(1) SHE WAS ON WHAT KIND OF TRIP? The Mirror knows we can’t resist looking: “Woman ‘photobombed by alien’ during selfie on passenger jet on business trip”.
A woman has posted a selfie taken on a plane in which she claims she was photobombed – by an alien.
Olesya Podkorytov from the city of Kurgan in south-central Russia’s Kurgan Oblast region said she took the picture during the flight on a whim but when she posted it on social media friends pointed out something strange a few seats behind.
(2) BEFORE THERE WERE FOREHEAD CLOTHS. Movie bracket maven Hampus Eckerman pointed to this LA Times story, “’Young Frankenstein’ has new life on 40th anniversary”.
Director Mel Brooks spent a lot of money on white handkerchiefs while making his 1974 tour de farce, “Young Frankenstein.”
“I gave everybody in the crew a white handkerchief,” said the 88-year-old comedy legend during a recent phone interview. “I said, ‘When you feel like laughing, put this in your mouth.’ Every once in a while, I’d turn around and see a sea of white handkerchiefs, and I said, ‘I got a hit.'”
“Young Frankenstein” was more than a hit. It is a comic masterpiece.
(3) ‘TWAS CHITTY. Joined by Conan O’Brian, Dick Van Dyke and his a capella group, The Vantastix, sing the title song from his 1968 movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Van Dyke recently turned 90 but he can still belt out a tune.
(4) THE TRANSOM IS SHUT. Tor.com will no longer consider unsolicited short fiction submissions effective January 7, 2016 reports Locus Online.
(5) C. S. LEWIS. Matthew David Surridge is doing a read-through of C.S. Lewis works at Black Gate. The first two parts are —
“Wandering the Worlds of C.S. Lewis, Part I: Boxen”
I have read some, though far from all, of Lewis’ non-fiction; I intend to talk about it only insofar as I see a bearing on his fiction. I’m interested in seeing what images, tones, ideas, and approaches unite a fairly disparate corpus of writing. I want to see how Lewis’ approach to storytelling developed over his life, and how motifs and themes recurred in his work. I hope that by doing this I’ll better understand his individual books. At any rate, I’ll begin here with a look at Lewis’ published juvenilia…
“Wandering the Worlds of C.S. Lewis, Part II: Spirits in Bondage”
Today, I want to go through Lewis’ first book, a collection of lyric poems called Spirits in Bondage, published in 1919 when Lewis was still an atheist.
Yesterday I quoted Lewis’ judgement in his 1955 autobiography Surprised by Joy that the Boxen tales are novelistic and not poetic. If that’s so, what did the older Lewis think about the poetry he wrote in his youth? Did he find wonder and romance in the verse of Spirits in Bondage and Dymer? Hard to judge. Lewis doesn’t mention either volume in Surprised by Joy. Which strikes me as a little odd.
(6) CAREER GUIDANCE. David Gerrold responded on Facebook to Dr. Mauser (thought not actually by name). Between his very funny lines about being a so-called internet blowhard and his thoroughly serious rebuttal comes good advice for writers about dealing with controversy.
1) Never never never never never get into feuds. Whatever credibility you might have, you are automatically lending it to anyone you feud with because you are implying they are of equal validity, when most of the time they are not. People who enjoy feuds are automatically downgrading their credibility.
2) If you must respond, focus solely on the issue. Do not get into any personal remarks of any kind. Discuss issues only, not personalities. (This is because everyone has issues, not everyone has a personality.)
3) Never vilify a whole class or group of people — this generalization assumes that everyone in that class or group thinks and acts alike, that they are a monolithic army of clones. They are not. (I have stumbled here, more than once, and have now learned this lesson very well.)
And finally,
4) Always demand evidence.
(7) COMICS HUGO. George R.R. Martin has “More Hugo Ruminations” at Not A Blog.
I really don’t think we needed to add a Graphic Story category to the Hugo Awards. Comics have their own awards, the Eisners, they don’t need the Hugo too. Besides, most SF fans do not follow comics closely enough to make informed judgements in this area.
That being said, however, I have to concede that the fans did pretty damned well nominating in this category last year. SAGA was the only one of the finalists that I had actually heard of before Sasquan announced last year’s ballot… but I dutifully read all the others before I voted, and for the most part, I was impressed (okay, not by the Puppy nominee, which was several notches below the other four)… especially by MS. MARVEL, a whole new take on the character (actually a whole new character with an old name), a charming new addition to the Marvel universe, and the eventual winner.
So… I still don’t love Graphic Novel as a Hugo category, but it exists, and those who follow the field more closely than me should nominate Good Stuff here again, and maybe I’ll have more comic books to discover and delight in when the final ballot comes out.
Meanwhile, I do have one truly outstanding graphic novel to suggest… I am not totally disconnected from the world of comics, y’see… and that’s a book called THE SCULPTOR, by Scott McCloud….
(8) TOWERING TRAILER. The movie High-Rise is based on a J.G. Ballard novel.
(9) Today In History
- December 21, 1963 – This is the annual International Dalek Remembrance Day, in honor of the first day that Daleks appeared on Doctor Who in 1963.
Doctor Who fans may not be surprised to discover that those forceful characters the Daleks appear to be the only one of the Doctor’s enemies to have been given their own celebratory day. Dalek Day is held on 21st December each year. This date was chosen to commemorate the anniversary of the Daleks because they made their first TV appearance in Doctor Who on 21st December 1963. The official title of Dalek Day is the International Dalek Remembrance Day. There does not appear to be any regular organised celebrations each year to commemorate Dalek Day and it is unclear whether Dalek supporters meet or actually even dress up in Dalek costumes. Many of their fans appear to celebrate Dalek Day at home by having a Doctor Who marathon and watching again their favourite episodes with the Daleks battling against the Doctor.
- December 21, 1937 — Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated feature film, opened in Los Angeles.
- December 21, 1984 – Don’t Open ‘Till Christmas opens slightly before Christmas.
(10) NO ROOM IN THE FUTURE FOR RANDY GARRETT. The Traveler at Galactic Journey reviews the January 1961 Analog in a manner that makes a reader wonder if this blog theme is a good fit for somebody who hates a prolific author for the most popular prozine of its time. Not because The Traveler ought to like something he doesn’t, but who’s going to want to hear about it every month?
Thus, it is too early to tell whether or not Analog is ever going to pull itself out of its literary doldrums. I had such high hopes after December’s issue; January’s has dashed them.
It doesn’t help that Randall Garrett is still one of Campbell’s favorite writers. I’m not sure if Garrett’s stories are lousy because Campbell tells Garrett what he should write, or if they’re lousy because Garrett writes what he knows Campbell will take. Or maybe Garrett and Campbell independently share awful taste. In any event, the long long lead novella, The Highest Treason, is a one-star drek-fest if ever there was one.
(11) TIX FOR RADIO PERFORMANCE OF WYNDHAM. Tickets are available to attend a live recording of John Wyndham’s The Kraken Wakes by BBC4 with the BBC Philharmonic. The event will be Friday, January 8, 2016 at MediaCityUK in Salford. Ticket applications are open until December 27.
Join the BBC Philharmonic and BBC Radio 4 for radio drama, The Kraken Wakes. This modern retelling of John Wyndham’s 1953 apocalyptic novel, is adapted by crime writer and dramatist Val McDermid and stars Tamsin Greig, Paul Higgins and Richard Harrington.
This is a rare chance to see a radio drama recorded for Radio 4 with a live orchestral accompaniment from the BBC Philharmonic.
Composer Alan Edward Williams has created a brand new orchestral score that will ‘play the part’ of the great sea monster during the performance.
The Kraken Wakes will be recorded as a live performance in two parts. The drama will then be broadcast later in the year on BBC Radio 4.
(12) CLASSIC RADIO SF. Open Culture helps you “Hear 6 Classic Philip K. Dick Stories Adapted as Vintage Radio Plays”.
As you can probably tell if you’ve interacted with any of his hard-core fans, the science fiction of Philip K. Dick has a way of getting into readers’ heads. What better way to adapt it, then, than in the medium of radio drama, with its direct route into the head through the ears? Science fiction in general provided radio drama with a good deal of bread-and-butter subject matter since pretty much its inception, and suitably so: its producers didn’t have to bother designing distant worlds, alien races and elaborately futuristic technologies when, with the right sound design, the listeners would design it all themselves in their imaginations.
From the series Mind Webs, which ran on Wisconsin public radio, “The Preserving Machine,” “Impostor,” and “The Builder.” From X Minus One, “Colony” and “The Defenders.”From Sci-Fi Radio, “Sales Pitch.”
(13) FRANCHISE SF. The Documentary, on BBC’s World Service, has posted its 56-minute feature “Homer, Hagrid and the Incredible Hulk”.
Ben Hammersley meets creators and fans to investigate how extended fictional universes, from Star Wars and Harry Potter to Game of Thrones, took over global culture. He examines the huge financial success of the world’s biggest franchises, and argues that their stories – the identity of Luke Skywalker’s father, for example – have become common cultural touchstones around the world.
To understand how these expansive fictional universes are created and maintained, Ben visits professor Dumbledore’s office to talk to Stuart Craig, production designer on the Harry Potter films. He goes to Los Angeles to meet Lauren Faust, creator of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. And, he travels to San Diego Comic Con where he discusses a number of different universes with Marc Zicree, writer on numerous film and TV series, including Star Trek.
Ben also speaks to authors Robin Hobb and Warren Ellis, and to Axel Alonso and Ryan Penagos from Marvel. He hears from numerous fans, including Game of Thrones super-fans Linda Antonsson and Elio Garcia about the joys of fandom.
(14) NON-REALISTIC SF ART. Joachim Boaz’ “Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Jack Gaughan’s Covers For Walker & Co. (1969-1970)” revisits covers of books I remember borrowing from the library when I was in high school.
Some famous novels are graced by his covers: James Blish’s A Case of Conscience (1958), Stanislaw Lem’s Solaris (1961), Silverberg’s Nightwings (1968), Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), and Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron (1969).
Titles in this art sequence without suitable images online: A Gift from Earth (1968), Re-Birth (1955), All Judgement Fled (1968), Trouble with Lichen (1960), The Midwich Cuckoos (1957).
(15) MAGIC NUMBER. Obviously I must mention something titled “Five for 2015: 5 TV Characters of the Year”, Jon Morgan’s post on Pornokitsch. Under discussion are Agent Carter, Phyrne Fisher, Jessica Jones, Kimmy Schmidt and Cat Grant.
(16) HE SLEIGHS ME. At Whatever, John Scalzi has an “Interview With Santa’s Reindeer Wrangler”.
Q: We could talk about that. I mean, the general violation of physics that goes on around the whole Santa’s sleigh thing.
A: Look, I don’t pretend to know the science of the flying sleigh thing, okay? That’s not my job. You can ask Santa’s physicists about it if you want.
Q: Santa has physicists on staff?
A: Of course he does. He’s one of the largest recruiters of physicists outside of NASA. What, you thought all this happened because of magic?
Q: Well, now that you mention it, yes. Yes, I did.
(17) MALCONTENT WARNING. Darth Santa…. Great production values for a video whose humor may leave you a little ill. Or laughing your ass off, depending on what meds you’ve taken today.
[Thanks to John King Tarpinian, Nigel, Martin Morse Wooster, and Andrew Porter for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day redheadedfemme.]
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Comics: How is it that nobody is mentioning The Sandman: Overture? Has the every-five-months schedule dropped it off of peoples’ radar? Writing by Neil Gaiman at the height of his powers, and J. H. Williams III doing breathtakingly beautiful art. Seriously, for me this is the best work completed in 2015, by far.
Sorry Scott, sorry Kurt. You know I love you both, but I gotta call ’em like I see ’em.
Speaking of Kurt, volume one of The Autumnlands is out, and definitely worth a look. Robert E. Howard meets Jack Vance meets Jack Kirby, all with Kurt’s deft touch at worldbuilding and characterization.
Seconding for The Autumnlands. The illustration is fabulous as well.
Magewolf,
How does the second series compare to the first?
I am haven’t yet finished the first and the plotting is pretty pedestrian, and along with the CEL animation(I kept wondering why certain character models looked similar until I remembered watching Iron Man: Armoured Adventures), it isn’t grabbing me.
Being ranked below something by Neil and J.H. is not an occasion for apology.
It’s kinda like when THE COMICS JOURNAL reviewed MARVELS and one of the reviewers compared it unfavorably to Arthur Miller’s work.
My reaction was, “Hey, the first review I ever got said the story didn’t measure up to MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE fill-ins. Being told it’s not as good as DEATH OF A SALESMAN is pretty lush by comparison!”
Re: Good Comics from 2015
There’s a good listing over at Polygon – THE 10 BEST COMICS OF 2015, PLUS ONE MORE. They’re all traditionally published indie/ Big Two comics, no webcomics but it is a pretty good listing and tallies well with my longlist.
Also, I need to catch up on my Oglaf.
Bruce Baugh: or, as often, that everyone else is even worse, so that they’re secure in the position of the best people in the world. Or so I’ve often found.
JJ: It has not escaped me that the Puppies have repeatedly attempted to justify their despicable actions by claiming “the SJWs did it first!” Because if this is true, then really, they’re just “honorable” people doing the same thing everyone else is doing.
redheadedfemme: I know this is the Puppies, but really, that makes no sense. If you consider certain behavior contemptible, why on earth would you want to emulate it? I would think you’d want to be better than that.
It makes sense from the point of view of someone trying to convince themselves that they are honorable, and that what they are doing is okay. The Puppies are min-maxers, Rules Lawyers. They don’t consider gaming the system as contemptible behavior — after all, it is within the rules, right? So what’s the problem?
But they’re being told that it is still a form of cheating, that it is contemptible behavior. So they have to justify it to themselves somehow. The fact that their rationalization doesn’t hold water is not at all surprising — how many times have you seen people delude themselves with the most illogical logic? — but they’re not going to let that get in the way of justifying their behavior, anyway.
“I think all these other people are doing it, too, even if they say they aren’t, so it must be okay. I am just doing what everyone else is doing. There is nothing wrong with me or my behavior.”
@tintinaus
The CG animation takes some getting use to. Great for the mechs and ships not so good for the people and bear.
I am a great fan of Tsutomu Nihei’s manga ,Blame! especially, so even though the adaption got of to a slow start I was already primed to love it I guess. He is not trying to reinvent the wheel with Sidonia just to make a good space opera with mechs.
I enjoyed the generation ship setting, the humans vs the apparent rest of the universe war, the slowly spun out tale of how they got in that situation, and how with all the outside threats humans still tried their best to be their own worst enemy.
The second series had more time to be funny and serious since the first one had done all the setup. Indeed it almost turns into a slice of life show in the middle but even then there are half a dozen shoes waiting to drop, anyone of which might mean the end of the human race one way or another.
@JJ: Yes, like insinuating that “everyone” goes around trying to get people fired and doxxing. Dignity!
Magewolf,
Cool. It is still in my play queue so I will make sure I do get to it. For some reason though I am feeling the need to rewatch Nodame Cantabile(definitely not SF) first though.
😀 That is a pretty flattering comparison, to be sure.
I haven’t read much in the way of comics this year, but I did read “Sandman: Overtures” and found it to be exceptionally fine.
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2001 (1968)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Rank your top 5 Science Fiction movies.
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Nominated or not, now is your time to name them.
The Empire Strikes Back
My top 5:
Forbidden Planet
ESB
Star Wars
2001
Galaxy Quest
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
2001 (1968)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Rank your top 5 Science Fiction movies.
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Nominated or not, now is your time to name them.
I’ll have to come back to these.
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Blade Runner
Alien
Terminator 2
RoboCop
The Matrix
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
City of Lost Children
The Last Starfighter
The End of Evangelion
Redline
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
1. Brazil
2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. Metropolis
5. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Under the Skin
Repo Man
Donnie Darko
Her
Coherence
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2001 (1968)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
(am excluding ESB)
Alien
ST IV: The Voyage Home
Blade Runner
Galaxy Quest
Star Wars
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Macross: Do You Remember Love?
Patlabor II
Moon
And, of course, God Stalk.
Snowcrash:
Please do not exclude. I’m running this through voting engine to see what the results will be compared to the brackets.
@Hampus
Ah. In that case please sub Star Wars with ESB. List for #2 should now be:
Alien
ST IV: The Voyage Home
Blade Runner
Galaxy Quest
ESB
2001
Should have been Alien, or Terminator, or Brazil, or Robocop
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Because 2001 is great but I just can’t see it as the best — it’s not something I care to rewatch.
2001
2001: A Space Odyssey
1. Meh… they’re both very good. But neither approaches the best of the genre.
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Blade Runner
The Terminator
Gattaca
Galaxy Quest
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Moon
Space Cowboys
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
2001 (1968)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Star Trek II
2001
Star Wars
The Terminator
Forbidden Planet
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Nominated or not, now is your time to name them.
Stargate
1) ESB
Honestly, I would have said 2001 until a few years ago when I rewatched the film, and… fell asleep. It wasn’t that it was terrible; it just didn’t grab me the way it did when I was a kid. I’m sorry for that. But I’ll treasure the memory of loving it, even though I no longer do.
Honestly, I’m hard-pressed to name/rank the five best SF movies of all time. I have a couple of hundred movies, and many of them are at least tangentally SFnal. What were the bracket requirements, again? No superheros and no explicitly religious miracles? And before 2015?
Cassy B:
Before 2015, otherwise no special requirements. Decided to leave it to voters this time.
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Meh. I don’t know, but these are my favorites, in order at the moment of typing.
Star Wars
The Terminator
Empire Strikes Back
Frankenstein
Metropolis
The Day the Earth Stood Still
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
THX-1138
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Right. Of course, fewer constraints make it harder…
1) Empire Strikes Back
2) the first Avengers movie. (no, not Steed and Peele)
3) Aliens — even though I dislike horror movies
4) Hmm. I’d say Indiana Jones but I think of that as a fantasy. Um. Guardians of the Galaxy.
5) Fifth Element (Hey, I rewatch it a lot. That makes it a good movie.)
G
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
No Award
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Rank your top 5 Science Fiction movies.
Ooh, maybe this will break the Curse of “All o Them!”
1. Brazil
2. The Matrix
3. Dark City
4. Iron Man
5. Blade Runner (director’s cut)
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
The Nines – not even in the brackets: Someone gets addicted to [something].
Spider-Man 2 – the most layered superhero movie.
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2001 (1968)
Still “meh” on 2001.
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Aliens
Jurassic Park
They Live
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
The Prestige (David Bowie’s hat!)
Tremors
Waterworld
Stargate
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2001 (1968)
My list:
1. The Wrath of Khan
2. Blade Runner
3. 2001
4. Galaxy Quest
5. The Empire Strikes Back
1. Ok, Empire. I guess.
2. Bride of Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Bladerunner
Metropolis
Alien
3. The Man in the White Suit
The Man who Fell to Earth
MST3K the Movie
The Quiet Earth
Quatermass and the Pit
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
1. ESB.
2001 isn’t as re-watchable because its slow pace feels more dated. I’m reminded of that camel approaching scene in Lawrence of Arabia which bludgeoned the viewer with “the desert is big”. In 2001, space is big, slow & silent (except for the classical music in the background).
2. Matrix
Bladerunner
Fifth Element
3. The Prestige
1. Abstain because I’m pretty meh about both of them.
2. I’m sure I’ll realize I forgot about something awesome the moment the edit window expires, but off the top of my head this morning:
Wings of Honneamise
Moon
Star Wars
Summer Wars
Airplane II
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
My final five probably would’ve been the following, though I’m not sure about the order. I may be forgetting something; to keep it simple, I’m just looking at the top 32 from the brackets to compile this list. It’s really tough to make it only five; I had to drop Star Trek II, darnitall!
Star Wars
Back to the Future
The Empire Strikes Back
Galaxy Quest
Terminator II
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
The Faculty – I still regret forgetting this movie. I fantasize that if I’d nominated it, others would’ve also, and then it would’ve at least made the brackets. But maybe not.
Hampus Eckeman on December 26, 2015 at 2:14 am said:
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2001 (1968)
Really, not 2001
Ugh, Gak, Pthew
Okay,okay, I get it, it is a masterpiece of cinema
A fine film
But do people really love it?
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Rank your top 5 Science Fiction movies.
The Voyage Home
Star Wars
Galaxy Quest
Bladerunner
Matrix
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Nominated or not, now is your time to name them.
The Day the Earth Stood Still
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
2001 (1968)
A lot of things I like about 2001: the apes; the pristine Pan Am shuttle (the image Lucas rebelled against with the hard-used Millennium Falcon); the long trudge into the lunar crater to inspect the monolith; the horror of HAL. Another reason I have to vote for it is that I believe the first and third SW movies were both better than Empire.
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Rank your top 5 Science Fiction movies.
My #1 is still in the running. The other four are….
Star Wars
Galaxy Quest
Star Trek IV
Alien
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Lifeforce
I don’t care about either of the Big 2, so I’m going right on to my Top 5 and the Hidden Gem.
My personal Top 5 — I am incapable of ordering them, so they’re just my top five — are Forbidden Planet, Metropolis, Brazil, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Dr. Strangelove. Today. Another day, a different list…
And my hidden gem is Brother from Another Planet.
1. 2001.
Yes I get why people vote for ESB. It is a great film and a great story that pulls you in and along. However, it isn’t the best SF movie. It works so well because it sits on Star Wars and Star Wars is a more important movie in many ways.
However 2001 sits underneath both holding them up because it was the film that asserted that taking the process of building a visually compelling SF movie seriously could and should be done.
2. What should have won?
Forbidden Planet. It captures some of the aesthetic of SFs golden age while looking forward. It appears to be a film about alien monsters and spaceships but the area of science it is most concerned about is the mind. It first seems to offer a modernist 1950s view of technology but pulls post-modernist twists (Shakespeare, an advanced society that destroyed itself, an alien monster that isn’t alien).
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Seconding The Day The Earth Stood Still. Clever and subversive.
1) The Empire Strikes Back (my love of Tarkovsky makes me not as impressed with 2001 as perhaps I should be, while The Empire Strikes Back is perhaps the best film of its kind)
2) My favorite sci-fi films (which is by no means definitive except for Tarkovsky being at the top):
#1: Stalker
#2: Solaris
#3: Metropolis
#4: Zardoz (it’s easy to parody but is pretty fantastic)
#5: and this is an idiosyncratic choice, but after mulling over a bunch (Dark Star, Forbidden Planet, The Thing from Another World), I’ll put Avalon (2001). I’m not sure why I like it so much–except it does play into my weakness for Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr–but I really love this film. So even more than the other choices, this is a personal, idiosyncratic one. But I figure that’s what makes lists like this interesting. If everyone had the same ones, why bother?
3) Haven’t been following along, but given other people’s answers: The Day the Earth Stood Still.
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
1) Captain America: The Winter Soldier
2) Alien
3) Lilo & Stitch
4) Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
5) Edge of Tomorrow
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. It’s very tempting to vote for Clash of the Titans, given that invitation, but seriously, it has to be:
2001 (1968). It has its flaws, but it opened doors for SF on the big screen.
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Rank your top 5 Science Fiction movies.
I doubt if I can choose a top five that will stay unchanged by this time tomorrow ,let alone put them in an order that means much, but:
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
Blade Runner (1982)
Brazil (1985)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Nominated or not, now is your time to name them.
Moon
The Prestige
Invaders from Mars
Quest for Fire
Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself With Tea
1. 2001 is a long slow dull film until we get to HAL. There the tension rockets up to 11. When I think of 2001, this is what I remember. Empire is a fun film. If I was flipping channels and ran across these two films, I would watch Empire. So, I’m going for Empire though I find I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it.
2. I’ll have to think about this. Hard to choose only five.
3. Hidden Gems, though YMMV:
Time After Time
Real Genius
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. 2001 (1968)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Stalker.
I am not a film guy. I don’t know what a gaffer does, or what lenses Tarkovsky used or who his influences were, but to me, Stalker is so clearly one of the best movies ever made that I don’t get why it is not universally loved. How are you not all mesmerized by the three-minute tracking shot along a debris-ridden stream bed while a woman mumbles in Russian? Or three guys walking in a field strewn with rusted machinery and then not walking and then walking again? Oh wait, maybe I get it now…
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
I was surprised eXistenZ didn’t make the cut.
4. Thank you to Kyra, Jim Henley, and Hampus Eckeman (and anyone else who ran a bracket that I may have missed) for the brackets, to Mike for hosting them, and to Cally for the forehead cloths which enable us to get though them.
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2001 (1968)
Not even a contest.
1. Empire Strikes Back
(I sense a theme in the two finalists…each had a great character killed off way too soon, HAL and Boba Fett)
2. Aliens
Star Wars
Terminator
Mad Max: Road Warrior
The Thing
3. Moon
Serenity
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
2001 (1968)
3- more of a plastic bead than a pearl — Silent Running
2 today:
2001
Brazil
Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Metropolis
Galaxy Quest
SCIENCE FICTION MOVIE BRACKET – THE FINALS
1. CLASH OF THE TITANS
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2. WHAT SHOULD HAVE WON?
Rank your top 5 Science Fiction movies.
Okay, bearing in mind these aren’t necessarily my favourite films, but films that I both would happily rewatch spoon allowing and that I think are generally pretty awesome:
1. Ghost in the Shell (1997)
2. Moon (2009)
3. Alien (1979)
4. Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
5. Blade Runner (1982)
(The favourite films list would have things like Star Wars and The Fifth Element on – stuff I love but couldn’t convince myself was actually better than those. And for both lists I’ll probably be kicking myself tomorrow that I didn’t put Brazil on – perhaps instead of Edge of Tomorrow… But I did want a nice, solid action film, so there you go. Tomorrow that action film might have been Pitch Black!)
I hate ranking a top five. 🙂 There are so many that don’t fit! Still… I do find it kinda useful as an exercise. The more I narrow it down the better an idea I get about what I look for in a film – which will come in handy for finishing up my Hugo-watching.
3. WHAT HIDDEN PEARL WAS MOSTLY FORGOTTEN BY THE BRACKET?
Nominated or not, now is your time to name them.
In no particular order:
The Faculty – which I also forgot to nominate. Oops.
Moon – Which should have got past the first round, darn it.
Pitch Black – Honestly one of my favourite films of all time. Wouldn’t change a thing.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time – Charming little anime time travel with a close focus. No huge world-ending drama here, but the personal can be just as devastating.
Paprika – If I had to pick a surreal sf film, I might even rank this above Brazil because it’s damn near perfect. The power of dreams isn’t always pretty.
Anime got seriously hammered right from the first heats! I think the only one that made it to the second round was the Ghibli. So… Anime in general, too.