THE MATRIX. Sh-Yeah, Right

[filkertom]

I have friends who swear by Entertainment Weekly. I usually swear at it. It's a little more interested in its own snark than actual quality. And, this week, for me it jumps the snark.

Number One on The Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies and TV Shows of the past 25 years is The Matrix?

(They also don't seem to know who's playing Doctor Who these days.)

And, before any of you say it, yes, Top Whatever lists are dumb, they reflect the interests of whoever made the list (credited writer is Jeff Jensen), they mean nothing to real fans, yadda fuckin' yadda. But when they get put in mainstream publications with lots of circulation, they become Conventional Wisdom for people who don't know any better. It's exactly like Sunday morning bobbleheads -- The Truth Is Out There (#4), but you have to tell people.

In case you don't want to go through twenty-five pages on the EW site, here's the list:

1. The Matrix
2. Battlestar Galactica (2003)
3. Blade Runner
4. The X-Files
5. Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan
6. Brazil
7. E.T.
8. Star Trek: TNG
9. Aliens
10. John Carpenter's The Thing
11. Lost
12. Back To The Future
13. Terminator/Terminator 2
14. Children of Men
15. Firefly/Serenity
16. Total Recall
17. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
18. Heroes
19. Starship Troopers
20. Star Wars: Clone Wars
21. Futurama
22. Quantum Leap
23. Doctor Who
24. Galaxy Quest
25. V: The Miniseries

Not only am I struck by what's on the list, I'm struck by what's not. Babylon 5, for one. The Incredibles and The Iron Giant. Contact. Stuff like that. For that matter, with the sensibilities that brought The Matrix and Starship Troopers to the list, I'm surprised Independence Day and Armageddon aren't up there.

I'm also bemused thinking about how strangely focused the list is: "The Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies And TV Series of the past 25 years". Which doesn't sound at all strange, until you remember that the Sci-Fi blockbuster was invented only thirty years ago. EW even admits they wish they could put the first two Star Wars movies up there, but, shucks, they're just outside the time limit. Along with Close Encounters, Escape From New York, Superman....

So. What would be on your list that isn't on theirs? Note that we are not counting "fantasy" movies (e.g., The Lord of the Rings The Princess Bride), even though about half of the entries they've got here technically are fantasy movies. They did, however, let superheroes in (with Heroes), so I count that as fair game. (I promise I will sit down and watch Heroes at some point, although I've gotta catch up with Galactica now, but... this stuff has been done, gang. Remember another non-entry on this list, Unbreakable?)

ETA: I really should've been more explicit about what I think does and does not belong on the list. I can make a case for The Matrix being there, but not at #1. E.T. is, I think, a fantasy movie, along with Eternal Sunshine. I haven't watched Lost, but everything I'm told gives me a non-SF vibe; I'd be happy to be proven wrong. ST:TNG!? Give me a break. Better, give me a writer with halfway-decent premises. ST:TNG and ST:V made a painful habit of writing beautiful John W. Campbell-style scripts based around the most ludicrous starting points. John Carpenter's The Thing was not bad, but it was a horror movie. If that gets in, I want Re-Animator. Starship Troopers!? Jayzus. In that case, I want Godzilla 2000.

Besides the ones I mentioned above, where the hell is A.I.? The Abyss? Alien Nation? WarGames? Little Shop of Horrors? Jurassic Park? The Dune miniseries? Dark City? Men In Black? Tron? The Handmaid's Tale? Do they seriously think Futurama is better than the animated Justice League?

Comments

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Okay folks. You thought Wrath of Khan was better than ET? Really? Told the Academy that did ya?

Leaving B5 off is travesty.

Return of the Jedi makes the 25 year limit (1983) and it's not as good as Futurama???

Totall Recall but not ID:4?

WhereTF is Robocop?!?!

"V" beats Jurassic Park and all of the above?

Lost is SCI FI???

Presumably Highlander was not.

As wasn't Beauty and the Beast.

X-Files, the movie or series?

Galaxy Quest??!?! Night of the Comet was better Sci Fi.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Leaving ROTJ off is indeed ludicrous. I thought about Robocop, and while I'm not sure it would be in the top 25 it is really good and would definitely be in a Top 50. Highlander is, I think, more fantasy than SF. Same with Beauty and the Beast. And I do love Galaxy Quest, but it really was more homage than anything else, and very deliberately so. Again, it just shows that Jeff Whatsis is a very shallow fan with pretentions of being deep.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

And no Farscape or Stargate in any form either.

Robocop might not make top 25, and I think we've named more than 25 that should be on the list (which isn't possible) but still...

You'd think at least half of his list should have won the Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation Long or Short.

As it is, he's left off B5, the only episodic TV show to win the long bdm since Rod Serling and Harlan Ellison had a tryst in the back of a VW bug.

[solarbird]

Lost is SCI FI???
I would actually agree that it is. There's Stuff going on which takes it out of (sur)realism and specifically into near-future (or now slightly-past, strictly speaking ^_^) SF. It may end up being more science-fantasy than science-fiction, but I've followed a bunch of the background/side things, and there's sciffy stuff going on.

Whether it ends up being good SF is an open question. ^_^ It rather depends upon how they resolve a variety of things.

[solarbird]

And, of course, leaving off Babylon 5 is, indeed, a travesty. Or a farce. Or both.