I couldn't find a forum that really seemed to fit this as it covers movies and TV series so it's here.
The discussions in the "For Those Who Still Think Physical Media Has No Place in the 21st century..." thread turned to SF and the quality, or lack of, in the past 20 or so years.
I *love* SF and always have. It's my 100% favorite genre. I have a huge list of SF books I've read and love but when it comes to SF in the movies and on TV that list of what I "love" is rather short. I've seen hundreds of SF movies and TV series but very few have "passed muster" for that second, or more, viewing. When the 70s hit I found fewer and fewer "good" SF products - to the point that I all but stopped bothering to even sample TV series relying solely on promos to tell me if it was worth my time or not - and few were. Even the ones I bothered to sample came up lacking.
I'd rather watch the worst 50s "B" SF movie than many of the movies in the last ~50 years. At least most of those don't pretend to be something they're not.
These posts are what prompted me to start this thread:
My classics also include Terminator 1 (but not 2), the original Total Recall, Blade Runner, Alien, and a very small handful of others in the past 50 years.
The discussions in the "For Those Who Still Think Physical Media Has No Place in the 21st century..." thread turned to SF and the quality, or lack of, in the past 20 or so years.
I *love* SF and always have. It's my 100% favorite genre. I have a huge list of SF books I've read and love but when it comes to SF in the movies and on TV that list of what I "love" is rather short. I've seen hundreds of SF movies and TV series but very few have "passed muster" for that second, or more, viewing. When the 70s hit I found fewer and fewer "good" SF products - to the point that I all but stopped bothering to even sample TV series relying solely on promos to tell me if it was worth my time or not - and few were. Even the ones I bothered to sample came up lacking.
I'd rather watch the worst 50s "B" SF movie than many of the movies in the last ~50 years. At least most of those don't pretend to be something they're not.
These posts are what prompted me to start this thread:
I, too, have *very* high standards for SF movies and TV shows and, like you, find few that have any replay value. I got a free copy of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. I honestly don't know if I've seen it or not. I looked up some photos and nothing looks familiar - but that would be my reaction if I didn't much care for the movie.(Long rant).
As a result of the jedi mindfucks of "no bluray = no sale" and "no 4Kbluray = no sale" that I've been repeatedly saying to myself as a way of tricking myself into NOT buying a lot of movies, most of my remaining purchases has only really been scifi movies. Unfortunately most of it was largely garbage that was being "passed" as scifi movies.
One extreme case almost led to me buying a 4Kbluray UHD player, but I ended up using a convoluted mindfuck to talk myself out of buying 4Kbluray. This was the movie "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets" which was released on 4Kbluray in late 2017. The convoluted mindfuck I was playing on myself to fool myself into NOT buying a 4Kbluray player, was to read through every single review of Valerian and repeatedly re-read all the bad reviews.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_and_the_City_of_a_Thousand_Planets
I was about to buy a 4Kbluray UHD player, but by chance I saw the dvd version of this Valerian movie for $5 and decided to buy that dvd instead and not the 4Kbluray player. I wanted to see whether the bad reviews were actually for real or not. It turns out after watching the movie once, I realized right away it was a rather lousy movie which didn't really hold my attention. (Otherwise it had decent special effects, with a lackluster story).
Since this "close call" where I just missed out on buying a 4Kbluray player, I have come to the realization that there were hardly any good scifi movies released over the past 20+ years or so.
I have extremely high standards for scifi movies and tv shows, of which very few end up having any replay value for me. For me, it has to be in the league of classics like: the original Terminator 1 and 2, the original Total Recall, the first Blade Runner, etc .... Otherwise most scifi films end up as garbage stuff I end up watching only once or twice.
My classics also include Terminator 1 (but not 2), the original Total Recall, Blade Runner, Alien, and a very small handful of others in the past 50 years.
Minority Report is the *only* SF movie from Steven Spielberg I'll watch again and it's been years since I last saw it. I have a BR copy I've not yet made time for in spite of recalling it being fairly well done. I've not bothered with A.I. simply because he directed it and was involved in the screenplay (and in spite of it being based on a story by Brian Aldiss, an author I like).I would have to agree with you in relation to a lack of high quality sci-fi films in the 21st century.
I still have not seen that many since 2000 and I have about 10 -20 on my list that I want to watch.
My personal opinion is Hollywood is just trying to copy that was done before.
I don't know if this is the screenwriters trying to create the next "2001" or "Blade Runner" or the Directors that are trying to do it.
They seem to lack any originality.
I really liked Minority Report and I still have not seen A.I. but I think that is a film I would very much enjoy.
I read a lot of SF/Fantasy (it's about all I read for fun) but find the state of SF on TV and in the movies to be less than stellar. While there appears to be something of a renaissance in the past 20 or so years I find the product to still be rather lacking with CGI driving most of the stories. Basically CGI/Action movies with SF type trappings.My father would be 103 if he was alive today. He was a passionate devote of science fiction and would read whole libraries of books.
I was just saying to my wife the other day that he would love the last 20 years. There are so many wonderful Sci/Fi TV shows and movies, that it is difficult to keep up. He’d really be in his element!
Like jr says - SF on TV has been much better than SF in the movies, although each has more than their fair share of stinkers.I found scifi tv shows was done much better over the past 25-30 years, than movies.
Many classics such as Babylon 5, Stargate franchise, the revived Battlestar Galactica, etc ....