This past week on Poli-Sci-Fi Radio, Bill Simmon, inspired by a post at techcrunch, challenged us to list our favorite sci-fi movies of the past decade (and then posted his own list several days later).

Ever since the show I have been fixated on coming up with my own list of favorites. It has been hard. Much harder than expected. I’d like to say that I am sitting here equivocating about which movies to cut from the list, but it seems that the twothousandsies have been as bad for sci-fi films as it has for… well… most other things that human beings care about.

Long story short, I am still working on my list, but in the meantime I thought I would share some of the notable movies that are not likely to make the cut, and my varied reasons for reluctantly discounting them.

Wall-E (2008) - I am apparently the only person in the world that didn’t forge some sort of lovable connection with the robot protagonists. And without that, all you are left with is a bizzare mashup of Short Circut, Castaway, and Idiocracy.

Idocracy (2006) - Mike Judge created an awesome distopic future, but thanks to the unlikeable characters, the movie actually left me caring less about the future of the human race than when the film started.

The Host (2006) - Definately would top my list of best monster movies of the decade. The movie works as a cationary tale of how chemical pollution might have uninteded consequences, and explores potential failures of our society in responding to those challenges, but in the end it is a bit too fantastical to be considered true sci-fi.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005) - I so wanted to love this movie, being such a big Douglas Adams fan, but the plot changes and pacing really undermined the effectiveness of the story. Really a failure in directing. Would it really be that hard to get Mos Def to enunciate clearly?

Batman Begins (2005) - An inspiring but cautionary vision of how the synergenic combination of near-mainstream technologies might empower a single man enough to drastically impact the quality of life within a society. Too bad the antagonists and their evil plot seemed like they were ripped from some cheesy comic book or something.

Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow (2004) - This film had all the ingredients to be some amazing sci-fi, but, unfortunately, sometimes a movie is not more than the sum of its parts.

Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005) - Fuck you George Lucas. Not for making shitty movies, but promoting those shitty movies with the most agressive multi-year marketing campaign in entertainment history. The constant reminders made it very very difficult for us to just get over our dissapointment and move on with our pathetic nerd lives.

Matrix Reloaded (2003) and Revolutions (2003) - People claim a boatload of resons to hate these movies, but if I were to single out one, it would be that the main takeaway is “have faith”, and that just does not seem like very practical advice for resolving the inevitable conflict with our robot overlords.

Donie Darko (2001) - A fucking amazing movie. Too bad that the underlying metaphysics of the universe was just a bunch of gobblygook designed to sound smart and coehesive. That kinda disqualifies it from any self-respecting sci-fi list.

Vanilla Sky (2001) - I liked how the big reaveal in this movie was (spoiler alert) that it was in fact a sci-fi movie, and not just a mental breakdown on the part of the protagonist. Too bad that all that happened afterwards was Tom Cruise running around yelling “Tech support!” at the top of his lungs. Eternal Sunshine did the same thing, but better.

Pitch Black (2000) - Definitely sci-fi, and definitely a good movie. Just a bit too “action and monsters” for a serious sci-fi list.

Anyway, I am off to see Avatar tomorrow, and will hopefully finish up my actual list of favorites for this Sunday.