After the IMDB forums went belly up, I was afraid I'd have nowhere to discuss movies. I am not one of those people that do it every day, but occasionally I feel like posting a thought and reading the responses. I am so happy that Moviechat.org exists.
So... thank you, Moviechat guys!
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shareI'm sure you will have some interesting insights to share. I'm kind of an old dog, so older movies and TV shows are a little more in my wheelhouse than something like Captain Marvel. (I was going to say Bohemian Rhapsody, but that's about a character from the 70s-80s, I so a little irony there.) I have nothing to say about Guardians of the Galaxy.
share"I have nothing to say about Guardians of the Galaxy."
Why not? It's as much a descendant of Flash Gordon and vintage sci-fi as Star Wars was.
I don't know. I'm not a SyFy Gy in the first place, and it's seems a little silly. I'm more fond of serious cinema. If I had a friend who really wanted to watch it I'm sure I'd give it a go, but on my own there just isn't much attraction.
shareTrue, and legitimate thoughtful SCIENCE fiction is tough. It's rare for even a good writer to blend a top tier hard sci fi concept (the only true sci fi) with a truly moving, naturally fitting story. Even respected novels can be little more than a nominal "Oh No" plot coupled clumsily with a hard sci fi intellectual gimmick that deliberately induces a tunnel vision esque narrowing of the narrative, precluding the orchestration of an actual overarching story that goes beyond the sci fi.
In both the publishing and movie worlds, Sagan's Contact is one of the best examples of telling a story first and foremost, a story that absolutely necessitates the fictional but plausible science, yet does not hinge upon it. The futuristic science is simply a platform for a story celebrating potential that doesn't fit on this planet alone, yet in the end is still about down-to-Earth beliefs and values.
All my top true filmed sci fi, nearly all of which have been re-adapted at least once, most also or only being books first:
Contact
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (pure movie, conceived as a necessarily visual story, so no book or readaptation)
Ghost in the Shell (pretend remake doesnt exist, but keep its trailers!)... this takes care of the ENTIRE Matrix-like action subgenre, no further nominees necessary
Akira... DEBATABLE that this is hard sci fi because the science isnt spelled out, it relies on the existing concept of telekinesis... but the story hinges on a clinical study of the psychological impacts of biological super-potential going out of control.
Alita Battle Angel (new movie is amazing, top 10 easily, and 3rd fave true sci fi movie of mine after Contact and Eternal Sun... "true sci fi" excludes Empire Strikes Back)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (just noticed how Eternal Sunshine's title follows this structure! But the title is quoted from a poem referenced in the movie)
Solaris / Solyaris (I assume this was a Russian novel first, not sure though... Clooney remake is still fantastic)
The Iron Giant (book was from the 50s iirc)
2001 (co created by Kubrick and Clarke, both influences show, but the loss of Kubricks flare is felt in the novels Clarke wrote after the movie project was done, as Kubrick saw it as a singular story)
Prometheus (brought legit science into the fiction of the Alien franchise, best Ancient Aliens movie)
May be missing one
I enjoyed the Andromeda Strain way back, both the book and movie. I'm blanking on the book but it involved an ET named Valentine. Not much SCIENCE there, but still out of my usual zone. A friend turned me onto the book Dune. Again, not a lot of science. I sometimes will get into the dystopian stuff, like Brave New World. But I keep mentioning things that are more Fiction than Science.
shareFor better or worse, the label Science Fiction is so catchy that it has supplanted any other potentially better "speculative future fiction" genre labels.
However, we cannot forget that the term Science is more than just technology and astronomy. Politics and psychology are both sciences, so Akira focusing on the psychology overall makes the psychology the specific science being employed in its speculative future fiction.
1984 was future fiction of the political science discipline.
I did forget one of my faves: A Clockwork Orange, also a novel first... political, psychological and technological sciences fused.
I finally figured out the book I was trying to think of -- Stranger In A Strange Land by Robert Heinlein.
Phillip K Dick is another heralded SF author, as I'm sure you know.
I imagine Fantasy sometimes is conflated with Sci Fi, although I don't think Game Of Thrones was ever cited as an example of SF.
I delayed joining here because at one point it seemed very troll heavy but I did like that it had a page for most films and TV shows and imported a lot of the discussions from IMDB.
I don't post as often as I would like but I love this place and still being to be able to have my say and hear what others say too.
My favourite haunt is the 'I need to know' section.
One more feature I'd like is the ability to "thumbs up" a comment. I see several comments here that I agree with, but don't really want to chime in with "Me, too!" on them all. lol
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