Great Sci-fi???

Posted by: Jonathan Gorse on 27 June 2007

I am something of a sci-fi fan and am always amazed by the apparent shortage of high quality sci-fi being made. This strikes me as peculiar because many of the highest grossing movies and most popular TV series ever have been sci-fi.

Some personal favourites of mine are below - I'm keen to hear recommendations from other fans as I'm sure there must be some good stuff I have missed.

Greatest sci-fi movie of all time: 2010 The year we make contact (Sequel to 2001). This is an awe inspiring science fiction film that I feel is more accessible than its forebear and yet every bit as thought provoking and intelligent. If you haven't watched it you have missed a masterpiece and it's the only movie to have genuinely made the hairs on the back of my neck and arms stand up (the scene where Dave Bowman reappears).

Star Trek the Wrath of Khan - I'd also recommend all the other Kirk based Trek movies having never quite enjoyed the next gen stuff as much.

I enjoyed Alien and Aliens but the third and fourth films aren't great.

'The Thing' - In a way this always feels to me like an earth based version of alien.

I'd also recommend the Sam Neil movie 'Event Horizon' for its sinister atmosphere and decent acting and plot.

In terms of TV I love Blakes 7 - superb cast and writing with the added bonus of enjoying the fact that the locations intended to represent a Top Secret federation base are usually a sewage works near Shepperton or some such!

Space 1999 - great series, fantastic production values that still hold up today and in any case I think I was in love from the age of about 7 with Catherine Von Schell who played Maya!! I must get around to buying this on DVD!

UFO - SO far I have only bought the Series 1 boxed set but the 60's flavour of it is superb - a sort of adult version of Thunderbirds.

I have recently been enjoying the series Firefly on DVD - it has an appealling cast though it's no masterpiece despite reviews saying it is.

Now has anyone got any other recommendations???

Jonathan
Posted on: 30 June 2007 by JamieWednesday
Flash Gordon (the Dino De Lauentis one)

Great fun and excellent Sci-Fi/Rock cross over with guitar & drum solos a go-go.

"HAWKMEEEN......DIIIVE!!!"

Da Daaaaaaaa Dadadadee Dadadaddee Da Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa etc. etc.

"HEROES HIT...I'M GOING IN AFTER HIM."
"FOOLISH BOY. AH WEELL, WHO WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER?"

Dum Dum Dum Der-Dum

Dum Dum Dum Der-Dum

Dang Dang Dang Da-Dang

Dang Dang Dang Da-Dang.

Guess you have to watch it to get the full effect...

(Incidentally, Russell T Davies nicked the end of that film for Doctor Who tonight, the recently deceased Emporer/Master's ring being picked up from his ashes with only the nail varnished hand in shot.)
Posted on: 30 June 2007 by Tam
Damn. Now I'm going to have to play that CD later! [smiley]
Posted on: 30 June 2007 by Sir Cycle Sexy
Vanilla Sky anyone? It stars Noah Taylor but some bloke called Tom is in it too.

I enjoyed the Animatrix cartoons more than the Matrix sequel they are backstory too.

Ought to mention Metropolis, Barbarella. Does series 1 of The Clangers count?

Escape from New York for the Metal Gear Solid influences and Resident Evil and Silent Hill but only if you've played on PlayStation first.

Renaissance, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow - both very stylised like Scanner Darkly.

The Triangle has it's moments, not bad for a mini series. The Day After Tomorrow spins a good yarn and another summer blockbuster finishes with a young Elijah Wood 'helping' poor Leelee Sobieski and a plainly fake baby up a steep hill in Deep Impact by grabbing her free arm and pulling. Quite how he got the Mount Doom gig after that goodness knows.

But the winner is...

The cinematic outing of Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder. So far beyond bad it's good. Amazing number of goofs mostly explained by the budget running out before missing stuff could be CGI'ed in. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll wonder why Sir Ben Kingsley agreed to be in it.

C
Posted on: 01 July 2007 by BigH47
quote:
(Incidentally, Russell T Davies nicked the end of that film for Doctor Who tonight, the recently deceased Emporer/Master's ring being picked up from his ashes with only the nail varnished hand in shot.)



Most Hammer Horror Dracula films had very similar endings too so who copying who? Probably goes back into silent era too.

After all the uba baddies can't actually die can they?
Posted on: 01 July 2007 by Tam
Not only that, but when the doctor was lighting his funeral pyre, I really did expect the Star Wars music to strike up.

But then Davies has, throughout the series borrowed quite liberally. I must say, I thought the ending missed a real trick - it would have been really interesting and, dare I say it, novel, to have have him stuck with the Master on his travels. But I suppose instead we'll just have to make do with him picking up some Kate Winslet look-alike from the Titanic.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 01 July 2007 by Roy T
quote:
we'll just have to make do with him picking up some Kate Winslet look-alike from the Titanic

Or a Leonardo De Capri look a like for that matter.
Posted on: 01 July 2007 by Officer DBL
Here is a list of the Sc-Fi DVDs I currently own:
2001 A Space Odyssey
2010 The Year We Made Contact
Abyss
AI: Artificial Intellegence
Alien
Alien Resurrection
Alien V Predator
Aliens
Aliens 3
Barbarella
Battlefield Earth
Battlestar Galactica Season 1
Battlestar Galactica The Movie
Blade Runner
Brazil
Children of Dune
Chronicles of Riddick
Constantine
Dark City
Dune
Dune
Dune Special Edition
Dune TV Series
Evolution
Fantastic 4
Fifth Element
Ghosts of Mars
Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
I, Robot
Independence Day
Lost in Space
Matrix
Matrix Reloaded
Matrix Revolutions
Men in Black
Men in Black 2
Mission to Mars
Outland
Pitch Black
Planet of the Apes
Saturn 3
Serenity
Signs
Solaris
Spider-Man
Star Trek 1 - The Motion Picture
Star Trek 2 - The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek 3 - The Search for Spock
Star Trek 4 - The Voyage Home
Star Trek 5 - The Final Frontier
Star Trek 6 - The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek 7 - Generations
Star Trek 8 - First Contact
Star Trek 9 - Insurrection
Star Trek X - Nemesis
Star Wars 1- The Phantom Menace
Star Wars 2 - The Attack of the Clones
Star Wars 3 - The Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars 4 - A New Hope
Star Wars 5 - The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars 6 - The Return of the Jedi
Supernova
Time Machine (remake)
Twelve Monkeys

I also have a boxes set of the entire Babylon 5 series and Crusade series.

I think my favourite is Blade Runner and I live in hope of the version with Ford's narrative coming out on DVD shortly. This is followed closely by Dune.

This list clearly does not include any of the science/fantasy/thriller genres which I also enjoy (Van Helsing, Excalibur, Highlander, LOTR, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Minority Report, Sky Captain ATWOT etc.)

I just like escapism I guess.

Rob

Rob
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by iiyama
Im with droodzilla on this, Battlestar Galactica is the best scfi for years, really has to be seen to be believed how good it is. The Guardian featured a great article about it the other week.

FireFly, grap cast?! The cast, script are superb, joss whedon writes the best scripts around. How can you say that but praise Star Trek which has got to have the worst actors ever put together!

Again, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is superb, certainly seasons 1-4, a classic show, in the Guardians top ten shows of the 90's.

Heroes is certainly worth a look.
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by droodzilla
Good to see more Buffy love on the forum, even if we don't quite see eye to eye - season 5 is my favourite (close tie with season 3), and season 6, though patchy, has one of the most gobsmacking hours in TV history (no prizes for guessing which episode I'm referring to).

The show never lost it, imho, evnen though season 7 has its problems.

Smile Smile Smile
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by droodzilla
as does the last sentence of my post Roll Eyes
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by Tam
Fans of Buffy may be interested to know that season 8 is currently being published in comic book form (the first 5 issues written by Whedon himself, others by writers from the show and elsewhere), we've only had the first 4 issues so far, but they've been rather fine indeed.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by droodzilla
I have them, thanks Tam. Very good, although the change of pace takes some getting used to.

A long wait for issue 5 Frown
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by Tam
I know, I was a little pissed off about that. (But it kind of goes with the territory on Whedon comics - astonishing x-men has suffered pretty badly, though it's more regular now they've bumped it to 2-monthly.)

Still, giant sized Dawn is a hoot and I like Xander doing an impression of Nick Fury.

regards, Tam
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by iiyama
Ive been reading season 8, it does take some getting use to.

For me the show lost it's way after season 4 but still great, season 7 was poor but then the standard it had set itself was so high it was always going to struggle.

Shame they never made the movie the Whedon wanted to make.
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by Tam
Maybe because I read a lot of comics anyway, the pacing didn't take any getting used to (although it is very different).

I don't agree that the show lost its way after season 4. Indeed, I think, in some ways, season 4 was below par (though it contains several of my favourite episodes - the finale is especially brilliant, as is Hush). I think 5 was very fine. I didn't like 6 (the musical excepted) the first time round, but watching on DVD several times since it's grown on me quite a lot, as has season 7 (both of which, more than anything else, suffered from the loss of Giles as a regular). I think the show deserves some credit for trying to push outside its comfort zone in the later years, even if it wasn't always totally successful in doing so.


regards, Tam
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by Guido Fawkes
When are they going to make a Green Lantern film?



Always my favourite super-hero.

Also my favourite science fiction film along with Scanners, Forbidden Planet, Moon Zero Two and Barbarella was



I doubt anybody remembers it.
Posted on: 02 July 2007 by droodzilla
I doubt your doubt! I've read the Cornelius Chronicles - very interesting stuff, from an extremely creative time in British sci-fi writing - there's an excellent collection of short stories called "New Worlds", taken from the mag of the same name that Moorcock used to edit.

I'm sure I caught the film of The Final Programme on late night TV once - but the memory is hazy.

Agree with Tam on Buffy S4 - one of the weakest overall, but it has some great episodes, including the first half of the brilliant Faith arc (which concludes on Angel).

Also, forgot to give kudos to Tam earlier for mentioing the Silver Surfer. One of the best comic characters of all time. I may even go to see the latest Fantastic Four film just to see how they handle his character.
Posted on: 03 July 2007 by TomK
quote:
Originally posted by ROTF:

Also my favourite science fiction film along with Scanners, Forbidden Planet, Moon Zero Two and Barbarella was



I doubt anybody remembers it.


I don't remember the movie but I do remember Julie Ege. She was the subject of many an adolescent dream of mine.
Posted on: 03 July 2007 by BigH47
quote:
but I do remember Julie Ege. She was the subject of many an adolescent dream of mine.


Revive them :-


Apologies to any from the other side of the pond. It's a called a breast. Roll Eyes
Posted on: 04 July 2007 by joe90
I saw 'A Scanner Darkly' the other day - awesome effects. I think the technique of cartooning over filme is called 'roto-(something)'.

Also, IF they get 'Ender's Game' right for the movies, it should surely be the greatest sci-fi movie ever, cause the story is utterly fantastic!

BTW it's by Orson Scott Card if anyone wants to kno. You should also read 'Ender's Shadow' straight after it.

Man, what a twist in 'Ender's Game'!
Posted on: 04 July 2007 by meninblack
quote:
Originally posted by Dazren:
quote:
Originally posted by Rockingdoc:
I liked Solaris


I really like Solaris too - i also have the soundstrack by Cliff Martinez which is very nice... in fact i might put it on later!


I hope you guys are talking about Andrei Tarkovsky's masterpiece and not the crappy George Clooney re-make. Winker

TV wise: Battlestar Galactica, Firefly and Dr Who for me... Smile
Posted on: 04 July 2007 by BigH47
joe

roto-scoping
Posted on: 04 July 2007 by Tam
quote:
Originally posted by droodzilla:
Also, forgot to give kudos to Tam earlier for mentioing the Silver Surfer. One of the best comic characters of all time. I may even go to see the latest Fantastic Four film just to see how they handle his character.


I really rate him too - he's one of those characters who on the face of it seems fairly simple but is anything but. He's wonderfully tragic and he looks very cool. I haven't seen the film yet and, to be honest, probably won't until it comes to DVD because if the first one is anything to go by I'll just want to spend most of the time hurling abuse at the screen (I'm a big fan of the Fantastic Four comics and they didn't really capture the spirit in the way the best comic adaptations of recent years have).

You may be interested to know (if you don't already) that JMS, he of Babylon 5 fame, is currently writing a four issue Silver Surfer mini-series called Requiem (it's part of the series they've done of 'final' stories) and the first two issues have had some wonderful moments (though they might be tough to pick up now, so you're probably better waiting for the book).



I'm probably going to lose all credibility for saying this, but I enjoyed the Clooney Solaris. Of course, it probably helps that I haven't got round to seeing the original. I thought the scoring worked well and Natascha McElhone was well cast.


regards, Tam
Posted on: 04 July 2007 by droodzilla
I don't have a view on the relative merits of the Solaris-es, having seen neither, but I highly rate Tarkowsky's "Stalker". I first saw it as a teenager, and it was one of the first films to alert me of a world of cinema beyond Hollywood (the other one, which sticks in my mind for quite different reasons was "Belle de Jour Smile). "Roadside Picnic", the novella upon which "Stalker" is based is an excellent read.

Thanks for the Silver Surfer comic book tip - will look out for it in trade paperback Smile