[OT] Dark Star (1974) - the platinum age of movies
Walter Bright
newshound2 at digitalmars.com
Wed Sep 1 22:46:07 PDT 2010
Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> I don't really see that. To me, the original trilogy at least, seemed like
> action flicks in sci-fi clothing (Nothing wrong with that!) Now the
> Battlestar Galactica remake, the V remake, and Stargate Universe, *those*
> are soap operas pretending to be sci-fi. And that goes triple for Craprica.
So many people like BG that I keep giving it a try, and keep turning it off.
> I really miss the sci-fi from around 1990-2005 (approx). I know a lot of
> people would probably consider this heresy, but to me, that's the golden age
> of science fiction. All of the Berman-era Star Treks (none of this JJ Abrams
> nonsense), the Stargate movie, Stargate SG-1 (even Atlantis was at least
> ok), Babylon 5 (no spoilers! I still haven't gotten around to the last
> season and a half), The Fifth Element, Farscape, Firefly (although that was
> really more space western than sci-fi). Lots of great stuff.
Please don't overlook 2001 or Colossus.
> But now sci-fi is mostly just soap operas with shitty camera work, and a few
> well-intended-but-ultimately-mediocre attempts like Warehouse 13, the
> revived Doctor Who, and Sanctuary (really more of an off-brand X-Men than
> sci-fi though - and I'm not much one for western comics). Eureka's about the
> only really good one on (although it still has just a touch more soap-drama
> than I would like, and sometimes it feels like Carter is the only one really
> carrying the show). So aside from that one, I usually just watch anime
> instead.
Real sci-fi is based on a "what if X" and then a story is built around it. 2001
is what if we find an artifact on the moon? Colossus is what if a defense
computer becomes sentient? Soap operas, horse operas, etc., aren't really sci-fi
even if they are in spaceships. Monster movies are sci-fi, but the genre is so
tired (something is killing the crew one by one!) that I really don't want to
see another one.
Is Star Wars sci-fi? I'd say not, because spaceships are the setting, but have
nothing to do with the plot which you could transfer wholesale to a western or
an eastern. The fact that entire sequences seem to be lifted directly from "633
Squadron" also argues that it is not sci-fi.
BTW, watch "Primer". That's some really good sci-fi. No special effects, no
budget, just exploring the amazing consequences of a simple idea.
More information about the Digitalmars-d
mailing list