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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...
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.
... 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
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
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.
Not even the Mayans thought the world would end when their calender did.
Even if they did, whats their track record. Hmm wiped out. Not looking good. You'd think they would have predicted and avoided that.
The classic psychic / mindreader defense. "So whats your name, what brings you here?" "If you're so good at prediction, why don't you tell me?"
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
I'm no Will Smith fan, but comparing him to Adam Sandler, that is totally uncalled for.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
'Good' depends mostly on your taste, doesn't it?
And you didn't note how you rated those two titles - which are about as different as movies get to be and the latter can't really be called Sci-Fi at all - so that's no help.
So I'll try and go by audience reactions over here where I live.
The Lockout was skippable
Prometheus was visually neat but story-wise quite underwhelming. Still, if you enjoyed the Alien(s) movies, might as well hit this one up.
John Carter was skippable.
Chronicle had promise but ended up disappointing (that's what you get when you cater to teens, I suppose)
Men in Black 3 is worth it only if you enjoyed MiB 2.
Total Recall was not too horrible - just don't compare it to the original (despite some fun cameos and hints at the older title)
Battleship, visually nice but skip.
Seeking a Friend for the End of the World is not really sci-fi but I guess if you enjoyed Moon then this may be okay too.
Iron Sky wasn't released here, so can't comment on that one.
Dredd (does that count as sci-fi, really? I excluded Avengers) and Cloud Atlas aren't released here yet, so no comment on those either.
Looper I'll go ahead and call 'good'. Might still be playing where you live / will be playing soon.
Slightly on the fringe of Sci-Fi, try Cabin in the Woods. I'll go ahead and call that one 'good' as well, although the very, very ending is lackluster. Must have run out of budget making awesome happen during most of the rest of the movie.
Where's the promised Rendezvous With Rama? I want to see the cylindrical sea, dammit.
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
After seeing I robot, I simply can't trust him to do science fiction.
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.
Clive DaSilva Email: clive.dasilva@gmail.com Ubuntu 18.10 Kernel 4.18
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.
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...
Any news about the Hyperion movie? I am waiting eagerly.
My first program:
Hell Segmentation fault
Heinlein and EE Doc Smith both spent a fair amount of time disparaging the pee-pul, and both were bullish on capitalists.
I don't think either would have recognized most of today's industry leaders as capitalists. They were both big on "good pay for good work," "enlightened self-interest," and the like. I think the concept of a company that exists pretty much solely to extract value out of other working companies, saddling them with debt, sometimes to the point of bankruptcy, would have been shocking to them.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
The contradiction is only apparent since that is not what ST was about. It was about the idea that you cannot have social responsibility without first being willing to make a personal sacrifice for the greater good, and that letting those who aren't willing to do so have a say in the society is detrimental. In the novel, such willingness is shown through federal service, but that service was not necessarily military. Also, about military citizenship, people in the military were not allowed to vote. It is only after service that franchise is gained, so nobody in the service can be running the country.
This novel is similar to SiaSL in that contemporary social norms are challenged. In our democracy it's automatically assumed to be a fundamental right that everybody gets to vote, and Heinlein challenges this. Also at the time our army was a conscripted force, still mostly segregated by race, and with deep divides on ethnicity. Women at the time had a very peripheral role in the military. Heinlein used the concept of a completely volunteer force that is integrated by race and ethnicity, and in which women serve equally. The idea of a free person is taken so far that a soldier could legally quit to avoid being sent into battle, since you can't force a person to be willing to sacrifice for the good of the society. Many concepts of the novel were quite socially progressive for its time, and some these are still now.
And of course the strongest connection between the two novels is that Hershal in SiaSL and the teacher in ST are both considered to be the voice of Heinlein speaking through his characters.