Top 25 SFX Movies

The Top 25 SF & fantasy films ever as voted for by you!

So, what’s the greatest SF or fantasy film of all time? Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope? One of the Lord Of The Rings films? Blade Runner? We asked users of SFX.co.uk to vote for their three favourite SF and fantasy of all time, and we had thousands of responses. The last time we did a reader poll like this four years ago the winner was Serenity. Can it hang onto the top spot? There’s only one way to find out. Read the results, starting here:

25 Forbidden Planet

1956 • Director: Fred M Wilcox

The director would like to thank: Shakespeare, Walt Disney

One line pitch: The Tempest done SF-style

Why it’s great: Robby The Robot; the monster from the id attacking the spaceship; the monster from the id trashing Dr Morbius’s house; the vertiginous chasms full of Krel machinery (still massively impressive even today); the C-57D landing on Altair IV.

Not to be confused with: The Forbidden Kingdom, The Forbidden, the Forbidden Zone, a chain of SF shops

The alternative view: “The strictly formulaic direction and by-the-numbers script leach any true drama or humanity out of the bulk of the film, consigning it in the end to the category of interesting and strangely influential oddity.” Chris Barsanti, Filmcritic.com, 2006