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Space.com's Top 10 Space Movies of All Time
Comatose51 writes "Space.com has posted a Top 10 Space Movies of All Time list based on reader ratings on each movie. Apollo 13 is currently the #1 movie, followed by Star Trek: First Contact at #2, and Wrath of Khan at #3. I was surprised by Apollo 13 at #1, since I initially equated space movies with sci-fi. However, I don't disagree with it. What do other Slashdotters think, or suggest as good space movies?"
I've got two words for you: 'Dark Star'.
David Furst, Melbourne, Australia.
I completely agree. I watched the Firefly series over the past month, and watched Serenity this past week. It was simply amazing.
I have to say I am totally amazed that this show was canceled. They canned this in favor of what? More reality sludge? Yikes.
FOX certainly stacked the odds against it. From the wikipedia article:
Firefly was promoted as an action-comedy rather than the more serious character study it was intended to be. Episodes were occasionally preempted for sporting events, and episodes were not aired in storyline-chronological order as the creators had intended. Most notably, the two-hour episode "Serenity" was intended to be the pilot episode and therefore contained most of the character introductions and back-story. However, FOX decided that "Serenity" was not a suitable pilot, and so the second episode, "The Train Job", was rushed into production to become the pilot episode.
actually, he said he did it for money.
"dollar signs"
Planetes was WONDERFUL, the whole series was very well done and also very realistic.
It portrays what space could very well be like in the next 60-70 years if things keep going well.
I would recommend this not only to anime fans, but space fans in general, or even sci-fi, romance, action fans! It covered all those bases well enough to warrant a viewing!
I been meaning to read the manga, but I heard the anime is pretty much a direct translation, with only a few minor events in different order.
Some other series of course would be:
Any of the Gundam series/movies (especially ones revolving around the colonies, as they also seem fairly realistic).
Cowboy Bebop
Galaxy Express 999 (:P)
I'm sure there of hundreds of stories like mine.
Before everyone here starts oozing with happiness about Serenity, it should be noted that IT FLOPPED. Despite a lot of attention, lots of dedicated fans, and great reviews, it was not even able to recap production costs at the box office. Look at this years yearly box office to get an idea of just how badly it did (for those tired of scrolling, it is in place 77).
Now, with DVD sales I am sure the studio won't end up in the red when all is said and done, but $25 million for a high budget high profile movie is terrible. Serenity will probably be pointed to in the future as a good reason not to use cult DVD followings as a reason to greenlight films. Sorry to tell ya all.
FOX certainly stacked the odds against it.
I am so tired of hearing this. Firefly is a show that caters to a vary narrow group of people - it is innovative and unique, but it is not for everyone.
Serenity was an utter failure at the box office. It has not even come close to the $40 million necessary to recover its budget, even in terms of box office sales (actual revenue for the studio is much lower).
Why is it any surprise that Fox would replace Firefly with a show that has broader appeal? The only shame was that Firefly could have done well on cable - where it's less about "what more profitable show could we put here" and more about "what is the return on investment for this show".
Planets aren't static points, they are in a constant state of motion. Spacecraft don't travel in straight lines, that would require insane amounts of energy. The trick is to get from point A to point B in a reasonable amount of time without an excessive expenditure of energy. See Hohmann transfer orbit.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
If you can still remember how to do calculus (I'm not sure I can - it's been about six years since I last tried) then have a go at working out the route from here to mars (pretend nothing else exists in the solar system). This kind of complexity is fairly easy to do with a pen and paper, but it (roughly) doubles every object you add to the solar system.
You will find that you don't fly in a straight line at all, you fly on an curved trajectory. Now, for fun, try solving the same thing in reverse, and for someone leaving a day later with a faster ship. You'll find that none of these paths intersect in space and time - often not even in just space - except at, or possibly very near, the destination.
If you want to make the calculations really fun, you can assume rocket propulsion, so your mass and thrust change as a factor of time...
By the way, I don't know where you got 496 as the number of straight lines between 32 points. There are 31 routes between each point and each other point. The number of direct routes between two of those points and any other point is 31x30=930. The total number of straight lines is 31!.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
It's based on reader ratings, so it's really no wonder that it's so heavy on space operas -- these are, after all, the most popular kind of sci-fi (or space) movies. Yes, I guess it is a generation thing. Most of their users probably haven't even seen "Silent Running".
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
Well, you can do something about that, if you like. It's still accepting votes, and many of the rankings have already changed a fair bit since the Slashdot summary was written.
I live in Tennessee. Call me a "Yank" and I will track you down and eat your liver.
Mmmm, liver...