Let's talk about Sci-Fi movies

Pooky said:
But where is this criteria that the tech has to be irreplaceable and/or explainable?

Wikipedia and imdb both list it is Science Fiction. Sure you may have a different definition but I don't think that those two criteria distinguish the genre.
Click to expand...

Well Sci-Fi channel classifies anything with werewolves and vampires as Sci-Fi these days so yeah. I've seen super natural get classified as Sci-Fi as well.

I classify sci-fi as something that makes you think "what if?".

Matrix makes you think about the "what if?" robots took over.

Star trek makes you think "What if" we end up exploring space?

Star Wars doesn't have that "what if?". Harry Potter doesn't either. They just tell stories. Same as hunger games. Hunger games is more romance than sci-fi.

If that "what if" is the central theme of the movie than it's sci fi.

All the great sci-fi movies have very strong "what if" themes that they explore.

Sci-fi makes you think, while fantasy doesn't.
 
Best HARD Sci-Fi in my humble opinion, with reasons. (some have already been mentioned)

these are in a league of their own-
-Blade Runner (genre defining)
-2001 (sci-fi pornography)

then you have the best of the rest:

-Alien (fantastic universe, plausible plot and environments based on our scientific progression)
-Predator (again, excellent action movie with a ton of plausible sci-fi)
-The Abyss (sci-fi with a message, great movie)
-Star Trek (the older movies - true sci-fi, focused more on concepts and introspection than special effects. Is that not the essence of sci-fi?)
-Cypher (great little sci-fi movie. Proves you don't need a huge budget to spin a good yarn)
-The Matrix (and only the first one. It had a fantastically plausible concept that suspended disbelief enough to be completely blown away... that's sci-fi!)
-Dune (the movies don't do the books justice... perhaps Senor Nolan wants a crack at that reboot)
-Back to the Future Trilogy (pure magic... even today... and I still don't have my hover board. Clock is ticking!)
-Event Horizon (blending space time with heaven and hell... THAT is sci-fi!)
-Starship Troopers (The universe created by the literature comes through in the first movie. A world anesthetized to violence and government controls. The bugs are pretty cool too!)
-Contact (when SCIENCE FICTION means exactly that... great science, great fiction, asks more hard questions than delivers)
-Jurassic Park (The concept of cloning with incomplete DNA strands was incredible, movie broke barriers, brilliant science!)

In a different genre:
New Star Trek and Star Wars - these are space operas. More action and Drama than hard SCIENCE and FICTION.

Rotten tomato thrown at The Hunger Games. Battle Royale did it first... THG didn't even try and break the stereotype. This genre is not sci-fi, it is in "Tweenie Pop". Maybe that's why I think it's completely devoid of any originality, science or fiction. I guess I'm more fussy with my sci-fi.
I'll believe in an alien that hunts violent men for sport and only sees infra-red because the story builds a foundation our current science can fathom.
THG movies don't build that foundation at all... together with it's blatant copying of Battle Royale, make it inconceivable and therefore the "suspension of disbelief" doesn't happen at all.
(That, and the ridiculous emo nonsense)
(... oh... and that I'll never be able to take Jeniffer Lawrence seriously ever again after those pics of her with "genetic material" on her face were leaked and she tried desperately to reign it in. I don't care about the pics or that they exist... it's about her tantrum afterward, and how SHOCKED she was that something uploaded to iCloud with a email/pass as protection... she shoulda just owned the moment and come out with her face held high... and clean...)
 
Pooky said:
Haha but not all Sci-Fi's have to be great!

I feel like Sci-Fi has a 'cult'-ish following of purists who want to outcast any movies that don't fall within their rigid framework... :p

EDIT: That said, I love Hunger Games! I wish I read the books before the movies.
Click to expand...

Well I think its more a matter of opinion and taste then. Example: I'm a big fan of the Resident Evil franchise. Putting the games aside I enjoyed the first three movies although they deviated far from the actual games. The last two movies was absolute rubbish in my opinion.
 
RazedInBlack said:
Let me put it this way. Hunger Games might be considered sci-fi but its just so damn cheesy!

For me personally I wouldn't put Hunger Games in my Sci-Fi folder but rather in my When Theres Nothing Else To Watch folder.
Click to expand...

Since when is scifi not cheesy ?:whistle:


Tonnes of rubbish scifi out there.
 
Chevron said:
You see in the matrix the technology is the central theme. In hunger games it's a means to an end. That's the difference. if you replace the tech in the matrix with magic it changes everything. Replace the tech in hunger games with magic and the experience is the same.
Click to expand...

That could be, but the fact that they use technology is what makes it sci-fi. If the movie was made with them using magic to control people it would be fantasy.
 
I feel like I want to give an opinion on THG as well.

story time.
Before the First movie was even a thought or a spoiler.
Friend goes to Rome. flight back is long, Friend is not big on reading, so he buys a thin book at airport. the hunger games.
He enjoys it. gets home buys the next 2.
Freaks his Sh*t about the third book.
Rants and raves about the plot twists and how he did not see it coming blah blah blah.

Movie is announced.
GF buys all 3 and starts reading them. finishes all 3 in a week.
Freaks about how good they were.
please note GF is a better geek than I am. she corrects me on comic book plot lines, points out flaws in my fan theories, and knows more about the Firefly 'verse than i do.

Movie comes out.
I go see it with her. I think Meh dafq was so good about that,
she starts spoiling the next 2 books.
brain explodes.
second movie comes out. we go see it.
she says details are done well and movie is good.
third movie is announced as part one of third book. we both are disappointed.



now you might think its not real sci-fi. STFU and watch all the movies together. you will see there is no way to replace tech with magic and keep the story line the same. just like you cannot replace the one ring in LOTR with tech and make the same movie.

side note, it did not rip off battle royale as much as people think. but because the movies are not all released at the same time a lot of the bigger picture has gone missing.

granted, if you read the books and find you still feel its not sci-fi, that is your opinion. and then I will defend it by saying my GF is amazing at explaining things. :D
 
The name alone . . . The Hunger Games!

What kind a fukktard name is that for a book about hungry people?
 
RazedInBlack said:
The name alone . . . The Hunger Games!

What kind a fukktard name is that for a book about hungry people?
Click to expand...

Think about it. The people in the Capitol called it that. Because they look down on the 12/13 ... colonies? can't remember what they call it.

Anyways, I'm not defending it. I actually listened to Book 1 on audio books and liked it. Movie was nowhere as awesome as the book. That's why I sommer decided to not listen to book 2 and 3 and rather just watch the movies
 
Here's my criteria for a good sci-fi movie:

Lots of future tech...things that are practically conceivable
Stories that deal with challenges of the current day be they social, political, or economic.

My favourites, in no particular order:

Equilibrium (Christian Bale's lead character doesn't say much but the action was what drove this movie).

Star Wars (all the six movies in the franchise...I'm not going to expand too much on them).

Star Trek: First Contact (I generally don't like when the Star Trek franchise breaks the Prime Directive but I liked this one "documenting" the foundation of the "Star Trek" universe).

First two Matrix movies...the third one was motivated by the greed of TimeWarner.

Event Horizon (very creepy).

Pitch Black...loved it. I tried watching the Chronicles of Riddick and that was garbage compared to the original.

There are tons more but I can't of them all right now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X