1970s
My first decade on this Earth, I probably wasn't allowed to watch contemporary SF films. I mean, it was all dystopias, bleak endings and horror hybrids.
1971: Escape from the Planet of the Apes (never gotten this far in living memory)
1972: Slaughterhouse-Five
1973: Sleeper
1974: Zardoz (I know, right?!)
1975: The Stepford Wives (this is a rewatch)
1976: Futureworld
1977: Capricorn One
1978: The Fury
1979: Phantasm
1980s
In the '80s, I started going to the movie theater a lot and there were a LOT of cool sci-fi and fantasy films, especially at the start of the decade (a lot of bad ones too, I didn't discriminate). As the decade wore on, there seemed to be a push towards SF comedy, and it's going to show in my choices.
1980: Flash Gordon (yes, finally!)
1981: Outland
1982: Halloween III: Season of the Witch (somehow branded as SF, a weak bunch of choices)
1983: The Dead Zone
1984: Repo Man
1985: Weird Science (only because it's been on my shelf a while; got it in an Oscar pool)
1986: The Fly (rewatch)
1987: Spaceballs (I have never seen this in its entirety)
1988: Earth Girls Are Easy (rewatch)
1989: DeepStar Six (not because it's good, but because I gotta have an underwater one in there)
1990s
The '90s are surprisingly weak in terms of choices. I've seen all the good ones, and even a lot of the middling ones, so what's left?
1990: Predator 2
1991: Until the End of the World (a long, meaty one signed Wim Wenders)
1992: Split Second
1993: Body Bags
1994: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
1995: Waterworld (I have no shame)
1996: Escape from L.A.
1997: Event Horizon (rewatch)
1998: The Faculty (rewatch)
1999: Blast from the Past
2000s
For my impression of the 2000s, see my impression of the 1990s. Around the middle, the technology gets cheap enough that SF can be done in indie films, so things start to pick up.
2000: Battlefield Earth (time to watch this train wreck; I had read the book as a kid)
2001: Replicant
2002: The Tuxedo
2003: Timeline
2004: I, Robot
2005: Slipstream
2006: Slither
2007: The Signal
2008: Jumper
2009: Terminator Salvation (the only T-movie I haven't seen)
2010s+
By this point, we're well into the Young Adult phase of SF movie-making, and I'm skipping over all that stuff because I fnd it so formulaic and lame. (Similarly, no Transformers.) Some chance of higher profile films I would not have seen as yet, but where I can, I still go for an intriguing indie or international picture.
2010: Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (having already seen the original anime)
2011: Real Steel
2012: Total Recall (total remake)
2013: Hard to Be a God
2014: In Your Eyes
2015: Hardcore Henry
2016: The Void
2017: 3 Foot Ball and Souls
2018: Mirage
2019: Invader ZIM: Enter the Florpus
and 2020: The Call
Follow my progress every Sunday on This Week in Geek, or check out the list as posters at Letterboxd.
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