The season finale of Neil deGrasse Tyson’s Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey airs on Fox on Sunday and on National Geographic on Monday. Tyson made headlines when he weighed in with some criticisms of the well-reviewed sci-fi film Gravity.
Since Tyson had some issues with Gravity, the LA Times asked Tyson what his picks would be for his ten favorite sci-fi films. It turns out one superhero film made the top ten list.
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Neil deGrasse Tyson: I don’t know if I am alone in thinking that Watchmen is the best-of-genre among all superhero films. I liked it because the characters had fully expressed, complex personality profiles. They experience love, hate, revenge, megalomania, moral anguish and trepidation. Nothing polished about them. For this reason, they were all more real to me. If the world really did have superheroes in it, Watchmen is the world it would be.
The Watchmen movie was based on a comic book by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It was directed by Zack Snyder, who also directed 300 and Man of Steel. Snyder is currently directing Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Other films on Tyson’s list included The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, The Terminator, The Quiet Earth, Contact, Deep Impact, The Matrix, and The Island. Tyson also gave a special runner-up mention to Blade Runner.
