The downfall of Sci-fi

[Principal_Skin-trade]

Seriously? What the hell happened? Even Star TreK: The Motion Picture makes every sci-fi movie lately look like total shit. I mean what is the last great recent Sci-fi film you have seen? Yes I know you want to say Transformers but I don't consider that a movie that is completely dedicated strictly to the genre of Sci-fi. Obviously, the answer is that hollywood ran out of creativitiy a long time ago. Good stories are written, yes but I think producers and directors are scared of having to translate the meaningful message of writings into a great film. While I am at it, let me recap some of the more recent "Sci-fi fare". Terminator 3, well, it just took the positive message of Terminator 2 and inverted it. That was hardly brilliant, it was stupid and depressing.  As for all the recent Star Trek movies... I shouldn't even have to explain. Even Star Trek: First Contact wasn't that great, and I'll tell you why... it took the most obvious direction: A story about the borg and time travel. Those are hardly new elements to Star Trek. Star Wars, Matrix, Serenity have all suffered from "Not much effort required" syndrome. They'll come up with one or two satisfying ideas to spread over the course of the movie and then simply stop right there, making everyone believe that it was a work of genius. Do robots dream of electric sheep? I don't know, but I know that I dream of administering electric shock therapy as punishment for bad writing in sci-fi films.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

People who have good ideas either can't get a foot in the door anymore....or they're afraid to send in their work just to have it ripped off (a la The Matrix)

That leaves us with people who are there....bean counters, Yes Men and guys like Brannon Braga.  Who (for all I've been able to find out) went straight from Nowhere, Montana to college to an intership at Paramount to writing Trek.   No sign of any life-experience outside of what he knows from books or TV that I can find.   People whose only passion in life is their next paycheck.

IMHO

[torgosPizza]

I really liked A.I. the second time around (an unpopular opinion, I'm sure) and I've also enjoyed Pitch Black and Children of Men (which I would say is only Sci Fi because it takes place in the not-too-distant future). Primer had a great concept but I think didn't execute it very well.

But you're right. It seems like for every good sci fi movie, there are a dozen The Cores and ID4 and Time Machines and what have you. It is kinda sad because I enjoy the genre.

[GregMcduck]

I really liked A.I. the second time around (an unpopular opinion, I'm sure)

I love A.I.

I'm not sure why it gets the all the haters it does.

[Plastic Self-Cleaning Duck]

But you're right. It seems like for every good sci fi movie, there are a dozen The Cores and ID4 and Time Machines and what have you....

Most of which were "written" by John Logan.    

You had to love Time Machine, though....  This terrible problem about he couldn't save his fiancee because as soon as he did he'd have no reason to invent the time machine anymore which supposedly would undo his saving her.....

Unless of course if he went back in time, grabbed her before the mugging, took her back to the time machine and brought her forward in time to after the time he built it so that she was both alive and the machine will have still been necessary.....

But then there'd be no story.

Which is probably why HG Wells didn't write the bloody thing that way in the first freaking place!!!!!

I repeat my offer to Logan of a free Home Depot gift card if he promises to do the Motion Picture industry and the world a favor and encase his head in cement.

[torgosPizza]

I really liked A.I. the second time around (an unpopular opinion, I'm sure)

I love A.I.

I'm not sure why it gets the all the haters it does.

I don't know either. I will admit I hated it the first time, not sure if I was expecting something different or just had no patience, but I saw it the second time and was blown away.

Sometimes it takes a second viewing, I guess.

[bettertomorrowamy]

A.I. is a great movie.

Until I read what people wrote on the internet about it, I assumed it was a hit.  My sister liked it.

I love the part where the future robots fly that ship through the excavation they are working on.

[Principal_Skin-trade]

You know, I really like AI too... Artificial Intelligence, not the movie 

[bettertomorrowamy]

Well then see my suggestion for a Rifftrax here http://www.rifftrax.com/smf/index.php/topic,4759.msg132702.html#msg132702

[Minnesota]

*sigh* my favorite 2 movies EVER are both 'recent sci-fi' (1. Matrix 2. Dark City) ... honestly I don't understand where you're coming from on this one Principle? I suppose one explanation might be that people tend to glorify the past, when in fact cinema is constantly improving every year. Torgos gave an excellent example in Pitch Black which is an underrated sci-fi classic.

Maybe you'd find what you're looking for in the foreign markets, 3 can't miss recommendations... renew yer faith...


the Returner


Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children


District B13

[BathTub]

Yeah, Dark City gets overlooked, my rental service doesn't even list it.

[optimus357]

I think it is less a reflection on the genre of sci-fi as it is on the entire industry.  Perhaps there is just too much media in everyones' face at any given moment to muster up original ideas or at least new ways to tell old ideas.  Oh well, something big in sci-fi will crop up eventually and it might just be the new Star Trek movie everyone is so not excited for!  I think I am able to go in optimistic cause I have still yet to see any of the earlier Trek movies or had to sit through Shatner for more than just bad commercials.  Speaking of which, have you guys seen that one where he like molests some poor woman at a hotel lobby.  For a while I was actually convinced Shatner might actually just play a douchebag on film.  No, he pretty much lives the role I think..

[Just Some Guy]

I think part of the issue is that Hollywood has a real problem with equating science fiction with action movies.  There are good science fiction movies out there but they typically are not action movies.  Science fiction is all about the clever ideas and it's not enough to have Die Hard on a space ship.

And AI was awful, a mish-mash of disjointed concepts that give the film a superficial depth; if you don't think about it the film seems deep, but start reasoning and it falls apart badly.

[Douglin]

Cypher, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Primer are all recent good Sci-Fi.

But you named this topic the 'downfall of Sci-Fi', where exactly did the genre fall from?  Looking at all the movies they've used for MST3k it seems like Sci-Fi has always been at pretty much the same, a very mixed bag.

In this thread we've managed to come up with a good handful from the last decade.  Are you saying you'd be able to come up with a larger amount of movies for every previous decade?  What are all these wondrous films with multiple ideas you speak of?

[Junkyard]

Douglin has nothing but good points here. Science fiction, perhaps even by defenition, is really iffy. It's speculation, so how can it be otherwise?