This is, of course, just our opinion, and feel free to disagree in comments. We went back and forth about several of these films, and there were a few others that we almost included instead, so we're not claiming infallibility here. If you want to view this in non-gallery format, click here, and I promise it'll work.

Pitch Black. This is nearly the perfect movie — a gritty anti-hero with weird eyes that can see in the dark is on a prison ship, which crashes on an alien planet. The lurking monsters are ominous and alarming, but the film's real mystery is Riddick himself — the Furyan inspires loathing, hero-worship and a desperate longing for the anti-hero to become a hero by the movie's end. Like Riddick's own eyes, our view of him only really works when we see him through total darkness.

Avatar. I'm going to post my review of this film in a few days, closer to its actual release date. But this is definitely one of the decade's most significant science-fiction films, both in its startling new look and in its elaborate alien world. Sigourney Weaver is one of the few heroic scientists we've seen in movies lately, and she fearlessly spouts facts about the science of Pandora. Avatar is by no means a perfect movie — it's a frustrating mixture of brilliance and utter cheese — but it's clearly an important movie in science-fiction history.

Slither. This movie sort of slid (I'm tempted to say slithered) under the radar, but it's one of the great all-time alien possession movies, and a brilliant metaphor for being trapped in a bad marriage. An alien parasite lands in a small town and takes over a woman's awful husband — and then it starts infecting everyone else in town, so that they all speak with the husband's voice. Wherever the wife goes, she hears her husband talking to her. And then people start getting grotesquely pregnant with alien offspring — this sort of thing is really why body horror was invented.

Star Trek. A young hero reluctantly starts to claim his true destined greatness... only to find out that his whole life has been altered, and maybe wrecked, by time-traveling, tattooed maniacs from the future. It's a weird spin on a Star Trek movie, but considering how hard it was to imagine being thrilled by another Trek after Nemesis, this film is a marvel. Plot holes, frat-boy antics, "red matter" and all, it's still the film that recharged Star Trek and may have helped bring back space-opera as a genre. And Spock has never been so... fascinating.

Donnie Darko has garnered an enduring cult fan base, for good reason. Its blend of mysicism and weird physics has aged amazingly well, and we still get lost in its "tangent universes." We keep hoping Richard Kelly will make another film that's both as mind-blowing and as well-constructed as this one.

Robot Stories. Another great movie that didn't get enough props when it came out. Greg Pak, who went on to write the Planet Hulk storyline for Marvel Comics, creates an anthology of three stories about robots that show how much robots are connected to our emotional lives — and what will happen when robots get emotions. In one story, two office robots fall in love, only to find that robot love is forbidden. In another story, a mother becomes determined to help her dying son amass the perfect collection of robot action figures — at any cost, even stealing. You'll see robots in a whole new light after watching this film.

Spider-Man 2. There were a number of superhero films that managed to bring the greatness of comics' storylines to life in the first half of the decade, including two X-Men movies and two Spider-Man movies. For my money, though, this is the best of the bunch, particularly because of Alfred Molina's Doc Octopus. Peter Parker's superpowered angst collides with Doc Octopus' cyborg identity crisis, and both hero and villain seem to be clinging to their identities by a thread. Even though we wish Peter Parker could keep his damn mask on, it's still thrilling and maybe the most perfect straight-up superhero movie of all.

Sleep Dealer. Alex Rivera's look at the dark side of telecommuting is one of the most memorable and intense films we've seen lately. In the future, everything depends on the dollar — you can't even access water reservoirs in Mexico or speak to your family in another town without feeding dollars into a slot. And the only way to get dollars is to get cyber nodes all over your body, allowing your nervous system to pilot machines in the United States. That way the U.S. can import Mexican labor without bringing in actual Mexicans. It's beautifully filmed and harrowing look at the ultimate form of alienated labor.

The Incredibles. The other great straight-up superhero was one of several Pixar films that we wanted to pay tribute to from the past decade. If you were as disappointed as we were by the two Fantastic Four films, then rejoice that this film does the FF right. A surprisingly light-hearted look at super-mutants in a world that learns to fear them, this movie does a better job of portraying what makes superhero comics so awesome than almost any live-action film. And we love the Omnidroid.

The Host. Sorry, Cloverfield — this was the monster-rampage movie we loved from the past few years. Unlike Clovey, the Host actually has a decent if snarky origin story, including weird chemicals dropped in the water by a callous American, causing one of the local creatures to get a little too big (and rambunctious) for comfort. More than almost any other monster movie, this film sucks us into caring about its main characters, a hapless family who operate a failing fast-food stand on the beach — we laugh at their antics and then get hopelessly, tragically, wound up in their fate when they tangle with the monster. Rob and Hud just don't quite measure up.

28 Days Later. Purists may hate this film's "fast zombies," but they're not even really zombies — they're the victims of a "rage" virus that stupid animal-rights activists cause to be released onto an unsuspecting world. Of all the apocalyptic scenarios we've seen in the past decade, 28 Days provides the best dose of terror and the sheer horror of society unraveling. When Christopher Eccleston's vicious soldier says the words, "I promised them women," your gut sinks. And the idea that the rage-virus outbreak will cure itself because the quasi-zombies will starve is genuinely clever. We were tempted to include Danny Boyle's other great SF film of the decade, Sunshine, but 28 Days is clearly better.

Paprika. A parade of nonsense images stomps through a man's dreams, forcing him to jump out a window... and it's just the beginning of the mayhem as the dream world collides with reality, in Satoshi Kon's weird exploration of dreams and their potential to tear our world apart. A machine that allows you to enter someone's dreams therapeutically gets stolen, and soon reality itself is being torn apart. Trippy, insane and mind-expanding, this is a film you need to watch more than once.

Primer. Speaking of films you need to watch more than once... few, if any, science-fiction movies talk down to their audiences less than this one. You don't even realize, for a good chunk of the movie, that the geeky characters are building a time machine. and it comes with very realistic and fascinating limitations, even as it allows the main characters to cross their own timelines over and over again, rewriting history in more and more psychotic ways. The walkman scene makes the whole thing worthwhile, just by itself.

Moon. It's interesting how many of the great science-fiction movies of the past decade are about loneliness, one way or the other — but none of them delve into isolation as hauntingly as Duncan Jones' debut feature. Sam Rockwell is amazing as the two versions of Sam Bell, who's tantalizingly close to finishing out his contract on a lunary mining station — until he finds out that things aren't ever what they seem. Add paranoia to the list of things this film does better than almost any other.

Iron Man. As we wrote when this film came out, it's actually more of a cyborg narrative than a superhero one. Jon Favreau and company wisely chose to focus on the heart of Tony Stark's origin — literally, the fusion reactor that keeps his heart from stopping, and turns him into a part-machine badass whose armor is just a shell that goes over his cybernetic body. Tony Stark's uneasy relationship with the military technology that he created parallels his unease with his new technological body — he's like the heroic flipside of Spider-Man 2's Doctor Octopus. And yes, any movie that talks about our dependence on, and unease with, technology automatically gets to leap over the pile of by-the-numbers superhero films.

The Dark Knight. See here for our argument as to why this film really is science fiction. Shorter version: Batman's fantastical technology is at the heart of the story. If Batman Begins showed how Bruce Wayne used technology to become Gotham's fearsome crime-fighter, then The Dark Knight is about how far he's willing to take that approach in the face of a mad bomber.

District 9. Most science-fiction movies, you come out of furiously debating the science or the finer points of the storyline... but this one, people walked out of speechless and shellshocked. Perhaps the ultimate "humans oppress aliens" movie, this film confronts us with a perfect allegory of our own inhumanity, through the story of a crashlanded group of aliens who are forced into shantytowns. Even before the main character, Wikus, starts turning into one of the aliens, our loyalties are getting more and more divided.

Wall-E. The other Pixar movie we couldn't help including on the list, this may have been the greatest blend of post-apocalyptic dystopia and cute robots. The love between Wall-E and Eve is both lovable and genuinely moving, and the trademark Pixar humor is in full effect with Wall-E's junkyard slapstick and spaceship antics. The funniest, and maybe the best, robot uprising we've ever seen.

Serenity. Just pretend for a second that this wasn't the continuation of a beloved TV series, and that Joss Whedon had created a whole new universe from scratch just for this film — it would still be one of the most audacious, most memorable, science-fiction films of all time. The story of the Alliance, which maintains a tenuous grip on a sprawling star system after a brutal civil war, and the lengths to which the Alliance will go to try and make people "better," Serenity is one of the great action-adventure films as well as one of the neatest SF concepts ever. When you discover the secrets of Miranda and see how River Tam becomes both the messenger and the avenger of Miranda's people, it's hard not to jump up and down in your seat.

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind. How far are you willing to go to get over a lost love? Are you willing to injure yourself — by erasing a huge chunk of your brief time on this planet from your own mind — just to get back at your former lover? This Charlie Kaufman/Michel Gondry joint does what all the best science fiction does: it creates a fictional technology that has the potential to change who we are as people, and then it uses it to tell a deeply personal story. The scenes where Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are wandering through Carrey's childhood memories are both unsettling and poignant, as Carrey tries to hold on to the love he was in the process of throwing away — by letting her into more of his mind.

In an interview with Shock Til You Drop Twohy explained what we have to look forward to, besides more glorious, graphic bloodshed.

"Vin and I have decided on one approach of those two, and there's some interest at the studio level but it would be as a PG-13 film, and we don't want to do that anymore. That's one of the concessions we thought we made with 'Riddick' that we shouldn't have made....The third movie would be more modestly-scaled and it would probably feel more like Pitch Black than Chronicles [of Riddick]. It will always be Riddick-centric."

And he says the film will focus more on the characters and how they deal with their tense situation, the same way Pitch did.

There's nothing more refreshing than reading a director talk about something everyone is super excited about, with actual insight and self-awareness. Chronicles, although amazing, did tackle a bit too much material, I'm happy to see that Vin and Twohy are focused and ready to deliver. Read the rest of the interview over at Shock Til You Drop.

Star Trek:

Sonita Henry plays the doctor who delivers baby James T. Kirk — and her character is referred to only as The Doctor, she tells Starpulse. Sounds like she's not human, since she says she doesn't know what her character will look like when the special effects are added. She adds that during the scenes where the Kelvin is being destroyed and Kirk's dad takes command, "everything is being blown up, and Winona Kirk is trying to deliver [James Kirk]." [Starpulse]

Spider-Man 4:

Director Sam Raimi says right now, he's only thinking in terms of a story for the fourth installment of the web-slinger's series, not the fourth and fifth movies as one unit. And he says any villain (or villains, god forbid) will be straight from the comics. (He makes a point of saying "or villains.") And he's hoping Kirsten Dunst will be back as Mary Jane. [MTV]

X-Men Origins: Wolverine:

Ryan Reynolds seems to think a Deadpool spin-off movie is still a possibility after this film, and he explains that he does play both versions of the merc with a mouth:

I've had a couple of people approach for meetings about a 'Deadpool' movie, but I think it's absurd to even think that way until this movie comes out and I don't even look at it like I play Deadpool in that movie. I really think that I'm more or less playing Wade Wilson, obviously and then I'm playing the creature that will eventually become Deadpool. But in this movie it's sort of his newly formed version.

He also explains that Deadpool was just supposed to have a cameo in the film, but then they added more scenes, which he mostly shot after the movie was supposed to have wrapped, because of scheduling conflicts. [Movies Online]

Terminator Salvation:

Here's what appears to be a new poster for the film, complete with the slogan, "We Fight Back." Bigger version at the link. [Slashfilm]

Monsters Versus Aliens:

Here's a great behind-the-scenes featurette focusing on Rainn Wilson's villain, Gallaxhar. [Sci Fi Wire]

Chronicles Of Riddick II:

Star Vin Diesel clarified that although the second Chronicles film will start with Riddick struggling to survive against carnivorous monsters, it'll get much bigger and go to the Underverse. And then the third film will take us to Furya. Think of Pitch Black as Tolkien's The Hobbit, and the Chronicles films as the more epic Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Diesel suggests. [Sci Fi Wire]

Avatar:

Michelle Rodriguez says she plays a pilot on the movie's alien planet. [Sci Fi Wire]

Moon:

Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), the miner stranded on the Moon, can only communicate with his wife, Tess, via recorded messages, never through live chat. Sam starts seeing things, such as a woman standing in the one of the station's bays, or glitches in recorded conversations that he's already watched... or conversations he doesn't remember having. He starts to wonder if he's really alone up there. [IGN]

Doctor Who:

Russell T. Davies talks us through the 2009 specials, starring David Tennant for the last time:

There's the Easter one and then a big gap, and then the other three are going to go out around Christmas time/end of the year. It ends in a two parter. There's a very strong link between the last three specials. It's not a three parter, but there's a strong connection - as we head towards the ending it gets thematically bigger and bigger. Everyone knows that David's going, so you start to write that into it. It's not like a giant spider suddenly turns up and kills him out of the blue! But even in Planet Of The Spiders his death was written into it quite properly. So there's a feel of that to it. Everyone knows where the story is heading, especially with Matt Smith being everywhere. It's nice actually - we play with that.

Davies also hints the Tenth Doctor's death will have something to do with that Ood prophecy that his song will end. And he says he's known how the Tenth Doctor will die for a long time, although some of the details have changed, such as the geography and who's where. [SFX via Sci Fi Pulse]

Battlestar Galactica:

A reader points out this eBay auction for a stripper costume as worn "in the 'Daybreak' flashback. When Saul Tigh and William Adama were at a strip club, Tigh tries to buy Adama a lap dance from the stripper wearing this outfit. This outfit features a blue pleated miniskirt with matching butterfly halter top. Miniskirt made by Serious, top's maker is unknown. Comes with assorted jewelry." And that's probably the same strip-club scene you can glimpse in these wrap-video images. [Thanks Max!]

Lost:

An interview with costume designer Roland Sanchez reveals a couple of spoilers: First, he had to create robes for a scene showing Daniel Faraday's PhD graduation at Oxford. And second, a character he thought we'd never see again is coming back... but she's played by a new actress. [Honolulu Advertiser via The ODI]

A fan got this set pic showing Sawyer filming at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum... and Sawyer had traces of blood on his face. [SpoilersLost]

Actor Malcolm David Kelley hints we may see Walt in the season five finale. And he refuses to comment on rumors that he's already filmed a scene from the series finale (because he'll be too old to play present-day Walt when season six ends.) [Dutch Lost via SpoilersLost]

Here's the synopsis for the April 1 episode "Whatever Happened, Happened":

Kate goes to extreme measures to save Ben's life when Jack refuses to help. Meanwhile, Kate begins to tell the truth about the lie in order to protect Aaron.

And here are some pics. [Doc Arzt]

Fringe:

When this show finally returns from its endless hiatus, in April, we'll learn a massive revelation about the mysterious William Bell. And we'll find out more about how Walter, Olivia and Peter were all linked from the beginning. [E! Online]

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:

Here are a couple of photos from episode 2x21, "Adam Raised A Cain." [Sarah Connor Society]

Heroes:

Here's the official synopsis for episode 3x22, "Turn To Face The Strange":

RELATIONSHIPS ARE TESTED AS DANKO TAKES THE OPERATION TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL – EMMY AWARD-WINNER ZELJKO IVANEK GUEST STARS – As Danko (guest star Zeljko Ivanek) spearheads the government operation, someone close to him is put in the line of fire. HRG's (Jack Coleman) life continues to spiral out of control and his marriage is dangerously close to the breaking point. Meanwhile, Hiro (Masi Oka) and Ando (James Kyson Lee) continue their road trip with a special delivery for Matt Parkman (Greg Grunberg). Elsewhere, Angela Petrelli (Cristine Rose) unearths the demons of her past.

[SpoilerTV]

The flashback episode, "1961," will feature a young version of Dr. Zimmerman, the scientist responsible for creating an army of superpowered Ali Larters. Larter, meanwhile, will be in the season finale after all. And it looks like Peter Petrelli gets pretty messed up in his D.C. Capitol battle with Sylar, in episode 3x25, judging from these set pics. [The ODI]

Chuck:

Here's the official synopsis for episode 2x19, "Chuck Vs. The Dream Job":

THINGS ARE LOOKING UP FOR CHUCK WHEN HE FINDS HIS FATHER AND LANDS HIS DREAM JOB OR SO HE THINKS - CHEVY CHASE AND SCOTT BAKULA GUEST STAR - Chuck's (Zachary Levi) life seems to be coming together: his long-absent father Steve (guest star Scott Bakula) has returned and he's landed his dream job with his hero Ted Roark (guest star Chevy Chase). Unfortunately for Chuck, neither turns out to be quite what he expected.

[Chuck TV]

Also, in the following episode, Jordana Brewster says she returns to the show as Chuck's ex, Jill. She gets broken out of jail so she can work with Chuck and Sarah. [Sci Fi Wire]

Smallville:

Here's what happens in episode 8x18, "Eternal":

Tess (Cassidy Freeman) tries to kill Davis (Sam Witwer) by blowing up his truck. However, after he escapes, she realizes she needs help to destroy him and turns to Clark (Tom Welling). Tess reveals Davis' secret childhood with the Luthors and hints that she knows Clark's true identity. Meanwhile, Davis runs to Chloe (Allison Mack) for help.

[SpoilerTV]

Supernatural:

Here's the Canadian trailer from episode 4x16, featuring lots of blood-drinking!

Additional reporting by Alasdair Wilkins.

In an interview with Sci Fi Wire Vin Diesel spilled a few introductory details as to where we will find our favorite Furyan.

We're going to find Riddick alone for the first part of the movie, barely alive, surrounded by carnivorous monsters who are trying to eat him...So you'll see a futuristic Rambo-esque Riddick trying to survive.

Wait: a First Blood Riddick? That's exactly what I want. Thank you, Twohy, for delivering exactly what we were looking for: big bad uglies and Riddick, kicking ass and delivering one-liners. I'm almost okay with not talking about the Necromongers at all, if you have our boy slaying baddies with a tube of bubble-gum flavored lip gloss. (Thank you, Grey Area.)

In an interview with Game Spot about his latest Riddick video game, Diesel spilled the beans about the next Riddick project:

Maybe we're too tight-lipped about the next Chronicles of Riddick film, and I think circa the release of [Dark Athena] that's probably when you'll start hearing more about the next Riddick film. It is underway, and I almost think it's a coincidence that we haven't heard anything, that there hasn't been a lot of public stuff on the Riddick movie....

I think we were so adamant about knocking this game out of the park that we've been doing a lot of late hours—the overtime's on the game at the moment while [Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick screenwriter] David Twohy is finishing up the next script.

Well I'm glad that Twohy is back, because he really needs to come back and put out another Riddick that makes sense the first time around - even though I cherish every single moment that bald brute is on screen. But what will it be about? Will we get to see the Necromonger verse, is he still the Furyian leader, smelling beautiful and playing "who's the better killer"? What about his past, which has been shrouded in mystery for some time?

In any case, I'm delighted, because Riddick news means I get to post this clip:

Death By Tea Cup! So what should Riddick kill someone with in this film?

Looks like Diesel and Twohy are looking for a big picture deal with their new Riddick franchise. Vin Diesel told MTV:

David Twohy right now is writing the scripts. The only question is whether we take a page from the Lord of the Rings guys and try to shoot the two chapters at the same time. There are two more in mind... The Chronicles of Riddick was presented as a three part trilogy that would answer Pitch Black in the same way that Lord of the Rings answered The Hobbit.

I'm for it, as long as Twohy address the hella confusing mythology that revolved around the Necromongers. I loved the Underverse, but I didn't really understand where they were going with the whole undead alien race who can die. Last we left off, Riddick was running the show as ruler of the Necromongers, or at least one shipfull. [MTV]

The other two insane moments in Pitch: Vin Diesel's drug-addicted parole officer gets impaled and then decapitated by one of the monsters. And then Diesel gets so pissed off he wrestles one of the monsters. He's so angry, his head gets weirdly distorted and elongated. You can see his fury through the monster's weird ghost vision. He punches the monster so hard its organs come flying out. Go Vin. Why is he not the most famous action movie star in America?