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The Sci-fi Films To Look Forward To In 2013
brumgrunt writes "Not every sci-fi film released in 2013 will be a sequel or franchise movie. Den Of Geek has highlighted the ten sci-fi movies that might just offer something a little different from the PG-13, family-centric norm."
The list includes Elysium, from the writer/director of District 9. It's "set in 2159, where Earth has become so hopelessly overcrowded that the richest members of society live on a luxurious orbiting space station." There's also After Earth, directed (but not written) by M. Night Shyamalan, which stars Will Smith and his son Jaden. They "crash land on Earth at some point in the future, by which time it's become a dangerous place devoid of human life." And, of course, there's Ender's Game.
The sci fi movie to ender all sci fi movies...
Ongoing best-of-sci-fi discussion here.
I don't intend to contribute to a Movie Star promoting his son into Movie Star II, I'll rather go and see Elysium or Ender's Game.
...the world is scheduled to end on 12/21/2012...
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
For those wondering, the Ender's Game adaptation is not supposed to be doing so hot according to outsiders that have seen it in production. As for "After Earth", well... it's just kind of a shame M. Night Shamylan keeps getting money. I imagine it's like meth for movie studios. You know it's just ending up terrible and ruining everything, but you pay up anyway.
As for the good. Robot and Frank is supposed to an excellent little indie film, Elysium is more odd down and dirty Sci-Fi kickassery from Neil Blokamp, Pacific Rim is something like a Gundam/Giant Robot anime turned live action, and Gravity is supposed to be awesome as well as the most truly hardcore sci-fi pic of the bunch.
... didn't make that list but it shows up in IMDB as being available in 2013.
The description of said movie makes me think it's directly inspired by Dougal Dixon's After Earth book (available at http://www.amazon.com/After-Man-A-Zoology-Future/dp/0312194331 and other stores). A *great* read, I must say.
Now, that movie shows promise... or it would, if Mr. ObTwist weren't involved. Still, getting to see a the heroes mounting a rabbuck might be worthwhile.
"Trust me - I know what I'm doing."
- Sledge Hammer
Postpone the Hobbit, if ever there was a movie that needed P. Jackson's ability to capture a tale.
Nope, sorry, seen Hollyweird fuck up entirely too many of my favorite childhood reads by "adapting" them into 90 minute suck-fests.
I'll steer clear until they A) are thoroughly and positively reviewed by trusted peers, and B) become available on at least one of the streaming services I subscribe to.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Is there still time to stop this movie from being made and/or released?... Heck, I'll pay full ticket AND blu-ray price to see it never happen. Who's with me? If we give them enough money maybe they'll go away without ruining stuff.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
I for one will boycot this crappy movie, whose with me?
-Poopshoot.com
Also two films with Tom Cruise and Will Smith? Nope.
Worse, the Will Smith film is filmed by M. Night Shamalamadingdong.
Bit early for this, isn't it? A lot of titles are TBA until after Christmas.
As it is, there's a decent Sci-fi flick probably still playing near you (or will be playing at a later date); Looper.
Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett is one of my prefered science fiction short stories, pretty close to the top if not the top one. The Hollywood adaptation teached me to not assume anything about movies based on good books, specially now.
What's the deal? Is Mark Walberg the action star for geeks?
What about the one where a drought hits much of the US devistating crops. This causes an increase in food prices, and ends up causing large scale starvation and unrest in undeveloped and developing countries?
It's due out in early 2013. It's called "The News".
I read through the list feeling more and more cynical. Adaptation of best seller, staring on Screen Saint Thomas. Plotless CGI movie. High concept CGI movie. Comic horror movie. And so on... Some of these will have their fans, I guess, but I find it hard to care about them.
Then the last one on the list is a new movie from Alfonso Cuarón. Finally! If you've seen Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban or Children of Men you'll know this is the only big name director who understands all the little touches make an imaginary world plausible. Probably the only movie on the list I'll bother with.
I have kids so don't keep up. The last two 'Sci Fi-ish' movies I rated was 'Moon' and 'Sucker Punch.' Have I missed much?
And, when they do they're just going to hyper-analyze and bitch about ever little detail trying to make themselves feel smart. Go check out imdb.com forums on any sci-fi movie released in the last 10 years. If I were a Hollywood producer, I sure wouldn't put *my* money up to get one made.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
This issue is chronically ignored, but the fact remains that earth is finite and no matter how "carbon neutral" we all try to be, at some point we'll create too many people to both have those people and any kind of natural environment as well. If we had orbiting colonies today, the rich would go there to escape the clutter, pollution, violence, corruption, etc. of life on earth. Maybe Elysium will be like the Idiocracy for future generations.
I doubt Smith would do anything other than PG-13 with his son, or without ... his days of doing anything edgy vanished with Six Degrees of Separation. In my opinion, he's on the Adam Sandler plan of "make a bazillion dollars doing the least challenging acting roles possible."
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Whatever happened to 'Iron Sky'? Wasn't that supposed to be out by now?
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Where's the promised Rendezvous With Rama? I want to see the cylindrical sea, dammit.
Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files, has just this week agreed to direct and produce a Sci-Fi feature to be released early-mid 2013.
It's still under wraps, but from what I've been told it has a great script, and is set (or maybe only shot) in New Zealand, although there are no hobbits or elves involved, and the cast is almost entirely American.
Carter directed the disappointing second XF movie, although most if not all of the criticism was aimed squarely at the story and writing, which was mostly the work of Frank Spotnitz, who had just come off the Night Stalker TV show.
The direction was generally quite praiseworthy, which isn't all that surprising, considering Carter wrote and directed some of the all-time best episodes of The X-Files, so it will be interesting to see how this movie turns out.
The main company doing the CGI work (Digital Domain Media Group) went under and was sold off. It was a quick sale, but no word if things are still on schedule.
http://www.endersansible.com/2012/09/24/digital-domain-acquired-by-reliance-mediaworks-and-galloping-horses/
But is there ape life?
From what I've heard of the movie before, overpopulation in particular isn't the focus of the movie so much as general environmental destruction and wealth inequality. In any case it should be a good old-school dystopian sci-fi movie and piss off right-wingers so I call that a win/win.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
all we need is them to keep earth as a prison world and both of these do nothing new ....zero....avengers was about the only decent sci fi
and its an american progranda piece
There's enough Star Trek, Star Wars, etc. And no more remake of movies from 20th century. And whatever movie that will be made, increase writer's budget by 500% and cut special effects budget by 80%. Yes, it's a bitch to produce a movie with a compelling story that engages the audience. If CGI is used, remember a good story and nobody will notice the CGI (sounds weird but it's true, like reading a good book you become so drawn into the story you don't notice if fonts sans serif corrupted).
mfwright@batnet.com
WTF, I just read on the side of a bus a movie called (or at least marketed as) "This decades the matrix", why on earth would any movie worth it's salt have to stoop so low? I can't remember the actual name of the movie but I simply remember that marketing. WTFingF , anyhoo, drunk as the lord and just replying to stuff. :D
tell that to star wars , star trek and battle star galactica fans....oh and you might want to see what films make hte most money...its aint your crap fest drama shows...
The current estimates of global population put it at 10B before it starts to decline due to slowing birthrates in most parts of the world, not over population or lack of resources.
"Tessier-Ashpool is a fictional family appearing in William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy novels. The family owns Freeside, a space station shaped like a spindle Bernal sphere constructed in high orbit. The family resides in the Villa Straylight, which occupies one end of the spindle.
The family is organized and run as a corporation, Tessier-Ashpool S.A.. Family members are kept under cryogenic stasis and thawed out periodically so that governance of the family is cycled between members. According to "orbital law" they are legally dead while cryogenically preserved..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tessier_Ashpool
Rebuild of Evangelion 3.0 counts as a "sfi-fi film," despite being animated. I'm also anticipating it will be better than its western knock-off, Pacific Rim.
Too bad it's only being released in Japan on November 17th. Apparently Studio Khara and T-Joy hate international money too much for a worldwide release. Shaft and its distributors announced western screenings for the Puella Magi Madoka Magica movie, which sold out very quickly.
Oh well, I guess only the studios miss out on money, because I'm going to watch it anyway.
http://xkcd.com/635
Hmmn ..:P
I was under the impression that Neuromancer was coming out in 2013 ? The director is the same guy who directed Splice. I was looking forward to that.
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It's gonna be great! Academy awards, no doubt!
I didn't see it that way. In the story, the "Ohhh!" moment didn't come until Human++ thinking (the emergent mind of a cloned population) could see things from a different perspective. In aggregate, contemporary Humans are sharply bounded in their ability for rational decisions (as per your Middle East reference; notable but not unique, any long running conflict could serve as a similar example). Haldeman was suggesting that Human++ thinking could work better than what we can do now, or at least that it took Human++ thinking to see the former opposition more clearly.
Also note: I liked that Human++ encouraged independent genome repositories vs. Borg-like assimilation.
Forever War was a very enjoyable and thought provoking read - exactly why I like scifi.
(I'm looking forward to checking out Forever Free, I just learned about that in this thread.)
Except the book totally caved in the end.
Both sides, after several thousand years of war: "oh, we thought you wanted the war! Oops, nevermind!"
As if the ancient causes of a war would even matter by that point. c.f. today's middle east.
I read Ender's Game a few years ago and loved it. (Also, Ender's Shadow did very well portraying the same story from the POV of a different character; I haven't read other Ender's books) I'll see if it holds up for me now. I might be curious about the movie anyway unless the reviews suck.
I'm not much of a movie guy in general, so I'm not looking at the other 9.
They exclude sequels and remakes, fair enough, but I'll also see a few sequels/remakes for things I liked the first time.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
But the whole twist is the ending.
It wasn't that much of a twist. One doesn't burn out their chief leadership assets for practice. And the aliens played just too well to be a simulation. And of course, the narrative of the book spent way too much time on these games. I bet a lot of readers had this plot figured out.
I think it would have been more realistic a book if some of the kids had figured it out too (Bean for example) and just decided not to tell. Imagine the reveal at the end when several kids are complaining about getting fooled and one says, "Oh yea, I figured it out from the third game on. I wasn't going to be the one to tell you guys."
I think it would have been more realistic a book if some of the kids had figured it out too (Bean for example)
You need to read Ender's Shadow.
Read Ender's Shadow (parallels Ender's Game, but from Bean's point of view) and you'll see that he definitely does figure it out. In fact, ho not only figures it out, he figures out *why* it's being kept secret, and doesn't tell the others. I suspect a few of the others may have figured it out too.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
This US-centric article missed the movie I wait for: Mars et Avril (english subtitled trailer). I read the visual novel and it look very promising if you don't mind some low budget special effect and like great storytelling.
Red Dwarf Season X premiers tomorrow! Smegging 'ell, what more could you smegheads want? The full original cast! The original writers! A real model of the ship (no CG)! Filmed in front of live audience! Sure, it's an aimless dramady about a glorified roomba, a lazy slob, a smeghead and a cat, but it's still better than 99% of the sci-fi out there. I mean, how can you not love these guys?!
The English word fart is one of the oldest words in the English vocabulary.
Sorry.
Teenage boys brawling in the shower aren't my style.
the authors attempt at writing fantasy
Any news about the Hyperion movie? I am waiting eagerly.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Arnold (The Guvernator) Schwarzenegger will release Total Recall: My Unbelievable Life Story in October...
I am not making this up.
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I'd worked it out two thirds of the way through. It's not a terrible book but certainly didn't live up to the hype IMHO.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Nooo! Splice was terrible.
The movie started off as a meaningless Sci-Fi action flick called But Hunt or something like that. Then sometime during production they got the rights to Starship Troopers and superficially added a few elements of the book to the movie. Verhoeven never read the whole book, and most of the writers had never even heard of it.
He is a D&D-playing, video game-producing geek.
Well yes they would call the book facist seeing as how it spend a good bit of time telling us how democracy was stupid. Then again, considering how democracy is faring in Europe and the US, perhaps we should all go read it and see how it relates to the current political crisis of "people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted... and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears."
A faithful movie adaptation would have our stars debating political history in classrooms for most of the movie with intermittent combat sequences. In a word, boring. I think they did a good job with the movie. It's entertaining. "Medic!"
The Prototype is wearing a nanosuit.
At most, one month a year is worth this deviousness.
Sorry, but I don't think I do. Card had a good book in Ender's Game. But the follow on books just aren't that interesting to me. I don't have a problem with Card earning his keep from milking the franchise, but I'd rather read something a bit more fresh.
Yes, 2013 sounds like a very good year in which to set my futuristic sci-fi film. "In the year 2013..." sounds so damn futuristic. (Seriously, it does.)
...sucked.
It had no heroes, only bad guys. Not even anybody to identify with, except for the alien that died, and his son.
Even the oppressed aliens (obviously representing violent gangs and gang-bangers) were stupid, violent, and self-destructive.
The main character was a coward, insanely confident, and a self-centered idiot, either oblivious to, or uncaring about the harm the system he was in did. Blind to the needs and sentience of his charges and quick to believe and use violence as his only tool. ONLY caring about things that directly effected himself and his position, not only at the expense of the aliens in his charge, but also at the expense of his fellow humans. Both individually, and collectively.
Only doing "the right thing" in the end because he needed a 'cure' to his alien transformation. And doing a "right thing" that was likely to start war between planet-locked Humans, and a spacefairing civilization. Very dumb, very self-centered, very myopic, and with absolutely no redeeming characteristics at all. And he's going to be our ambassador to an alien race. A war criminal who had actively participated in, and partially planned, genocide against the aliens in his care.
I both dread, and look forward to a sequel. Mostly out of curiosity about how the aliens will react to the news that their brothers had been ghettoized, and intentualy exterminated because they were inconvenient. I know how we would react if the roles were reversed.
THINK! It's patriotic
But the director of Splice is the guy behind Cube, which is why I still have hope for him.
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.