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If you mean the standard of the game, YES IT IS! The reason? A much maligned term in macroeconomics - The Trickle Down EffectWomen's cricket has always been the poorer cousin of the men's game. This is the one area where the British missed a trick unlike with the women. Tennis, an equally Elite sport has been played and talked about in terms of both sexes right from the beginning. Probably because of its association with Wimbledon and the royalty, tennis had been for long presented as the go-to sport to follow for women, and for an aspirational middle class of India, badminton too. Contrast this with cricket and football being exclusively male.Indeed, pick a random Indian guy and ask him what sport he follows. It is highly likely he'd say Cricket or football, influenced as he is by the English Premier League. Pick a random girl and it's likely she'd say tennis! The reason is simple. Women's tennis is broadcast to the same standards and on the same channels as the men's game. They have easy access to it. The four grand slams are all run parallelly for both genders on the same courts.Contrast this with cricket. Women's cricket is an afterthought. The first women's test was played in 1934. There have been so few of them that men who who debuted ten years ago have played more tests than all of female test history! India have at times gone 5–6 years without playing a single test.The main reason is the uppitiness and stuck-up arrogance of the MCC and the ICC.The Anglo-Saxons (English, Australian and New Zealander administrators) for all their platitudes on feminism, looked down upon the women’s game. Women’s cricket boards were all independent of men’s for most of their history. This meant that the women’s game didn’t get the same match venues, training grounds and sponsorship. Indeed, India missed the 1988 Women’s World Cup because the Women’s Cricket Association of India could not put together funds to send a team! (Remember this is a year after the BCCI successfully hosted, with corporate backing, the 1987 Men’s World Cup to packed grounds and crowded TV sets)The so-called developed liberal societies of the whites were no better in their pompous misogyny! Women were banned from the pavilion at Lord’s for the first 206 years of its existence. India played a test at Lord’s during the 1986 Men’s tour of England, and recieved all facilities allotted to visiting teams. (Though that was progress in itself, treated like third class citizens of a weak nation as they were for long) Not even that basic courtesy was extended to Shubhangi Kulkarni and her girls when the women played 3 Tests in already second-rate venues that year!In 1993, when the English Men's team was recieving the pasting of a lifetime from Australia in the Ashes, the Women brought them joy, by winning their first World Cup final, at Lord's. Heavy rain meant that the presentation could not happen on the ground, as planned, and had to be moved to the pavillion.The uppity Red-and-Yellow Tie MCC snobs were horrified! A woman inside our hallowed Lord's pavillion? What blasphemy! Never mind that that's the new World Cup Winning captain, YOUR country's captain, a national hero, who saved your blushes on a day when the men you mollycoddled were so gloriously whipped on the field! Thankfully better sense prevailed.The first woman to set foot inside the Pavillion at Lord's in 206 years, was their World Cup winning captain of 1993, who was first denied even that entry to protect herself from the rain, let alone collect the World Cup there!Apologies for the long preamble but it was only to bring out the depths from which Women's Cricket has risen.Women's cricket could only have improved from the 1993 fiasco. The masterstroke in this case came in 2005, when the ICC decided to take over the International Women's Cricket Association and handle their affairsThis meant thatICC would now earmark specific amounts from their HUGE sponsorship revenues, for the women's gameMember Associations would do the same at the grassroots levelsThe players could now access the same training facilities the men gotThere is now one seat representing the Women's game on the ICC board just like there are three for the Associates.Women cricketers also got hefty central contracts, an instant pay raise of several thousand times more!Most crucially, tenders for sponsorships and telecast were now unisex - in other words, when the ICC issued tenders for broadcast rights, it included the Women's 50 over and 20 over world cups too!The Twenty20 world cup has been held concurrently for both sexes barring one men's edition in 2007.All of this increased money that the combined pool made available to the Women's game, was immeasurably more than what the women could cobble together on their own. A Star Sports would never bid for a Women's World Cup. But if the offer is of 2 Men's world cups, 3 men's world t20s, 2 Women's World Cups, and 2 world T20s, they sure as hell will bid for the whole lot!The result?Sky is broadcasting Women's internationals in the UK along with the Men'sThe Women's Big Bash League is running to packed houses in Australia, with the same team franchises as the menThe 2017 World Cup produced skill at an unprecedented level, leading to more interest!Star Sports in their Independence Day programming featured the ladies who made the final, and their stories. It was so touchingly brought out!Many thought Women's Cricket is boring as there isn't much excitement in the form of fast bowling or big sixes! Look no further than the 2017 World cup for your answer! Women's cricket features ball weight and sizes attuned to the reflexes and safety needs of women, and in a battle of equals, the excitement WILL be there! The 2017 Women's World cup featured more sixes, fewer balls per six, as many boundaries, a 10% higher run rate, more wickets and fewer balls per wicket than the 2013 World cup, which also represents a HUGE jump over 2009. (As you can see, they didn't just make it a six-hitting contest. There's been more wickets, and more frequently too!)As I have written in an earlier answer, the men's game benefited from the TV revolution in India and the increased eyeballs. The women's game is getting better at an exponential pace, and this momentum has to be sustained by more eyeballs!Here's my other answer.Ram Narayan's answer to Why is cricket the most followed sport in India?

Thanks for the A2A! Here goes....Sci-fi is almost as old as cinema itself —1902's Georges Méliès’ “A Trip To The Moon” is generally seen as the first example— but it became hugely popular in late 20th century filmmaking in the aftermath of “Star Wars,” if also somewhat watered down. Many so-called sci-fi blockbusters were really action movies with some fantastical trappings, rather than thoughtful, provocative examinations of the world we live in through speculation about worlds we might live in.That’s still true to an extent, but the last decade-and-a-half have seen a flourishing of smaller-scale, ingenious sci-fi pictures, as well as some dazzling bigger-scale examples with more ideas per se than explosions and laser fire.25. “Edge Of Tomorrow” (2014)Taking “Groundhog Day” and giving it a sci-fi twist (more effectively than Duncan Jones’ “Source Code" a few years earlier), Doug Liman’s excellent blockbuster “Edge Of Tomorrow” picks up Tom Cruise’s dickish PR guy and drops him in the midst of a D-Day-style battle against an impossible alien threat, then makes him live it (and perish in it) over and over again. The film was the best use of Cruise’s star persona in aeons (serving almost as a metaphor for the redemption of his own stardom), but the secret weapon, aside from a cunning evocation of video game tropes, the best alien warfare since “Starship Troopers,” and crystal clear direction from a back-on-form Liman, was Emily Blunt as the "full metal bitch," making a strong case that she deserves to be the biggest star in the world. The film didn’t find the theatrical audience it deserved at home, but more and more people are catching on over time.24. “Donnie Darko” (2001)Amazingly, it’s been nearly 15 years since Richard Kelly’s indie genre-bender arrived, and though its legacy has been tarnished by an inferior Director’s Cut and the helmer’s questionable follow-ups, the film remains as original and enjoyable a creation as ever. Melding John Hughews David Lynch, and Albert Einstein into an '80s-set tale of a troubled teen (Jake Gyllenhaal, in a star-making role) who receives visits from a sinister rabbit who may be trying to convince him to travel through time, it’s rich, funny, swooningly romantic stuff with a very fine cast (Patrick Swayze and Katharine Ross got well-deserved comeback roles, there’s a great cameo from producer Drew Barrymore, and keep an eye out for a young Seth Rogen as a bully), and a surprisingly melancholy tone. Kelly, just 26 when the film was released, handles things with real flair (and a great ear for song selection), and while the Director’s Cut only makes the mythology more impenetrable, it’s a fascinating sci-fi puzzle-box on top of everything else.23. “Battle Royale” (2000)The premise of kids killing each other in a government-supported game has now been popularized to billion-dollar effect with the (very good) “Hunger Games” franchise, but if we were going to choose one film in this tiny sub-genre, it was always going to be “Battle Royale.” The final film from Kinji Fukasaku sees a class of high school students fixed with explosive collars and forced to kill each other as part of a scheme intended to curb teen disobedience. Lean, bloody, and with terrific action sequences (Quentin Tarantino called it his favorite film of the previous two decades), it’s also more than a mere genre piece: the students, and even their teacher (a smartly-cast Takeshi Kitano) are sensitively and three-dimensionally drawn, and its power as metaphor, both examining the power of violence and the demonization of youth, elevates it far above the tales of Katniss & co. Indeed, it cut a little too close to the bone for many, and landing in the aftermath of Columbine, it wasn’t released in the U.S. for eleven years, and is banned in Germany to this day.22. “Interstellar” (2013)Perhaps one of the most hotly contested films, sci-fi or otherwise, in recent memory, Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” received a host of polarizing and emotionally hot reactions. Some claimed the picture his worst, some thought it was a vision from the heavens, and as usual, when the dust has settled, more mannered judgments have taken root (more of a consensus Playlist opinion forms here). So yes, Nolan shoots for the fences in “Interstellar” and arguably does not connect in the same home run fashion he has for so many pictures in a row now. The dialogue can be really on the nose, while the ending some see as jumping the shark. None of us will make too strong of a case against any of those points. That said, Nolan’s film is still a dazzling, ambitious vision of love, time, space, and some deeper, perhaps fuzzier elements of the universe. It’s the place where the heart and quantum physics meet. While that might admittedly be a bit of an awkward intersection, its love-letter sincerity to humanity inspired by Nolan’s own children is at least visually awe-inspiring and occasionally breathtaking. Admittedly clunky in spots, it's a film that will very likely only grow in estimation over time.21. “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” (2014)After Tim Burton’s dreadful 2001 version, few had high hopes for the second reboot of the classic “Planet Of The Apes” series in a decade when Rupert Wyatt’s “Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes” arrived. But the film was a quiet, unexpectedly moving triumph, and was then exceeded on every front by Matt Reeves’ follow-up, one of the few sequels that trumps the original. Picking up after the ape-pocalypse, as Caesar (Andy Serkis) is forced to confront humanity again, as well as a new threat closer to home, the movie, even more than its predecessor, takes full advantage of the stunning performance-capture technology, which reaches something of an apex here. Beyond that, it’s also simply a remarkably well-told story: a rare summer blockbuster in which you actively root against violence taking place, with a borderline Shakespearean arc for its non-human hero, and Reeves’ stylish-but-unshowy filmmaking chops steering things beautifully.20. “Beyond The Black Rainbow” (2010)An instant trippy midnight movie favorite, and constructed entirely with the intention of being exactly that, “Beyond The Black Rainbow” does for mind-bending ‘70s sci-fi what “Berberian Sound Studio” or “Amer” did for giallo, paying homage and bringing it crashing into the 21st century. Directed by Panos Cosmatos, the son of “Rambo: First Blood Part II” and “Tombstone” director George, the plot, which loosely sees a new age scientist interrogating a young girl with telepathic powers who he’s kidnapped, is essentially beyond the point: this is a film of mood, atmosphere, and imagery, its meditative pace and hypnotic visuals making you feel like you’re on something strong even if you went in sober. It’s certainly style over substance, and you could argue that it wears its influences a little too strongly on its sleeve, but in our opinion, in drawing on everything from Jodorowsky and “2001” to Michael Mann and George Lucas, it adds up to something beautiful, fascinating, and a damn sight more interesting than 95% of genre fare out there.19. “Sunshine” (2007)After the success of “28 Days Later,” and before he became an Oscar-winner, Danny Boyle went into space for a bold vision that, while it isn’t entirely successful, is so transcendent when it hits that it more than deserves a place on this list. Following an international crew on a desperate expedition to try and reignite the sun, it has one of the best ensembles in the genre in recent years (Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne, Cliff Curtis, Hiroyuki Sanada, Mark Strong, et al), and then surrounds with arguably the most stunning, eye-searing imagery that Boyle’s ever produced. On first viewing, the film’s mix of more familiar genre tropes with more psychedelic, mind-bending, “2001”-ish elements doesn’t quite gel, but it’s a movie that grows deeper and richer on every viewing, especially when you turn up John Murphy and Underworld’s seminal score. The superficially similar “Interstellar” was arguably more polished and satisfying, but the fiery passion of “Sunshine” was too great for it not to show up here.18. “A.I: Artificial Intelligence” (2001)Given that it saw beloved director Steven Spielberg taking over a project from one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in the history of the medium, the late Stanley Kubrick, it was inevitable that some would be disappointed by “A.I,” and it took a relatively long time for the film to be greeted as anything other than a missed opportunity. Fortunately, it’s now won a fair chunk of cinephiles over, and is certainly seen as, if not Spielberg’s most lovable work, then certainly one of his most interesting. Riffing loosely on “Pinocchio,” the film (which features Spielberg’s first sole screenplay credit since “Close Encounters”) follows Haley Joel Osment’s child ‘mecha,’ rejected by his real parents and heading out in search of a way to become a real boy. Misread and misinterpreted by critics on release, it now stands as a perfect meld of the two visionaries behind it and one of Spielberg’s most meticulous, complex, and haunting works, and one well worth revisiting if you rejected it first time around.A24 "Ex Machina"17. “Ex Machina” (2015)Having had his hand in some of the most distinctive genre movies of the last couple of decades, writer Alex Garland (“Sunshine,” “28 Days Later,” “Dredd,” “Never Let Me Go”) exceded himself with this, his directorial debut and the most recent movie on our list (it’s still in theaters — go see it!). A wire-taut, ever-shifting three-hander about a programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) who’s invited down to the remote Alaskan hideaway of his genius boss (Oscar Isaac), only to discover he’s there to administer the Turing Test to an AI. It’s a tricksy little picture, starting off as an examination of the creation of sentient life and ending up as a parable of the terrible ways that men treat women, but that shouldn’t suggest that Garland ever lets the film out of his control. Neither his script or his direction stray off the path he intends, and he plays the audience like a fiddle as a result. Complete with three stellar performances and an unforgettable dance scene, if there’s a better sci-fi film this year, we’ll have to rearrange our list."A Scanner Darkly"16. “A Scanner Darkly” (2006)A higher-than-usual number of great sci-fi movies have been made from the work of legendary author Philip K. Dick, but few have been as faithful, or as weird, as Richard Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly.” Set in a near-future where an undercover cop (a rarely-better Keanu Reeves) has infiltrated a group of junkies addicted to the hallucinatory Substance D, only to end up with a very Dick-ian identity crisis when he’s asked to spy on himself. Linklater reuses the rotoscoped-animation style he’d employed in ‘Waking Life,” enabling his wonderfully freaky visuals to melt and meld into each other, while his trademark looseness makes the film into a wonderful blend of stoner freak-out comedy and existential thriller. Featuring a killer supporting cast of Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder (the former in one of his last memorable pre-Tony Stark performances), it might not pack the emotional punch of the ‘Before’ trilogy or “Boyhood,” but it’s nevertheless one of the very best of the director’s career.15. “Minority Report” (2002)The second part of a masterful Spielberg sci-fi double bill, “Minority Report” was the helmer’s best blockbuster since “Jurassic Park,” but it also proved to be something more: an enormously inventive, unexpectedly funny procedural that delved into serious moral and philosophical issues in the way that all the best science fiction does. Based very loosely (about as loosely as “Blade Runner” and “Total Recall”) on a Philip K. Dick story, it’s set in a future where the police are able to stop murder before it takes place, only for the lead investigator (Tom Cruise) to be forced on the run when his name comes up. Scott Frank’s terrific script is a noirish, textured blend of mystery, action, and spectacle. It’s a harder-edged film than we’ve come to expect from Spielberg (at least until the slightly too-neat ending), but he, and his star, seems to relish the opportunity, tackling the film with a playfulness that had been lacking from much of his work in the years running up to this. The film’s so eerily prescient that it hasn’t aged a day, either.14. "Looper" (2012)Somewhat similar to "Sunshine," "Looper" — Rian Johnson's third feature after breakout noir "Brick" and loopy, unloved "The Brothers Bloom" — is half of a truly brilliant, all-time sci-fi classic. Unlike Danny Boyle's film, however, here it's the second half that really takes flight, leaving a far more satisfying dismount, and hence its higher placement. In fact it starts out fairly generic, with the faintly ludicrous premise that, time travel having been invented, its chief use is by the future mob, which sends its enemies back only to have them instantly, and tidily executed in the past, leaving no pesky incriminating body. One such executioner, however, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and some prosthetics, is faced with a dilemma when his future bosses send his older self (Bruce Willis) back to him. So far, so high-concept mummery, but in the second half, with the introduction of Emily Blunt and her gifted son, the film switches gears and becomes unexpectedly wonderful, a quiet and melancholic reflection on destiny, fate, and, of all the hoary sci-fi cliches in the world, sacrifice.13. "Gravity" (2013)While it’s true that Alfonso Cuaron’s "Gravity," strictly speaking, does not fall into the sci-fi category (it uses existing tech and is set more or less contemporaneously), the space-set survival tale qualifies for us, more for the very sci-fi sense of wonder and curiosity it embodies. Immaculately shot by Oscar-winner Emmanuel Lubezki, including the now famous, stiched-together "unbroken" sequence at the beginning, and convincingly performed by an assured and sympathetic Sandra Bullock, the film has its flaws — some clunky dialogue and a slightly misbegotten detour with George Clooney’s character. But its poetry is all in its images, which amount to the most ravishing evocation of being alone in space we’ve ever witnessed, and a best-ever, ever use of IMAX 3D. In fact, perhaps it qualifies as sci-fi more for the manner of its creation than for its (admittedly slim, but still) resonant story — the rigs, sets, and cg whizzery required to bring it to such immaculately realistic life are already legendary.12. "Attack The Block" (2011)So John Boyega is about to be one of the biggest sci-fi stars in the world, but to certain observers of inventive, low-budget British cinema, he already kind of is. As the MVP in writer/director Joe Cornish's absolutely terrific "Attack the Block," (exec produced by Edgar Wright) Boyega, in his debut, inhabited Moses, the surly thug who goes from mugger to unlikely resistance leader when his council block comes under attack from aliens. Correction, from "big alien gorilla wolf motherfuckers." But while he absolutely blisters in the film, never lapsing into anything as uncomplicated as a straight-up hero, "Attack the Block" is really a triumph of writing and directing, and the canny ability to shape a narrative that, while it's about an alien invasion, of all the big, expensive-sounding things in the world, could be delivered on slender budget with no sense of compromise. In fact, the lo-fi feel significantly adds to the film's effectiveness, as it becomes less a bombastic spectacle, and more an examination of character, pack mentality, and the survival instinct, when an outside menace forces uneasy alliances between natural enemies.11. “Inception” (2010)The most original, boldest, and unusual blockbuster of the 21st century so far, “Inception” is a deeply personal delve into the psyche of Christopher Nolan, an explosive, visually delirious action movie about grief and catharsis that somehow made $800 million worldwide. Tracking Leonardo DiCaprio’s dream-thief as he attempts to pull the biggest heist of his career in order to return home to his children and get past the death of his wife, it’s a thrilling, Bond-aping adventure with a rigorously constructed universe (too rigorous for some) and some of the most memorable images and set-pieces of 21st century cinema — up-ended Paris, the corridor fight, the waves on the beach, the spinning top. But it’s also the most expressionistic thing that Nolan’s made, melding the best cast he’s ever assembled, Hans Zimmer’s iconic score, and next-level editing into a grand symphony of the mind. Five years on, it feels more than ever that this might be Nolan’s masterpiece.10. "Snowpiercer" (2014)In these days when the phrase "based on a comic book" has more or less become a guarantee of a plasticky, soulless "product" rather than a film, it helps to remember that it also describes Bong Joon-ho’s magnificently weird "Snowpiercer." As was its French-language source ("Transpierceneige"), the film is a meaty allegory for the class struggle as the remnants of a ruined civilization live aboard a train speeding through the dystopian snowscape, the rich literally compartmentalized away from the poor. Featuring a wittily cast Captain America in Chris Evans, and a grotesquely made-up Tilda Swinton in its large international ensemble, the film is one of the most original and defiantly idiosyncratic sci-fi films ever to see the inside of a multiplex, however briefly. It had a rough time of it, but as the visionary Bong’s biggest film to date (his monster mash "The Host,"), the tales of its troubled journey en route to a haphazard, undersold release feel like they will only contribute to the film’s growing status as an underseen classic in years to come.9. "Solaris" (2002)A massively complex, yet remarkably calm film, Steven Soderbergh's take on Stanislaw Lem's novel has taken some time to emerge from the shadow of Andrei Tarkovsky's very brilliant, but very different version. Starring an understated George Clooney as the semi-bewitched astronaut whose dead wife (Natasha McElhone) returns to him over and over again under the reality-warping influence of a nearby planet, "Solaris" is a tricky, slippery, overtly philosophical, and questioning story, but somehow the crisp intelligence of Soderbergh's style helps us never to feel lost in its labyrinths. The film's detractors often negatively compare its focus on the central relationship with the more overtly "big" questions its famous forbearer dealt in, and yet Soderbergh mines that seam with such single-minded intensity that he touches on universal truths within its boundaries. Unapologetically cerebral in its themes, and minutely considered in its pacing, "Solaris" exerts, like the planet from which it takes its name, an uncanny pull on the senses, and displays, for a genre usually defined by its clinical white surfaces, an enormous amount of soul.8. "District 9" (2009)With Neill Blomkamp going on to make the facile "Elysium" and the widely derided "Chappie," a coma patient who woke up in 2010 might well wonder why the hell we all have such continued high expectations for him. But that would be the effect of his terrific debut, the low-on-budget, high-on-ideas "District 9," which positioned its aliens-on-Earth premise as a clear but insightful metaphor for racial, economic, and social bigotry. Deriving even more bite and mordant wit from its setting in South Africa, with its shameful history of apartheid and race conflict, the film was also, on a purely technical level, a marvel of world-building on a small budget, with the near-future tech managing that "Alien" trick of feeling both advanced and yet broken-in, worn out and scuffed. Not just Blomkamp’s breakout, but also star Sharlto Copley’s finest hour to date, the film remains a summary lesson in how great sci-fi films tend to be great not for their futurist trappings but for how witheringly and incisively they can comment on present-day issues.7. “Primer” (2004)Made for a fraction of pretty much every other movie here (just $7,000), Shane Carruth’s directorial debut, “Primer,” is a startling and incredibly complex picture that completely re-energised the time-travel movie and immediately leapt to the forefront of the genre. The endearingly lo-fi picture sees a group of engineers accidentally create a device in their garage that can send them back in time, before falling out in spectacular fashion. Of course, that barely scratches the surface of the plot: it’s a dizzyingly dense film, to the extent that it can feel impenetrable at first, but as if mirroring the journey of its characters, it becomes more and more rewarding as you travel back for a second, third, or fourth go. Shot on 16mm (with enough stock that he could only shoot each scene once, which might explain why it’s a little rough around the edges in places, though that only adds to its chilly charm for us), it’s an uncompromising, completely fascinating picture, and that Carruth’s other sci-fi classic (more of which in a moment) is so wildly different is a testament to his immense talents.6. “Timecrimes” (2007)That said, “Primer” isn’t quite our favorite time-travel picture of the decade: that honor instead goes to another low-budget spin on the conceit, Spanish filmmaker Nacho Vigalondo’s twisty, twisted “Timecrimes.” The set-up sees Héctor (Karra Elajalde) go out to investigate a nude neighbor when his wife leaves the house, only to be stabbed by a mysterious bandaged figure, and then discovering that a scientist has built a time machine that can send him an hour back in time. A devious, tighly plotted, and frequently surprising little picture leavened with a sly sense of humor, it sees Vigalondo juggle tones and genres with a confidence that belies his status as a first-time filmmaker (although he’d been Oscar-nominated for his short film “7:35 de la Mañana”). In its low-budget ingenuity, it follows not just something like “Primer,” but also films like “Memento,” “Pi,” and even “Dark Star,” giving the film a scope and scale that belies its limited setting and cast, but more than anything, it’s just enormous fun to unpack and puzzle over.5. "Moon" (2009)Every generation has a low-key cult sci-fi debut or two that simply have the feel of future classics, and the 21st Century has had several, though none as satisfying and as worthy of revisiting as Duncan Jones’ brilliantly conceived, perfectly executed "Moon." The spartan story of a lone astronaut (Sam Rockwell) manning a mining station on the far side of the moon, with only the station’s computer, voiced by Kevin Spacey, for a companion, who discovers he’s not as alone as he thought, (although perhaps he’s ultimately even more so), the film goes through subtle shifts in mood, from droll to creepy to all-out uncanny. It all orbits around Rockwell’s performance, though, and he is superb at wrangling depths and subtleties from a role that has him often alone and wordless, projecting the intense, almost existential weariness of a man so very far from home. Jones stayed with sci-fi for his follow up, "Source Code," but while it’s a fun, twisty thriller take on the genre, it didn’t come anywhere close to matching the shimmery, enigmatic atmosphere of his supremely controlled debut space oddity.Warner Bros. Her. 2013. USA. Directed by Spike Jonze.4. "Her" (2013)Proving once again that some of the greatest sci-fi happens when the genre cross-pollinates with another, or several others, Spike Jonze’s lovely, intimate film is just as much an indie love story and a journey of self-discovery as it is a traditional sci-fi movie. Starring a tremulous Joaquin Phoenix in one of the finest and most sympathetic performances of an already stellar career, it also features voice acting work from Scarlett Johansson that is so evocative we remember the Operating System she plays (Samantha) as being as real as she is to Phoenix’s Theodore — one of the only times we really recall considering a voice-only performance as potentially awards-worthy. There’s a quiet intelligence to Jonze’s probing of our relationship with our machines, but mostly it’s a film marked out by its unusual grace in recognising how, in the face of our growing dependence on technology, we are somehow more fallibly human than ever.3. "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind" (2004)We’re already firmly on the record with our endless adoration for Michel Gondry’s superlative investigation of love, regret, and memory (in fact our Oli Lyttelton wrote a lovely piece on the very personal connection he has to the film here). While the warmth and sorrowful humanism of the film are what stays with you, its intelligence and the elegance of its plotting can’t be overstated either. Giving Gondry’s lively visual imagination a license to play to its eccentric, practically-achieved strengths, Charlie Kaufman’s script nonetheless has the kind of focus and tightness that many of the director’s other features have lacked, and Jim Carrey’s against-type performance as the brokenhearted man desperately chasing after the memories of his relationship with Clementine (Kate Winslet) makes this a career high for all three, and a devastatingly beautiful, funny and melancholy film to boot. It’s the rare movie that has as much heart as it has creative smarts, and maybe twice the wisdom.2. "Upstream Color" (2013)One of only three directors to have two entries on this list (and the budgets for both of his titles combined could comfortably fit 50 times over into those of most all the others), Shane Carruth followed up his spectacularly brainy "Primer" with the spectacularly brainy "Upstream Color," which broadens its scope, and therefore its reach, to warp the heart as well as the mind. A very, very, very offbeat love story, it follows a man (played by Carruth himself) and a woman (Amy Seimetz) who fall for each other helplessly but discover their mutual attraction is at least partly to do with a symbiotic link to a herd of pigs, the biology of a mutant strain of orchid, the poetry of Walt Whitman, and a bizarre hypnosis/heist scheme. Full of wonder and scientific curiosity at the uncanny nature of love, and investigating it so minutely that its mathematics themselves become beautiful, we may not be able to answer defintively what it all means, but the film’s pervasive mood and lingering sustain (down to the polyglot Carruth’s gauzy cinematography and self-composed ambient score) means it’s a pleasure to continue puzzling it out, even all this time later.1. “Children Of Men” (2006)Not just the best sci-fi movie of the last 15 years, but one of the best movies period, Alfonso Cuaron’s bravura dystopian masterpiece cemented the Mexican helmer’s status as not just a fast-rising star, but as one of our very, very best. Based on P.D. James’ novel, it’s set in a world where no children have been born in two decades, and society has collapsed as humanity waits to die out. Theo (Clive Owen) is entrusted with transporting a young immigrant woman (Claire-Hope Ashitey) who is pregnant, the first person in a generation to be so. Aside from its central premise, everything about “Children Of Men” is chillingly plausible, and Cuaron’s vision is brought to life seamlessly with subtle VFX and the never-bettered docudramish photography of Emmanuel Lubezki (including two of the greatest extended shots in cinema history). The cast, including Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Charlie Hunnam, Peter Mullan, and Danny Huston, are impeccable, it’s disarmingly funny, deeply sad, enormously exciting, fiercely political, and endlessly inventive, and people will be stealing from it for decades to come. Though many dismissed it on release as being too bleak, that was to miss the point: “Children Of Men” is a film about hope, and in the 21st century, we need all the hope we can get.Honorable Mentions: As we said above, we excluded films that had already featured prominently on one of our other lists — namely, “Under The Skin” and “The Host,”, and “Wall-E” . Beyond that, there were a few borderline movies that aren’t quite in the sci-fi genre, though they have some elements, like “Melancholia,” “Contagion,” “Hanna,” and “Holy Motors,” and we also excluded movies that have sci-fi sections but aren’t fantastical all the way through, like “Cloud Atlas” and “The Fountain.” Superhero movies are sort of the borderline, but we ultimately decided to skip them: “Spider-Man 2,” “X-Men 2,” “The Dark Knight,” and “Guardians Of The Galaxy” likely would have been closest.So what else nearly made the cut? J.J Abrams’ “Star Trek” was in consideration, as were Mark Romanek’s chilly clone drama “Never Let Me Go,” Gareth Edwards’ “Monsters,” John Hillcoat’s “The Road,” M. Night Shyamalan’s “Signs,” and Abrams’ “Super 8.” We also considered Edgar Wright’s “The World’s End,” “Hunger Games” sequel “Catching Fire,” Joss Whedon’s “Serenity,” low-budget gem “Coherence,” offbeat experimenta “The Man From Earth,” megahit “Avatar,” underrated B-movie “Reign Of Fire,” and found-footage monster flick “Cloverfield.”There was also Steven Spielberg’s “War Of The Worlds,” international indie “Europa Report,” Cameron Crowe’s “Vanilla Sky,” Brad Anderson’s semi-rom-com “Happy Accidents,” Alan Moore adaptation “V For Vendetta,” VIncenzo Natali’s “Splice,” Brit Marling’s unofficial trilogy “Another Earth,” “Sound Of My Voice,” and “I Origins,” Duncan Jones’ “Source Code,” “Josh Trank’s “Chronicle,” Colin Trevorrow’s “Safety Not Guaranteed,” Gareth Edwards’ “Godzilla,” Luc Besson’s “Lucy,” Wong Kar-Wai’s “2046,” and Swiss movie “Cargo.”Reference-The 25 Best Sci-Fi Films Of The 21st Century So Far