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He was the director of two of the most critically acclaimed science fiction films, but now Sir Ridley Scott believes that the genre is so tired and unoriginal that it may be dead.

At the Venice Film Festival for a special screening of his seminal noir thriller Blade Runner, Sir Ridley said that science fiction films were going the way the Western once had. “There’s nothing original. We’ve seen it all before. Been there. Done it,” he said. Asked to pick out examples, he said: “All of them. Yes, all of them.”

The flashy effects of recent block-busters, such as The Matrix, Independence Day and The War of the Worlds, may sell tickets, but Sir Ridley believes that none can beat Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Made at the height of the “space race” between the United States and the USSR, 2001 predicted a world of malevolent computers, routine space travel and extraterrestrial life. Kubrick had such a fastidious eye for detail, he employed Nasa experts in designing the spacecraft.

Sir Ridley said that 2001 was “the best of the best”, in use of lighting, special effects and atmosphere, adding that every sci-fi film since had imitated or referred to it. “There is an overreliance on special effects as well as weak storylines,” he said of modern sci-fi films.

Sir Ridley is one of Britain’s most acclaimed film-makers. His extraordinary number of box-office hits include Alien – another sci-fi classic, best remembered for the scene of an infant creature bursting through John Hurt’s chest – as well as Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down. But it is for Blade Runner that sci-fi fans revere him most, regularly voting it one of the best examples of the genre.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of its original release, Sir Ridley has produced a new cut of the film, which has its world premiere at the festival.

Apart from its stunning camera work and state-of-the art special effects, Blade Runner was ahead of its time in its treatment of issues such as globalisation, urban decay, global warming, overpopulation and genetic engineering.

The film, based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, is a stylish, brooding film noir starring Harrison Ford as a special detective – a “blade runner” – assigned to hunt down a band of killer androids, and Rutger Hauer as the replicant leader. Film fans applaud its exploration of existential questions – What does it mean to be human? Can robots and computers have souls? Sir Ridley was pressurised into altering his original vision for the film after it tested badly with preview audiences. At the behest of the studio he introduced a voiceover narration to explain the story to audiences and tacked on a happy ending.

“There were too many cooks in the kitchen,” he recalled yesterday, suggesting that there continued to be too much reliance on such test screenings.

“We went into preview hell on that,” he said. “Everyone has an opinion. At the end of the day, if you want to be an artist, you have to trust your instincts.” Test screenings should be used more discerningly – “purely as an advisory tool”, he said.

Blade Runnerhas now been restored and remastered with the inclusion of new and extended scenes and improved special effects on a special five-disc DVD set that Warner Brothers will release this autumn.

— Nominate your favourite sci-fi movie and leave your comments below

Zero gravity

The Matrix(1999) Kung-fu mixed with artificial reality. Critics say science behind the fiction was absent

The War of the Worlds (2005) Wells’s tripods terrorise Tom Cruise. Dubbed “the greatest B-movie made”

Star Wars: Episode I (1999) The CGI take on a young Darth Vader. Detractors said that it lacked emotional pull

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