What's your all time favorite Sci-Fi film and why?

[Hector]

Star Wars.

When I first saw Planet of the Apes in its initial run...I was only a little tyke...too young to be really influenced by it.

Star Wars came right in my early teens...it's the first movie that made me say...I love science fiction.

Star Wars was the defining film for me.

However...as I've grown over the years...I prefer more "grown up" fare like ALIEN and Blade Runner.

But Star Wars...because of its first impact at the right age...takes the number one spot for me.

[bobws]

Ice Pirates ! Just kidding!

Probably Star Wars, it was really when i started going to movies and looked like nothing else out there.

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

Dunno if it counts, but this is my all-time favourite move ever:

Rock Rule (1983) - IMDb

Don C.

[Gorn Captain]

Battlefield Earth. Travolta's dance routine was awesome in that one!

I'm torn between the obvious ones, like Star Wars, and some 70s classics, which also had a profound influence on me. I call them the Heston trilogy (Apes, Soylent Green and Omega Man). Nothing influences a young boy more than "the world is messed up and we're all going to die!".
My next "doom and gloom" favorite trilogy was 1982, with Blade Runner, Mad Max II and The Thing.

[The Nawd]

Star Wars.

Why?
It captured my imagination like no other movie has before or since (this includes Empire Strikes Back). The only other movie that comes close for me is Planet of the Apes.

[spacecaps]

Star Wars. Takes me right back to my childhood. I know ROTJ gets no love but the first 45 minutes of that movie (right up to when the sail-barge blows-up) is maybe the best Sci-Fi sequence ever though....

[drzaius1]

Star Wars hands down, but I am all about the apes. Planet of the apes is right up there.

The other Sci-fi movies That i really like that don't get enough respect are Logan's Run and Dark City.

[thunderbolt]

The Thing, 1951 style. It was a great play on the old Universal monster movies with an alien in place as the monster, the research base as the isolated location and the slightly mad scientist studying the beast. A great bridge from those movies to the Atomic Age monsters of the 50's

[Goblin19]

2001 and Empire are by far the top 2. 2001 just doesn't feel like any other movie and Empire is one of the most nonstop movies ever.

[raider5gt]

Empire for me also,i was 11 at the time,i was just blown away with the ice planet Hoth and the AT-AT walkers and Snowspeeder battle scenes.

My other favourites are: Alien (scary at the time and i am glad Jonesy the cat didn't get killed by the Alien ),Black Hole and Forbidden Planet for the cool robots.

[emeraldknight47]

It's hard for me to nail down one favorite, but I guess the one that comes the closest is like George Pal's classic WAR OF THE WORLDS. I saw it when I was little kid and it kind of introduced me to the whole science fiction genre.

There are others, of course, that come close; 2001 (and it's sequel, 2010 wasn't bad, either), POTA, Forbidden Planet, Tarantula, Day of the Triffids, the Donald Sutherland version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still (original, of course---love me some Gort!), and numerous others. I enjoy the Trek movies, but they feel more like extensions of the shows to me than movies and there are only two good Star Wars movies (SW and Empire). Alien is right up there as is Blade Runner.

There are more I could name, but those are a few at the top of my constant viewing list...

[raider5gt]

It's hard for me to nail down one favorite

I agree with you emeraldknight,it is hard to nail a favourite but the ones i posted about are the ones what stand out for me,we grew up watching all the black and white sci-fi movies and some of the ones you mentioned,i guess they kick started the i love sci-fi in me.

[emeraldknight47]

Heck, I'm STILL waiting for some movie studio or another to realize that both CHILDHOOD'S END and the RAMA series would make killer big screen material, provided they had the right writers and directors!

[misterdroid]

When I was a kid, Empire, no doubt. As an adult, it would be a toss up between Blade Runner and 2001. very different films in terms of aesthetics, but not terribly far apart in tone. I like bleak.

[emeraldknight47]

If no one here has ever watched SUNSHINE by Danny Boyle, it's a pretty good little sci-fi flick, too.