Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Top Sci-Fi Movies

A strophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, star of this week’s DVD/Blu-Ray Pick of the Week, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, may be critical of the science howlers in some sci-fi movies, but he gave Giant Freakin Robot a list of his sci-fi favorites.

I like big-budget science fiction films. My list, with two exceptions, bears this out. I want science fiction films to stretch the talent and imagination of visual effects experts. And the film above all else should create a vision of the future we either know that we don’t want, or know that we do.

I was glad to see the original 1951 version of The Day the Earth Stood Still on his list. And of course I expected 2001: A Space Odyssey, which seems to have inspired the title of the TV series. But I did not guess the one he said was his favorite. Be sure to check out the whole list–all are worth seeing.