Where have all the good sci-fi films gone (vanity)?

Yours truly

[rjp2005]

Where have all the sci-fi films gone?

Those simple, thought-provoking speculative tales about how people respond to something new, what kind of moral choices they make, keeping traditions in the face of technological change. Essentially, the kind of films that were thought provoking and story/character driven - Day the Earth Stood Still, Planet of Apes, 12 Monkeys, Minority Report (more action though but good), etc.

The "Superhero and Fantasy Genre Craze" since Spiderman and LOTR has really eaten up a lot of support for original sci-fi works to film...

For 2008, we have two horror/slasher types "I Am Legend" (Omega Man remake) and "Death Race" (revisiting the 70's version), another superhero film in "Jumper", "Iron Man", which could be a treat, and maybe the only true sci-fi attempt, "Babylon A.D.". There was also "Sunshine", a late 90's disaster film leftover, possibly funded by Global Warming-mongers ;)

[fishtank]

....KSR is a big time leftie.......which I guess is not too unusual for sci-fi authors.....

I agree: Red-Green-Blue Mars (well-done) would be quite a feat.

[Betis70]

>>I guess I was too young to get high.

I think I saw it too late in my movie-watching (probably not till the mid-90s). By then, it seemed painfully slow.

Visually it was as impressive as everyone raves about, but it just didn’t do much for me.

[eleni121]

I must agree. Kubrick’s 2001 leaves everyone else in the dust cinematically and symbolically.

[Tijeras_Slim]

I wondered which book they’d read when I saw it.

[gitmo]

I’d like to see a movie of “The Mote In God’s Eye.” They’ve got the tech to do the three-legged aliens, and an alien planet now.

That could be great. How about Footfall?

[longtermmemmory]

classic sci fi is about an individual making a choice against the collectivist.

Now we have the “hero” or “heroine” who is ADVOCATING the socialist agenda. Hollyweird is not advocating hope or faith, they are pushing dispair and submission.

Submitt to the global warming myth OR YOU WILL DIEEEEEE!

Submit to the enlightened atheist OR YOU WILL BE KILLED!

Renounce christianity or you will be tortured with endless hours of Katie Courie videos at re-education kamp.

Hollyweird’s sci fi is not about creating or preventing a future, it is about crushing the present into submission.

[Telepathic Intruder]

KSR is a big time leftie

I would say a commie based on some of the story themes, but there were so many other good aspects that I had to overlook it.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

“Larry Niven”
It was Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle(sp?) who wrote “The Mote In God’s Eye.”

[FatherofFive]

Childhood’s End

One of the best ever.

[A Texan]

Not to doubt you but the Sci-Fi channel was showing Firefly a year or two ago, did something change?

[longtermmemmory]

I have grown to dislike the low budget sci fi fare.

I was actually hoping the writer’s strike would have killed permanently the left wing fantasy fest of the re-envisioned Galactica.

It had a few moments but went so far to the left you hope everyone will die.

As for Tin Man, it was a huge disappointment because it seemed they had TOO big a budget and were left unsupervised. (did anyone actually READ the Oz books?)

[Bender2]

I consider THEM one of the best sci-fi films ever, yet I shutter to see what Hollywood would do to the classic.

Remember it was 1954 when Dr. Harold Medford said, "When Man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What we'll eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict."

So you can imagine 2008's Hollywood version having the good Doc (Played by Algore or Jane Fonda) saying, "The two Bush Presidencies and the work of the evil Republicans have caused this calamity. We must kill all of 'them,' then kill all the Republicans before we are safe!"

I can only dread what Hollywood and Keanu Reeves will do with this year's remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still

Just remember what they did to Heinlein's Starship Troopers... and be afraid. Be very afraid!

[fishtank]

You’ll also have to say that KSR had a very activist view on global warming in his book: the whole premise (for others reading this post) of the book was the terraforming of the planet Mars (they used engineering and planetary science to metamorphize Mars into a habitable place).

[sam_paine]

Lots of visuals and good movie moments possible with that one.

[Telepathic Intruder]

How about Footfall?

Any of the "Known Space" stories would be visually spectacular. I'd like to see a Pupeteer or a Kzin, I have difficulty just imagining them.

[Kieri]

This is why I prefer Japanese SF. In Japan, technology affects human beings, sometimes profoundly, but humans remain human.

I grew up on anime (in the early 1970's) and still love it, but lack of broadband keeps me from seeing the newest and most popular stuff.

Speaking of old science fiction, does anyone remember:

"Pinocchio in Outer Space"

or

"Gulliver's Travels: Journey to the Moon"

No wonder I was such a weird kid!

[highball]

Yep, it truly was a conservative show, I can't believe that the sci-fi channel hasn't tried to pick it up either.

The Sci-Fi Channel did run it for a while. There just weren't enough produced episodes to keep it running for very long.

Shame about the movie, though. A betrayal of everything the show stood for, and a very un-worthy sendoff.

[gitmo]

The pupeteer would be way cool. Kzin are cat-like wookies.

[SengirV]

Actually I don’t mind Galactica because they made Apollo “human conscience” Adama the most unlikeable character they could. So the “have to do the right thing” factor is offset by the fact you HATE the source of this lesson. When Baltar is a more likable character than Apollo, then you know they do it that way on purpose. Ugly humans that eventually do the right thing is OK by me. But at this point, Apollo should have been thrown out an airlock about 10 times by now.

[Oatka]

We need a good remake of that Rowdy Roddy Piper classic...”They Live”

The original Sci-Fi story was about aliens who were using humans as food - you had a "heart attack" and ended up in the meat locker.

Carpenter rewrote the script to feature aliens who were using the earth as a Third World sweatshop. I usually don't like major departures from the script but this one was a subtly hilarious sendup of "Free Trade".

IMHO, the most chilling line: "We have one who can SEE". Watch the movie and find out how and what Piper saw.

BTW, I also thought the fight scene was overlong, but I read somewhere that Piper and Keith Davis really got into it and didn't want to quit, so Carpenter let them run with it. And, Meg Foster is always great - TRIPPY eyes.