The year-end, 5 Best Sci-fi movies of 2013

[RAMA]

and a gigantic scale unfathomable in previous Trek movies.

This I don't really get. In fact, this was one of my problems with the film: it treated what should have been a gigantic, vast area of space and effectively reduced it to the size of a solar system. You get from Kronos to Earth in the blink of an eye! You can see Kronos from the Neutral Zone! And not with your long-range sensors - with your eyes! It was like the filmmakers didn't get how big space is.

I think in it's world building, it's attention to detail, and with showing us a real away mission as well as conflict spanning the stars and the Klingons, the movie is unparalleled within Star Trek. JJ Abrams creates more believable worlds in a few scenes with almost no narrative than even the TVs shows often did, much less the movies.

In order to have scale you have to cross scale...hence the faster speeds, and transwarp beaming. I don't have a problem with a greater star-spanning ability, look how well Star Wars did it (even though Lucas apparently didnt understand what a lightyear or parsec was).

RAMA

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I like Mission to Mars for various reasons, but agree it's not better than Gravity. What I mean is the disaster in space trope used in movies since the 1950s and updated in Mission to Mars was used again in Gravity, but some of the disaster scenes as they occur are much like MtM, not the whole movie. The scenes with the tether, the scramble to reach a spacecraft/station for safety uncontrollably, take up more than a few minutes of the movies and since they were integral to both, I can't help but compare them.

What else would they be connected by? Paper clips? Where else would they be scrambling to reach in outer space but a spacecraft or station? A taco stand? It's like saying Rush is basically a shot for shot remake of Ronin because of the fast cars... and all the chasing on the asphalt. Also, Mission to Mars took a gigantic steaming dump on the previous 4/5ths of the film with that horrendous ending, so I'm offended on general principle with any comparison being made between it and Gravity.

Good day, sir. I said GOOD DAY!

 

[Starbreaker]

1. Gravity
2. Star Trek Into Darkness
3. Catching Fire
4. Pacific Rim
5. Iron Man 3

 

[Goji]

My favorite scifi film of the year would be The World's End. After that, in no particular order, I enjoyed Pacific Rim, Star Trek Into Darkness and Man of Steel the most. I haven't yet seen Gravity, which by all accounts is fantastic, so until then I'll also add Iron Man 3 to my list.

Thor 2 was entertaining but incredibly forgettable with probably the Marvel series' least interesting story yet. World War Z was very, very meh.

I think that's all I saw last year.

 

[zakkrusz]

1. Star Trek: Into Darkness
2. Gravity
3. Iron Man 3
4. Riddick
5. Pacific Rim

 

[od0_ital]

Top Five of 2013

Star Trek Into Darkness IMAX
Pacific Rim 3D
The Wolverine 3D
Elysium
Gravity 3D

Honorable Mention

Jurassic Park 3D
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds

 

[Enterprise is Great]

Man of Steel
Star Trek into Darkness
Oblivion
The Wolverine
World War z

 

[BillJ]

Star Trek Into Darkness
Oblivion
World War Z
Man of Steel
Iron Man 3

 

[Harvey]

Now that I've seen it, I'll definitely be adding Europa Report to my list of favorite sf films from 2013. It's a really effective take on the found footage movie, which is surprising, considering how quickly that genre has played itself out.

Not that the Academy agrees or anything, but I found it to generally superior to Gravity (although I like both).

I still need to see Oblivion and Elysium.

 

[JD]

In no particular order:
Star Trek Into Darkness
Pacific Rim
Iron Man 3
Oblivion
Thor: The Dark World
Honorable Mentions:
The World's End
Man of Steel
I haven't seen any of the other movies talked discussed above, but I do plan on seeing Europa Report, Elysium, Gravity and maybe Ender's Game, I haven't decided for sure on that last one yet.

 

[Leroy]

Pacific Rim: Its basically the Star Wars of 2013. A big, flashy, pop culture movie that gets it right, pushing all of our scifi fan buttons and managing to do it with style and a genuine sense of reverence for it's subject..not easy to do when most of the source material has cardboard monsters and zipper enhanced kung fu stuntmen. For making mecha cool again, and sheer entertainment value this movie takes the top spot.

When were mecha not cool? The genre has always been awesome.

 

[JD]

It did make it at least a little more mainstream, though.

 

[RAMA]

Pacific Rim: Its basically the Star Wars of 2013. A big, flashy, pop culture movie that gets it right, pushing all of our scifi fan buttons and managing to do it with style and a genuine sense of reverence for it's subject..not easy to do when most of the source material has cardboard monsters and zipper enhanced kung fu stuntmen. For making mecha cool again, and sheer entertainment value this movie takes the top spot.

When were mecha not cool? The genre has always been awesome.

Mecha is only cool to a small realm of sub-fandom. What's easy to forget with all these cheap live action mecha shows and a handful of decent animated movies and tv shows, is that there has never been a big budget live action mecha movie other than Transformers and none involving machines vs nature (kaiju).

 

[RAMA]

After seeing Upstream Color and Her, I'd have to say Her might be in my top 5, and Upstream Color MAY be in the top 10, tough I'm still mulling it over. I was surprised to find out a day two after I watched Her it was nominated for 5 Academy Awards. So two scifi movies were nominated for Best Picture this year.

RAMA

 

[I am not Spock]

Sci fi films I enjoyed in 2013:

Elysium (was I the only one who liked it?)
Man of Steel
Star Trek Into Darkness
Pacific Rim
About Time (hey, it has time travel in it)
Thor 2
Hunger Games: Catching Fire
Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug (I'm lumping SF and fantasy together)

Didn't see Oblivion, After Earth, or Enders Game

Was let down by Gravity. Beautiful visuals, but I think Bullock is tremendously overrated as an actress. An hour and a half of her whining, and breathing heavily. No thanks

 

[maneth]

I've only seen The Man of Steel, STID and Gravity. I liked all of them, and Gravity certainly had spectacular effects. The flying debris made me duck.