The 10 Best Space Opera Movies Of All Time

[J-Sun]

This blog post touches on a topic near to my heart - I find myself watching the same movies for the millionth time when I get that "space movie" urge. I think it's telling that the list pretty much turns to crap after 7 (though 7 is on there for very wrong reasons and the Space Odysseys are missing... and she/he calls Alan Dean Foster a "science fiction master"... and the article is just generally not at all to my taste despite picking some good flicks). Also, the list is loose, but that's a good thing - it's not so much "space opera" movies as "space-based" movies or movies where space/the system/the galaxy is a major part.

The short list:

1. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
2. Star Wars: Original Trilogy (1977-1983)
3. Serenity (2005)
4. Alien (1979)
5. WALL-E (2008)
6. Galaxy Quest (1999)
7. Starship Troopers (1997)
8. The Last Starfighter (1984)
9. The Fifth Element (1997)
10. The Black Hole (1979)

Mine would be

1. Star Wars
2. Space Odysseys
3. Alien(s) [tie?]
3. Serenity [tie?]
5. Star Treks

and, then, yeah, Galaxy Quest as a comedy and ST as a satire (though, other than a few ship scenes, they're not really space flicks). And then I'm out, unless stuff like Destination: Moon and maybe Moon, itself, though I'm still not sure how I feel about that one. It is moon-based, but it's pretty spacy. I haven't seen Wall-E but I want to.

What's yours? What great SF space movies are people missing? Or just "what did you think of the article"?

 

[Metryq]

I suppose a "best" list will include some guilty pleasures, and that's the way I see the blog list—and J-Sun's short list. For example, I loved The Wrath of Khan, but consider all the other Treks as nothing more than an afternoon with the Trek gang and making sure everyone gets their screen time—whether the story calls for it, or not. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home defines this class. ST:TMP and Star Trek V were toxic. Well, Star Trek V had one saving grace: Kirk's declaration that we need our pain, that it is part of who we are. The Undiscovered Country wasn't bad, but it had too much silly stuff and seemed to be trying too hard to recreate Khan in Gen. Chang. The bolted-on eye patch actually made me laugh; it was '80s butch mutant biker gang stuff, like in Weird Science.

The Black Hole is unquestionably a guilty pleasure of mine. It was a dark castle in space without an ounce of science in it. Although V.I.N.Cent had a cartoony face, I liked him as a character—better than R2-D2. (1. Why is it that R2-D2 wasn't fitted with a human language module? I know he's an astro-mech who works with machines, but he evidently ran into plenty of situations when he needed to talk to people. C-3PO was all dolled up just so that he'd look right in the company of blue-bloods, and he was outfitted with translators for "six million forms of communication." They couldn't spare the space for a handful of human languages in R2? 2. I actually see nothing wrong with V.I.N.Cent's cartoony face, as anything more human-like would venture too close to the Uncanny Valley.)

WALL•E was brilliant, but has no place on a list of space operas. My favorite bit is when EVE pronounces WALL•E's name in her fluid voice, and he just melts.

Don't even get me started on The Fifth Element. It was more on the ridiculous side than funny, and what was the director smoking? Granted, I loved Leon: The Professional. But The Fifth Element was like a garage band jamming—not meant for public consumption.

 

[Connavar]

Space opera is not anywhere near my fav kind of SF in films or books. So a top 5 is hard for me to choose. That blog list looks good except Starship Troopers that would top worst SF films list of the ones i have seen.....

Here is my top 5:

1. Aliens
2. Star Wars
3. Alien
4. Pitch Black - a contemporary version of Alien with awesome hero.
5. Star Trek(2009)

I didnt choose Serenity because its not as great as the tv show.

 

[iansales]

I've done my own list - chiefly because half of those on the list above aren't really space opera. See here.

 

[paranoid marvin]

1.Battle Beyond the Stars
2.SW - Empire Strikes Back
3.Saturn 3
4.The Last Star Fighter
5.ST - Wrath of Khan
6.Flash Gordon
7.Spaceballs
8.SW - A New Hope
9.2010
10.Starship Troopers

 

[paranoid marvin]

I've done my own list - chiefly because half of those on the list above aren't really space opera. See here.

Glad to find someone else who likes ST5. It's actually my second favourite ST film (after WOK) and the only one of the original cast movies that is anything like the tv series - reminds me very much of The Menagerie.

 

[soulsinging]

Like the fact that Serenity got a mention! One of my fav movies...

 

[Connavar]

I've done my own list - chiefly because half of those on the list above aren't really space opera. See here.

You prefer Chronicles of Riddick over Pitch Black ? Not many films in your list or ours is strictly space opera. Space Opera is pretty small i SF film genre. Starship Troopers is no more space opera than a PKD dystopian novel.


The films in my list are more like good SF films in space, or where space had at-least a small role.

 

[jojajihisc]

You prefer Chronicles of Riddick over Pitch Black ?

As a closer approximation to "space opera?" I do. Pitch Black, much like Alien, is a closer fit to horror. Although I agree Pitch Black is a better movie.

 

[clovis-man]

Without regard to the definition of "Space Opera", which we could argue about for days, I will submit a list of films which I will not rank order, but which fit my own definition which require at least a space ship if not ray guns.

Conquest of Space (1955)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
Alien (1979)
Aliens (1986)
Star Wars (1977)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
The Fifth Element (1997)
Red Planet (2000)
Star Trek II (1982)
Star Trek (2009)
Destination Moon (1950)
This Island Earth (1955)

I've bracketed nine "recent" films with four from the SFX-challenged 1950s. I won't dispute their relative qualities, but would submit that they are all entertaining.

 

[Rodders]

What!!! No Battle Beyond The Stars? No Starcrash? Of course, i kid. (BBTS was pretty cool though.)

 

[jakywilliams]

My favorite top 10 movie are:-
1 Black Swan
2 SALT
3 Hancock
4 Harry Potter the deathly hallows
5 The Last Starfighter
6 SAW
7 The Fifth Element
8 Bad Teacher
9 Resident Evil
10. The Black Hole

 

[iansales]

Er, Harry Potter is not space opera. In fact, only three films on your list qualify as space opera. Did you not read the title of the thread?

 

[paranoid marvin]

No other love for Spaceballs?

 

[D_Davis]

For space opera in a visual medium, I think your best bet is with animation.

1. Galaxy Express 999 (series and films) (all are masterpieces - really, anything in the Leijiverse)
2. Starblazers series
3. Yamato films
4. Gundam films
5. Robotech
6. Captain Harlock series
7. Arcadia of my Youth
8. Sol Bianca
9. Voices of a Distant Star
10. Lightyears


In general, I think that there are better animated SF films and series than there are live action.

 

[biodroid]

1. Star Wars series
2. Independence Day
3. Star Trek series
4. Alien series
5. Mission to Mars
6. The Last Starfighter
7. 5th Element
8. The Chronicles of Riddick / Pitch Black
9. Flash Gordon
10. Avatar (not sure if this can be classified as Space Opera)