The 1990s science fiction movie poll

well we'd know exactly what the seashells are for

10/10

marvel universe movies are so boring imo. they're 'entertaining' and spectacle-wise they're a step forward in some ways but conceptually i think they're a couple steps backwards.

Agreed, they're well-executed stories with no scope for exploration or question

Yeah, they're fun yarns but that's it. This is why the Fantastic Four films (admittedly not Marvel Studios productions as I understand things) are such a huge letdown and waste of time - they're the main "sci-fi" superhero franchise and would have been a great venue for brain-bending journeys into the outer reaches of the technical imaginary. Instead they were mostly people throwing CGI rocks around if I remember correctly.

That's what's so depressing about the Star Trek reboots, they seem to have decided that any plot more sophisticated than "sole megalomaniacal humanoid character out for REVENGE" won't have enough scope for crowd pleasing CGI explosions.

lost in space has some cool designwork on the spaceship and robot iirc. i dont remember anything else about it

feel like i would vote for existenz right now

feel like defending the marvel universe movies but also i don't really give that much of one, so

Lost in Space is one of the few movies that I will never tire of expressing my hate for

It came around that special age where I realized that most of the big flashy movies i was getting excited for were terrible.

aw, Contact with 0

it's definitely got the best message of all these films, even if it's a little too vehemently anti-religion.

anyway, The Matrix is obviously the best one here. Starship Troopers isn't remotely sci-fi, it's an action parody

Jurassic Park also very great

isnt remotely sci-fi, eh

in its content maybe but not its form

Just because it's intentionally over-the-top doesn't prevent it from being sci-fi.

ya, there is nothing remotely sci-fi about a movie that tells the story of an intergalactic war with space bugs

how did it even get on this list... must have been some filing mistake with the 90s action parody poll

lol

leaving it in here and leaving out terminator 2 is wilful inconsistency but I guess that's threadstarter's prerogative

now that must actually be some kind of mistake

tombot despises terminator 2 iirc

In movies sci-fi isn't a form the way horror or comedy or drama are. Content is what makes sci-fi sci-fi.

For example Alien is a sci-fi movie in content but a horror movie in form, Blade Runner is sort of a neo-noir,
Wall-E is sci-fi played as an animated family adventure movie. Most successful sci-fi movies are action adventure in form.

I guess.

anyway, poor Contact, eh?

I guess.

nice work lb *high fives as i skate past u*

lol

IF I MAY, to my understanding science-fiction speculates hard abt possible scientific advances/discoveries and the implications of these. Starship Troopers speculates hard abt militarism and propaganda, which are very much part of the world as we know it. This probably makes someone like Philip K Dick as much a writer of contemporary dramas as of science-fiction. Haven't gotten this all worked out obviously and you're just as valid claiming that space-bugs = sci-fi

science-fiction speculates hard abt possible scientific advances/discoveries and the implications of these.

no this is just what 'hard scifi' is

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_science_fiction

tbf tbf I think it's arrogant to say what's 'scientifically possible' given we don't know shit about our universe & possibly never will

except caek obvs

well... all of a life is a 'fiction' if u think abt it.

they shd just be called science movies rly

also all sci-fi is about 'now' if u think about it

2001 a space odyssey is a period piece!

http://cdn.uproxx.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/pta-disband.gif

The Island of Doctor Moreau: Somehow, weirdly, better than I expected? Brando in IDGAF mode is basically hilarious (and at times seems to be channeling Ian McDiarmid's Emperor!), Kilmer trying to act like a guy going crazy comes off as appealingly goofy, and it's always kind of a pleasant surprise to watch one of these 90s sci-fi movies where, whatever else might be going wrong, at least the sets and costumes and props are made of stuff. Thing doesn't look cheap anyhow.

The biggest problems have to do with the underworked plot and Thewlis's character, who for half the movie has no one to talk to and no clear immediate goals he's working towards. Probably also needed a more fundamental reconsideration at the level of, who really cares about human-animal hybrids (GWB aside)? Just not a really fundamental fear in 1996. They should have pushed the body-horror angle, maybe had one throwaway character who we get to know, who then wakes up and looks down and finds that Brando has replaced their hands with lobster claws, or something. It could be more like Saw. Once it gets to the rebelling-monsters stuff, we're in Planet of the Apes territory and it's just hard to get that worked up about it.

But, come on:

http://media.sfx.co.uk/files/2012/02/Fashion-moreau.png

Is he wearing a Flava Flav clock y/n?

no, but movie would be improved measurably by reworking brando as the hype-man for his little person buddy

http://www.standbyformindcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/moreau.jpg?9d7bd4

Also just rewatched Waterworld, which I can't say has gotten any better or any worse. Now that the budget is no longer some unprecedented absurdity it plays a little better, though you still just see money washing around in every shot - so many sets, so many explosions, so much stuff. I liked that about it really. Costner's character is still a hateful, alien bastard to whom it's impossible to relate - I think I admire that more now, since it's so clearly not driven by any kind of commercial instinct or Screenwriting 101 rules. Lavish career suicide. Everyone else is just kind of ...there. Dennis Hopper chews his lines up but he's just the tip of the goofiness iceberg in a movie that never really explains how this flooded world works. Sorta seems like Hopper's gang of Mad Max jet-ski bandits would have pretty much killed everybody off by now. So I guess as a "science fiction movie" it's basically a failure, but it's pretty good-looking I'd say.

omg y'all strange days is so horrible, just watched, kind of stunned at how long and stupid and self-congratulatory and gratuitous it was. just ugly and unpleasant and gesturing at all kinds of areas where it could Say Something, but not saying it.

oh wait there's a whole thread for that, nevermind

this week's dud: The Lawnmower Man. yikes, the CGI... but really the problem is the hodgepodge plot, a mangle of Dreamscape, Flowers For Algernon, a Tron type deal I guess, needlessly cluttered up by the religious angle and the evil military guys. Was this awesome if you saw it when it came out and you were 12?

no

Freejack 0

Had to actually see these results just now to remember that I actually saw this movie. In the theatre.

saw /johnny mnemonic/ and /virtuosity/ as a double feature the other night, part of anthology film archives's "1995: the year the internet broke" series. the context, and the crowd, massively improved johnny m, which is still a mess but a pretty lovable one. at least it's trying to cram in as many crazy ideas and characters as possible, even if it's at the expense of having a satisfying studio-movie narrative. Virtuosity is terrible, mostly enjoyably so but there's some half-baked prison violence and police brutality stuff near the beginning that kinda takes it away from being just a sloshy good-time bad movie. crowe and washington are giving it 100% at least.

i was pretty harsh on /strange days/ upthread. i've been convinced it's a way more interesting film than i gave it credit for and really should give it a rewatch.

Demolition Man 1

I think this might have been me

i was pretty harsh on /strange days/ upthread. i've been convinced it's a way more interesting film than i gave it credit for and really should give it a rewatch.

― Doctor Casino, Sunday, 8 March 2020 19:59 (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

you werent, you shouldn't be, it isnt, you shouldnt