Jump to content

Do i like Sci-Fi or not?


John Matrix

Recommended Posts

  • Paid Members

I need your help.

 

Despite my insistence that I hate sci-fi as a genre, I have it repeatedly pointed out to me by numerous people that many of my favourite films are in fact, sci-fi movies.

 

Predator for example, is about an alien.  Total Recall is set on Mars, with mutants.  Quantum Leap is the best TV show ever made, but it’s about a fucking time traveller.  Robocop, Terminator, I could go on. 

 

I’m so confused, where’s the line?  Is there a line?  My defence is usually, “yeah, but you only see a spaceship for a split second at the start, and an alien for 10 minutes at the end, the rest of it is big macho fuckers shooting things”.  But does that wash?  I dunno. 

 

Thoughts?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Moderators

Predator - not sci fi.

 

Total Recall - sci fi.

 

Robocop - sci fi.

 

Quantum Leap - never watched it.

 

Hope that helps. :p

 

 

Umm. I guess it's subjective but sci fi generally tackles some kind of social issues or makes a social commentary with taking certain current situations to their extreme conclusions or satirising them - Robocop and Total Recall both have that. Predator is just a monster movie.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

I've no idea to be honest.  I have an almost autistic approach when it comes to choosing films to watch.  I think a lot of it is borne out of an absolute hard on for my youth, and a lack of time for experimentation in my adult years - i ain't got time to bleed...or risk spending two hours watching something lousy.

 

Basically, no-no's for me are:

 

- Anything obviously set in the past, think costume, modes of transport etc

- Super hero movies

- Obvious sci fi stuff like Star Wars (not the sci-fi stuff im being tricked into watching clearly)

 

 

And yes, i'm fully aware of what a massive wanker that makes me sound.  I can see several films in Malbranque's list which, if the general consensus is that they are indeed sci-fi movies, also make me a massive hypocrit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Predator - not sci fi.

 

 

So, giant 7 foot monsters with 4 mandibles and frikkin lasers, that's something you occasionally see round your way?  :p

 

Anything involving an alien is essentially scifi, even if it's also essentially a monster movie.

 

The Thing, Alien, Predator, all scifi.  Cloverfield... debatable.  Godzilla, debatable.  Alligator/Tremors/Relic/, not scifi.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Paid Members

How important/integral to the story is the science?

 

Is it like Star Trek, with their transporters, warp speed, tachyon drives, inertia dampeners, and all the other bollocks that they have to get NASA to authenticate so that they don't upset the nerds, or is it like Predator, which is a cat and mouse action film, where one of the characters just happens to be an alien?

 

How does Predator's shoulder canon work? Does anyone care? No. It aims at people and it kills them. Nobody gives a shit whether it's fuelled by dylithium crystals of something else. It's simply a plot device. Likewise the camouflage suit. We don't need to know how it works. We're never given a reason to want to know how it works. All we know is it's there, it looks cool as fuck, and it's a problem for Arnie's team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...