[Closed] Recent Sci-Fi films you have enjoyed/endured

Another Wyndham fan here. The Kraken Wakes would make a great movie if they set it in the 50's/60's like the book. Proper end of the world stuff. The way the story starts, innocuous events here and there, slowly adding up. The tension when the two guys go down in the bathyscape still makes my hackles rise. The whale and jellyfish attack on the island.....

Not recent but
Dark Star

All of the Star Trek reboots have been enjoyable and the casting of Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban as Kirk, Spock and McCoy is genius.

Watched Moon at the weekend.

A few little overtones of 2001 in terms of the shooting style and atmosphere. Really enjoyed it.

I liked the Martian and Oblivion.

Divergent was good too.

Lockout. It's actually pretty bad but I quite enjoyed it. I seem to be drawn to fairly low budget sci-fi movies, e.g. Spectral (ok), The Darkest Hour (bad).

My votes:

Moon,
Monsters,
Arrival,
The Expanse ( so good I read all the books...)
Cloverfield ( is it a monster movie? Is it sci fi? Is it a monster/home movie mashup?)
Pacific Rim ( I love 1960's Japanese monster movies so this was right up my street)
Rogue One (a Star Wars film where storm troopers can shoot straight)
Gravity (thought I'd spend the whole film complaining about plot holes but instead really enjoyed it)
Under the skin
District 9

Quite enjoyed ex machina but was wondering why the really smart nerdy head of a tech company hadn't heard of asimovs three laws of robotics...just applying the first law would have saved him a hell of a lot of trouble.

To be honest, I'd really like someone to make a film of Against a dark background by Iain M Banks.

Senor J. Chronicles of Riddick. Great film, totally forgot about that one.

Talking of Riddick, what about the first one, Pitch Black? That's ace.

Don't forget the third one - Riddick.
I saw The Day After Tomorrow last night for the first time in ages. Excellent effects I thought.

District 9 is an excellent piece of work

Can't think why they still haven't got around to making a sequel.

Rogue One (a Star Wars film where storm troopers can shoot straight)

Second that, where Episode 7 felt like pure nostalgia, Rogue One, even with all the easter eggs just felt like another film in the same universe rather than lots of "Look, it's Han Solo"

other than that:

Arrival was good
Predestination was great considering the amount of notice it got
I enjoyed The Martian
And then there is this [url= http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5155780/?ref_=nv_sr_3 ]The Discovery[/url] which looks interesting. Sci Fi? maybe not, but I like the concept

jon1973

District 9 is an excellent piece of work

Can't think why they still haven't got around to making a sequel.

Elysium and Chappie are pretty much sequels to D9. Or they are set in a very similar world with robots/aliens as socio-political metaphors for South Africa etc.

Even though Elysium and Chappie were less complete films than District 9 I think it's better to see fresh ideas and fresh content than the same thing rehashed.

Pitch black was excellent, the third film Riddick was also excellent.

Glad it's not just me then...I only found out about the third Riddick film whilst talking about "the chronicles" at work this week.
I was quite excited.(I don't get out much)
🙂

I really enjoyed The Martian. Plenty of humour mixed with cool science.

Forbidden Planet is worthy of the classic tag.

I re watched Contact a couple of months back. Still a good film.

The thing from another world directed by Howard Hawks still stands the test of time. Good use of the theremin too!

I haven't seen Silent Running in years. I must rewatch it soon.

I loved Explorers as a kid as well as Flight of the Navigator.

Super8 was a true pleasure. When I saw it at the cinema, I immediately wanted to see it again. Real echoes of Spielberg.

The original Day the earth stood still is a regular favourite of mine as is The war of the Worlds from the fifties.

Prometheus was piss poor. I have no doubt that Alien Covenant will be just as crap. I really wish Ridley Scott would kill off the Alien series once and for all. Nowt good since Aliens.

Cheers

Sanny

Under the skin is reasonably good for low budget weirdness

Made even weirder by the fact that some of it was filmed in a local convenience store not far from my house.

That's the freakiest bit in the film for me.

Devash a week ago had the perfect list...is he my doppelgänger? I would only add Bela tarrs 'the Turin horse'

Just watched Zero Theorem. Was it any good or pointless 😆

Should watch it back to back with Holy Motors.

The Kraken Wakes would make a great movie if they set it in the 50's/60's like the book. Proper end of the world stuff. The way the story starts, innocuous events here and there, slowly adding up. The tension when the two guys go down in the bathyscape still makes my hackles rise. The whale and jellyfish attack on the island.....

Now hang on.. is no-one really going to admit to seeing Ghost In The Shell??

Ok, I'll put my hand up. Saw the trailer, liked the look of the Bjork styled Geisha bot thing, liked Scarlett's body suit (who wouldn't?) and by golly the film was an utter and complete pile of futuristic dog eggs.
Won't go into detail in case anyone is upset by spoilers (SPOILER! The whole film is crap! 😆 )

Did rewatch Guardians of the Galaxy the other night to get over Ghost in the DogTurd and Guardians is great.

I was never that struck on the original Ghost in Michelle; I don't have high hopes for the whiteface version.

Guardians 2 is out by the end of this month. I'll watch that.

There's a few trailers around for The Last Jedi. I'm surprised I haven't seen threads about it.

I couldn't watch it objectively, was a mish mash of things from the original films and the series but watered down in to an emo who am I origin story rather than focusing on the how human am I of the originals.

But I can understand why they went for that angle, the originals can get a bit bogged down.

I don't think I'll buy it but I hope they do another one that focuses more on the actual cyber crime side of things a live action remake of Innocence could be good.

Thanks for the suggestion of Chappie.
I liked it. Great VFX, impressive seamless CGI from motion capture.

Ex machina was interesting too.

I agree with muddy@rseguy about Asimov's 3 laws of robotics:

"A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."

Colony - I am almost at the end of the second TV season which I think is excellent. Not sure if it is really sci-fi but has drones and aliens.

Saw Ghosts let week. Enjoyed the original. Not at all bothered by the "white-faced" claptrap (see original directors comments)

Film is OK, clearly its been made with love of the original, I think a straight lift would have been problematic I didn't go in with high hopes but it was a decent stab at it 3.5/5

[i]"white-faced" claptrap (see original directors comments)[/i]

I have no idea what this means.

"Decent" though? Come on! What about the GUNS? Bang bang! BRRRRP! You missed! Bang! Dead. Like the bloody A Team. So stupid. Aside from that, just couldn't engage with the film at all. 1.5/5 I'd give it.

DezB you're not surprising me. Ghost in the Shell Suit didn't need to be remade. It looks like soulless cack just from the posters.

When the original rocked up in early 90s, it was quite forward looking in terms of material and themes. Also it and Akira upped the ante in terms of animation quality. Soundtrack was cool too. Actually, it just put production values of animation up.

Doing a remake looks like entirely missing the point.

Besides, Westworld already did it, about 400x better by the sound of things.

Legion

Utterly barking, and the best Marvel-related thing for absolutely yonks. The cast are excellent, Lenny in particular.

Some people were angry/annoyed that a white woman was playing an Asian part (whitewash) the director of the anime pointed out that it's not explicit that the major (being a robot an all) is an Asian woman in the first place.

If you're getting excised about "Hollywood guns" maybe don't watch Hollywood action films?

Ah, I see.

I don't watch Hollywood action films. Ghost in the Smell was supposed to be [b]science fiction[/b]. Which is why I mentioned it in a sc-fi thread, you see.

I don't watch Hollywood action films

I can see where you went wrong.

[quoteThe cast are excellent, Lenny in particular

Back off, she's all mine! But yeah Legion was superb.

Saw Ghost In The Shell with the kids on Monday. They loved it and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

There's a few trailers around for The Last Jedi

Official release of trailer slated for today.....at 5:01 our time (nice accidental geek points for the UK) - 12:01 EST in the US

But that could be baws

Why is 5.01 geeky?

IANASWE

"white-faced" claptrap (see original directors comments)"

I have no idea what this means.

Using a caucasian actor to play an asian character, as in a variation on the phrase 'black-face'.

John Wayne as Genghis Khan:

[img] [/img]

Why is 5.01 geeky?

IANASWE

The 501st Legion

[img] [/img]

aka, Vaders Fist: The 501st Legion, also known as the 501st Battalion, was an elite military division of the Grand Army of the Republic. Consisting of highly-trained clone troopers engineered by Kaminoan cloners, the 501st served under the command of the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker throughout the Clone Wars.

shermer75

Using a caucasian actor to play an asian character, as in a variation on the phrase 'black-face'.

It's a remake for American and European audiences though. I don't recall any similar furore when Japanese actors were cast in the Japanese remake of Ghost.

[img] [/img]

Plus it is in no way explicit that the character in the original Anime is Japanese. Artistic styles in manage and anime vary wildly and many artists blatantly draw western looking characters.

I thought Rogue One was shite.

It's a remake for American and European audiences though. I don't recall any similar furore when Japanese actors were cast in the Japanese remake of Ghost.

Yep, the debate rages on and I suspect that it won't be solved here. However, in the interests of supplying some background, it has become a particularly sensitive issue following the 'white-wash Oscars' last year.

Can anybody remember whether Dark City was any good?

Yep, Dark City is a classic in my opinion.

Trying to remember the Redanka tune that used dark city samples throughout..
Edit : right genre wrong producer, it's Quivver...

Watched Chappie on NetFlix t'other day. It was okay but I was completely distracted by the two moronic half-wits from Die Antwoord. But Hugh Jackman's haircut was the true star of the show. It was compelling viewing!!

Watched The Book of Eli earlier, that was quite good.

just give dark city a whirl. im not sure at all.

I thought Dark City was superb.

Thanks people for the Monsters recommendation, just watched it and loved it.

I'd also like to put Soylent Green and They Live on the list for oldies, and The Matrix for slightly more recent (ignore the sequels though).

@ ulysse - Yeah but this version had Event Horizon samples. John Graham aka Skanna.

Dark City is great, but suffers (wrongly IMO) in comparison to The Matrix which came out soon after and touches on some of the same themes (IIRC The Matrix reused some sets from Dark City). Dark City didn't have the visual innovation of The Matrix and so gets overlooked - a mistake.

DezB - Member

Now hang on.. is no-one really going to admit to seeing Ghost In The Shell??

Saw it, thought it was good- actually, very good. Told its story coherently and mostly confidently, had some brilliant visuals and locations, some strong performances... Actually i just wish they'd got rid of the damn silly spider-tank.

(though, <spoiler>, changing the outcome of that fixed the one thing I most disliked about the manga, the stupid pull-your-own-arms-off-for-no-reason thing.)

(ChrisL wisely points out that while it's not a completely loyal remake, that's totally in keeping with the existing ghost in the shell material, there's already been retellings and changes of direction.)

I get the feeling that everyone who got offended about "whitewashing" hadn't seen the original manga, since Scarlett Johansson just straight up looks like the Major, who as's been observed is a robot body and not explicitly asian... (you literally see her face getting removed and her skin getting 3d printed ffs) and everyone that got offended about the plot changes had [i]only[/i] seen the original manga and none of the other stuff.

[img] [/img]

I thought Rogue One was shite.

I saw it three times at t'cinema - does that bring balance to t'force?

Did you not think it was just a crappy kids movie ?

Anyway, Shirley we're on countdown to the 26th now..

I watched the new Star Trek yesterday. I missed any "plot" there was with the Spock thing as I was with the kids and constabtaly interupted, but it seemed a bit more space/nasty alien/kirk saves the day US style than usual. Zoe Salanda as always is a good watch, Zach Quinto seems to have grown into Spock a bit more, some good effects and an interesting twist. I'll watch it again just to pick up on the Spock background story.

Nothing deep, a bit late evening entertainment value that's all really

John Graham's had a lot of musical Alteregos, Chester, one of the best "versions" being part of the genius behind "Tilt"
Great mix there btw

Didn't get very far with Dark City due to Kiefer Sutherland in one of the worst performances in movie history.

The only thing I remember about Dark City is that we watched it on a basic projector with a white screen in a lecture theatre, so it wasn't very dark

Thanks for the heads up about Legion. I'd not heard of it and am enjoying it immensely.

i think i could suffer/enjoy/endure ghost in the shell, purely for scarlett.

Surprised no one has mentioned Disney's The Black Hole. Bit of a guilty pleasure, I watch it every year or so and still really enjoy it - even if it was a kid's / family film....

Excellent score by John Barry....

Whole film is on Youtube as well..

Now Alien trailer out. Oh Lordy!

I'd also like to put Soylent Green

you mean 'Farenheit 451'?

Now Alien trailer out. Oh Lordy!

What, Oh Lordy! in a Woooooo! sort of way, or Oh Lordy! in an Oh God No Make It Stop Now kind of way?

I endured about half of Guardians of the Galaxy at the weekend. If I'd gone to the cinema to see it I'd have asked for my money back. As my wife pointed out: I'm probably about 50 years older than the target audience.

I met the lead animatronics guy who did all the models on Prometheus and Arrival and Harry Potter (all of them) at the weekend.
Fascinating bloke.

I've just watched 'Passengers' - what great big pile of horse shite that was.

Yup Passengers was by the numbers dog shit. Bastards suckered me in to a wuv story 😐

Malvern strikes again with his recommendation Edge of Tomorrow, that was a decent enough romp. He's more than a bit suspect where style and/or bikes are concerned though 😉

I endured about half of Guardians of the Galaxy at the weekend. If I'd gone to the cinema to see it I'd have asked for my money back. As my wife pointed out: I'm probably about 50 years older than the target audience.

Correct assessment. I made 5 mins,

chesterproclaimeth:

He's more than a bit suspect where style and/or bikes are concerned though

Correct assessment 😀

Which reminds me, I wish there was a [s]sci-fi film[/s] part of every person's life where a Raleigh Stowaway is an actual time-machine back to the 1970s UK. And then if you can find a 1930s Chinese bike you can back to the 1930s China, etc, etc. You could actually find a 1990s Schwinn and cycle back to the movie-set of Wayne's World, pull a massive broadsideskiddie-stop and say 'Schwinnnng!' to Tia Carerre. If you want to go back to before there were bikes then you have to use one of those other (boring) time machines.

Watched Hardcore Henry the other day(nope not grot).Really enjoyed the non stop violence(nope still not grot)

@ Malvern Rider - I understand a return to the 70's is on the cards, no need for an obscure time travel bicycle.

No superheroes, zombies, or teenage vampires, I'm ooooouuut.

You could pitch your idea to Blue Hippo, you never know 😉

Guardians of the Galaxy 2 last night. Well it's not really scifi but let's not get into [i]that[/i] or Margaret Atwood'll come round and argue us all to death.

And yeah, really good! Ropey pacing, random changes of tone, overuse of running jokes not all of which were any good... But lovely to look at, great fun, best mass murder committed by a hero for[i] ages[/i]. I can see where most of the criticism comes from, and it doesn't have the same feel as the original but still massively enjoyed it. Lots of Firefly and Fifth Element in it.

Finally watched under the skin. I personally enjoyed it, gave it my own bizarre rating of 10/10. It's clever and engaging.

Yup, [i]under the skin[/i] is definitely a marmite film, personally I love it and still get unsettled every time I watch it so that makes it a good film

Haha, a marmite film. Good term.

Thought first Guardians of the Galaxy was better than 2nd. Wouldn't intentionally go to see either unless work hadn't paid for it, first was enjoyable, second was got just a bit too ridiculous.

Got half way through Life (2017) last night. Too tired to be bothered to finish it. Struggled with the crew's complete lack of concern about the single-cell becoming an organism overnight and that each cell is simultaneously nerve/muscle/photo-receptor. Nothing to worry about, really? The 2nd death was a little different take on things. Fairly derivative of Alien.

Life.

Life is really really good.

[i]Now Alien trailer out. Oh Lordy![/i]

Arf! Worse film I've seen since Ghost in The Shell. Probably worse the GitS (ha! Gits!) too.

strawman - Member
Finally watched under the skin. I personally enjoyed it, gave it my own bizarre rating of 10/10. It's clever and engaging.

great film!

I saw Man of Steel at the weekend, reviews were quite poor so my expectations were low
and there were some silly elements
but on the whole it was a really enjoyable sci-fi romp rather than a superhero film

Yup, under the skin is definitely a marmite film, personally I love it and still get unsettled every time I watch it so that makes it a good film

I thought it was pretty dull, TBH. So Marmitey indeed.

Latest long haul viewing update

Logan - really rather good! Ending got a bit soppy, but the middle piece on growing old/mortality was great.
Deadpool - repeat for me, but still fun. Next Bond as the baddie as well.
Xxx The return of Xander Cage - as bad as you can imagine. Was rather drunk by that stage, though.

Another update, after latest long haul jaunt (Couple of weeks ago)

Passengers - Lovely to look at, but oh my....how utterly dull and predictable
Life - As above, really. Dull.
Kong, Skull Island - Hiddlestone posted that one in from long distance. Remarkably dull!

However, Lego Batman movie made me chuckle!

Suspicious that flashy really only posted to remind us of his job as the jet setting vice president of nearly new paperclips and biros.