Best Sci-Fi Tournament - Round 1, Group D

[Heather19]

Predator and Vanilla Sky.

[Still Servant]

I'm ecstatic to see Predator getting so much love. It is an almost perfect science fiction film. Conceptually, in execution, in sound and acting. A little under two decades old and the Predator's light bending invisibility cloak is still an FX work of art. The 6 members of the rescue squad play perfectly off each other.

For a movie about a 7 foot alien with a shoulder plasma cannon, the film is surprisingly minimalistic on the elements that make up sci fi, but it is very visceral. The last half hour with Arnie and Predator exchanging roles as hunter and hunted in the open jungle is sheer perfection. Gods, I love that movie.

Predator is one of the movies I vividly remember the movie poster hanging in my parents' movie store. I hadn't seen the film yet, but I just thought it looked so cool. To this day, it's still one of my favorite movie posters. I give my parents so much shit now about not saving all those great movies posters. I think I only have a handful of them. I was probably the only 7 year old to have a Platoon poster in his room growing up.

[Mattrick]

I first saw Predator on afternoon TV when I was a kid after an airing of WWF Superstars.

[mae]

Thirty votes (great turnout) but still just one (mine) for Woman In the Moon, Fritz Lang's second sci-fi masterpiece...

[Jean]

Well that new superhero movie probably is as good as Total Recall.

doubtlessly

if I watched TR now, I would shrug through the first fifteen minutes, yawn through another half-hour, and sleep through the rest. But it was the first film of this kind I ever saw, and it holds a lot of nostalgic value for me. The era, the collapse of communism, the first video parlors (I wrote about them somewhere) and so on.

[pathoftheturtle]

Well that new superhero movie probably is as good as Total Recall.

doubtlessly

if I watched TR now, I would shrug through the first fifteen minutes, yawn through another half-hour, and sleep through the rest. But it was the first film of this kind I ever saw, and it holds a lot of nostalgic value for me. The era, the collapse of communism, the first video parlors (I wrote about them somewhere) and so on.

Alright. You know, though, this must be why new films always do better. More people by definition have had the newer experiences. Naturally I mean more of the people around now.

[mae]

We haven't had that many brand new films nominated though, only two from 2014, but they're both instant classics.

[fernandito]

Almost all of the heavy hitters from each group have been films that are more than two decades old. Aliens, Empire Strikes Back, Back to the Future...

Whatchoo talkin' bout Mike

[mae]

The top four films in this group are all from the '80s.

[pathoftheturtle]

And the bottom films here are older than the 80s.

Sorry, though. I think there's some truth to the point as a general rule, (though you'll recall that I also dismissed it applying in the specific case of our Best Director tourney when it was suggested that C. Nolan made it to second place because that happened to be the year Inception came out) however - I confess I'm just showing some lingering bitterness that Days of Future Past: The Movie was nominated inevitably even though we deliberately left out others which are no more or less sci-fi and no more or less classic.

I should try to get back on topic.

Um, ironically, I feel the Total Recall remake is underappreciated. That's not a great film, either, but I expected a major flop and it actually turned out to be a production you can take seriously more easily than the original.

[mae]

[mae]

Pretty crazy that two great classics (Alphaville and Woman in the Moon) get a combined three votes.

[Still Servant]

Pretty crazy that two great classics (Alphaville and Woman in the Moon) get a combined three votes.

They're just less well known. I've seen thousands and thousands of films and watch about 150 a year and I haven't seen them yet. My taste and the taste of many of us here far exceed what are the normal standard for mainstream movie goers, but that doesn't mean that movies like the two you just listed are going to bee seen by most people.

The great thing about a tournament like this is that more people will seek some of these films out now.

[fernandito]

The following films will be moving on to the next round

Vanilla Sky
Star Wars Episode V : The Empire Strikes Back
Total Recall
Predator
Soylent Green
Ghostbusters