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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J You know what? I have come to the exact opposite conclusion in the last year or so. The abject shittiness of widely lauded "thoughtful" science fiction films such as Arrival and Bladerunner 2049 has made me think that cinematic sci-fi fans have a seriously low bar for what they consider "thoughtful". All the ideas in these films have been explored in much greater detail and in much more interesting ways by books that are 40 or 50 years old. And when I think about it, there's probably less than 10 truly great science fiction films that have ever been made. It just works so much better as prose fiction. That's where the genre was invented and where the vast majority of content is still born.

i struggled with the old-school scifi literature back in the day but i wonder how much of a role my age played in that. in comparison fantasy was much more palatable to children i think (though i never did finish LOTR).

i agree that most scifi films are shit (even if you set the bar low) and tend to be more flash than substance. but that's part of why i think tv is the second coming; the lazy technique (making tv versions of books) has been working really well with shows like GoT, american gods, the expanse, altered carbon etc. you're less worried now as a viewer that your fave show will jump the shark because it's got a pre-made direction to go in.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J And when I think about it, there's probably less than 10 truly great science fiction films that have ever been made.

I would say there are at least 20, some of which you may not have seen and perhaps not agree with.

I still wonder why nobody has tried to make Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We" novel into a sci-fi film - it's a rather short read, and in my opinion better than 1984 and Brave New World, both of which it may have influenced.

Last edited by AlphaStarred on Feb-06-2018 at 06:55

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Originally posted by Trance-M I watched Salyut-7 (2017) or in Russian Салют-7, as it's about the rescue mission of a Soviet space station in 1985. I didn't expect a lot, but think it was a surprisingly good movie.

I watched another Russian cold war space movie: Vremya Pervyh (2017) (The Spacewalker).

I think it's even better than Salyut-7.

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Longest (classic) Trance playlist on YouTube (5000 tracks released up to and including 1997), click here

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Originally posted by AlphaStarred I would say there are at least 20, some of which you may not have seen and perhaps not agree with.

I saw one tonight that for some reason I'd never seen before - Children Of Men. Fuck me, what an incredible film that is. I haven't been knocked sideways by a film like that for a long time.

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Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I saw one tonight that for some reason I'd never seen before - Children Of Men. Fuck me, what an incredible film that is. I haven't been knocked sideways by a film like that for a long time.

I need to watch this one again. It's been a while. I don't remember being blown away by it, but I recall it getting cult-following like reviews, lol.

Children of Men is awesome. Surprised you hadn't seen it before.

I think it came out the week I started university in 2006, so I was a little distracted at the time. We've subscribed to this DVD postal service where you pick a list of films from the website and they mail out four of them a month for you to watch and return, so I'm finally going back and filling in a lot of gaps in my cinematic knowledge.

In a way, seeing it for the first time now added to the mind-fuckery. For a twelve year old film, there are a lot of details in it that are remarkably prescient in 2018. All the stuff about immigrants being deported, bombs going off in the streets of London, the parade of insurgents chanting "Allahu Akbar" at the end. A lot of issues that weren't really massive social concerns in 2006 are now hugely sensitive in 2018, which makes it feel even more plausible as a near-future scenario. You can tell that a massive amount of intelligent world building went into the production of the film. Top to bottom, with every detail, it's superbly crafted.

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Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J We've subscribed to this DVD postal service where you pick a list of films from the website and they mail out four of them a month for you to watch and return

Isn't that how Netflix started?

Quite possibly. I don't have any kind of TV, subscription or other, because I'm a complete wanker. I'm only really interested in films, and I prefer getting to pick exactly what I watch than sifting through the shower of shite which Netflix offers up in its film section.

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Mixes:
> Back To Deep [Deep Trippy House]
> Terra Nova [Modern Progressive Trance]
> Rough & Ready [Modern Trance]
>A Different Energy [Good Modern Trance]
> The Edale Mix [Panoramic Beats]

Bahahaha, so true. I regularly delete my viewing history because I actually don't like how it personalizes the selections.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I saw one tonight that for some reason I'd never seen before - Children Of Men. Fuck me, what an incredible film that is. I haven't been knocked sideways by a film like that for a long time.

yeah, one of my faves. when you mentioned only 10 good scifi films, i did a quick count and came up with primer and children of men (and 8 others you probably hate ).

a movie that will NOT be making that list though is Mute. seriously, don't watch this. just awful on every level. i hardly ever turn off a film halfway through, but christ. worse than the new bladerunner by a long way.

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