These past two and a half decades have been a big time for science
\nfiction cinema. From massive innovations and advancements in CG, through the
\nwholesale adoption of digital film technology, and into a time when many of the
\ntraditional subjects of the genre have become a reality\u00a0\u2013\u00a0electric
\ncars; AI; touchscreen devices in our pockets; adverts on every surface\u00a0\u2013
\nthe landscape for this kind of filmmaking is so different to what it was back
\nin 1999.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, that hasn’t stopped writers, directors and
\nstudios from moving with the times, bringing films to fruition that posit the
\nfuture of future technology, that seek to entertain in new ways,\u00a0that
\nrally against societal injustices,\u00a0and that embrace the full scope and
\nscale of what’s possible on the big screen today. And, with so many great
\nsci-fi films to choose from, it’s hard to whittle them down to just twenty.<\/p>\n
But whittle we must.<\/p>\n
Here we take in the best of the genre\u2019s offerings this
\ncentury, looking at the stories, the stars, the aesthetics, the big ideas, and
\nwhat makes these films so special. With just one entry from each director (so the
\nbig daddies like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve don\u2019t dominate the list),
\nstrap in for a top twenty that will push the boundaries of your excitement for sci-fi
\ncinema.\u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n
The 28 series returned in full glory last year, with Danny
\nBoyle-directed and Alex Garland-written 28 Years Later. The film shows us life
\nthree decades on in a Britain quarantined to contain the Rage Virus that has
\ninfected and killed the majority of the population \u2013 but it also tees up a
\ntrilogy of new films, ending on a hefty cliffhanger.<\/p>\n
While not as aesthetically accomplished as Danny Boyle’s
\nfirst entry, Nia DaCosta’s Bone Temple nonetheless beats 28 Years Later to this
\nspot by going farther with its characters and the actual science of the thing than
\nany film in this series has gone to date.\u00a0Bone Temple follows Spike (Alfie
\nWilliams) as he joins up with Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O\u2019Connell) and his gang
\nof Fingers, a sadistic crew of Jimmy Saville-styled sadists who kill and
\ntorture anyone \u2013 infected or otherwise. Meanwhile, Dr Kelson (Ralph Fiennes),
\nexperiments on infected alpha Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), doping him up and
\nattempting to connect with the humanity he\u2019s convinced is still inside.<\/p>\n
While the first film opened up this world and gave us a
\npotent Brexit metaphor in the process, Bone Temple affords us insights into the
\ninfected\u2019s mindset. It\u2019s a horrifying piece of cinema, with the absolute worst
\nof humanity on show, and yet it\u2019s one of the first \u201czombie\u201d movies to show us
\ntheir perspective, and show that there might be a way back from the brink\u2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"These past two and a half decades have been a big time for science fiction cinema. From massive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-613176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=613176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}