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Potentially Great Sci-fi Films Still Due In 2011
brumgrunt writes "With Source Code already attracting strong reviews, the signs are good that 2011 will be a solid year for sci-fi. Den Of Geek has tracked down 10 upcoming sci-fi movies worth keeping an eye on" The nice thing about this write up is that it's not about the summer blockbuster brand of sci-fi, but mostly about the (somewhat) more traditional stuff. Here's hoping there's a few gems worth getting a babysitter for.
>>>most of these will be unbelievably terrible
>>>Sci-fi is very, very difficult to translate to the screen.
Precisely. A magazine (Analog?) recently published their top 20 movies based on solid science.
They only came-up with 11:
Destination Moon (1950). This movie was made with the involvement of the space community of the day and Robert Heinlein who wrote the story it was based on.
Predator (1987)
The Abyss (1989)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Credit Arthur C. Clarke and Kubrik
2010 (1984)
Contact (1997). Credit Carl Sagan
Deep Impact (1998)
Gattaca (1998)
Red Planet (2000)
Minority Report (2002)
Primer (2004)
As for the movies of Summer 2011, only "now" and "rise of the apes" looks like "true" science fiction. Although it's hard to say until I actually see it.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
I always considered myself a geek, so like the sci-fi genre. But that list... wow. That's enough to turn me off going to the movies forever. It's like "Remakes meet Bad Plotlines", to paraphrase the article.
Apollo 18 - some made up crap about something that never flew (see U-571).
Attack The Block - gangsters take on aliens with baseball bats in London (Left4Dead in a movie, badly).
Cowboys & Aliens - "When aliens invade the 19th century West," - 'nuff said.
Super 8 - kids see alien walk away from train crash.
Real Steel - regurgitated Twilight Zone crap with fighting robots.
Contagion - disease-killing-everyone movie.
The Thing (a prequel) - dear God, no!
Now - vaguely interesting "live forever" soap opera.
Rise Of The Apes - dear God, no!
The Divide - apocalyptic survival movie.
Serious, the sci-fi genre has become this pile of trash? God. Yeah, once in a while maybe, as a light relief, but that's not "sci-fi".