19 Comments
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Jim C's avatar

Really don’t understand how T2 is a 25 seed. One of the greatest movies ever. Should be in top four.

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Matty C's avatar

This is always gonna be a sticking point no matter how things are seeded. I used a variety of lists and this was the aggregate spot for T2. In these situations, seeding is not as big an issue as you might think.

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Jim C's avatar

You’re right. The seeding would only matter if say T2 went against Planet of the Apes in round two :-)

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Matty C's avatar

Heh.

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Chuck Marshall's avatar

Silent Running is a classic! While Spotless Mind is a great story, you've gotta give it to the Bruce Dern and those little robot dudes trying to save the last forests of Earth!! :)

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Matty C's avatar

I haven't seen it since childhood.

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Jonathan Ytreberg's avatar

Was introduced to Fantastic Planet a bout a year ago and hated it at first but really love it on repeat viewings, but I can't put that over Empire Strikes Back.

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Matty C's avatar

Fantastic Planet is a wild ride. I kinda wanna microcode and watch that one.

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Pen Black's avatar

While some of the films listed have release dates, I want to be sure that it's Tarkovsky's 'Solaris' (1972) and not the Soderbergh remake, yes?

Likewise, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' must surely be the original 1951 version... !?

Yowza, there are some difficult choices ahead! I've already found myself voting against two of my favourite films - 'Gattaca' and 'Eternal Sunshine...'. It's a battle between my personal taste and what is more generally considered 'Classic' - or is it? Should I stick to voting for my favourites, perhaps? Hmmm.

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Matty C's avatar

Hey Pen. Yes, it's the Tarkovsly Solaris. It's not stipulated on the bracket, but it is on the poll. And yes, Stood Still is the 1951 original.

As far as best vs. favorite, I cannot offer any help. I struggle with this choice almost every week.

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Pen Black's avatar

Thanks! I'm trying to stay ahead of the curve and make sure my viewing is up to date. Not many I haven't seen actually, a few I might need a refresher on; I'm enjoying the impetus to fill those gaps in my back-list.

Yeah, I was pondering the question of best v. fave in more of a rhetorical way... thinking 'out loud', as it were. Cheers.

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Matty C's avatar

Yeah, there are a bunch of these I have not seen in a very long time.

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Dan Pal's avatar

Some great match-ups here!

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Nate Miller's avatar

E.T. is a Top-10 all-time film for me, and I love both the Star Wars & Terminator franchises - each have their bad installments.

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Simon Dillon's avatar

I obviously didn't read the initial table properly as I missed both The Empire Strikes Back and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. Although both films are absolute masterpieces and among my all-time favourites, I voted against both because I don't consider them science fiction. I consider them fantasy. The Star Wars trilogy has more in common with The Lord of the Rings. It just happens to be set in space. As for E.T., that's a modern fairy tale. Again, I love both, but I can't consider them sci-fi.

Elsewhere, I voted for Gattaca over Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind over Silent Running.

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Matty C's avatar

I think your assessment here is correct about those films being fantasy, but almost all of the films in the bracket play as something other than just straight sci-fi. Eternal Sunshine is set up to frame as a romantic comedy/drama with sci-fi overtones. Blade Runner is as much a noir picture as it is Sci-Fi. Alien is a thriller in space. Again I respect the opinion, just my two cents.

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Simon Dillon's avatar

Fair enough. Obviously, discussions like this get murky with definitions, and a film can be more than one genre. Or one genre, with a subgenre (Blade Runner is a sci-fi thriller, to my mind, with noir inflections secondary to the AI themes).

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Steven Routledge's avatar

Gattaca is one of my all time favourite soundtracks. So good.

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Pen Black's avatar

Maybe it's because I didn't see it as a child but on eventually viewing ET I absolutely hated it - So cheesy and corny! Not to mention the ugly little plastic creature himself, lordy!

The ultimate Spielbergian Schmaltz.

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