5 Forgotten Sci-Fi Movies of the 2000s That Still Exist Today – SlashFilm

Science fiction in the 2000s was a curious beast, because in an important way, we were already living in the future. When 1999 ended, the world entered a state of millennial wonder, unsure of what to do now that the world was not over. Also, people began to quickly adopt mobile phones, which eventually gave way to smartphones. Streaming technology improved to the point where people could easily start watching videos at home (gone were the days of downloading the “Phantom Menace” preview), and movies became easier to find.

Meanwhile, all the visions of the future seen in the sci-fi movies of the 1950s to 1980s did not predict the internet, the rise of YouTube, or the birth of social media. Our reality seems to be more than our fiction. We didn’t really know where to look for that. Then, after the horrors of 9/11, many of our sci-fi stories (after stopping the terror stories) began to lean toward fantasy. Light stories about action heroes suddenly became very popular; It’s no surprise that the Marvel Cinematic Universe debuted seven years later. Also, to escape the horrors of the world, we fled to knowledge / nostalgia, so remakes / reboots suddenly became very popular. We needed a pop culture foundation to sit on in uncertain times.

And all the while, other filmmakers continued to push the genre forward, often in unusual and unique ways. There were a lot of good and a lot of bad sci-fi movies in the 2000s, all of them memorable. The following films may not be well known, but each of them is worth checking out.

Larry Blamire’s “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra” is one of the funniest movies of the 2000s. Made on a tight budget and shot in the hills of California, Blamire’s film exposed the type of low-budget B-movies that were shot in the hills of California. Blamire apparently loved cheap monster movies of the late 1950s and early 1960s like “Robot Monster” and “The Creeping Terror.”

This story involved a scientist called Dr. Paul Armstrong (Blamire) and his beautiful wife Betty (Fay Masterson), who have traveled to the desert in search of a meteor made of a rare part of the atmosphere. Also on the scene are a conflicted doctor (Brian Howe), two aliens named Kro-Bar and Lattis (Andrew Parks and Susan McConnell), an animal woman named Animala (Jennifer Blaire), a mutated monster (Darrin Reed), and the Lost Skeleton himself, a mental oppressor.

The dialogue presents the problem of Ed Wood’s cinema, with unusual language, and clear humor. “Aliens? Us? Is this one of your Earth jokes?” Every line is a banger, a groove you want to shout to your friends at parties. This is a crazy playground, and you will watch this movie with a huge grin on your face. Blamire trashed 1950s sci-fi with “Lost Skeleton,” but managed to make the film look and feel authentic. The music was from a music library from decades earlier, and it captures the moment perfectly. It’s a fun, fun movie.

In 2002, many critics dismissed Andrew Niccol’s “Simone” as clumsy and lackluster, with others saying the plot was implausible. In the age of “art” AI, and the reports of Tilly Norwood, are well known. Al Pacino plays a filmmaker named Viktor Taransky who is tired of the Hollywood machine, and the tough, brave actors he always has to deal with. He meets an old friend named Hank (Elias Koteas) who has created the first humanoid model he calls Simulation One. When Hank dies, Viktor starts using his software to add an ingénue (Canadian model Rachel Roberts) to his movies. He is alive, but Viktor passes him off as a real person.

Naturally, Simone is an instant hit, and the public wants more. Viktor likes the new attention his work is getting, but he starts to resent that his “actor” is more popular than he was known for. Actually, he is. Eventually, Viktor begins to hate Simone, and starts putting her in humiliating and horrible movies. Because Simone is a beautiful, thin, blonde woman, the public continues to be fascinated by her performances. So what happens when Viktor is accused of having an affair with Simone? Or kill him?

Although the sarcasm could have been more serious, the message of “Simone” is good. We, the public, love images, not people. And when we get to the point where authenticity can be faked, what are we making art for? These are the questions of 2026, asked in the 2002 movie.

Remember steampunk? There was a strong and short-lived trend in the mid-2000s towards a new kind of sci-fi aesthetic that depicted what the genre would look like if it were captured in the Victorian era. Steampunk was characterized by lots of gear, lots of brass, and lots of sleek leather clothing. There were stories and TV shows and movies that stuck to the steampunk aesthetic, but it also became a lifestyle for cosplayers and attendees. A friend once said that steampunk was for people who were too edgy to be Goth, and while it’s an understatement, it’s true.

Katsuhiro Otomo, the director of “Akira” made what might be the best steampunk of them all with “Steamboy,” a science fiction fantasy set in the same 1860s England when steam-powered cars changed the course of human history. The main character is James Ray Steam, the grandson and son of great inventors, and the plot revolves around the invention of a mysterious circular machine that can generate unlimited power for steam engines. James takes the machine, and is able to make a flying device out of it. You will need it, as the bad guys follow it.

The visuals of “Steamboy” are as beautiful and beautiful as Otomo’s previous films “Akira” and “Metropolis,” but this film has an accessible, pulp adventure tone. The film took ten years to make,​​​​​​​and one can see every minute of effort on screen. In other words, “Steamboy” is not very complicated – it is more story-driven than other Otomo films – but visually, it is one of the most interesting sci-fi films of the decade.

Hitoshi Matsumoto’s “Big Man Japan” is one of the dumbest sci-fi/kaiju movies you’ll ever see, and that’s saying something. But that difference alone makes it worth it to you. Written in the form of a mockumentary, “Big Man Japan” is about an annoying Japanese citizen named Daisato (Matsumoto) who can get big when charged with electricity. He is the latest in a long line of monster hunters. In this universe, kaiju attacks are so common that they are constantly televised… and their ratings are poor. “Big Man Japan” takes the world of kaiju fighting, and turns it into something boring and workaday. Daisato gets no respect. It certainly doesn’t help that he looks ridiculous, with his giant updo. He lives in an apartment alone, as his wife has left him. He is almost sad.

“Big Man Japan” also talks about some of the bad habits of being a giant. It seems that Daisato needs to walk around in a giant underwear before he grows up, so that he doesn’t become an immodest giant. The plot reaches its climax when the Big Man is unable to defeat the giant monster from outside Japan.

“Big Man Japan” is as funny as it is weak. The monsters are strange and angry, and the small groups are reminiscent of the old Godzilla movies, but there is something slow and washed out about the whole thing. It’s a clever parody of kaiju movies, yes, but it’s also a mockery of reality TV. Even when a reality TV camera shows itself in something as dramatic as a monster fight, it turns it into something vague and uninteresting. It’s not on our list of the best kaiju movies, but it should be.

When Alex Proyas’ “Knowing” was released in 2009, many critics were pleased with its solid sound and surprising plot methods. However, I would argue, those things are its greatest strength. In the film, Nicolas Cage plays an MIT professor named John whose son opens a 50-year-old capsule at his elementary school. Inside, John finds a pile of strange numbers, written when the time capsule was buried. John discovers that the numbers are days, and that they correspond to major catastrophes. Each one was predicted with pinpoint accuracy…and there are still a few more to come.

The idea that natural disasters can be predicted throws off John’s entire worldview. He begins to believe that there is an end to the world and that he needs to rethink the basic structure of the universe. John tries to prevent further disasters, but has no luck. Those things will happen 100%. John tries to find the girl who wrote the prophecies and maybe learn more about how she knew what was going to happen. What he finds is that the catastrophe predicted at the bottom of the page will be the last the Earth will ever experience. And what does this have to do with Bible prophecy?

“Knowing” as the title says, is all John can do. This makes his knowledge feel useless. Everything he can do he knows and proves. And Alex Proyas does not stop with disasters. He brings some sci-fi/supernatural elements that I will leave to the audience to discover. It’s a big, big wave, but it works. And the ending is one of the broadest and craziest you’ll ever see on this list.