5 of the most overrated sci-fi movies of all time

Let’s be clear right off the bat, no one loves science fiction movies more than I do. I really, really do. So placing these five movies here will probably brand me a heretic.

What makes a film so appalling that it transitions from ordinary ineptitude to that surreal place where you really can’t believe what you’re watching? I have a pretty good idea. Here then are five of my picks for those films that, not-very-good as they may be, science fiction fans put them on a pedestal.

2001: A Space Odyssey

IMDB tells us: Mankind finds a mysterious, obviously artificial, artifact buried on the moon and, with the intelligent computer HAL, sets off on a quest. IMDB Ranking? 8.4 / 10.

Yes, this 1968 release is an important movie. It won the Academy Award for best visual effects and was also nominated for its screenplay, director, and art direction. It has always been highly ranked on the American Film Institute’s list of the best American movies ever made. But it is only a good one if you’re dropping acid. Rock Hudson is reported to have exclaimed on walking out of the movie’s Los Angeles premiere, “Will someone tell me what the hell this is about?”

2001 is long, meandering, slow, self-important, filled with bland and unmemorable performances, and borders on being simply an all-around bad film. It’s an art film, really. I mean, is it really necessary to devote two minutes of black screen with no music? 11 minutes of monkey men that made the costumes from Planet of The Apes look fantastic? 12 more minutes of ships spinning to the Blue Danube Waltz? Ugggg.

The humans in the movie are all unlikeable cardboard actors, and the most interesting character of all was HAL 9000. And then he “died”… as was the way anything else happened in the rest of the film – in the most drawn-out and annoyingly mundane way ever.

Dune

IMDB tells us: In the distant future, a man appears who may be the prophet that a long-suffering galaxy has been waiting for. IMDB Ranking? 6.5 / 10.

Having read Frank Herbert’s classic science-fiction novel, “Dune”, I already knew that the idea was almost certainly un-filmable to begin with – not only because of its considerable length, but largely in part to its extremely dense, complex structure. There’s a reason that this movie has since gone down in history as one of the biggest all-time box-office flops. Director David Lynch himself says he wasn’t too happy with the film. Me? It is sleep-inducing.

Blade Runner

IMDB tells us: Deckard, a blade runner, has to track down and terminate 4 replicants who hijacked a ship in space and have returned to earth seeking their maker. IMDB Ranking? 8.4 / 10.

Taking a crap on this movie isn’t welcome anywhere. But I’m doing it.

If you recall, Blade Runner is about superhuman robots, or replicants, who are angry about their finite life expectancies. Harrison Ford (Deckard) has been tasked with bringing the rogue replicants to justice. This 1982 American science fiction film, directed by Ridley Scott, is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. It has one of the most beautiful scores in film history, great SFX and art direction. But it is horrible.

If I could describe the dialog in 3 words, they would be pedantic, wooden and silly. With a talented cast, I can’t understand for the life of me why they stumbled through the script as though they were all on prescription medication (which, being the 80s, they may well have been).

Highlander

IMDB tells us: An immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his immortal opponent, a murderously brutal barbarian who lusts for the fabled “Prize”. IMDB Ranking? 7.2 / 10.

The original movie, Highlander, appeared in 1986. It wasn’t exactly a huge hit but developed something of a cult status on video. That spawned a pair of little loved sequels, an animated series and two live actions series. The basic concept of Highlander is that immortal beings exist among us. They cannot be killed except by beheading. This whole race of immortals is involved in a game. They duel each other with the winner taking the other’s energy, becoming stronger in a process called the Quickening. They are fated to eventually meet at the Gathering at which point one immortal will emerge alone. That apparently happens in the original movie with Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) emerging victorious. Sounds good, right?

Lambert could hardly speak a word of English before starring in Highlander, so casting him as a Scot was probably the one of the most terrible casting decisions in history.

Aside from Queen’s amazing soundtrack and the appearance of the Fabulous Freebirds in the beginning of the film, it is unwatchable garbage with an amazing premise.

Mad Max 2 (most commonly known as The Road Warrior)

IMDB tells us: In the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland, a cynical drifter agrees to help a small, gasoline rich, community escape a band of bandits. IMDB Ranking? 7.6 / 10.

The script is crude, the acting likewise. It’s spectacle, not story; sensation, not thought; attitude, not character. In short – Max and a bunch of hippies (including a Baby Spice lookalike) battle a gay (not that there’s anything wrong with that) bondage biker gang. Outside of some amazing car chases, there is no recognizable plot whatsoever, leading me to wish that the nuclear holocaust that left the world in such shape in the first place had claimed everyone in this film.