What are you tired of seeing in Sci-Fi movies?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction' started by Uberwatch, Feb 1, 2015.

  1. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Well think about it. If you're gonna be living there for months or years, you're gonna want the ship to look at least a little pleasant ya know. :p Just because it's a spaceship doesn't mean it has to look like a prison facility. I think USS Enterprise had carpeting and other decorations, so it wasn't always cold, hard metal.

    @Void - I pretty much agree with everything else you said. Here's one to include:

    A board/council that does nothing but try to hinder and obstruct the protagonist. I get it, corrupt executives are corrupt and all, but I would think they'd know the protagonist has the interests of whatever organization they're in at heart, so why would they make doing that difficult for the protagonist?
     
    Last edited: Jul 15, 2015
  2. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    I don't know. I'm still trying to imagine Battlestar Galactica (the new one) with the marines chasing cylons up and down carpeted corridors. What's next, velour uniforms? :D

    Granted, it probably wasn't meant for such a long voyage to begin with. If I remember correctly some of the other ships looked cozier. President's ship definitely had at leat one rug. I'm sure there was some wallpaper too.
     
  3. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    Velour uniforms? Hmm... *jots down some notes*

    But yeah, longer voyages would demand something other than cold, cold steel everywhere with not even a painting or two. Even modern-day battleships have some type of firm carpeting in specific rooms with picture framings, etc. :D

    And now you have me imagining the marines chasing cylons with folded up velour uniforms to make them wear. :p
     
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  4. Sack-a-Doo!

    Sack-a-Doo! Contributor Contributor

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    My biggest beef with science fiction films (so called) is that most of them are either horror, war or superhero movies dressed up in sci-fi clothing (set in the future, a parallel universe or off-planet).

    I'd like to see some real science fiction again centered around ideas instead of macho posturing and power struggles.
     
  5. Void

    Void Senior Member

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    [​IMG]
     
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  6. Aaron DC

    Aaron DC Contributor Contributor

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    I am not sure, but I think carpet may be avoided -- as would most fabric furnishings -- as fire is a major problem in space and carpets, etc, provide fuel for fire. And burn toxically.

    Just hazarding a guess.

    I would far rather grass to carpet :D
     
  7. Link the Writer

    Link the Writer Flipping Out For A Good Story. Contributor

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    You've a fantastic point. Admittedly, I was guilty of the same with my sci-fi, what with wars and liberations of planets, etc. I wouldn't mind a sci-fi that centers more on ideas and philosophies regardless of whether or not it's set in deep space.
     
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  8. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    ROFLMAO - But every word is true!! Love it!!
     
  9. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    Lost in space - they should have had carpets. The space ship was their home!
     
  10. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    Lost in space (again) the main couple had a double bed complete with continental quilt and feather pillows ...
     
  11. Bradisrad

    Bradisrad New Member

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    I am getting tired, mostly, of movies featuring a group of teenagers with a handheld video camera, who somehow stumble on a time traveling device, super powers, or anything else like that.
     
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  12. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    I've just seen an advert for a re-make of The Fantastic 4. Good God! The film was only done ten years ago ... why the hell are they re-hashing old hat instead of making new movies?

    So sick of old hat.
     
  13. Sack-a-Doo!

    Sack-a-Doo! Contributor Contributor

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    In Hollywood, when you go into someone's office to pitch anything, the unspoken lies thick in the air: show me the same, only different. Taken to extremes, this leads to the same-ole-same-ole like what we have now, a never-ending stream of superhero movies.

    Hollywood executives are trained in how to make money and gain power, not how to make good stories.
     
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  14. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    And it won't change because enough people will still go to see these films.
     
  15. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    And it's not even old-hat. I mean, this franchise may have petered out, but the corps hasn't even cooled, ffs. I saw the advert yesterday and thought the same thing. I was like, wait a minute, Jessica Alba and Chris Evans are still young enough and hot enough to reprise their roles. How/Why is this getting a reboot already? :wtf:

    ETA: And then I saw that the new actors have that fresh-from-a-post-apocolyptic-YA-novel-trilogy-film "look" and I realized why...
     
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  16. Nicoel

    Nicoel Senior Member

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    I was looking at the list of movies that's coming outfor the next 5 years or so (the list of planned movies.. anyone know what I'm talking about?) And it's so disappointing. The only thing I'm looking forward to is Deadpool.
     
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  17. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I think it's odd how comic book trope and characters have taken a seat next to more traditional Science Fiction. I'm from an older school of thought. For me, Comic Book Land and Science Fiction Land are very distinct and separate countries. I know there are arguments for how the two overlap and we can wax rhapsodic all day about that, but for me, Wrey, they are not the same.
     
  18. Steerpike

    Steerpike Felis amatus Contributor

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    I agree. Comic book land is firmly in the fantasy realm, in my opinion :)
     
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  19. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    I am getting so over comic-book crap!
     
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  20. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    I have a quick scoot through imdb every once in a while looking at upcoming/planned movies.
     
  21. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    SyFy Channel is about to air a three part mini series that is an adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End (1953). Not a caped crusader to be seen. Str8-up, old-school, back'ta basics Science Fiction. :)

    http://www.syfy.com/childhoodsend

    [​IMG]
     
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  22. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    It's getting to the point where it's too confusing. Hulk was re-hashed too, and then the justice league brought some of them together but, for me, the times didn't match up (or is that just me?)

    Now, this new F4 gang look too young to be the characters they are playing and there's a possibility that Sue Storm will actually be adopted as her brother is black - added to that, I've just seen something referring to Will Smith playing the character of Deadshot in the suicide squad but, hang on one cotton picking moment, Deadshot is in the Stephen Amell TV show, Arrow, at the moment, played by a white guy (a weedy looking white guy) and the Oliver Queen Arrow in Arrow is not the same as the Green Archer Arrow so how's that crossover going to work??

    AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
     
  23. cutecat22

    cutecat22 The Strange One Contributor

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    Oooooo!!!
     
  24. Aaron DC

    Aaron DC Contributor Contributor

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    Does that include graphic novel land?

    Watchmen for me is one example where I felt the movie was spot on aesthetically. And had sci-fi elements that trumped all the super hero capey stuff.
     
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  25. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    For me, yes. The props of Science Fiction notwithstanding, even Watchmen contains an element that is an essential part of Comic Book Land that typically is not part of Science Fiction Land, and it's a core, fundamental difference. It asks that we alter our view of human behavior and acceptance to a degree that allows for these characters to be slipped into normal, real life. It asks that we not engage them in the way that we obviously really would were all of this to suddenly be real.

    Watchmen, as a concept, actually pokes fun at the unreal nature of the superhero trope. It starts (in the broadest of strokes) with superheroes and "masks" surfacing during WWII and being used by the government for its own purposes. No. No, no, no. In the real-real world, a superhero with real super powers is a massive problem for whatever world government is dealing with him or her. A "mask" who doesn't have actual super powers is just a crazy in a costume and isn't allowed anywhere near military ordinance or troops. In the real world, this is an unstable soul in need of psychiatric help and probably pharmacological therapy. Treating this person as anything else falls outside the borders of Science Fiction. Science Fiction absolutely loves to play with fanciful technology, but always as a tool with which to view aspects of the real human condition. To throw the human condition out the window and pretend that we are other than we actually are is to exit Science Fiction Land, for me.

    There are Comic Book franchises that do tackle this idea from a more realistic standpoint, X-Men being the obvious standout, especially in its film incarnation. The whole film franchise deals with the human inability to accept mutants and is an easy (and dashingly heroic) stand-in for any marginalized group in the real-real world. But, while they do get that one bit right, we are then asked to accept a gorgeous black woman who can control the weather with her mind, an enviably beautiful young man who can freeze things at will, a ruggedly handsome every-man-wants-to-be-him guy whose body heals almost instantly (thermodynamics be damned!) etc., etc., etc.... All of this is well outside the realm of Science Fiction.

    I think Comic Book is its own genre, to be honest. At least that's how I see it. It allows for a meld of Fantasy elements and Science Fiction elements, but serves a purpose different to either of the aforementioned.
     
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