Why can't we have more science fiction movies? (1 Viewer)

Even a bad science fiction movie is more interesting than a lot of the poor movies which have been made.
One of the poorer science fiction movies is Lost in Space which sucked because it was just too cartoony and not enough science fiction.
Let's here it for more science fiction movies.
Aaron

Aaron, I agree with you about wanting more sci-fi as it is one of my favorite genres. However I want sci-fi with good scripts and good acting, which is a rare commodity these days. It seems like nowadays we can show almost anything on screen that a writer or director can imagine via CGI yet the imagination is lacking! As are the scripts!
For every Dark City, Matrix, or Pitch Black that is made there are a dozen titles like Mission to Mars, Red Planet, Supernova, Sphere, Lost in Space, Titan A.E., Armageddon, etc. that range from mediocre to truly awful. CGI is no substitute for a good script. Apparently the suits in Hollywood disagree. Sci-fi films only need monsters and CGI to be made, it seems, and screenplays are an afterthought.
I wish they would make a good sci-fi film revolving around a good script instead of the latest gimmicky CGI tricks. Give me back my latex monsters and spaceships on wires. Let the FX take a backseat to the story for a change.

Hopefully, Ms. Roberts will not be in the upcoming adaptation of Rendezvous With Rama...
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Actually, we've been getting a fair number of good science fiction movies lately - A.I., Dark City, Gattaca, The Arrival, and Pitch Black. I've got high hopes for Spielberg's Minority Report and Andrew Niccol's s1m0ne, too, as well as the adaptation of Fred Saberhagen's Berserkers which Alex Proyas has set up at New Line. Fincher's doing Rendezvous With Rama, and supposedly Phil Tippet is doing Ringworld.
Sure, Hollywood has traditionally thought of science-fiction as "action movies with laser guns", but it seems that now there's a group of filmmakers out there - Niccol, David Twohy, Proyas, and Spielberg - that really get science fiction and are doing interesting things with it.

Do not forget Soderbergs "Solaris", the new adaption of the novel with the same name (it's not a remake of Tarowskis film). That one could be fantastic I think.

Hey, what about Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis? At the very least, it'll be interesting to see what he can do with his first sci-fi entry (no, I don't count his Michael Jackson 3-D extravaganza Captain EO).
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I would agree with most of those movies except for lost in space and space cowboy's.
Aaron

I enjoyed both Mission to Mars and Space Cowboys.
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By coincidence, I (re)watched the movie CONTACT last night. It was a gem of a movie, well anchored by the performance of Jodie Foster and a great supporting cast. CONTACT was an intelligent, well written and thought provoking Sci-Fi based film. What I also liked was the fact that the film was really ALL story. It didn't hit you over the head constantly with explosions and special effects such as a movie like ARMEGEDDON. When the 'big' effects scenes do arrive, they are truly spectacular and are more effective because of the pacing of the film. The DVD of the film is a pretty 'loaded' Special Edition including commentary by Foster. I recommend it highly.

I just finished watching Space Cowboys...I thought this movie was horrible.
How can you even count it as science fiction? It just takes real life events and twists them around into an utterly *stupid* story.
Sorry...just my oppinion.

Mike,
I would have to agree with you about space cowboys. It has Tommy Lee Jones and Clint Eastwood, what went wrong? Well old guys don't go into space for a reason, THEY'RE OLD.
Aaron

I don't care form Tommy Lee Jones that much. He seems to play the same blustery-outhouse-chickenhouse-fugitive role over and over. It was good the first time...but give it a rest.

It was my understanding that the reason John Glenn went into space was to see how well an aged human body could withstand to extended periods of time in space.
What does this have to do with the average age of astronauts going into space?
Aaron

I think we can't have more science fiction movies because so many people dislike science fiction movies, as evidenced by the reviews at Link Removed to subscribe to Philips_HDTV discussion group

Re: Space Cowboys... I thought it was a terrific movie.
It was directed in an old-school adventure style, perfectly paced to match the story it was telling, with excellent special effects, acting and directing. It was very refreshing to see a movie made by people who are extremely good at their craft, know what they want and how to achieve it, without making it overblown or underwhelming.
I don't know how credible the storyline was, but compared to other sci-fi movies it wasn't very hard to believe.
It was one of the most enjoyable movie experiences I've had all year.
/Mike

Im probably gonna get flamed for this, but when I went to watch Apocalypse Now Redux I couldn't get into it at all. All the time im thinking how they did all of the little gory scenes like the head getting thrown in sheen's lap. The only halfway impressive scene was the slicing of the cow, which was impressive because it was real.
When I watch a science fiction I can get totally immersed into the movie because it is in no way grounded in terms of reality. Whenever watching movies like alien I had absolutely no problem suspended reality, and that movie scared the bejeebers outta me.
Aaron

If we are going to give our honest opinions of Space Cowboys, then here is another one.
I think the first half of the film was funny, sentimental with good chemistry between the actors.
The second half, when they are in space, it slowly falls apart when the movie turns serious. Then the silliest thing happens;just point me towards the moon. I know it was a symbolic thing, but to just point an object that more than a day away in space and have it hit by just pointing at it? Hmm, maybe we should not have computers on the space shuttle, we'll just point them to where we want them to go and they'll get there all by themselves!

Here's a question: Does an adventure movie that takes place in outer space necessarily make it a science fiction movie?
I consider movies like Blade Runner, A.I. and Gattaca sci-fi, basically because they deal with science and fiction. As far as I can tell, stuff like Lost in Space or Space Cowboys are your typical quest/adventure movies that just happen to take place among the stars. The essential plots of these films could just as easily be transplanted to the old West, a fairy tale setting, or an adventure movie from any era.
OK, Lost in Space dealt with science a little with that inane time-travel contrivance, but the question stands -
Does an outer space setting automatically denote "science fiction"?
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Scott
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