Sci-Fi Movies your Choice


Sci-Fi Movies started a long time ago in the era of silent films. Initially the Sci-Fi Movies lasted from 1 to 2 minuets, in black and white. At first they contained some scientific content but were mainly humorous.

The film Le Voyage dams la Lune, released in 1902 was probably the best remembered early Sci-Fi Movie. It told the story of a trip to the moon launched by a huge gun. With it's special effects the plot, which was a space flight to the moon, also had aliens which did much to influence many future  productions.

Frankenstein, based on the novel by Mary Shelley was released in1910 and was the first to incorporate horror with Sci-Fi. Another horror movie of the same vein, released in 1913 was Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. Another Sci-Fi film that this time included under water filming was the 1916 film 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea based on the Jules Verne novel.

In the 1920's Europe and America had slightly different ideas were as Europe opted for social comment Were as America tended to make action films filled with gadgetry. This trend how ever became the norm in the 1930's.

In the 1930's the great depression was taking hold and movie makers wanted to to give the public an escape from this so new movies included  a sound track and dialog which gave the actors a more central role. Special effects were still crude, by todays standards, but looked good at the time.

The exception was the 1933 release of King Kong were scenes of a great ape battling biplanes on the top of the empire state building was quite a spectacle. Most Sci-Fi Movies of that time seemed to focus on human drama instead of aliens, disasters, and space travel.

The first full length movie came in 1930, Just Imagine was a US movie, based on Metropolis was an expensive flop and no other feature length Sci-Fi-Movies were produced till the 1950's. With the advent of world war only a few Sci-Fi movies were made notably the 1940's Dr Cyclops and an animated Super Man.

The 1950's were a boom time for Sci-Fi Movies, however these were mainly low budget B movies. With the making of the atomic bomb interest was again directed towards science. In 1950 Destination Moon gave a more sophisticated level of space travel so far. This was probly the first movie to become a commercial & artistic success.
 
Other notable Sci-fi Movies of the time were When Worlds Collide, The Time Machine, and War Of The Worlds. Many classic Sci-Fi Movies were made in the 1950's such as This Island Earth, the first to incorporate interstellar travel and Forbidden Planet, some say an inspiration for Star Trek. The 1950's were the dawn of the space age when humans first encountered space. To reflect on this several Sci-Fi Movies made among these were The Angry Red Planet 1959, The Terror From Beyond Space 1958, First Man In Space 1959.
One of the classic Sci-Fi Movies of the 1960's was 2001 A Space Odyssey 1968 directed by Stanley Kubrick and written by Kubrick and Arthur C Clarke. The visual effects were startling and the realistic portrayal of space travel were ground breaking. When the film was first released critics labeled it as an incomprehensible mess but today it is thought of as one of the best Sci-Fi Movies of all time.

In the 1970's, following the moon landings, a resurgence in sci-fi took place movies of the time included Star Wars & Close Encounters Of the Third Kind both released in 1977 these films created a since of marvel as to what was above the clouds.

Other notable films of the period were:
Silent Running  Planet Of The Apes, West World, Alien, Capricorn One,Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, The Day Of The Dolphin, Soyant Green, and Future World to name just a few.

1979 was the year when 3 notable Sci-Fi Movies were released. Star Trek The Motion Picture  Alien & Time After Time.Due to the earlier success of Alien Star Trek & Star Wars sequels continued up until the 1990's. One of my favorite films ET was released in 1981 along with Scanners a film that would be imitated several times over the next 2 decades.

In the1990's the Internet spawned its own influenced films such as: The Lawn Mower Man
1992 Virtuosity 1995 Total Recall 1990 to name but a few. Disaster movies were still popular with films such as: Armageddon 1998 Deep Impact 1999 Independence Day 1996. In the 1990's computers made a considerable impact on film making especially in the special effects field.

Today in the 21st century sci-fi has mainly tuned its back on space travel, with the exception of Star Trek Star Wars and a few others but who knows what will happen in the future.