OT Paging Sci Fi buffs - I Robot

I don't want to piss on your parade, but, wasn't that futurism/istic
as opposed to SF ?

 

I really enjoy the Alien films, but the only one I'd class as "great" is
"Alien" itself. "Aliens" is just an SF action adventure: a big
shoot-em-up. Also, there IS no director's cut of "Aliens": there's a
"Special Edition" with some extra footage. Personally, I think it's a
poorer film overall than the standard version.

 

On Fri, 09 Jul 2004 07:30:20 +0000, muddycat wrote:

Oh yes! Marvellous film.

Over-rated, I think. I watched it again recently and felt that it just
doesn't cut it any more. All of the truly great films are still as good
as they ever were.

 

All excellent choices. I think I must have been about 12 when I first
watched "Quatermass and the Pit" and it was way, way scarier than anything
Dr Who had to offer.

Of more recent fare, I rate "Alien" and "Fifth Element", amongst others.
But there aren't many really great SF films. Most of them are just
adventure films with fancy effects. Enjoyable enough, but usually lacking
in plot.

 

Ah, thanks. I stand corrected.

The early scenes that were cut from the original version are essential,
IMHO, because they set the scene - they actually explain how the alien
infestation of the colony took place, IMHO. The scenes with the robot
sentry guns were also cut, and they're just cool.

But a big shoot-em-up. Hmmmm.... not entirely unfair. I think Alien is a
classic because it was the first (and it was formulaic, too - "something
you can't see is gonna get you!") but I actually prefer No.2.

 

Didn't like The Fifth Element at all. Excellent special effects, but
crap acting and a truly disjointed plot.

 

More likely a extrapolation of currently available technology and
science.

Space opera. It's a sub-genre of Science Fiction.

 

It's a personal thing, it scared the shite out of me when I first saw
it.

 

I can't remember anything in Dr. Who being scary. The Master and the
Daleks are more annoying than scary.

Quatermass and the Pit scared you without all the gore of Alien though.
This is what makes it great. The Fifth Element was more comedy that
anything IMO.

 

Well with Bruce 'I can't act' Willis and Gary 'over the top' Oldman I
can see why.

 

The puppets who came alive and killed people.

 

God, *YES*!

I'd forgotten them. They really did scare the crap out of me.

 

Bugger, I don't remember them.

 

Hm. Possibly I should reconsider "Fifth Element". Still a good film,
IMO, but not a great one.

There's a certain amount of blood and gore in Alien, but not an awful lot
and it isn't what's most frightening. Sure: the face hugger and the chest
burster are startling and unpleasant, but it's the tension and uncertainty
that make the film.

 

There's a comment later in the film, when questioning Newt, which explains
the presence of the aliens adequately. And even the missing sequence
doesn't really explain how all the settlers got taken.

For me, the only scene which might have added to the film was one of the
early ones with Ripley on Earth, where we find out about her long-dead
daughter. That - arguably - explains her irrational devotion to Newt
later on.

Having seen both, I think that the cinema version is better paced.

On a DVD, they'd just have been in as extra scenes, not part of the main
film.

 

Ah - the Terror of the Autons. Also guest starring plastic settees that
eat you alive.

 

Yes, absolutely.

 

I thought it was Sigorney Weaver climbing into her spacesuit.

 

Hmmm, you could be on to something there. It would need a director of
impeccable credentials to pull it off though.

However I still curious about the nature of the drugs taken by the
people who thought the "Clangers" suitable for small children. I still
have trouble understanding much of the dialogue myself.