Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)

[dragoner]

This is an equivocation. The difference begween, for example, a starving artist who lives on comissions and an independently wealthy person who paints what they want on their own time is night and day

Work is the curse of the drinking classes, though yeah for 90% of people, work is a prison of measured time.

 

[Epic Meepo]

Should someone start a new thread for all this debate about the value of work? I'm not seeing how it's related to "Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)."

 

[Mannahnin]

Should someone start a new thread for all this debate about the value of work? I'm not seeing how it's related to "Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)."

It's a digression, certainly, but sci-fi is about ideas, and questions like the one we're discussing.
Wall-E is one of the movies people have talked about as a favorite.

We got here because someone brought up that Wall-E showed us a world where humans are freed from the need to work, and opined that this reduced human life to meaningless comfort and reproduction. Even expressing the extreme position that it would make us no better or more than viruses!

 

[dragoner]

It does fit into the "And why?" Part though thread drift just happens.

 

[Deset Gled]

It's a digression, certainly, but sci-fi is about ideas, and questions like the one we're discussing.
Wall-E is one of the movies people have talked about as a favorite.

We got here because someone brought up that Wall-E showed us a world where humans are freed from the need to work, and opined that this reduced human life to meaningless comfort and reproduction. Even expressing the extreme position that it would make us no better or more than viruses!

The digression is ridiculous, though, because it's explicitly shown in the movie that the Axiom is not "Edenic" in any way. The system is a non-sustainable repetion of what happened on earth. The humans are not happy. They are miserable and devolving in a floating time bomb, oblivious to the expiration date. This is all laid on pretty thick. It's even implied that they don't reproduce. It's like the people arguing random philosophical platitudes haven't even watched the movie being discussed.

If nothing else, the fact that no one has used a movie reference in the whole side discussion should be a giant red flag.

Here's a semi-hot take to get things back on track: The Day the Earth Stood Still is overrated. Everybody remembers the great opening and the great ending, sure. But the middle part where Klaatu tries to hide out on earth, befriend a kid, and figure out money is both silly and boring. There's basically a half hour of dead time that's just there to justify it being a movie instead of an episode of The Outer Limits. Still a classic, but there's a reason it's remembered as classic sci fi and not a cinematic masterpiece.

 

[Bohandas]

Here's a semi-hot take to get things back on track: The Day the Earth Stood Still is overrated. Everybody remembers the great opening and the great ending, sure. But the middle part where Klaatu tries to hide out on earth, befriend a kid, and figure out money is both silly and boring. There's basically a half hour of dead time that's just there to justify it being a movie instead of an episode of The Outer Limits. Still a classic, but there's a reason it's remembered as classic sci fi and not a cinematic masterpiece.

I haven't actually seen The Day The Earth Stood Still all the way through, but as you describe it, it sounds bad but not too bad in terms of pacing. The sequences are unnecessary but at least something happens in them.

A lot of other movies that are held up as 'classics' have long and/or repeated stretches in them that are just dead, where nothing of note happens, whether plot relevant or otherwise. This became especially common in the late 1960s through early 1980s. (2001 A Space Odyssey, for example, is basically nothing but a bunch of shots of the spaceship and later the interior of the interstellar portal; the actual plot of that film could also easily fit into an Outer Limits episode)

Edit:
As far as the specific filler, a sequence where klaatu figures out money does indesd sound like cringe

 

[Mannahnin]

This is an equivocation. The difference begween, for example, a starving artist who lives on comissions and an independently wealthy person who paints what they want on their own time, is like night and day

Are you being hostile for any particular reason? Or did you maybe choose the wrong word?

I'm not being deceptive or misleading. You seem to have a giant excluded middle in between your two extremes.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The digression is ridiculous, though, because it's explicitly shown in the movie that the Axiom is not "Edenic" in any way. The system is a non-sustainable repetion of what happened on earth. The humans are not happy. They are miserable and devolving in a floating time bomb, oblivious to the expiration date. This is all laid on pretty thick. It's even implied that they don't reproduce. It's like the people arguing random philosophical platitudes haven't even watched the movie being discussed.

If nothing else, the fact that no one has used a movie reference in the whole side discussion should be a giant red flag.

Here's a semi-hot take to get things back on track: The Day the Earth Stood Still is overrated. Everybody remembers the great opening and the great ending, sure. But the middle part where Klaatu tries to hide out on earth, befriend a kid, and figure out money is both silly and boring. There's basically a half hour of dead time that's just there to justify it being a movie instead of an episode of The Outer Limits. Still a classic, but there's a reason it's remembered as classic sci fi and not a cinematic masterpiece.

You've probably expressed why its a movie I respect but don't consider a favorite better than I can. I wonder if it'd even be a classic were it not for the combination of Gort still being a really striking piece of older SFX work even now, and Michael Rennie's peculiar charisma carrying the movie heavily.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is really challenging. Going off of pure enjoyment, and not artistic merit or influence or anything.

• Annihilation
• Ex Machina
• Arrival
• Moon
• Primer

Too many runners up to list.

 

[Mannahnin]

Those are all great. Ooh, it also reminds me that I need to show Ex Machina to my brother and our friend we watch movies with pretty regularly. I just showed them Companion the other night, and they quite enjoyed it.