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There’s no shortage of science fiction that predicts a future far too unknown and unexplored to the common man, and usually those kinds of work are initially dismissed, only to become cult classics, no matter what medium they are told in. We’ve compiled a list of ten sci-fi movies that were ahead of their time in almost every aspect.

10: Gattaca (1997, IMDB link)

One of the finest “thinking-man” sci-fi of the last few decades, Gattaca features a vision of a society dominated by genetics. Andrew Niccol’s semi-dystopian story introduces a society where genes are not as means of eradicating deceases, but as way of classifying a human being from the day they’re born, in other words; genetic racism.

9: A Clockwork Orange (1971, IMDB link)

Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, an adaption of the novel by Anthony Burgess, showcases a thought provoking aspects of a dystopian society where youth gangs ruled, where violence and rape were the everyday norm. The relentless in portrayal of violence and psychological disorder has secured the film the title as one of the most sinister and dark science fiction films ever made.

8: Dark City (1998, IMDB link)

A somewhat sleeper hit of the late 1990s, ofter referred to as “the best film of 1998″ by Roger Ebert, Dark City is a neo-noir dystopian story about a man discovering he lives in a world controlled by beings with telekinetic powers. The movie loosely inspired works such as The Matrix, both in visual style and storytelling.

7: The Terminator (1984, IMDB link)

James Cameron’s first movie (unless you count “Piranha 2″), was an instant hit in 1984, raking in almost $80 million on a $4 million budget, and forever establishing Arnold Schwarzenegger as an action star. The Terminator popularized the aspect of “time travel”, and ever since then, if a movie included time travel, comparisons were always made to The Terminator.

6: Solyaris/Solaris (1972, IMDB link)

Andrei Tarkovsky, one of the most celebrated Russian filmmakers, made his breakthrough on the international scene with Solyaris, better known as Solaris outside of Russia. The movie centers around the planet Solaris, where a team of scientists have discovered an intelligent life form that begins to mess with their psychological state. The movie was remade in 2002, and was met with a lackluster reception.

5: Blade Runner (1982, IMDB link)

Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir was a flop when it was initially released, shrugged by both audience and critics. But since then, its reputation as one of the finest sci-fi films ever made only increases year by year, as it’s constantly found on the best selling DVD lists around the world.

4: The Matrix (1999, IMDB link)

Undoubtedly one of the most stylistic and original films of the 1990s, The Wachowski brothers’ The Matrix not only had a story and concept unlike most sci-i films of its era, but featured visual effects that spawned a whole new categories, from “bullet time”, to its use of martial arts, The Matrix remains at the top of the list of any die hard sci-fi fan.

3: Star Wars (1977, IMDB link)

George Lucas space adventure was unlike anything anyone had seen, the movie took audiences by storm, instantly spawning rip-offs around the world, trying to cash in on the hysteria. It was so new that most studios in Hollywood initially passed on the idea, Star Wars has since spawned a whole universe, spanning everything from films, to books, games, and of course, merchandise of every kind.

2: 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, IMDB link)

Widely considered as the greatest science fiction film ever made, A Space Odyssey was not only one of the most complex and interpreted films of its time (and still is), it also featured visual effects never before seen, the renderings of space ships were on par with Star Wars, which was released a good ten years later.

1: Metropolis (1927, IMDB link)

Fritz Lang’s dystopian sci-fi epic Metropolis was not only the most expensive film made at its time, but also the first ever true science fiction feature film. The art deco style and visual effects were so ahead of their time, there wasn’t anything like it for the next two decades. Despite its visuals, the movie wasn’t well received, and Fritz Land himself wasn’t satisfied with it, and it took a while — decades, really — before it was established as a cult classic, and one of the films that was far ahead if its time.

Excuse me if I’m not even VAGUELY surprised by this bit of news because, frankly, I saw it coming from a distance of several miles, metaphorically.

This chunk of news, that the national release of Gentlemen Broncos has been cancelled following an opening weekend best described as dismally mediocre, taking in just over six grand a theater for the weekend, and it essentially only opened in New York and Los Angeles.

If you’ve seen the trailer for this, what looks like a hallucinogenic pile of suck, you’ll know that it was 1. made by some of the same people who brought you Napoleon Dynamite, and considering how godawful that sludge was, that’s not exactly a promotional bell-ringer, and 2. it involves some of the most baffling science fiction since L. Ron Hubbard.

So it’s not a huge surprise that it went clean over most people’s heads (when’s the last time you heard someone say, man, I’m dying to see Gentlemen Broncos! in the same tone they said that about, say, Paranormal Activity?) and many of the ones who got it didn’t want it, so the opening was a slump and they pulled the plug on wide release, knowing they were about to get their hats handed to them by a slew of big name movies coming soon.

In the end, it was probably for the best.

Remember how, when I wrote about The Haunting of Winchester House, how GREAT I thought it was that The Asylum was finally getting out of the mockbuster trend and no longer Asylumizing movies?

Sadly, that’s all gone as The Asylum releases 2012 Supernova, which is pretty much taking on 2012.  The only problem is that, of course, The Asylum doesn’t have anywhere NEAR the cash required to make those kind of special effects.

The plot, though, is actually pretty interesting–two hundred years ago, a star exploded and launched an enormous wave of radiation.  Sadly, two hundred years ago was apparently during the War of 1812, because it’s about to hit in much-popularized 2012.  So now a group of scientists is out to launch a whole load of nukes into the upper atmosphere so they can augment the Earth’s natural anti-radiation shielding.

I’ll admit, though, that The Asylum clearly does the best it can with what it has to work with.  What baffles me, though, is that they try to take on this monster projects with the most minimalist budgets you can imagine.  It’s like trying to eat a Ho-Ho the size of a Buick, and doing it with a knife and fork.

The result, however, of trying to load a bunch of AA batteries in a space designed for a Diehard is that the whole thing has this vaguely repetitive feel in which a simulated disaster happens, then we react to that disaster, then another one happens, and so on and so forth without much in the way of an overarching plotline to hold it all together.

There will be plenty of thrills here–watching people try to escape from things blowing up and whatnot–but are these thrills going to be enough to hold the overall picture together?  Well, that’s your call, in the end.

The Screenhead Ten Scale, meanwhile,  isn’t so impressed and thus hands the newest Asylum knockoff a fair enough five out of ten.  it clearly tried, but it just couldn’t tackle what it set out to try.

And I don’t mean A Terminator, either.  I mean the whole shooting match. Lock, stock, boxtop and rights.  You too can own the rights to a pretty successful franchise that usually costs plenty to exploit, though it usually makes its money back.

Interestingly, though, Joss Whedon actually made an offer for the Terminator rights, but it was significantly less than the current owners wanted:  a whopping ten grand.

He even had some pretty sweet ideas, including branching out into porn (cue that wa-wa pedal guitar!) and even doing a musical.  He thought twice about the musical, but I say it could work.  I’ve actually got part of the opening song already written and would be happy to contribute for the low, low cost of ten percent of the grosses.  You’re welcome, in advance.

But seriously, this is a move that might actually end well, assuming the right people get a hold of the rights.  I doubt they’ll get the twenty five million they want for them, though.

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan is available on Blu-ray Hi-Def and DVD from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. For the first time ever, fans can experience the uncut and uncensored story of humanity’s futuristic fight for survival through the eyes of their deadly adversaries, the Cylons. 

Watching some of the scenes in The Plan are only appropriate for an R-rating.  If you are a Battlestar Galactica fan, you’ll love this movie because all the familiar characters are in the story. 

This never-before-seen perspective of the Cylon plan reunites the series’ original television cast, including Emmy Award winner Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver), Dean Stockwell (JAG), Tricia Helfer (Burn Notice), Grace Park (The Cleaner) and Callum Keith Rennie (Californication). 

Battlestar Galactica: The Plan includes the uncensored 90-minute feature and revealing bonus features that take viewers onto the set of the most unexpected twist ever in the intergalactic saga’s history. Interactive features available exclusively on Blu-ray Hi-Def include the new Battlestar Galactica Trivia Game, plus stunning visuals with perfect picture and the purest digital sound available and no commercials!

Screenhead has a copy of Battlestar Galactica: The Plan to give away to a lucky winner.  Post your name and we will pick the winner Monday, November 23, 2009.

To break bread with Edward James Olmos, known to the vast legion of Battlestar Galactica fans as “Admiral Adama” is an occasion as rare as the Eye of Jupiter! However, one lucky Battlestar Galactica fan will be granted this very special opportunity, should he or she prove worthy! Go to www.ugo.com/battlestarcontest for details on how you can share a dinner table with the Admiral himself, Edward James Olmos!

Watching Astro Boy, the mostly new remake of the original anime / manga, was a lot like using a new version of Windows for the first time.  It’s got a whole lot of fancy bells and whstles, and it’s downright charming in some senses, but it’s also got a whole lot of serious problems that get in the way of realizing its full capability.

The plotline is where most of these problems crop up.  When young Toby Tenma, an unaccountably brilliant lad who’s so hated by his classmates that they’re throwing things at him when he leaves a room, is accidentally killed by a new military robot, his grieving father (who, just incidentally, happens to be the father of modern robotics as well) decides that he’s going to build a replacement son.

Naturally, it’s not long before what he has a “what hath science wrought??” moment and figures it’s for the best to just shut the boy down.  But after the Toby-robot, later called Astro Boy, escapes and makes his way to the wreckage outside the town (actually BENEATH the town if you want to be specific) he briefly grew up in, he discovers that most everything and most everybody serves some purpose in life…even those things that were formerly unwanted.

Let’s get the problems out of the way first.  The plot has so many holes in it it’s a wonder how it manages to stay in one piece.  Enormous segments of events will be left utterly unexplained.

For instance: if the surface dwellers could just fly up to Metro City in any old hovercar, as they’re shown doing in the end, why didn’t they just pack up a few dozen busloads and take back the town themselves?  And while I’m at it, how did Cora manage to leave Metro City in the first place?  Don’t even get me started on why the Peacemaker robot, which is clearly absorbing EVERYTHING IN SIGHT when we first see it, up to and including the barrier in front of it, suddenly becomes SELECTIVE about his absorption capabilities in the final minutes.  He could’ve absorbed the entire city at the rate he was going.  And where did that ALIEN come from in the last thirty seconds?  Seriously?  Can we get a few BIGGER plotholes?  It’s almost blocking daylight at this point!

But.

But…Astro Boy is, let’s face it, a charming little romp with a hyperkinetic boy robot that features lots of high-speed action and sufficient gunfire to keep any anime or action buff occupied.  The only bad things that happen in the end are to the people who deserve them.  The ending could not be much happier.  They will even SAY as much IN THE FILM ITSELF.  You can’t telegraph a punch any more clearly than this one was.

The Screenhead Ten Scale likes a feel-good movie you can’t help but feel good about, but at the same time realizes that this dog will NOT hunt in terms of plot, and thus hands it a thoroughly mixed-bag five out of ten.

Ridley Scott is one BUSY individual.  But let’s face facts–the man’s got like thirty hojillion projects in the works right now, so his announcement that he’s considering an Alien prequel needs to be taken with a grain of salt.  A grain of salt about, say, the size of a Buick.

But he’s clearly been thinking it over, and even has some possible strategies.  Dig the word:

“It’s a brand new box of tricks. We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It’s very difficult to put a year on Alien, but [for example] if Alien was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior.”

There are possibilities here.  After all, I seem to remember that one of the earliest parts of Alien described an alien ship that crash-landed on LV 426.  Checking Wikipedia confirms my scattered memories, so a great point for an Alien prequel would be, what is that ship, and how did it get jam-packed with xenomorphs?

Of course, it’s a fair bet that that’s a Predator ship that was seeding the planet for use as a hunting ground, so they may have already kinda sorta covered that already.  Still though, I find myself plenty interested in where they’re looking to go with this one.

So maybe Peter Berg wasn’t the best choice to handle the upcoming remake of Dune.  He walked off the project very recently, leaving Paramount to fill in the hole as best it could, and man, do they ever have an option.

They’ve sent out scripts to two new director possibilities, and you won’t believe who they are.

Neill Blomkamp and Neil Marshall.

Oh yeah.  District 9 and Doomsday themselves are going after Dune.

And even better, chances are Berg took Robert Pattinson with him back when R-Pattz was thinking about tackling Paul Atriedes.

Between two prime directors with actual sci-fi cred now possibly handling the Dune remake, and the fact that Rob Pattinson likely now has nothing to do with Dune, suddenly I’m feeling like getting into a happy dance out here.  There’s so much joy and win in this news post that I may well faint from the sheer happiness of it all.

And here we go, folks–time to go the eternal round-de-round of denial and obfuscations and allegations that makes up pretty much every new announcement of any serious quantity.

Today, we’re tackling Lucasfilm’s recent related story that a new Star Wars trilogy was being planned.  And Lucasfilm reacted to this news item with the maturity and levelheaded sense that we’ve come to expect from major studios.

…okay, I couldn’t say that with a straight face. What they REALLY did was push libel like no tomorrow and blamed those darn Internet hoodlums.  Dig the word from Steve Sansweet, Head of Fan Relations at Lucasfilm:

“It wasn’t a news item. It was something that somebody made up. It’s totally totally ignorant and stupid, and even the people who picked it up and spread it along, said there’s no way this can be true. And of course there’s no way it can be true. You shouldn’t believe what you read on the Internet. Take everything with a big grain of salt.”

Yeah, okay…how many times have we heard THAT story before?  And if we shouldn’t believe what we read on the Internet, well, then we shouldn’t believe what ole Steve just spat out, either. He did,  paradoxically, issue his statement online to Movie Geek Feed.

Way to shoot yourself in the foot, jackass.

So okay, it’s pretty much a foregone conclusion that, assuming the Earth doesn’t crash into the sun or something first, that there will be a sequel to James Cameron’s upcoming blockbuster Avatar.

And in order to stage Avatar 2, there’s whispers afoot that it may actually go out past the planet of Pandora and into other targets.  Check out this advance quote:

“What would you think if I told you that should a sequel to AVATAR happen, it might not even take place on Pandora? It’s all up the air as of now. But remember I’m telling you this. Pandora is not the be all and end all of the Consortium.”

Well, you know, everyone said G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra was going to be a monster hit too, but as of the weekend of October 18th, it STILL hasn’t made its shooting budget back yet that I can tell, despite having made nearly a hundred and fifty million bucks at the domestic box office.

I wonder if that won’t happen here too….