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Hard to say what's a bad sci fi movie because of the way I approach them.
Let's take POTA (of the 60's) for instance. Having played my version of Taylor, doing that lonely monologue, if I didn't love the movie before (but I did), I certainly do now.
As it goes, I specialize in watching sci fi B movies and I love most of them, because, if in anything else, it gives 90 minutes or so of escapism, of getting away from the real world.
As it goes, I have such unforgettable flicks such as "Creature", "Horror Planet", "Galaxy of Terror", "Trancers", "Solar Crisis", and so forth in my collection and I go back to them, again and again, over the years.
Part of the reason why is that there is something in the movie that inspires thought about secondary themes. Take "Galaxy of Terror" when the cook says, "The next time you go out, I'd like to go with you. I may just be a cook but I do know how to handle a weapon."
A long enlisted in the space corps? Of course, he does!
Now, it doesn't do anything for the telling of the actual story, but it does make it easier to accept the character.
THAT SAID, what sci fi movies have I seen that I probably wouldn't brother to see again?
Star Virus (that may not be the title, it's not showing up on IMDB, I'd have to go into my library to see) One doesn't need great special effects for a movie, but one does need a cast who can act to some degree. Unfortunately, there are some performances that are just so wooden, they are impossible to watch.
Star Slammer www.imdb.com/title/tt0087945/ and then another penal colony movie that I can't remember the title of (see below). Think I saw Star Slammer once and, well flesh display can only carry a movie so far.
And.....that's about it. Part of the problem is a movie that is so terrible....is usually so forgettable. For example, there may have been a movie where Malcolm McDowell was on some kind of prison ship....and that's all I recall.
Then, there are those movies that were made from something else, or were destined for something else, or the people just plain ran out of money. In any event, it turns out to be a disappointment, though it can be an interesting disappointment.
Of course, this is just my humble opinion.......I could be wrong.
I have seen Galaxy of Terror and Horror Planet, but can't remember which is which. I remember one and Joanie from Happy days, and a giant slug gets affectionate with a crew member.
Minority Report is also a great movie, its one of the best science fiction movies out there and is up there with movies like Blade Runner. Minority Report is also philosophic and has themes of fate vs determinism, slavery, rights and freedom, controland etc. Minority Report is also very real because we are closely living it today with constant surveillance by authorities as well as technologies such as Leap and Microsoft Kinect. Like Blade Runner, Minority Report stated out as a book by PKD and like Blade Runner became a movie. Like Blade Runner, Minority Report also had a sucky happy ending.
A lot of people are defending Minority Report. I don't have a problem with that...these things are somewhat subjective. Again, my problem with the film is it presents a near future which looks plausible enough, and yet it has this whacky, absurd plot about psychics (there really are no such things and never will be) being kept in vegetative states to predict the future.
The realism and plausibility of the look of the movie worked against it for me. Perhaps if the plot were tweaked a bit...a computer that makes accurate predictions based on probability or something, but the small probability of a different outcome is not reported. The human element could come from the computer programmer being held hostage so that it does not come out.
I just didn't buy into it at all and stand by that assessment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark S.
Probably my single greatest disappointment as a sci-fi fan (in fact, a total sci-fi nerd) was this:
I'm a huge fan of a lot of Cameron's previous work. I loved the first two Terminator films; some of my all-time favorites. Loved ALIENS. I even loved THE ABYSS. TRUE LIES is one of the greatest action movies ever made.
But AVATAR was an almost total waste of time. Never mind the fact that it was basically FERN GULLY with machine guns (a completely un-original idea), but even for a science fiction movie it showed a remarkable lack of imagination and abundance of illogic.
The absolute silliest part: The wheel chair. So mankind has conquered the stars and even has technology allowing a total transfer of consciousness into another body. But people are still in wheelchairs. And not even futuristic Charles Xavieresque floaty wheelchairs. But plain old 20th century wheelchairs.
I really hope Cameron gets his mojo back, because on AVATAR he was asleep at the wheel.
How in god's name did I forget that crappola that was AVATAR? I guess it is because I stopped watching it in the middle.
I have seen Galaxy of Terror and Horror Planet, but can't remember which is which. I remember one and Joanie from Happy days, and a giant slug gets affectionate with a crew member.
Battlefield Earth (does that even count as sci-fi?)
Sequels about anything. Nothing good ever comes out of a sequel, IMO. The Alien franchise comes to mind, in particular.
The newer Solaris with George Clooney and that Natasha woman in it. That was the most boring movie I've seen in at least a decade, and Sci-fi is my favorite genre.
Highlander (3): Endgame. Way, way, WAY too violent and a lot left out.
Btw, for the poster who had a negative review for Highlander 2, : The critic rating at Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 0% approval rating, and it was so bad that the DIRECTOR even walked out of the opening showing after 15 minutes! However, he later revisited it, re-editied (greatly), and the "Special Edition" DVD of it isn't that bad at all (in my opinion, of course), and I think Imdb (or whatever it is) gave it a 6.9 score.
The mounted flying dragon culture, which goes on ad nausium on Pern. If you read the Pern series back to back over the course of a couple weeks, you'll hope to never read about another dragon for the rest of your life.
Ohhhnh....OK. I didn't equate that part. The ...Ikrans? Taruk Macto. I've read most of the Dragonrider series. I enjoyed them. But I didn't binge read them. Lol, more over the course of decades, so I didn't burn out. Truthfully, much of modern SciFi just doesn't have the magic for me that the old black and whites did for me, as a kid. That and reading stuff like Heinlein's Red Planet. My favorite old flick was Them. About the giant ants. I guess, maybe, modern sci-fi with all its computer effects, takes some of the imagination out of things.
I wouldn't mind seeing Them re done with modern effects, though. They've re done others. The Thing, Godzilla, War of the Worlds. Its been a LONG time since a SciFi movie really captured my imagination and fantasy nerve. Lol, I miss the days of imagining myself a soldier, fighting the atomic ants in a burned out city. If they could make a movie that wakes that feeling up, that would be an accomplishment.
First Trilogy
The sin committed in the first three releases was not to have any real dialog. But that sin could be ignored because we had never seen anything like the visuals at the time and they rocked.
No matter how much was missing, this set of films could not and did not disappoint.
Second Trilogy
The first sin of the second trilogy was to think that because the people were so enthralled by the FX of the first set of movies, that even more FX would be better in the second set. It wasn't.
The second sin of the first movie was that there really weren't any good guys who were likable (No Leia, Han, Luke, or Lando. Not even a Chewy). Sure, all the pre-pubescent boys liked Queen Amidala, but really what was she except eye candy. Unfortunately, she and Anikan did a LOT of whining while OB1 preached his way through all three movies. In fact, I think the only really likable characters were Count Dooku, Darth Maul, and General Grevious. If these three had more time in the movies, it would have been much better.
The third sin was again, no real dialog.
The highlight of this set was the fighting. I enjoyed the big fight at the end and the transformation of Darth Vader in the droid factory. I enjoyed the fight between Que-Gon Jinn, Obi-wan, and Darth Maul. Everything else was beautiful, but really just OK.
Clone Wars
I missed most - if not almost all of it, but I did like what I saw of the Clone Wars animation series. I liked Anakin in this and his relationship to his apprentice.
The Matrix
The Matrix
I must admit that I think I am the only one who liked all of the Matrix. I understand what the OP is saying about the bullet-time filming and rotation filming, but again, it was new at the time. Seeing it now may look lame, but for the first time on the large screen I thought it was fabulous.
The only thing about the Matrix that I thought was "off" was the scene where the Agents took away Neo's mouth. No matter how many times I watch it, this seems out of place in the series. It is something that really doesn't belong because the matrix was patterned on the real world and I don't recall ever seeing any real world people or animals (who lived) without a mouth.
The Matrix Reloaded
Starts and ends with the highway chase, the brawly fight, and the fight in the chalet. Everything else supported it and supported it well. All of the characters; Agent Smith, Morpheus, Trinity, The Oracle, Persephone and Merovingian; Locke, Mifule, and Niobe; all of them were well enough defined to be very likable.
And yes, I admit that I really didn't understand a lot of the significance to the computer systems analogies that these characters represented the first, second, and also the third time watching, but I eventually felt comfortable enough with many of the concepts that though they don't make total sense, they could at least be understood (? no), recognized (? no), tolerated (? yes) in the story-line.
In this movie, I really couldn't grasp the concept of the wraiths. But maybe after a few more watchings...
And even though I talk smack about the pre-pubescents who were into Star Wars Queen Amidala, I have to admit that Persephone (Monica Belluci) did the same for me in thsse movies.
The Matrix Revolutions
OK, yes, the worst of the three, but not too bad a job of bringing it to a close. I was sad that Gloria Foster died between movies because she was great as the Oracle. Mary Alice did a fine job replacing Gloria, but just didn't have as much charisma in the role.
I really had trouble understanding the end. I am not sure why, but I could not "get" that Neo and A. Smith were two sides of the same being. Once I got that, I had an easier time accepting this movie. I thought the animated "Super-Fight" at the end went on for a little too long and the fact that neither Neo or Trinit "made it" was sad, but still a fitting end.
Last edited by blktoptrvl; 03-10-2015 at 07:32 PM..
Battlefield Earth (does that even count as sci-fi?)
Sequels about anything. Nothing good ever comes out of a sequel, IMO. The Alien franchise comes to mind, in particular.
The newer Solaris with George Clooney and that Natasha woman in it. That was the most boring movie I've seen in at least a decade, and Sci-fi is my favorite genre.
Spot on with those choices!!!! Never thought a movie with George Clooney would be boring but I was wrong. I hate watching a movie waiting for it to go somewhere and nothing happens. Total waste of a couple of hours.
The Matrix[indent]The Matrix
I must admit that I think I am the only one who liked all of the Matrix. I understand what the OP is saying about the bullet-time filming and rotation filming, but again, it was new at the time. Seeing it now may look lame, but for the first time on the large screen I thought it was fabulous.
The only thing about the Matrix that I thought was "off" was the scene where the Agents took away Neo's mouth. No matter how many times I watch it, this seems out of place in the series. It is something that really doesn't belong because the matrix was patterned on the real world and I don't recall ever seeing any real world people or animals (who lived) without a mouth.
I think because the mouth is so out of place (and how I make sense of it) is that when he wakes up he thinks he dreamt the whole thing because it was so bizarre.
The Matrix
The only thing about the Matrix that I thought was "off" was the scene where the Agents took away Neo's mouth. No matter how many times I watch it, this seems out of place in the series. It is something that really doesn't belong because the matrix was patterned on the real world and I don't recall ever seeing any real world people or animals (who lived) without a mouth.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SandraMoore66
I think because the mouth is so out of place (and how I make sense of it) is that when he wakes up he thinks he dreamt the whole thing because it was so bizarre.
But remember, that was the same scene where they "bugged" him. And when he was in the car in the rain under the bridge and they pulled the "bug" out he yelped "That thing's real?" It made it seem that he thought he was dreaming before, but now he knows he wasn't.
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