Ten serious sci-fi films for the sentient fan
Zap guns, robots, lightspeed-smashing spaceships and bikini-busting princesses do not real science fiction make. Just ask George Lucas. Star Wars defined movie SF in the mind of many a mainstream viewer. But while the film and its sequels and, er, prequels certainly provide the sci-fi enthusiast with thrills a-plenty - guilty or …
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Re: Obligatory "What, no...?" comment
2 down votes! I am shocked.
I'm not an anime fan, but Akira is a movie I believe any sci-fi fan could watch and perhaps even enjoy, the music and visuals are top-notch. Ghost in the Shell is also great, but I also find the pacing a tad odd, a lot happens in a small time frame but I don't think it's really reflected in the movie. I'd avoid 2nd GIG but the series, Stand Alone Complex, is pretty enjoyable with a good story.
Not a movie, well maybe you could argue the remake movies or EoE, but Neon Genesis Evangelion is another series I urge people to watch, I was gobsmacked to how much I got into it... and that's all the Anime I've seen.
Re: Obligatory "What, no...?" comment
Two of my absolute favourite films (three, if you include Ghost In the Shell 2.0 which is almost as good as the first).
I may just have to have an anime marathon tonight now.
Re: Obligatory "What, no...?" comment
GitS, is one of those that I kinda hate my self for not liking, but I don't. It comes down to it's main character. She's just too flat. I can't can't bring my self to care about her at all. I understand why she was written that way for the narrative, but that doesn't make it any better. I think she could have been written to fill the part, but still be an engaging character.
As someone who didn't like GitS, I can say that even if you don't like it, GitS:SAC may be worth watching. I enjoyed it much more.
Re: Obligatory "What, no...?" comment
Hmm, I think she filled the role well and I was interested in her as a character. SAC is a great series though, think it really expanded the universe in a good way.
Re: Obligatory "What, no...?" comment
I'm with you. I reckon the only way you could think of Motoko as two-dimensional is by watching the dub. The English language Motoko sounds like she's bored and reading from cue cards.
The Motoko back-story in SAC: 2nd gig is where it's at though.
Not unless it's the version of "This Island Earth" with three little silhouettes in the corner of the screen.
I watched This Island Earth. Half the movie is spent flying to Metalluna, gawping at the effects, then flying straight back. Good 50s hokum, not great serious sci-fi.
Another missed one
A very old one but would Metropolis fall under this category?
Re: Another missed one
I think so. Serious issues about human relations in the face of mechanisation and industrial society cast in the form of a sci-fi love story. That qualifies it for me.
Re: Another missed one
Yes! Watch the latest restoration to get the whole story. It turns it from just a dark, brooding, menacing picture to a much more hopeful and inspiring one.
Missing option...
Start trek first contact - excellent film.
Also, just added 'Forbidden Planet' to my love film rental list.
Re: Missing option...
Oh dear. You really should watch the review of First Contact by the guy who did the crazy Star Wars Ep 1 review. Generations and First Contact were so bad I haven't bothered with Insurrection and Nemesis yet. I would definitely watch them, but I wouldn't go out of my way for them. The Original Series crew films were far better than the series, though.
What, no Alien?
How could you leave off that chest popping classic?
Re: What, no Alien?
I thought that initially, but on reflection I think it's the right call.
Alien is a cracking film, one of my all time favourites, but is it about big ideas that explore the human condition? I don't think so. Given the spec for this list, I accept it's absence.
Re: What, no Alien?
Superior space horror, yes, but not superior sci-fi. Aliens - on the subject of the franchise - was rejected because it's an action flick. Ditto - on the subject of Cameron movies - Terminator and Terminator 2.
Prometheus might have made the list but for that 'boffins mutate, lose humanity, gain amazing strength' bit in the middle.
Re: Prometheus
Prometheus - what a piece of junk! Muddled, implausible and dull.
Why are the space ships in so many sci-fi films crewed by be men who would be more at home in a stoke-hole? I know space travel is in abeyance at the moment, but when we did it there was no evidence that the crews were drawn from such a population.
Blade Runner
Have I missed something or did the author spectacularly fumble the Tyrell quote from Blade Runner?
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy." is how I recall it from the script which I sadly know almost by heart having seen BR more times than my wife cares to remember!
Re: Blade Runner
I sadly know almost by heart having seen BR more times than my wife cares to remember!
and soon, all those memories, will be gone, like tears
in
the
rain...
a couple more
I saw Butterfly Effect in the cinema not really having any idea about it as hadn't seen any trailers, and it's actually rather good. One of the best time-travel/alternate reality movies I have seen.
And Primer is definitely worth checking out - cost 7000 bucks or so to make, and you'll need to watch it several times to figure out what is going on. And even then, it's hard to get your head around. But it's quite brilliant.
Re: a couple more
I think Time Crimes is much better than Primer.
Re: a couple more
Butterfly Effect? You may as well include The Time Travellers Wife...
Re: a couple more
Saw Time Crimes (Los Chronocrímenes) last night, excellent on the exploration of time loops. Just added Primer to my to watch list
Re: a couple more
Butterfly Effect? You may as well include The Time Travellers Wife...
Or "The Jacket".
Mostly OK
You're always going to get dissenters on a topic like this so it's quite a feat to come up with a list that is fairly acceptable.
I especially approve of The Forbidden Planet - still more scary than Alien, to me.
As others have said - Silent Running should have been in the list. And I would junk the Star Trek film to make room for it : nothing new or thought-provoking in it, really - just a revamp of an episode from the original series.
Re: Mostly OK
Forbidden Planet - still more scary than Alien
I couldn't sleep for a week when I first saw it as a kid. That two-tone electronic noise accompanied by the invisible monster is one of the most knicker-wettingly terrifying things ever done on screen.
Sunshine vs Solaris
I favor Danny Boyle's Sunshine over Solaris without blinking :-)
Re: Sunshine vs Solaris
Surely you mean without thinking. As far as I could see it was an attempt to appear to have the substance of Solaris yet actually have the intellectual rigour of Star Wars.
Re: Re: Sunshine vs Solaris
Sunshine looks pretty, but it's an hour and a half of boredom (crew, viewer) with a 20-minute slasher movie stuck on the end.
Re: Sunshine vs Solaris
Came out of the cinema after Sunshine and said to my brother: "well that was a real one star movie".
A trifle harsh (I'd give it maybe three out of five) but worth it for the gag.
Solaris would have to be pretty poor sci-fi to be any worse than Sunshine. It's basically Event Horizon without the suspense, and EH itself is basically a haunted house movie set in space (albeit a fairly good one).
Re: Sunshine vs Solaris
Sunshine also has the most unbelievably stupid spacecraft crew ever to screw up on screen.
<spoiler>
I still chike that they really expected us to swallow the idea of flooding a compartment with oxygen to blow out a fire, when they could just vent it to space...
You know, try a technique that might actually work instead of one that would definitely kill everyone on board and probably destroy the craft as well.
The worst part is that the writers could have got exactly the same "oh hell" result of the aftermath by using an actual firefighting technique, instead of something that made no sense whatsoever and must have sent the scientific advisors screaming for the hills and demanding to be removed from the credits...
Re: Sunshine vs Solaris
I lost it at the "Lets just risk the missjun, the ship aaand the planet Earth - just to take an unessecary, complicated and risky detour to look over The Sppoky Derelict where *any number of human/technical failures* probably have already killed the crew and is waiting for more victims"-decision point.
Re: Sunshine vs Solaris
Guess that the use of the wrong icon led to a misinterpretation of my comment...anyway, in my opinion the sci-fi theme was an excuse on Sunshine for a few moments of thriller or something like that. I tend to appreciate movies for their FX and photografy also. But, what do I know? Many of my friends disliked the last incarnation of Battlestar Galactica, which had the most real science lately.
Re: What,
Chewing gum for the eyes. Pre-teen eyes at that - forgot the plot, just watch the effects and the explosions, and have a sock ready for the Megan Fox scenes!
Re: What,
Sod Transformers! Why isn't Barbarella on the list?
Intelligence, thought-provokingness, quality acting, that film's got them all...
Re: What, ... Barbarella?
I usually get my haircuts at a place called "Barber Eile". "Eile" being the Irish word for "another" (and pronounced like "Ella").
Re: What, ... Barbarella?
Do you get to sit in an Orgasmatron while they blow dry you?
Is Deckard a human or an Android?
Android, of course. How else could Gaff know what was in his dreams if they weren't artificial implanted memories? And to ask is not missing the point, it IS the point. That's why it's revealed right at the end.
Re: Is Deckard a human or an Android?
I once read a weird article that suggested Deckard's memories are actually Gaff's. He was Gaff's replacement and that Deckard is 'activated' only at the start of the film as Gaff is injured (hence the walking stick).
Re: Is Deckard a human or an Android?
I wish that scene remained out of the Final Cut, sorta ruins the whole experience (read arguing in pubs about it).
Re: Is Deckard a human or an Android?
Human, but you'd have to read the original Philip K. Dick (Do Amdroids Dream of electric Sheep) to know that and why. Let's just say the ending is quite a bit different from the movie. And obviously wouldn't have made it past the test audiences. Sort of like they had to change the ending of We Can Remember It For You Wholesale when they made it into the Arnie flick Total Recall. Of course both short stories explore Dick's fascination with the question of how do we know what it real.
For your consideration:
Almost everything by David Cronenberg
In particular from DC, Scanners, Videodrome, The Dead Zone, The Fly, eXistenZ
Dark City? noooooooooo!
Dark City is the only film which at the end I wanted the last two hours of my life back.
It would have got you a downvote but you also mentioned They Live which is definitely worth a countering upvote.
Does Brazil (aka. the Home Office's Amazon wishlist) count as Science Fiction?
"Primer"
I time travel movie that I can't get my head around, even with the help of a flow chart. The depiction of working scientists and garage start-ups has the ring of truth about it, though.
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