Liked:

Arrival (touches on communication and how human behaviour prevents advances)
Ex Machina (eliciting emotional responses, misogyny, repression, deceit and resultant rebellion)
Interstellar (the idea time and space is pliable with alternate realities)
The Martian (extreme survival instincts and irrepressible spirit)

Slightly older:

Contact
Gattaga

All pretty mainstream, thought provoking, ultimately human stories/parables not out and out action SFX extravaganzas.

Oops should of gone in chat.

Rogue 1

(despite its flaws) was a good scifi film in the star wars universe

*slightly* older ?!?!? 😉

I’d say the the only recent sci-fi that I liked was ‘The Expanse’ on Netflix

Shit actually Ex Machina was properly amazing! 🙂

@ shermer75 – Hey some on here remember silent films and have not moved on from Ragtime 🙄 so anything from the nineties is pretty modern.

Liking the ninja edit 😉

‘Logan’ last week was pretty brutal; themes of ageing, loss, loyalty and duty made it a very tough watch for me given a current slow burning medical condition (not mine). as much a Western as SF.

Looking forward to seeing Arrival, and starting to get VERY excited about War For the Planet of the Apes. Caesar is the most rounded human character I’ve seen on the screen in years. The trailer gives me goose bumps.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEP1Mk6Un98[/video]

Logan

Train to busan.

Arrival, i do not know felt a bit meh…

As recommended on here, Primer (not really recent but most people have never heard of it). you’ll need to watch it at least twice though..

Oh yeah, Train to Busan! Seen it three times, and I’ve been trying to get everyone I know to watch it. Who would’ve suspected a subtitled South Korean zombie movie set on a train could be so good..?

Midnight special
Another earth
Safety not guaranteed

Midnight Special and Moon……….both very good.

Watched Warcraft last night by the bloke who did Moon (Bowie Jr.)

It’s 2 hours of cartoon nonsense without a resolution. Don’t bother.

Nemesis sed> Primer

His other film, Upstream Color (sic), had a lot going for it, almost worked but the good bits were very good.

Sounds like you go for the cerebral sci fi films like me OP. Here’s some of my favourite oldies;

2001 (slow burner but still one of the best sci fi films ever made)

Solaris (the original Russian film by Andrei Tarkovsky)

Stalker (again by Andrei Tarkovsky)

Akira (Japanese animation, watched the new Blu Ray version this week and it blew me away how this hasn’t aged at all considering its nearly years old).

Blade Runner (probably seen it many times but the Final Cut Blu Ray picture looks stunning).

Pi (Darren Aranovsky, I think it was either his first film or one of them)

Eraserhead (David Lynch at his finest)

Videodrome (David Cronenberg’s critique of mass media)

While we’re on the subject of Cronenberg, Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo: The Iron Man has always been one of my favourites. An oldie but a goodie.

passengers is worth a watch, not fantastic but your Mrs will most likely enjoy it

Check out the Alien covenant and blade runner 2049 trailers..
Both directed by Ridley Scott.

Spectral on Netflix. It was a bit like aliens on earth. 8/10 good but room for improvement.

“Chappie”

Watched passengers yesterday. Good effects / cgi but a bit meh.

Moon is really good.

Ex machina great.

Primer is great but put the phone down and concentrate.

Children of men I liked alot

Looper was good fun although flawed

I quite liked sunshine too

Plus all the obvious ones… Alien / aliens, blade runner etc etc

Is Chappie good? It has just popped up on Netflix

Chappie struck me as a violent take on Short Circuit. Short Circuit 3 -Johnny 5’s SA adventure! It’s worth watching just for the bit where Chappie is car jacking people. Very funny in a dark way. Not great overall but a good film.

Agree with the recommendations for Ex Machina, Children of Men and Midnight Special, both were really god films IMO

Spectral

B movie Saturday morning special at best

Chappie is Ok, though District 9 is better (same director) another one of his worth a watch is Elysium.

9, always leaves me with dust in my eyes 😳

Predestination I think is still the best I’ve seen in recent years.

Really enjoyed Moon.

Tried ‘Midnight Special’ twice now (and failed as many times to retain engagement beyond half-way). Not sure what I’m doing wrong.

For a good laugh I found ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ a right enjoyable romp.

‘Robot and Frank’ is a quiet classic. Watch it.

Not cerebral in ANY way, but Fury Road is a fantastic piece of sci-fi filmmaking.

Chappie is best enjoyed appreciating it only has 32% on RT but should still be seen.

10 Cloverfield Lane is worth a watch, a few wtf moments.

Watched Arrival on flight yesterday. It was OK. Not much more than OK though.

Then again, I also watched Suicide Squad which was dire. I do have a habit of choosing bad films on flights!

ooh forgot about Robot and Frank and Predestination. Both great under the radar classics.

I also watched Suicide Squad which was dire

If it was on a flight, it probably had half of it missing.

Coincidentally, I watched SS yesterday too. I wasn’t expecting much, but it greatly exceeded my expectations. It’s flawed, sure, the pacing’s all over the place especially in the first half, and they should’ve got an actor in to play The Joker. I watched some extended cut or other, and it could probably have done with about half an hour lopping out of it. I can’t imagine an “aeroplane edit” would’ve been much fun, you’d have had all the lengthy exposition scenes and most of the good bits hacked out.

That said, it was a lot of fun. Margot Robbie stole every scene she was in, the effects were great, and the plot was… well, two-dimensional but passable. For a brain-out action movie it really wasn’t as bad as some people made out.

Caption at the start made a big thing about it being the full version. Cathay are fairly liberal with their films, I’ve even seen boobage!

Pacing was poor. Barely developed characters, trying to squeeze then all in. Introduction of a character mid way was as bad as the “Star Trek Character With Only a Surname” in terms of obviousness. Margot was indeed good, but a bit overdone eventually.

Introduction of a character mid way was as bad as the “Star Trek Character With Only a Surname” in terms of obviousness.

Yeah, that grated with me too TBF. “Who the hell is that, where’s he come from? … Oh.” Would’ve had a hell of lot more of an impact if they’d done his backstory too, rather than just killing off Dave from Accounts.

Margot was indeed good, but a bit overdone eventually.

Wasn’t that due to test screenings of the original cut?

Anyway, not recent, but often missed – Equilibrium.

Vaguely sci-fi, but Humans was fantastic. Black mirror, also, if you’ve not seen them.

I watched Edge of Tomorrow on a long haul recently,

Really enjoyed it, a fun way to pass 100 minutes although the ending let it down.

It was a movie I would never of normally bothered with.

Chappie is good, questions consciousness, the soul, and has Hugh Jackman sporting a mullet. Also has that freaky looking female singer from Die Antwerp playing an interesting role.
Hard-core Henry is worth a watch for fans of fps games.
Lobster was a bit daft really.

I watched Edge of Tomorrow on a long haul recently,

I quite liked that too. It’s essentially Groundhog Day in Space, but it makes a pretty good fist of it.