Science Fiction

[davidjay]

i saw "cloud atlas" last weekend. it's being panned by the critics, but i liked it. it's tough to get through. it's around 3 hours long and has a lot of threads that can be tricky to keep track of, but i think the wachowskis (wachowskies? LOL) did a good job, though they really make you "work" for it. my main complaint is that sometimes the make up didn't work for some of the characters and it kind of takes you out of the moment of the movie and reminds you that you're watching an actor in a funky make up job.

[danielcaux]

I haven't watch it yet, seems interesting, but the main problem for me is going to be the casting. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry are on the top of my list of actors whose sole presence can ruin a movie for me, when casted for roles out of their comfort zone. It could only be worse if they had included Julia Roberts on it!

Anyway, I doubt any science fiction in the movie is going to be as mind blowing as looking at Larry Wachowski now!

[Enish]

As far as genres go, I've been finding that I'm more partial to sci-fi than fantasy. I think it's because it's easier for me to find some kind of philosophy in science fiction than in fantasy. As much as I enjoy the creativity of fantasy worlds, I find that I can get the same thing and then some with science fiction.

Oh yeah...and my favorite sci-fi movies would have to be A Clockwork Orange and Metropolis. I'm also a fan of the sci-fi anime Cowboy Bebop. Even if you don't like anime, I highly recommend it for its western approach to the genre and its mature, engaging characters.

[davidjay]

Anyway, I doubt any science fiction in the movie is going to be as mind blowing as looking at Larry Wachowski now!

that would be LANA, daniel!


i think she wants to be lelu from the 5th element!

[Massed Gadgets]

Here's a few of my favourite sci-fi novels I've read over the years....

Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash
William Gibson - Neuromancer
Dan Simmons - Hyperion
Dan Simmons - The Fall of Hyperion
H. G. Wells - The Time Machine
John Varley - Steel Beach
Robert Charles Wilson - Spin
Robert Charles Wilson - Darwinia
Richard Matheson - I Am Legend
Greg Bear - Blood Music
Greg Bear - Eon
Greg Bear - The Forge of God
Ian McDonald - Evolution's Shore (known as Chaga in the UK)
Robert Anton Wilson - The Illuminatus Trilogy
Greg Egan - Quarantine
Philip K. Dick - Valis
Spider Robinson - The Life House Trilogy (Mindkiller, Time Pressure and Lifehouse)
Ray Bradbury - The Martian Chronicles
Ray Bradbury - The Golden Apples of the Sun
Gregory Benford - Timescape
Gregory Benford - Artifact
Jack Vance - The Demon Princes Quintology (The Star King, The Killing Machine, The Palace of Love, The Face and The Book of Dreams)

[danielcaux]

Neuromancer is really great. What do you think of the similarities with The Matrix? Rip-off or just "influence"? For me it was pretty blatant, especially the main characters, which were all pretty much analogous: The anti-hero hacker (Case/Neo), the all leather clad female human weapon and eventual love interest of the protagonist (Molly/Trinity), the misterious commander of the mission (Armitage/Morpheus), the opposing yin and yang AIs (Wintermute/Architect vs. Neuromancer/Oracle), the kick-ass ninja bodyguard (Hideo/Seraph) even the resistance headquarters filled with rastafarians (Zion/Zion)



The most ironic thing is that when they eventually release the Neuromancer film everybody is just going to say "oh my god, what a complete Matrix rip-off!!"

People!

[Massed Gadgets]

I had not thought of it that way, but it is an interesting comparison.

When I went to see the Matrix in the theatre when it first came out, I was working on an idea for a novel that went something like this: normal guy, works at an office job, suddenly starts experiencing strange 'blackouts'...more like 'pinkouts' where he feels like his drowning in some fluid...one day, one of the 'pinkouts' doesn't stop, and he finds himself in a pod full of pink goo, with cables attached to him. He struggles out of it only to find that he is in a vast chamber full of similar pods, each with a person inside. He is actually an ancient Roman citizen. During the time of Rome, a vastly superior alien intelligence came to earth, basically conquered the empire, and placed everyone in special pods. Then the were run through virtual reality simulations of life, over and over again, vastly sped up life cycles, but to their perception, just one life after another (without memory of the previous lives). The aliens wanted to see how the human species would evolve socially and technologically, to determine if they would become a threat in the future. So our hero, now free of the virtual reality begins opening other pods, becoming a mysterious dream stranger like the god Morpheus, drawing others out of the dream into reality, and he eventually starts a rebellion to overthrow the aliens.

Seriously, that is what I had sketched out so far when I innocently went to see The Matrix, not really knowing what the movie was about at all. So it is possible that they were not specifically thinking of Neuromancer when they wrote The Matrix. Or maybe they had read Neuromancer and it just stuck in their subconscious and influenced The Matrix. Or maybe they just ripped it off.

[danielcaux]

"Do not worry Jeff,
Hollywood execs aren't really giant lizards scanning your mind
...just keep coming the great ideas."


Which reminds me of another great sci-fi film: Linklater's A Scanner Darkly. The movie is kinda boring at some points but it gets better at the end... at least for me. But now that I think about it, I was never quite sure what to make of him picking up the blue flowers for his friends at the end...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4E9zMVocnys

[MY RRRRS]

Contact.
One of the best SF films ever made.

agreed.

works really well on my kitchen shelves

[MY RRRRS]

Here's a few of my favourite sci-fi novels I've read over the years....

Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash

i liked snow crash - must give it a reread sometime soon