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Favorite Non-Adaptation/Non-Franchise SFF Movies since 2000

JD

JD

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It seems like for a while now the vast majority of sci-fi and fantasy movies have been either adaptation of something, part of a big franchise, or at least a sequel to something, with completely original movies being harder and harder to find. A conversation in the Aquaman thread brought this to mind, and got me thinking about movies that fit this criteria, so here are some of my favorites.

The Last Witchhunter - A cool urban fantasy adventure that feels like a movie version of a Dresden Files type book series.
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The Book of Eli - A gritty post-apocalyptic movie with a badass Denzel Whashington.
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Jupiter Ascending - A fun sci-fi movie, with a fascinating new universe that I would love to see more of.
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Looper - Time travel with lots of crazy twists.
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Damn, I can't believe I forgot about Inception, I love that movie.
 
Inception
Titan A.E. (Ok, this movie is kind of bad, but I like it well enough and have nostalgia for it, plus I need another title for the list)

That's about it. There is a reason I prefer adaptations and franchises, they tend to be the best stuff in my opinion (and when they're bad they're generally the worst, to be fair).
 
I love Titan A.E.. It's a shame there aren't more animated space sci-fi movies, the only other ones I can come up with off the top of my head are the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie, and Treasure Planet, which is another underrated gem IMO.
 
Starbreaker said:
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Inception
Interstellar
Gravity
Super 8
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Those are great (well, except Inception, which is merely good ;)).

DigificWriter said:
"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is the first thing that comes to my mind.
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Also awesome.

Snaploud said:
Moon (a 2009 film with Sam Rockwell)
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Also good.

While we're going low-budget indie, I'm going to go super-low and add:

Primer​

Also, with a substantially larger though still low-ish budget:

Europa Report​

And (no longer low budget by any stretch), a true delight and also a Duncan Jones film:

Source Code​
 
Moon and Europa Report are also really good. There are actually a lot more of these than I thought, although sadly most of them are indies and/or bombed at the box office.
 
I still haven't seen Ex Machina or Titan AE.

I would not consider The Book of Eli great, but it was a good, solid movie.

I think Looper started out fantastic, but once the central conflict became clear I thought it was really more like two mismatching stories fused into a single film, which didn't work for me.

Jupiter Ascending is not remotely my cup of tea, but it's visually interesting.
 
I also enjoyed Robot and Frank (a 2012 film) and The World's End (a 2013 film).

As for animation: Robots, Wall-E, Meet the Robinsons (though the characters are loosely based on a children's book), and Big Hero 6 were fun.

The Purge was an interesting concept movie (which would become a franchise). I never watched District 9 and Her, but they both got decent receptions.
 
Snaploud said:
I never watched District 9 and Her, but they both got decent receptions.
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Both great, really. Just my personal takes, in brief:

The beating heart of District 9 is feeling, empathizing with, and becoming the other. The battlefield combat is extremely visceral.

Her is about the chasm between socializing online and socializing in real life.

While on the subject of Scarlett Johansson, I'll go ahead and add Lucy. It's not a perfect film by any stretch, but it is engaging and interesting. It's its own thing, but it follows in the footsteps of Limitless, which is alright but which itself doesn't qualify as an entry in this thread because it is an adaptation.

Snaploud said:
Wall-E
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Yeah. Now there's an excellent film.
 
Snaploud said:
I also enjoyed Robot and Frank (a 2012 film) and The World's End (a 2013 film).

As for animation: Robots, Wall-E, Meet the Robinsons (though the characters are loosely based on a children's book), and Big Hero 6 were fun.

The Purge was an interesting concept movie (which would become a franchise). I never watched District 9 and Her, but they both got decent receptions.
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I haven't seen Robot & Frank yet, but I do have it on Amazon Prime Watchlist. Robots was OK, but Wall-E is one my favorite Pixar movies. District 9 was good, although it was a bit more gory than what I liked at the time. I'm not as bothered by that now, so I might have to give it another try and see what I think now. Haven't seen Her or Meet The Robinsons.
 
WALL-E is probably on the top of such lists, with such an incredible storytelling through visuals. ETA-even more funny is the fact that there is an ad for Vector as I type this.

Lilo and Stitch is another one for me as the original has a lot of heart, with a lot of fun science fiction (I'm not crying-you are).

Another one that is technically a sequel but a very different feel than the original is "Chronicles of Riddick." Not sure it completely qualifies for this exercise, but Riddick is one of the most interesting world building exercises I have seen in a while. I know many consider it bad, but I find it very fun.
 
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