If you liked eXistenZ, check out Videodrome, also by Cronenberg. Odd, creepy and questionably underrated scifi. In fact, now that I think about it, he also did Dead Ringers, which was *really* creepy, unsettling as I recall.

I loved Zardoz! That was a great movie.

Zardoz isn't just one of my favorite SF movies....It's one of my favorite movies, period! Such a great example of British low-tech/high-tech!

(I disagree with characterizing it as a telling of Harrison Bergeron, though. Vonnegut's story is much more about handicapping ourselves in the name of political correctness and an incredibly overexaggerated sense of "fairness".)

Chris:

What I meant by the reference to Harrison Bergeron is this: remember there was a group of people who didn't wear the helmets, whose intellect wasn't impaired? They were an elite that actually ran the world. Vonnegut was simultaneously condemning the masses for embracing gleefully their oppression, as well as the elite for oppressing them. He was both aghast at both the sheep like stupidity that has become acceptable and those who actually assert it's virtue--the pc clowns; the educators who embraced self esteem above intellect.

Zardoz took this to it's logical conclusion. What happens to that elite when they have suppressed everyone else? They take over. No more need for the lackeys; so, they're wiped out, and with the virtually unlimited power now freely available to the mandarins, they make themselves immortal. Forgetting, as this film points out, that they are ultimately only human, and being immortal is boring because it flattens the moral universe; nothing matters anymore, boredom is metastatic, death becomes a sweet release from insufferable ennui.

Yeah, okay, I see what you're getting at, but I think it's a stretch and I can't say I agree. One can certainly find the correlation you've detailed, but I think the themes of the two stories are very different.

But then different points of view are what make life interesting, yes?

(I don't want this thread to go too off-topic about Zardoz. If you're hungry for more back and forth on this, you could write up an article detailing your view, and then we can debate it there. Or... Zardoz is one of my favorite movies ever, and eventually I will write my own article about it. If you can wait that long, we can debate it there, too. (And I need to re-read Harrison Bergeron in order to really discuss it intelligently.))

It's because of that movie that I can't pronounce it with a long 'e' (as in "equal") but have to pronounce it with a short 'e' (as in "extra").

Fantastic movie, and I agree it's probably very underrated. Not many people have heard of it.

Another one I'll put up is They Live.

Another one I'll put up is They Live.

This movie rocks! I love the fight scene when Rowdy Roddy Piper is trying to get his friend to put on the glasses that let you see the aliens. Classic!

Equilibrium was damn good.

Logan's Run is in my Netflix queue... should I bump it up the list some?

It's one of my personal favorites, but I have a warped sense of reality so "bump with caution". LOL I was made into a short-lived TV series in the late 70's but it didn't last long. (I loved it too! It had Gregory Harrison as Logan and Heather Menzies as Jessica 6)

Logan's Run is one of my all-time favorites. Mainly because it was on The Movie Channel back in the day when I was growing up so I got to see it several times as a youngster. It's a bit cheesy in parts, but I think it holds up pretty well overall. I have it on DVD...

I also have Logan's Run on DVD (spotted it in a $5 bin!).

I would agree. For being as dated as it is, it holds up well. Perhaps because it's a movie about something, and the underlying truths hold true today. (And then there's the simple fact it has Jennifer Agutter in it. :-)

Logan's Run, Silent Running and Soylent Green would make a good drive in triple bill! We were heavy on SF message movies in the 70s, weren't we!

Logan's Run, Silent Running and Soylent Green would make a good drive in triple bill! We were heavy on SF message movies in the 70s, weren't we!

Do you remember the old Doc Savage movies? My dad used to take us to the drive in every time one of them would come around. I loved them as a kid but I haven't seen any mention of them since then. I know it's not really SF but I just wondered if anybody else had seen them?

Great flicks -- no doubt -- but I would not rate Logan's Run nor Soylent Green underrated; they're on most SciFi's Greatest type lists I've come across. Another one which was good, but again questionably underrated, is Westworld. For some reason, thinking about Logan's Run triggers thoughts about Westworld for me; and vice-versa.

Oooooooh YEAH! I had forgotten all about Fantastic Voyage! What a great movie and Raquel Welch in a skin tight suit for the whole movie too! ( ;

Dark City -- excellent! That's a great movie and I'd certainly say underrated. Nice!

Dark City is easily one of my favorite films of all time.

Here's some more candidates:

• Galaxy Quest
• Sphere
• Waterworld
• Ghosts of Mars
• Demolition Man
• Judge Dredd

All certainly are tops on someone's list (Galaxy Quest is in my Top 20 Modern)....do they qualify for ours here?

Sphere was great, very underrated, but are you kidding me with The Ghosts of Mars? Ugh, horrible movie IMO!

Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham, Pam Grier, Clea DuVall, Joanna Cassidy,... what's not to like!

[shrug] I though it was an interesting take on "Zombies gonna kill you all" by John Carpenter, whose interesting take on "Vampires gonna kill you all" I also enjoyed.

The trick with movies like this is you just have to know where to set the bar! :-)

Heh - your a brave man to put Waterworld up there. Although to be honest I liked it.

Well, so did I! It has so many fun references, and Dennis Hopper's over the top villain on the Valdez.

But I knew it was a risk even mentioning it. It's a movie people love to hate!

I have a soft spot for Post Apocalyptic Kevin Costner movies.

Ooh, yes, good one! Brazil definitely deserves to be on that list. (If you didn't know Robert De Niro had a small role, would you even recognize him?)

Long as we're talking Gilliam, 12 Monkeys should probably also be on the list.

Again, though, the movies you've mentioned aren't necessarily underrated. 12 Monkeys and Brazil can often be found on great sci-fi lists. (They're on mine, for sure!) But, this is the internet. So we could argue and argue forever about this. :) Another one that might or might-not be underrated would be Solaris. Either one. Not sure what the critical consensus is on those is.

Yeah, good point, snwodttam...

Do we mean underrated among SF fans or just underrated as SF movies?

That Yahoo Top 30 Rated films gives us one standard from the general movie-going audience. You can see them all listed together in my comment in that seed. In that vine, John Whittet gave us a link to a "much better list". (It is better, but still has Starship Troopers and SW I-III on it. :-)

In any event, I'd agree that most SF fans rate 12 Monkeys and Brazil very highly! Solaris, too, is generally highly regarded by SF fans, but not so much by the Ironman/Star Wars sort of fans.

All that said, I think my leaning here is towards "underrated by people who would enjoy an SF film but aren't long-time hard-core fans." Another way to put it might be "not well known by mainstream audiences."