Film/Video Discussion Thread
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I can never really decide what counts as Sci-Fi rather than "fantasy in space". I'll certainly second Tempy's love for Primer and Upstream Color. I feel like Primer kind of cheats by basically implying a devastating middle section that we never actually see, but it's still a brilliant "proper" SciFi film. Upstream Color on the other hand is just incredible - whereas Primer gives the illusion of being a carefully and meticulously constructed scientific puzzle box, Upstream Color more readily embraces the abstract, and some how ends up feeling like it made more sense. (It also has some of the best sound design in anything.)
I think Brazil is one of the greats as well, but would suggest Gilliam's 12 Monkeys is maybe the more "pure" SciFi film. (Brazil's future dystopia is all too believable, but it's not terribly interested in "science".) Of course the problem with nodding to 12 Monkeys, is you have to concede that La Jetee may be the better film.
Stuff that hasn't been mentioned yet (which is to say, they probably have and I simply haven't spotted them)- Under the Skin, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Children of Men, and The Fly are all great, even if they're mainly occupying other genres too.
Oh, and Close Encounters gets a vote from me as I was obsessed with it as a kid (for a long time I refused to eat mashed potato without shaping it into the Devils Tower first). -
“Mother fudging” (it was a Disney film, no swearing.)Lord_Griff wrote:Flight of the mutha fucking navigator -
tin_robot wrote:Close Encounters gets a vote from me as I was obsessed with it as a kid (for a long time I refused to eat mashed potato without shaping it into the Devils Tower first).
That’s BRILLIANT.
Have you seen Midnight Special? I recommend it to any fans of Close Encounters. -
Fond of a lot of what has been mentioned here. My favorites tend to be more epic in scope. Blade Runner is a bit smaller is scope than my other 3 picks but then what it is to be human is quite a big topic.Holding the wrong end of the stick since 2009. -
Is E.T. sci fi? It has anin it.Spoiler: -
Spoilered for Andy.
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Send messagedjchump wrote:Avalon has some great moments.
Yes! Probably the best game film just not based on a real game. -
Kow wrote:Is E.T. sci fi? It has anin it.Spoiler:
Yes. -
poprock wrote:
That’s BRILLIANT. Have you seen Midnight Special? I recommend it to any fans of Close Encounters.tin_robot wrote:Close Encounters gets a vote from me as I was obsessed with it as a kid (for a long time I refused to eat mashed potato without shaping it into the Devils Tower first).
Yes - and loved it for precisely that reason.
On a completely unrelated note, there's a trailer out for Laika's new movie:
If I'm honest, the trailer's not really doing it for me, but it's Laika, so I shall give it the benefit of the doubt... -
Matrix is still great, watched it a couple of months back. Hasn’t aged that badly really. Haven’t dared watch the sequels.
Robocop original is still ace too, only the ED209 bits look shit.iosGameCentre:T3hDaddy;
XBL: MistaTeaTime -
tin_robot wrote:I can never really decide what counts as Sci-Fi rather than "fantasy in space".
I wouldn’t worry about it. Being a sci-fi doesn’t seem to be a requirement to be included in this discussion about sci-fi. -
Ahh, you’re a purist.
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I'm no purist for it, but my go-to is always Dark Suvin's description which hinges on the concepts of the novum and cogntive estrangement, as wiki so delightfully quotes for me so I don't need to go digging for my uni notes:
"Science Fiction is distinguished from Fantasy by the story being driven by a novum validated by logic Suvin calls cognitive estrangement. This means that the hypothetical 'new thing' which the story is about can be imagined to exist by scientific means rather than by magic, i.e., by the factual reporting of fictions and by relating them in a plausible way to reality."
Obviously that's just one theoretical take on it, and the novum itself can be more flexible than Wiki makes it sound. -
Reading through all these suggestions I get the impression I don't like that much sci-fi. There are some classics but a lot of it I could do without.
Didn't see any mentions for Forbidden Planet though, and it's definitely one of the old classics. -
Tempy wrote:I'm no purist for it, but my go-to is always Dark Suvin's description which hinges on the concepts of the novum and cogntive estrangement, as wiki so delightfully quotes for me so I don't need to go digging for my uni notes:
"Science Fiction is distinguished from Fantasy by the story being driven by a novum validated by logic Suvin calls cognitive estrangement. This means that the hypothetical 'new thing' which the story is about can be imagined to exist by scientific means rather than by magic, i.e., by the factual reporting of fictions and by relating them in a plausible way to reality."
Obviously that's just one theoretical take on it, and the novum itself can be more flexible than Wiki makes it sound.
It sounds like George Lucas read that right before he felt the need to come up with the midichlorian bollocks. -
Midichlorians don't really track with science in any meaningful way though, they're almost totally implausible, so they fail the test.
The definition was largely built to serve as a way of separating pulp and "hard scifi". I don't buy into the prescriptive at all, but cognitive estrangement generally tends to map well onto good SciFi like Bladerunner, Moon, 2001, Gattaca, etc and Star Wars is definitely more on the "it's just fantasy in space"/pulp end of the spectrum of SciFi.
None of this stuff should be considered a binary, it's always a spectrum. -
Don't tell George.
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Weird tangent. My cat is on a particular type of food atm which we have to get from pets at home in costorphine. It's next door to a monster cancer research store that I've been sharking some banging PS2 game from since I've had to go every week.
Today I've just lifted a pile of 7 tartan Asia extreme dvds that I owned 10 years ago when I was doing my dissertation on them. Things like save the green planet, versus, the katakuris, a tale of two sisters and so on.
Was anyone else as into this series as me - like Shiri deep? I want to talk about the rise and fall of that catalogue to someone! -
2002 it's the world cup omg
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The way I distinguish stuff is Science Fiction and Science Fantasy. My shorthand for this is Star Trek and Star Wars. Fiction for me uses the science to explore how it affects us as people. Fantasy is less concerned with this, and uses it as set dressing instead.
Star Trek frequently uses alien races to explore what it means to be human for example. Star Wars doesnt even have humans technically, but the more exotic races are just world building, with little meaning behind them beyond making the universe feel bigger and more, well, alien.
Which approach you go for depends on what type of story you want to tell. -
The Daddy wrote:Matrix is still great, watched it a couple of months back. Hasn’t aged that badly really. Haven’t dared watch the sequels.
Robocop original is still ace too, only the ED209 bits look shit.
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Send messageHalloween (the new one) isn't at all bad. The first half was surprisingly good, then it became increasingly silly. -
The best sci-fi (for me) is a story that takes a look at one technological fictional leap - and tries to work out what the impact would be and what questions would arise from it.
It doesn't have to be interstellar travel though that has thrown up a lot of good ones.
I liked AI for example - it asked what would happen if we created a machine that really thought it was a boy. I liked the premise more than what the story eventually
did with it - but I did enjoy it. Love to have seen what Kubrick would have done with it.Holding the wrong end of the stick since 2009. -
Tempy wrote:George is only comfortable palette swapping genres to be honest.
Rewatched THX 1138 last week. Is a very good picture. Star Wars screwed Lucas up too much.Holding the wrong end of the stick since 2009. -
davyK wrote:I liked AI for example - it asked what would happen if we created a machine that really thought it was a boy. I liked the premise more than what the story eventually did with it - but I did enjoy it. Love to have seen what Kubrick would have done with it.
I thought AI was quite good if you just stop watching it after the first ending. The extra ending and extra extra ending were where it jumped the shark.
Spoiler: -
poprock wrote:
I thought AI was quite good if you just stop watching it after the first ending. The extra ending and extra extra ending were where it jumped the shark.davyK wrote:I liked AI for example - it asked what would happen if we created a machine that really thought it was a boy. I liked the premise more than what the story eventually did with it - but I did enjoy it. Love to have seen what Kubrick would have done with it.Spoiler:
Yeah, I tend to think...
...would have been the perfect ending. AI sort of heralded a whole period of Spielberg SciFi movies that are let down by their final act - Minority Report, War of the Worlds.Spoiler:
Minority Report spoiler...Spoiler: -
regmcfly wrote:Weird tangent. My cat is on a particular type of food atm which we have to get from pets at home in costorphine. It's next door to a monster cancer research store that I've been sharking some banging PS2 game from since I've had to go every week.
Today I've just lifted a pile of 7 tartan Asia extreme dvds that I owned 10 years ago when I was doing my dissertation on them. Things like save the green planet, versus, the katakuris, a tale of two sisters and so on.
Was anyone else as into this series as me - like Shiri deep? I want to talk about the rise and fall of that catalogue to someone!
Without Tartan I'd have never got into foreign cinema. Well I would but I'd have been way older.
Was a legit label. Audition and Save the Green Planet were a big part of my life back then.
Then I watched Two Sisters and thought it was shite.
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