Best Sci-Fi Tournament - Round 1, Group M

[fernandito]

[mae]

Coming soon:

[mae]

Going here with:

Fantastic Planet
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Avatar
Akira
Artificial Intelligence
Metropolis

[fernandito]

I'm going to wait until I watch the Arrival and Fantastic Planet til I vote on here, but the rest will definitely be

Eternal Sunshine
Akira
Artificial Intelligence

[divemaster]

I'm not sure what to do. I really like Bill & Ted, but consider it a comedy. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the best movies of the last 10 years, but it's a romantic drama. Sure, both have science fiction elements but I'm not sure either qualifies as a "science fiction movie."

I shall ponder this.

[fernandito]

There is only a faint vestige of sci-fi in Eternal Sunshine, but it's just enough for me to vote for it. It's one of the most powerful film viewing experiences I've ever had. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship can relate to and learn from it.

[Mattrick]

There's plenty of sci-fi in Eternal Sunshine. It's more sci-fi than Clockwork Orange despite the lack of a dystopian society.

[Tommy]

More people should see Tetsuo, I mean how could you not be a little curious after that crazy trailer? That movie is bonkers and I love it!!

[fernandito]

There's plenty of sci-fi in Eternal Sunshine. It's more sci-fi than Clockwork Orange despite the lack of a dystopian society.

What's sci fi apart from the contraption/procedure?

[Heather19]

I think I'm going to wait to vote. I have yet to watch Metropolis.

[Mattrick]

There's plenty of sci-fi in Eternal Sunshine. It's more sci-fi than Clockwork Orange despite the lack of a dystopian society.

What's sci fi apart from the contraption/procedure?

Well, the technology, how it's explained and the fact the proceedure is 80% of the film. It explores what such techonology could do and how addicting it can be as Mary says over the phone to a client, "You know you can't get the proceedure done twice in one month" and the concept that mankind would be happier if we could forget all the bad stuff that's happened to us, that affects negatively in the present. In the film we see the story of a couple who'd had each other erased from their memories (and their struggle to keep them as they are being erased, which is all pretty sci-fi as well) and

Spoiler:

once permanently erased the part that brought them together outside the mind brings them back together and so they can fall back into old patterns but once they remember they'd forgotten each other they remember how things will turn out (because of how they turned out before) and they call it a relationship before it gets to that point because mankind needs memory to learn, to not repeat the same mistakes that brought us pain and without those traumatic memories we can never grow, never change, never try to become better people

. A big part of sci-fi is how technology affects us which is what Eternal Sunshine is all about, no?

[fernandito]

Fair enough. Good point(s).

[Randall Flagg]

I've never seen the 153 minute original cut of Metropolis, but I'm giving it my sole vote. I will not drink the koolaid and vote for Avatar.

[DoctorDodge]

Yeah, I liked Avatar, but...I couldn't vote for it. It's great the first time you see it in 3D, but it definitely loses a lot of its charm after that. As for Bill & Ted, despite being a comedy film, it's still a great time travel movie - the final act of the film is a great example of showing the messiness of time travel done right. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's use of science fiction, however small, shares a lot with my favourite science fiction movies - how a key idea within the genre of science fiction affects a few key characters on a number of levels. The way it focuses on memory in the same way that, say, Inception focused on dreams is a classic example of why I love the genre. And Akira, well...dark and fucked up as hell, but still such a huge influence on the genre. I don't love it quite as much as anything Ghost in the Shell related, but it's still a great scifi/anime film.

[Still Servant]

I'm not sure what to do. I really like Bill & Ted, but consider it a comedy. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of the best movies of the last 10 years, but it's a romantic drama. Sure, both have science fiction elements but I'm not sure either qualifies as a "science fiction movie."

I shall ponder this.

Not that it's the benchmark or anything, but I have a book that lists the Top 100 Sc-fi films of all time and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is in there.

Also, it pops up on almost ever list of Sci-fi films.

[mae]

The quiet masterpiece here is AI. Such a beautiful film.

[Still Servant]

The quiet masterpiece here is AI. Such a beautiful film.

Yup. AI is one of those films that I was unsure about after watching it once. Then I went back years later and was able to fully realize its beauty.

[Mattrick]

I loved A.I when I saw it in theatres. Haven't watched it in a long time but it's underappreciated by most.

[frik]

Avatar
A.I.
Metropolis

sk

[Mattrick]

Going to promote The Arrival a bit with some quotes from Ebert's review:

There is a shot when Zane's fiancee (Teri Polo) rolls to the edge of the big dish; at first, all we see is its vast white expanse, and then suddenly we see the earth below, spread out beneath her. The way the shot is constructed makes it into 10 seconds of just about perfect cinema. A lot of movies in this genre break down in the end into a simpleminded series of chases and fights. There are fights and chases in “The Arrival,” but they're generated by the plot and punctuated by revelations and possibilities, so that the movie keeps on thinking and doesn't go on automatic pilot. “The Arrival” fulfills one of the classic functions of science fiction, which is to take a current trend and extend it to a possible (and preferably alarming) future.

What I appreciated about “The Arrival” is that it stays with its thesis all the way to the end.

[mae]

Need more love for Fantastic Planet. No way should Bill & Ted make it.

[Mattrick]

I wasn't expecting Fantastic Planet to advance. One of the best films in the tournament but it's an obscure french animated film from the early 70's lol. I'm afraid whatever votes it gets is probably only a bi-product of my talking it up so much.

[mae]

Fantastic Planet is great and I honestly expected it to do much better. I always assumed it was pretty well known.

I think I'm going to wait to vote. I have yet to watch Metropolis.

Don't wait and watch it, it's great, one of the best films ever made, let alone sci-fi films.

I've never seen the 153 minute original cut of Metropolis, but I'm giving it my sole vote.

Sadly, I don't think the version available for streaming on Netflix is the new "Complete" version, but I watched that in HD and it was awesome.

[Iwritecode]

Bill and Ted has always been one of my favorite movies. I saw it when I was pretty young though and had no idea of the significance of them using a phone booth as their time travel machine.

Hell, I didn’t even know who George Carlin was at the time.

[pathoftheturtle]

I saw Fantastic Planet around '95. I mostly liked it, I think. To the best of my memory.