payn
Glory to Marik
eh... for me the third one was a let down. Love 1 and 2 tho.
Your top 5 sci-fi movies (and why)
- Thread starter Morrus
- Start date
Kannik
Legend
Adding Guardians to the mix (yeah, pun intended
) I'd rank them 2, 3, & 1. 1 was fun, but 2 and 3 are stronger in their themes and thematic/character exploration. Rocket's arc especially really kicks into high gear in 2 (the ending, so perfect) and comes to fruition in 3.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Actually a pretty solid list, some deep cuts.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Most 3 film arcs fall way flatter on their faces, though.
Notice how nobody has brought up Return of the Jedi.
I thought about watching Logan's Run the other day to see if it held up. Haven't yet.
I'm pleased we get to have some edition wars in this conversation. You're right, in my view, that the 1982 release is the most satisfying.
It doesn't, but I love it anyway. Logan's Run is in the unfortunate position of being the last great SF film before Star Wars, which just blew everything else out of the water. I was too young to see it in the theatres, and it was always on at like 2am, so I didn't see it until 1982 or so (I had tried staying up once before that but fell asleep before they got to Washington). But by the time I saw it, I'd read the Marvel comics, read the novel and its ridiculous sequels, and seen some of the tv show episodes. I was in.
payn
Glory to Marik
Oh edition war indeed I missed how wrong on both counts this take was.
Clint_L
Legend
I'm reevaluating my Star Wars is fantasy/western in sci-fi drag thesis. In terms of story and themes, I'll stand by that assertion all day long. But, given that this is a film discussion, I should be giving more weight to the look and sound of the movie.
So I asked myself, "given that SW is a purely fantasy story, would it work as a purely fantasy film?" In other words, had they shot it but swapped all the sci-fi visuals and sounds for fantasy equivalents, does it still work? Is it still the history-altering behemoth it became? And I think the answer has to be that it doesn't and isn't.
A lot of the sequences would work just fine. All of the stuff on Tattooine could be done as a fantasy film, as could the quest inside the Death Star, which is essentially a dungeon crawl.
But that opening sequence that blew my mind as a little kid? The final two space battles? Those were barely achievable with 1970s technology, and machines in space are a lot easier to do than are dragons in flight or whatever the fantasy equivalent would be. And the scale and scope of those shots...it's hard to imagine a fantasy equivalent. Not to mention the mind-blowing sound design.
And in terms of influence, SW really boosted sci-fi as a genre (there was some carry over into fantasy; they've always appealed to a similar readership). Even if it was kind of the wrong kind of sci-fi (i.e. actually fantasy) from the perspective of a lot of "serious" sci-fi authors, they weren't saying no to the book advances and screenplay options.
If there's no Star Wars, Alien and Bladerunner, in particular, don't get budgeted.
So I asked myself, "given that SW is a purely fantasy story, would it work as a purely fantasy film?" In other words, had they shot it but swapped all the sci-fi visuals and sounds for fantasy equivalents, does it still work? Is it still the history-altering behemoth it became? And I think the answer has to be that it doesn't and isn't.
A lot of the sequences would work just fine. All of the stuff on Tattooine could be done as a fantasy film, as could the quest inside the Death Star, which is essentially a dungeon crawl.
But that opening sequence that blew my mind as a little kid? The final two space battles? Those were barely achievable with 1970s technology, and machines in space are a lot easier to do than are dragons in flight or whatever the fantasy equivalent would be. And the scale and scope of those shots...it's hard to imagine a fantasy equivalent. Not to mention the mind-blowing sound design.
And in terms of influence, SW really boosted sci-fi as a genre (there was some carry over into fantasy; they've always appealed to a similar readership). Even if it was kind of the wrong kind of sci-fi (i.e. actually fantasy) from the perspective of a lot of "serious" sci-fi authors, they weren't saying no to the book advances and screenplay options.
If there's no Star Wars, Alien and Bladerunner, in particular, don't get budgeted.
Similar Threads
