Sci Fi Top 100: Final Thoughts

At the beginning of this project, my friend/regular commenter Patricia suggested that I guess what rating I would give each movie, and then, at the end, see how close I came to getting it all right. I thought that sounded like a cool idea, so I did it. However, I think throwing a lot of numbers at you would be kind of boring, so here’s a short analysis of how it all played out.

Out of the 100 movies reviewed for this project:

8 were movies I previously reviewed, and so I couldn’t guess a rating

17 movies, I guessed my rating accurately

23 movies, I was within a quarter star (plus or minus)

12 movies, I was within half a star (plus or minus)

11 movies, I was within three-quarters of a star (plus or minus)

12 movies, I was within 1 star (plus or minus)

17 movies, I was within 1+ stars (plus or minus)

Biggest difference in the positive: The Damned, which I guessed I would give 2 stars. I gave it 4.25.

Biggest difference in the negative: The Man Who Fell to Earth, which I guessed I would give 3.25 stars. I gave it .25 star.

I was more likely to guess low than high. Of the movies in which my guesses were inaccurate, I gave 41 a higher rating than I guessed. That means I gave only 34 a lower rating than I guessed.

I feel that I was more accurate than not. I think guessing within half a star is pretty good. 52 of my guesses were either spot on, or within a half star. Only 40 were wrong by more than half a star.

I really enjoyed this movie project. It was fun to see some of the famous sci fi movies that I’d never seen before. It was even more fun to delve into the world of more obscure sci fi films. However, I was ultimately disappointed by the lack of strong female characters (lots of love interests and/or assistants among the female roles) and near-absence of people of color in these movies. Once I noticed it, I realized that this was true of all of my lists (although the Academy Awards seem to be a little better at it).

Also, I felt that there were several films that didn't belong here because they barely count as sci fi. Two of those that immediately leap to mind are The Truman Show & Three Colours: Red. If it were up to me, I would remove those, perhaps one or two others, and replace them with movies that I like better & that I consider more sci fi-y. Two I would add to the list are: "Equilibrium" and "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure."

Overall, however, I was pleased. I thought it was a very solid list. While I’m happy that I did it, I’m looking forward to moving on to the next. More on the new project next week!