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Best Sci-Fi film / Worst Sci-Fi film

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Ian Morbius
Potomac Greeting Card Company
#141 - 2014-06-04 19:17:54 UTC
Yesterday, TCM viewed 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien( The re-release were Ripley kills Dallas.), Destination Moon, Marooned, and Queen of Outer Space. It's was a, "Is space," theme. Watched Alien, and Marooned. Alien good. Marooned has not aged well.
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#142 - 2014-06-04 19:25:12 UTC
Ian Morbius wrote:
Marooned has not aged well.


Yeah. It seemed even a little dated when I saw it in the early 80s.

The Effects got an Oscar though.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
Ria Nieyli
Nieyli Enterprises
SL33PERS
#143 - 2014-06-04 19:35:07 UTC
I don't know about best, but I saw A.I. in a proper theater back when it came out and it really struck a chord.

As for worst... James Cameron's Avatar. Got bored to death watching it.
Dorian Tormak
RBON United
#144 - 2014-06-04 19:38:47 UTC
Ria Nieyli wrote:
I don't know about best, but I saw A.I. in a proper theater back when it came out and it really struck a chord.

As for worst... James Cameron's Avatar. Got bored to death watching it.

I didn't really like it either. There is no way it was the worst sci-fi movie, though. Just LoL

Holy Satanic Christ! This is a Goddamn Signature!
Reaver Glitterstim
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#145 - 2014-06-04 20:09:02 UTC
I liked Avatar, but to me it was a fantasy adventure. I guess I never took it as a sci-fi, and sorta didn't realize people think of it as a sci-fi till after I watched it, so maybe that saved it for me. It doesn't really have any sci-fi elements, just space and future themes re-hashed from other works. Well, the idea of having remote-controlled bodies is kinda sci-fi until they dispense with every last shred of reality and allow the remote controlled unit to become the guy's new body, as if they couldn't just go and physically unplug him.

FT Diomedes: "Reaver, sometimes I wonder what you are thinking when you sit down to post."

Frostys Virpio: "We have to give it to him that he does put more effort than the vast majority in his idea but damn does it sometime come out of nowhere."
Ila Dace
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#146 - 2014-06-04 21:12:03 UTC
Reaver Glitterstim wrote:
I liked Avatar, but to me it was a fantasy adventure. I guess I never took it as a sci-fi, and sorta didn't realize people think of it as a sci-fi till after I watched it, so maybe that saved it for me. It doesn't really have any sci-fi elements, just space and future themes re-hashed from other works. Well, the idea of having remote-controlled bodies is kinda sci-fi until they dispense with every last shred of reality and allow the remote controlled unit to become the guy's new body, as if they couldn't just go and physically unplug him.

Avatar is science fiction, not fantasy. There's nothing that has an actual "it's magic" explanation, at least from the audience's perspective (though "unobtanium" comes close).

Body-mind transference through the big tree? The body was a real body made through cloning, the tree was a giant planetary nerve junction...

Granted there are other science fiction movies that step right up to the line: Dark City comes to mind.

The Matrix: Revolutions crossed it, which made it suck.

If House played Eve: http://i.imgur.com/y7ShT.jpg

But in purple, I'm stunning!
Reaver Glitterstim
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#147 - 2014-06-04 21:24:06 UTC
Ila Dace wrote:
The Matrix: Revolutions crossed it, which made it suck.
Avatar crossed it in the same way. But maybe I'm just being too picky. I just like my science fiction to tease my intellect. My intellect didn't feel teased by Avatar.

FT Diomedes: "Reaver, sometimes I wonder what you are thinking when you sit down to post."

Frostys Virpio: "We have to give it to him that he does put more effort than the vast majority in his idea but damn does it sometime come out of nowhere."
Ila Dace
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#148 - 2014-06-04 21:39:04 UTC
Reaver Glitterstim wrote:
Ila Dace wrote:
The Matrix: Revolutions crossed it, which made it suck.
Avatar crossed it in the same way. But maybe I'm just being too picky. I just like my science fiction to tease my intellect. My intellect didn't feel teased by Avatar.

Yah, didn't say it was good science fiction. Sturgeon's Revelation

If House played Eve: http://i.imgur.com/y7ShT.jpg

But in purple, I'm stunning!
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#149 - 2014-06-06 15:02:56 UTC
Don't mess with the Kubrick

Of course, when the sequel was made in the 80's, it was based on Arthur C Clarke's novel, and doesn't really use any of the conceits of the original. Except for monolith, here given a purpose not hinted at in the original, there really are not any ties to the original.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
Ranzabar
Doomheim
#150 - 2014-06-22 03:58:50 UTC
Unsuccessful At Everything wrote:
I'm going to get hate mail for this, but Dune was awful..just awful. The Sci-Fi channel remake was better, but still not that great...but that original one.. pretty sure it gave people cancer.



Best is a tie between Blade Runner and Spaceballs.


I watched Dune again last week. Hadn't seen it years. It was certainly an 80's movie. They tried. I think they really did, but it was really cheesy there in many places. However, it wasn't as bad as "The Black Hole". Now that was awful.

Abide
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#151 - 2014-06-22 13:33:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Krixtal Icefluxor
Ranzabar wrote:


I watched Dune again last week. Hadn't seen it years. It was certainly an 80's movie. They tried. I think they really did, but it was really cheesy there in many places. However, it wasn't as bad as "The Black Hole". Now that was awful.


Blame the European investors that Dino deLaurentis found, who really wanted the next Star Wars, and not an exquisite work of cinema. They really had David Lynch in a bind of conflicting goals. (Sting was not David's idea.......Toto music was not his idea. The film originally had a full soundtrack by the amazing Brian Eno, that nobody has heard to this day).

Mr. Lynch calls it the greatest sadness of his life. And afterward vowed to never ever let anyone else have creative control of his films. And that has held to this very day.

Afterwards, Dino suggested he try "that script you showed me called Blue Velvet", and there was indeed no outside interference.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
ISD Supogo
ISD BH
ISD Alliance
#152 - 2014-06-22 13:53:11 UTC
The 1980's Dune you don't really watch if you want a good treatment of the book. If you want a good treatment of the book, the closest you'll get is the Sci-Fi miniseries.

On the other hand, if you want a trippy space story that happens to be set in the Dune universe, yes by all means watch the 1980's Dune. I've always enjoyed it, and in fact in my other roleplays I always favor their version of the Guild Navigators when I portray one. (Love The Spacing Guild!)

I still want to see Jodorowsky's Dune, the documentary about his REALLY trippy failed attempt to make a Dune movie in the 1970's. David Lynch and DDL had nothing on this guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky%27s_Dune

ISD BH Supogo

Bughunter

Equipment Certification and Anomaly Investigations Division (ECAID)

Interstellar Services Department
Matilda Cecilia Fock
Pator Tech School
Minmatar Republic
#153 - 2014-06-22 14:27:35 UTC
Ila Dace wrote:
(...)There's nothing that has an actual "it's magic" explanation, at least from the audience's perspective (though "unobtanium" comes close).(...)


Minus the massive rocky islands floating in the sky, you mean? Roll

Q: Should we be worried? A: Nope. (...) Worry a lot if Fozzie, Masterplan, Rise, Veritas, Bettik, Ytterbium, Scarpia, Arrow, or even Greyscale leaves. Worry a little if Punkturis, karkur, SoniClover, Affinity, Goliath, or Xhagen leaves.
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#154 - 2014-06-22 14:46:17 UTC
Matilda Cecilia Fock wrote:
Ila Dace wrote:
(...)There's nothing that has an actual "it's magic" explanation, at least from the audience's perspective (though "unobtanium" comes close).(...)


Minus the massive rocky islands floating in the sky, you mean? Roll



Unobtainium is a "McGuffin", just like "dilithium crystals" and "Red Matter". Or Flubber. They are used to fill in the blanks when a real life tech is not available or appropriate. They do not necessarily point to the fantastical, outside of SF.

They are a necessary storytelling device.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
ISD Supogo
ISD BH
ISD Alliance
#155 - 2014-06-22 14:49:36 UTC
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
Unobtainium is a "McGuffin", just like "dilithium crystals" and "Red Matter". Or Flubber. They are used to fill in the blanks when a real life tech is not available or appropriate. They do not necessarily point to the fantastical, outside of SF.

They are a necessary storytelling device.


Quote:
Technobabble (also known as Treknobabble) is a moniker describing the pseudo-scientific terminology of Star Trek. On Star Trek: The Next Generation, some of the actors dubbed it "Piller-filler" after executive producer Michael Piller. (Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages, p. 252) According to Piller, the latter term originated with Brent Spiner, whose character of Data gave many techobabble speeches. Writers would frequently write "(TECH)" in draft scripts "as a sort of cry for help" to the science advisor André Bormanis, who would then come up with appropriate terminology.


http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Technobabble

Jus' sayin. Lol

ISD BH Supogo

Bughunter

Equipment Certification and Anomaly Investigations Division (ECAID)

Interstellar Services Department
Matilda Cecilia Fock
Pator Tech School
Minmatar Republic
#156 - 2014-06-22 16:23:07 UTC
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
Matilda Cecilia Fock wrote:
Ila Dace wrote:
(...)There's nothing that has an actual "it's magic" explanation, at least from the audience's perspective (though "unobtanium" comes close).(...)


Minus the massive rocky islands floating in the sky, you mean? Roll



Unobtainium is a "McGuffin", just like "dilithium crystals" and "Red Matter". Or Flubber. They are used to fill in the blanks when a real life tech is not available or appropriate. They do not necessarily point to the fantastical, outside of SF.

They are a necessary storytelling device.


McGuffin my ass. There are only 4 forces in the universe and none of them could keep those islands floating in the sky without causing severe side effects and/or being easily disruptable.

If it's a form of electromagnetism, heat it, block it, flip it around or bring a larger EM field and then let gravity follow its course. KA-BOOM, good bye blue punks. Not to mention that whatever makes the islands fly, can make human machines fly too.

As for gravity effects... well no, you REALLY do not want to go along that path.

Q: Should we be worried? A: Nope. (...) Worry a lot if Fozzie, Masterplan, Rise, Veritas, Bettik, Ytterbium, Scarpia, Arrow, or even Greyscale leaves. Worry a little if Punkturis, karkur, SoniClover, Affinity, Goliath, or Xhagen leaves.
Myles Wong
The One's Who Matter
#157 - 2014-06-22 16:42:36 UTC
Best : I would say Bladerunner. Love me some cyberpunk

Worst: Dreadfully cheesy.
Brigitte
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#158 - 2014-06-22 18:37:19 UTC
Alien!
Baneken
Arctic Light Inc.
Arctic Light
#159 - 2014-06-22 19:47:20 UTC
My favorite is silent running but some people might dislike it because of it's "green themes".
Then there's the usual fare of Aliens, terminators, star wars (originals) already mentioned here.

Then there are quite a bunch of bad films that most flop in one way or another such as prometheus which from the story point makes little sense when you start putting pieces together.
Space odyssey is hailed as a master piece by many but from a narrative perspective that film is an utter bore and when I was a kid I usually fell a sleep with the Blue Danube playing right at the beginning and woke at somepoint before Hal was being put to pieces.
New star war films were a terrible disappointment and the trailer that I saw from episode 1 was actually better cut then the actual film which should tell you something.
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#160 - 2014-06-22 19:49:01 UTC
Matilda Cecilia Fock wrote:


McGuffin my ass. There are only 4 forces in the universe and none of them could keep those islands floating in the sky without causing severe side effects and/or being easily disruptable.

If it's a form of electromagnetism, heat it, block it, flip it around or bring a larger EM field and then let gravity follow its course. KA-BOOM, good bye blue punks. Not to mention that whatever makes the islands fly, can make human machines fly too.

As for gravity effects... well no, you REALLY do not want to go along that path.




Hey buddy....no need to be so rude.

In the context of it's use in the story, and it's complete lack of information. It is indeed a fictive McGuffin.

Just like the Maltese Falcon.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882