My Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time
by Ken Parker
Some of my favorite movies are the ones
that sneak up on you. These are movies you have heard little about
or may not even be looking forward to. Expectations can sometimes
ruin a film especially if you are hoping for much more. Hype and
positive reviews can also dampen your viewing of the movie. Some
films on my list are movies I went into not knowing much about them
and may have gone to see them because that was the movie of the week.
This film certainly fills this description. I know that I was
interested from the trailer and was always eager to see true Sci-Fi
movies as a change from the action packed movies with Sci-Fi elements
in them.
17 - Contact (1997)
Astronomer
Dr. Ellie Arroway has long been interested in contact to faraway
lands, a love fostered in her childhood by her father, Ted Arroway,
who passed away when she was nine years old leaving her then
orphaned. Her current work in monitoring for extraterrestrial life is
based on that love and is in part an homage to her father. Ever since
funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) was pulled on her
work, which is referred to some, including her NSF superior David
Drumlin, as more science fiction than science, Ellie, with a few of
her rogue scientist colleagues, have looked for funding from where
ever they could get it to continue their work. When Ellie and her
colleagues hear chatter originating from the vicinity of the star
Vega, Ellie feels vindicated. But that vindication is short lived
when others, including politicians, the military, religious leaders
and other scientists such as Drumlin..
I really enjoyed this film and all of
its messages. I guess the messages of God and so forth were a bit
over the top but still the entire scope including the character study
of Ellie Arroway are perfect in this film. As with many of the films
on this list, I was especially interested in the science part of the
tale including the discovery of the signal and building of the travel
device. Taking a book from This Island Earth and A is for
Andromeda, the aliens in the film send an Earth scientist the
information in enabling them to communicate/ travel to them.
Every film has its flaws and some
convenient developments including the second construction of the
alien device diminishes the final product a bit. I always find these
types of movies to be a breath of fresh air. We don’t need all the
answers. We don’t need the aliens revealing themselves to
everyone. The pay off is the character development. A very get set of actors all around, for the most part, keeps the movie believable and Jodie Foster does a great job in the part.
I found the trip to the far away planet
to be very 2001 like in its scope and like a child fell in love with
the wonders of the universe as seen in this movie. An attempt at
keeping it realistic and routed into the present day was handled well
with the use of real news footage.
This movie keeps moving up and down my
list and until recently was up a bit higher, for whatever reason.
When did I first see this film –
opening weekend in the theater
How many times have I seen it – 6-8
times
I actually do not have this on disc.
Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(film)
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