Best Sci-fi Tournament - Round 3 Group G

[Heather19]

Note: You may vote for up to 2 films

District 9
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/District_nine_ver2.jpg

Star Wars Episode IV : A New Hope
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/87/StarWarsMoviePoster1977.jpg

Artificial Intelligence
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e6/AI_Poster.jpg

Blade Runner
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/Blade_Runner_poster.jpg

The Fifth Element
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/65/Fifth_element_poster_%281997%29.jpg

The Mist
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a1/The_Mist_poster.jpg

[Heather19]

District 9
A.I.

[fernandito]

District 9
Blade Runner

[DoctorDodge]

District 9
Blade Runner

Interestingly, with a few exceptions, we seem to be sharing a lot of similar choices Fernando, including this round! :lol:

[mae]

AI and Blade Runner. Again, AI is a criminally underrated film, it's Spielberg's best sci-fi film.

[frik]

Blade Runner
Star Wars IV

sk

[Mattrick]

District 9
A.I.

Samesies

[Jean]

I intensely disliked AI, The 5th Element and The Mist. Have voted for Blade Runner

[mae]

Why such a reaction to AI, Jean? Could you elaborate? It's one of my favorites.

[Odetta]

District 9
Blade Runner

[divemaster]

Blade Runner
Star Wars IV

sk

Same vote for me. Easiest grouping in this round by far.

[pathoftheturtle]

Blade Runner
Star Wars IV

sk

Same vote for me. Easiest grouping in this round by far.Yeah. To think that District 9 is better than either of these must take a lot of mental effort.

[T-Dogz_AK47]

Star Wars
Blade Runner

That was so easy this round must have been a joke, right? :lol:

[Jean]

Why such a reaction to AI, Jean? Could you elaborate? It's one of my favorites.
I don't think I can at the moment, because I don't remember much of it except being simultaneously exasperated and bored (rare mix, but one I normally experience while watching Spielberg)

[mae]

AI is beautiful. Only four votes. Sad.

[Heather19]

I voted for AI, and loved it. But I'm not surprised it's not getting more votes. Most people I know really disliked the film. I can't understand why though. But based on that, I always just assumed that most people ranked it rather low. I just checked and IMDB has it listed as a 7.1/10, rotten tomatoes has it at 64% for viewers, and netflix has it at 3.2/5 stars. That's actually better than I was expecting.

[pathoftheturtle]

... being simultaneously exasperated and bored (rare mix, but one I normally experience while watching Spielberg)
I agree with that. I confess the ending made me tear up a bit, but I think that was just because at the time I hadn't seen my mom for a while. It's really just D.A.R.Y.L. all over again.

[fernandito]

Blade Runner
Star Wars IV

sk

Same vote for me. Easiest grouping in this round by far.Yeah. To think that District 9 is better than either of these must take a lot of mental effort.

Idk, a case can be made for District 9 being a better sci fi film than Episode IV. I'm glad for either to advance though.

[T-Dogz_AK47]

Idk, a case can be made for District 9 being a better sci fi film than Episode IV. I'm glad for either to advance though.

WTF!!! Really!!?? :wtf::panic:

Awww shit.... Dude, you really need to give me fair warning before posting something like that.... Your comment just made me spray coffee all over my laptop!!! LOL! :lol:

[fernandito]

Idk, a case can be made for District 9 being a better sci fi film than Episode IV. I'm glad for either to advance though.

WTF!!! Really!!?? :wtf::panic:

Awww shit.... Dude, you really need to give me fair warning before posting something like that.... Your comment just made me spray coffee all over my laptop!!! LOL! :lol:

Always happy to provide comedic relief :)

Yeah, see the science fiction in SW is just a cog that's part of a larger machine -- in this case, that machine is a story about Good vs Evil painted in very broad strokes. Its like politics in the SW universe. They exist only in bare bones form to serve as the stories' skeletal outline and give purpose and direction to the conflict. All we know is that Rebels = good, and Empire = bad. We aren't really provided specifics because they're not important. Don't get me wrong, I love Star Wars and will always geek out at the sound of a light saber switching on and X-Wings are some of my favorite star craft of all time, but the specifics of how they function are after thoughts.

Now compare that to something like District 9 where specifics are everything and the science fiction is an integral part of a powerful and poignant story about human nature; our priorities (or lack of), our fear of the unknown and how we hive mind against it, how deeply our morality decays while on a greedy pursuit

Wikus's father in law telling his own daughter that her husband is dead when he's really not, our never ending quest to obtain weapons to obliterate each other with. All that, and it still has more than enough visual set pieces to satisfy the sweet tooth of any action aficionados.

Like I said, very different films but I'm happy to see either advance.

[pathoftheturtle]

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2-ZoRCjz1Vs/maxresdefault.jpg

[fernandito]

And we all know how well that worked out lol. My bad, I should have cited Ep IV specifically -- it's what I was thinking of when I typed that ^

I think that's one of the prequels' pitfalls, in all honesty. Lucas was trying to make of the saga something it was not... or rather, he was not equipped as a writer to properly integrate them into his universe. Stuff like the intricacies of the senate/republic and the midochlorians (lol) could maybe have worked if in the hands of a capable writer. Unfortunately, Lucas was not that person.

[Mattrick]

District 9 is a better film than A New Hope. District 9 is an almost perfect allegory for the long-running class struggle in South Africa. I love it. Wish more films like this came out in Hollywood these days, and are as successful as this one was.

[pathoftheturtle]

The whole concept of Star Wars was to NOT put the science center stage on principle that space travel is more believable if taken for granted. That can hardly be made to count against now, especially since District 9 is one of the imitators.

And here
And we all know how well that worked out lol. My bad, I should have cited Ep IV specifically -- it's what I was thinking of when I typed that ^

I think that's one of the prequels' pitfalls, in all honesty. Lucas was trying to make of the saga something it was not... or rather, he was not equipped as a writer to properly integrate them into his universe. Stuff like the intricacies of the senate/republic and the midochlorians (lol) could maybe have worked if in the hands of a capable writer. Unfortunately, Lucas was not that person.
You got it. It was precisely my intent to underscore how good Ep. IV was by reminder of contrast. All you really need to establish the Empire is imagery styled clearly after the Nazis. Duh. And don't forget, ANH was all done on much smaller budget. D9 has some good points, but iconic filmmaking still is not a bad thing.

[needfulthings]

http://imageshack.com/a/img742/765/F6SFIZ.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img911/2999/9bt12I.jpg

[needfulthings]

U.K. 1st edition
http://imageshack.com/a/img538/3436/4cZGQU.jpg http://imageshack.com/a/img540/1894/Ww8Mrx.jpg