Movies for hardcore sci-fi geeks

[Proton Soup]

The fifth element.

that is worth seeing just for Leeloo Dallas, but more into the Sci Fantasy category i think, like Dune.

 

[robertm]

Pi - Darren Aronofsky.

Awesome psychological thriller, I highly recommend.

Has a lot of cool cinematography, central theme of the plot is fundamental Number Theory, really cool.

 

[Huckleberry]

To post something on the subject - if you will ever have a chance please watch Seksmisja (Sexmission) - Polish SF comedy shot in 1984. Cult movie here, will probably lost part of its charm outside of Poland, but should be still worth seeing.

I watched Seksmisja tonight and enjoyed it. It doesn't lose any of its charm crossing cultures. Thanks for the reference. I don't think I ever would have found it if you hadn't mentioned it. I'll be sure to recommend it to other SF fans I meet who love foreign cult classics.

Danger, got another one for ya. Ever seen Cleopatra 2525? It's a tv series that went for two years in 2000 and 2001. Some bubblegum chewing ditzy girl has complications during a breast augmentation surgery and is frozen. She is revived 500 years in the future in an underground society. Machines have taken over the surface. She joins a rebel team with 2 other scantily clad fighting women. It's almost power ranger campy and a little tongue in cheek, but focused on a bit more mature audience and it moves right along. Gina Torres (Zoey from Firefly) is the leader of the 3 woman team. Not sure how much you would like it, but figure it might be worth mentioning.

 

[DaveC426913]

Some bubblegum chewing ditzy girl has complications during a breast augmentation surgery and is frozen.

Don't leave us hanging! Did they complete the augmentation before she got frozen??

 

[Borek]

I watched Seksmisja tonight and enjoyed it. It doesn't lose any of its charm crossing cultures. Thanks for the reference. I don't think I ever would have found it if you hadn't mentioned it. I'll be sure to recommend it to other SF fans I meet who love foreign cult classics.

Glad to hear that

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Aha! "Seksmisja" translates as "Sexmission". Now I know why Huck watched. Maybe I will take a look [I see Netflix does have it].

Leave it to Borek to recommend a dirty movie.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Oh, and of course Spirited Away, though that isn't really Anime.

Watched it. It was quite good. Not sure why I would not be anime though.

 

[Integral]

Anybody else watch, Torchwood: Childern of Earth ?

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Anybody else watch, Torchwood: Childern of Earth ?

They made a movie? I watched the series and thought it was pretty cheesy.

 

[Huckleberry]

Don't leave us hanging! Did they complete the augmentation before she got frozen??

Yes, they finished it. When she wakes up she seems pleased with the results. Then she has to escape from the people trying to harvest her organs.

edit - hers a youtube clip of the intro just for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YmnG2pzVgQ

Aha! "Seksmisja" translates as "Sexmission". Now I know why Huck watched. Maybe I will take a look [I see Netflix does have it].

Leave it to Borek to recommend a dirty movie.

It's not a dirty movie. There's quite a bit of sexual humor in it and some nudity, as much as you would expect to see in a European film. It's a long shot from porn. There are two men that volunteer for cryogenic sleep and wake up in a world ruled by women. Most of the movie is about them figuring out what is going on. It's good. I think you'll enjoy it.

Anybody else watch, Torchwood: Childern of Earth ?

Not yet. Netflix releases the series on the 28th of this month. It's already in my queue. You are talking about the series, right?

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Anybody else watch, Torchwood: Childern of Earth ?

I keep missing the beginning of it and don't want to start midstory. Is it good?

 

[octelcogopod]

A strange movie which is kind of cool is called "The Nines"

It's a purely story driven tale so not many special effects (but beautiful shots though etc)
I can't really reveal much about the story, but it's one of those mindbend type movies like in the mouth of madness etc.

 

[Integral]

I keep missing the beginning of it and don't want to start midstory. Is it good?

I thought it was. This is a 5 part mini series which played on BBCA this last week. I thought we were seeing the creation of the Face of Bo, but no, it didn't work that way.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Here is an unusual one: Aelita, Queen of Mars

Made in 1921, based on the novel having the same name, by Tolstoy, it is believed to be the first Soviet Sci-Fi film ever made. I haven't watched it all yet but I find the historic aspects to be quite captivating. Available for instant viewing at Netflix.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A bit from wiki

Aelita (Russian: Аэлита), also known as Aelita: Queen of Mars, is a silent film directed by Soviet filmmaker Yakov Protazanov made on Mezhrabpom-Rus film studio and released in 1924. It was based on Alexei Tolstoy's novel of the same name. Mikhail Zharov and Igor Ilyinsky were cast in leading roles.

Though the main focus of the story is the daily lives of a small group of people during the post-war Soviet Union, the enduring importance of the film comes from its early science fiction elements. It primarily tells of a young man, Los' (Russian: Лось, literary Elk), traveling to Mars in a rocket ship, where he leads a popular uprising against the king, with the support of Queen Aelita who has fallen in love with him after watching him through a telescope.

Probably the first full-length movie about space travel, the most notable part of the film remains its remarkable constructivist Martian sets and costumes designed by Aleksandra Ekster. Their influence can be seen in a number of later films, including the Flash Gordon serials and probably Fritz Lang's Metropolis. While very popular at first, the film later fell out of favor with the Soviet government and was thus very difficult to see until after the Cold War.

Ideological significance...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aelita

 

[Ivan Seeking]

A strange movie which is kind of cool is called "The Nines"

It's a purely story driven tale so not many special effects (but beautiful shots though etc)
I can't really reveal much about the story, but it's one of those mindbend type movies like in the mouth of madness etc.

I just watched it - Excellent! It took forever to get going but in the end was worth it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Earlier I think I mentioned Journey to the Far Side of the Sun as one that I liked as a kid.

bleh! It was pretty much the Thunderbirds as a British Soap Opera. The miniatures were so bad that I could easily see the strings a few times.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I recently watched a few movies.

Appleseed and Appleseed Ex Machina are sci fi anime films. Both are pretty much typical scifi-action movies, they're just animated. The animation is actually rather good though. They used mostly computer animation in both. So if you would like to check out some neat eye candy these would be good.

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade is actually a rather serious movie for being anime. Imagine a cop drama except that its animated. No silly faces or hokey sound effects.
Story wise I am unsure whether or not to call it scifi. It is more of an alternate history type movie. It is set in post WWII Japan during the great civil unrest and rampant anti-government terrorism. in the story though the Japanese government creates an elite paramilitary police squad for dealing with these terrorists (Since they can not have a military). I think they are outfitted with rather advanced equipment for the time period. They are like a cross between vietnam heavy artillery men and german stormtroopers.
So maybe scifi or maybe just alternate history, either way it is a fairly good movie.

There's one more but I'll have to come back for that.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I just realized I didin't really describe the story in either of those movies.

The Appleseed movies are set in a post apocaplyptic future after WWIII has left the world nearly destroyed and humans nearly extinct. The main character, Deunan, is a female soldier who survived the war and has been fighting a guerilla war against the remnents of the enemy forces only to find out that the war has ended and most of the world has been trying to rebuild. She is taken to a city called Olympus where scientists have attempted to create a utopia and repopulate the planet by creating genetically designed humanoids called Bioroids. There has become a sort of class warfare though. To prevent future conflicts these artificial humans were designed to not possesses the emotions of hate or anger. They have come to dominate the city and politics and humans have come to be seen as a hinderence; brutish, dangerous, and untrustworthy. With high tensions the utopian city is on the verge of civil war.

In Jin-Roh the main character, Officer Fuse, is confronted by a young girl working for a terrorist cell. He is supposed to shoot her but finds he can not. She sets off a bomb she is carrying, killing herself, but Fuse survives. He becomes plagued by visions of the girl blowing herself up and questions his ability to do his job. In the mean time it seems he is being used as a pawn by a politically motivated secret sect of the Jin-Roh (the anti-terrorist police squad he belongs to) and the new Counter Intelligence Task Force who are determined to have the Jin-Roh dismantled as an outdated solution to the terrorist problem.


The other movie I mentioned was Steamboy. It is a steampunk genre anime movie taking place in Victorian England. The main character is James Ray Steam, a young boy, who finds himself being pulled between the geniuses of his father, Edward Steam, and grandfather, Lloyd Steam. Together the father and grandfather invented a nearly unlimited source of power but James' father wishes to create weapons of war with it to sell to the highest bidders while the grandfather tries to keep it away from him prefering more humanitarian uses. James is being lectured by his father on the importance of military might to secure a free country and being pleaded with by his grandfather to believe that science should only be used to help people and increase their standard of living. British Intelligence get wind of the arms dealing that is to occur at the Great Exhibition and involves themselves in attempting to steal back the powersource being employed by James' father.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Firefly was a masterpiece

Because of the praise from you, Huck, and Danger, it is on its way. Thanks. I had no idea it was so good.

 

[EnumaElish]

A.I.
I am legend
The Future Is Wild

 

[DaveC426913]

A.I.

AI was OK - if it had ended where Kubrick intended it to, instead of where Speilberg did end it.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

AI was OK - if it had ended where Kubrick intended it to, instead of where Speilberg did end it.

I liked AI. It was as much fairlytale as it was sci-fi, but enjoyable nonetheless.

What was different between the movie and what Kubrick wanted?

 

[DaveC426913]

I liked AI. It was as much fairlytale as it was sci-fi, but enjoyable nonetheless.

What was different between the movie and what Kubrick wanted?

The last 15 minutes. It should have ended with him on the bottom of the ocean.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I've actually yet to see AI because I've never heard anything good about it.

 

[Huckleberry]

I just finished watching the 'Battlestar Galactica' reimagined series by Ron Moore. It's amazing! I can't believe that I hadn't checked it out before. I think the problem was that I didn't have much hope of it going anywhere. So these people are lost in space and looking for Earth with cylons chasing them for episode upon neverending episode. I thought it would be like that, kind of like the original was. I was dead wrong! It's now one of my favorite series of all time right along with 'Firefly'.

I enjoyed the original series too, but the new reimagined series has all the good elements of that basic story and improved on everything else. The best thing is that the stories are all weaved together in a natural way that complements the basic overall story perfectly. Character motivations change without leaving the entire story disjointed and forced. Another plus is that they wrap the entire plot up nicely at the end.

It's a dark show without much hope. The addition of cylons that are indistinguishable from humans makes for some very interesting plot lines that force the viewer to question the meaning of humanity. That coupled with the struggle for the survival of the human race carries the plot along easily through to the end. The characters are easy to love and to hate and feel for. Nobody is perfect and there are no perfect outcomes, but success is mixed with failure in a fairly realistic way that drives one event into the next and carries the characters along with it. They are as much victims of fate as they are the makers of it. I even like how they revisit some of the episodes from the original series without becoming predictable and unoriginal. I couldn't stop watching the episodes. That was the fastest 80 hours of television I've ever seen, and I think I might do it again. I'd like to hear the commentaries. I couldn't give a higher recommendation than 'Battlestar Galactica'.

I was watching an interview with Edward James Olmos who plays Admiral Adama in the series. He also played Gaff, the bladerunner with an origami fetish, in the movie 'Bladerunner'. He stated that it was in his contract that if he saw any four-eyed monsters he would faint and let the writers end his role. The writers didn't even want him to see any of the hybrid cylons that were part machine, part human. Luckily, there are no freakish monsters in the series. It's a human driven story in many ways similar to the movie 'Bladerunner'.

And there is another series that is a prequel to BSG coming out this January called 'Caprica'. It begins over 50 years before BSG and Admiral Adama is just a little boy. It chronicles the creation of the cylon race, the first cylon war and the exodus of the cylons. The feature length pilot episode has already been released for download and it was good. I'm anxious to see what they do with it in January.

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I just finished watching the 'Battlestar Galactica' reimagined series by Ron Moore.

I really enjoyed it. Though there were nagging little bits it was definitely good over all. I personally didn't like the ending much. And the way Baltar acted like a loon and no one really much noticed was a bit too hokey at times.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The last 15 minutes. It should have ended with him on the bottom of the ocean.

Heh, I like it when they go beyond the horizon. Same was true with the Special Edition [or whatever they called it] of Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Be bold and take us inside of that mother ship! I see it as a chance to explore the most exotic ideas. If I were writing for a movie like AI or CE [special edition], I think the most fun would be in trying to write the last fifteen minutes.

 

[DaveC426913]

Heh, I like it when they go beyond the horizon. Same was true with the Special Edition [or whatever they called it] of Close Encounters of the Third Kind: Be bold and take us inside of that mother ship!

Yes but the extra ending for CE3K was the logical next step. It completed the story.

The ending for AI was a corruption of Kubrick's message. It was Spielberg wanting to put his own ending on it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Kubrick purist or anything of the sort. I'm suggesting that there were two messages due to two visionaries. The fox that chases two rabbits gets none.

 

[siddharth]

I thought I had posted before, but I can't find it, so I'll mention Firefly again. Firefly was really special, and possibly the best TV show I've ever seen. There's also a movie based on the show called Serenity, which is pretty good.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

The last 15 minutes. It should have ended with him on the bottom of the ocean.

I was reading up on this and found that point is contested.

People pretend to think they know Stanley Kubrick, and think they know me, when most of them don't know either of us," Spielberg told film critic Joe Leydon in 2002. "And what's really funny about that is, all the parts of A.I. that people assume were Stanley's were mine. And all the parts of A.I. that people accuse me of sweetening and softening and sentimentalizing were all Stanley's. The teddy bear was Stanley's. The whole last 20 minutes of the movie was completely Stanley's. The whole first 35, 40 minutes of the film – all the stuff in the house – was word for word, from Stanley's screenplay. This was Stanley's vision.

"Eighty percent of the critics got it all mixed up. But I could see why. Because, obviously, I've done a lot of movies where people have cried and have been sentimental. And I've been accused of sentimentalizing hard-core material. But in fact it was Stanley who did the sweetest parts of A.I., not me. I'm the guy who did the dark center of the movie, with the Flesh Fair and everything else. That's why he wanted me to make the movie in the first place. He said, 'This is much closer to your sensibilities than my own.'"[39]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I thought I had posted before, but I can't find it, so I'll mention Firefly again. Firefly was really special, and possibly the best TV show I've ever seen. There's also a movie based on the show called Serenity, which is pretty good.

I watched the first episode tonight. I thought was okay but not great, however I can see that it has potential, so maybe it will just take a few episodes to get me hooked.

 

[Huckleberry]

I watched the first episode tonight. I thought was okay but not great, however I can see that it has potential, so maybe it will just take a few episodes to get me hooked.

You'll fit right in with the browncoats, Ivan.

 

[Borek]

Cherry 2000 was a huge disappointment Sad, as it had a good potential. It is one of these movies where to build tension main characters ignore obvious and safe solutions and instead they select the absurd ones, or they first long explain how dangerous something will be and then... it is not. I feel like few hours of work on dialogs could make the movie coherent. As it is I felt like being treated as an idiot.

Marzena felt asleep after about 15 minutes, but could be that's because we did over 50 miles on bikes earlier that day

 

[DaveC426913]

I was reading up on this and found that point is contested.

People pretend to think they know Stanley Kubrick, and think they know me, when most of them don't know either of us," Spielberg told film critic Joe Leydon in 2002. "And what's really funny about that is, all the parts of A.I. that people assume were Stanley's were mine. And all the parts of A.I. that people accuse me of sweetening and softening and sentimentalizing were all Stanley's. The teddy bear was Stanley's. The whole last 20 minutes of the movie was completely Stanley's. The whole first 35, 40 minutes of the film – all the stuff in the house – was word for word, from Stanley's screenplay. This was Stanley's vision.

"Eighty percent of the critics got it all mixed up. But I could see why. Because, obviously, I've done a lot of movies where people have cried and have been sentimental. And I've been accused of sentimentalizing hard-core material. But in fact it was Stanley who did the sweetest parts of A.I., not me. I'm the guy who did the dark center of the movie, with the Flesh Fair and everything else. That's why he wanted me to make the movie in the first place. He said, 'This is much closer to your sensibilities than my own.'"[39]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A.I._Artificial_Intelligence

Huh. Go figure.