Forgotten Sci-Fi Gold
Yeah,
yeah, yeah, we have all wished we had the force, we all cried watching E.T, and we have all lived long and
prospered, we all think we know Sci Fi.
I
will admit I am a massive Sci fi fan, but, at a point in my life I felt that I
had seen it all, so to speak. Furthermore, I felt like I saw about one good Sci
Fi movie each year, and I am not even being that critical.
I
guess this is because earlier Sci fi has just raised the bar so high, so damn
high. This actually means that, in hindsight, there are a shit-tonne of movies
that existed in the 70s and 80s that are ridiculously good, but people never
saw, perhaps because of the glut of potential classics.
So,
I took it upon myself to watch a whole lot of movies, and I have to say,
science fiction is a pretty warped little genre. It turns out that I had never
come close to seeing it all, so here are a few freaky, fun and fantastic films
that you will find fascinating.
Just
before we get ahead of ourselves, I won’t be telling you to watch Blade Runner and Donnie Darko, because even though I love them and could talk about
them all day, they have enjoyed quite a lot of success over time.
Proceed.
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A l t e r e d S t a t e s
In
1980 Ken Russell made a movie called Altered
States, and although it was critically successful, I bet you have never
heard of it. Well, let me say, you missed out.
I guess that it is pretty hard
to compete with the awesomeness of, Star
Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes
Back, or the surreal terror of Stanley Kubricks, The Shining, (damn, 1980 was stellar year for films), but Altered States is a really, weird little
movie.
Although
talking about the plot of this film will lessen the impact (trust me, you want
to go into this one blind), so let’s just say that it was incredibly
experimental. I will tell you that it involves psychotropic drugs combined with
sensory deprivation, some great anti-religious hallucinations and the capacity
of the human mind.
If
you like David Cronenberg body horror transformation, 2001: A Space Odyssey type surrealist visuals, and exploring the
line between evolution and creation, then this is your kind of movie.
After
viewing this film, I struggled to understand why it doesn’t have the
significance of other films, yet, it totally makes sense that it remains a cult
classic, it is just that obscure.
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T h e I r o n G i a n t
So
this one might be a stretch, as people do know about this one, especially 90s
kids, however this film was actually considered a huge commercial flop. While
it does have outstanding critical praise, and it also has a pretty kickass cast
with Vin Diesel as the title character, it never made a dime.
The
Iron Giant is based in the height of the cold war in 1957, and is actually a
very cute tale based around a naïve robot who learns about human life through
the filter of a small imaginative boy. It is a truly touching story of
friendship, and sacrifice, intertwined with a true period in time.
It
is an unconventional animated film as it is blatantly anti-war, there is no
villain for the audience to hate, and was a bit of a slow burner, when it came
to telling the story. This was a pretty daring choice, especially because it
was competing with “slick” 3D animated films (right at the peak of their
novelty), with a more traditional story.
Sadly
this film failed due to bad marketing and failed franchising on behalf of
Burger King. It was also in high competition from Stuart Little, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Toy Story 2 and
Tarzan to captivate the minds of children, and ultimately remained
unwatched. It does have a following these days and it is often but on top 10
lists, but in its time, it was beaten by far less.
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V i d e o d r o m e
Ahhhhh
Videodrome, here is one that I could
sink my crooked teeth into. Basically, this movie is just a giant mind-fuck,
but in the best possible way.
This
film was directed by David Cronenberg (second mention), was released as a
television movie, and was released on home video later on. For this reason it
was not widely reviewed, and due to the subject, it wasn’t widely appealing to
the general public.
So
if I was to say anything about this film, it would be that it is quite surreal and kinda scary. Abstract torture scenes, crazy body transformations, a
man bleeding tape out of a hole in his stomachs, and just generally bizarre
scenes to devour.
In
a way this film hasn’t aged well, however, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing
in this case. I mean the whole deal is the movie is about a video-tape, something
that most of us have pretty much forgotten about. Because it is a non-existent
media, it makes for a strangely nostalgic experience, whilst also have a
strange 80s camp about it.
It
is really hard to compare this film to anything, it shares some style with David
Lynch’s Eraserhead, but even that is
a stretch. It does have a cult following, but it really should have a bigger
following, it is 1000 time better than many slasher movies that get a better
rep from the same time and that is and understatement.
Overall,
this film is known, but not by this generation, and it’s a real shame. There is
nothing better than a movie that has this much originality, it is wonderfully
refreshing, whilst also being tastefully outdated with a 80s laser sheen. Only
watch this one if you have a strong stomach, as it is quite graphic, but it is
that awesome practical effects type gore, which I love.
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D a r k C i t y
So
remember The Matrix? Well this movie
is really similar and was made a year beforehand. The Matrix is pretty awesome (well, the first one at least), but Dark City is incredible, really, I
almost would prefer to watch this over The
Matrix.
This
is the kind of movie that you watch and then you realise that one of your
favourite movies is not as original as you thought. Now while I talk about this
movie I won’t be bashing The Matrix
because, well, it is a classic film that deserves some praise. The only problem
is that The Matrix only has those
classic slow motion bullet dodge scenes over this film (shots fired).
Dark City is well acted, well shot, incredibly
crafted film, with a compelling story about the limits of reality and the morality of
power. I love the cat and mouse feeling to this film, I love the strong visual direction
and I adore the Neo-Noir storytelling and action style. Honestly this film
impressed me in so many ways, it has incredibly dynamic and I will never
understand how it isn’t a landmark film.
I
know that this one is more of a ramble, but I really don’t want to give much
away, especially because I really feel like it is that good. Maybe if Dark City was released maybe a year or
two later, it wouldn’t be on this list, but because the world wasn’t ready for Dark City it deserves a mention.
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P r i m e r
Time
travel, a mainstay of science fiction, and a seriously cool concept for any
movie. Who hasn’t thought about taking a drive in the Delorean from Back to the
Future, or got jealous of Austin Powers being able to go to periods of time
and shag Heather Graham, Beyonce, and
a young Liz Hurley. Time travel is a
huge plot point of the Terminator
franchise, the Star Trek franchise,
and countless others, and for good reason, it is awesome.
But
one thing that all of these movies have in common is that time travel just
seems highly impractical, and mostly unbelievable. While I don’t mind
suspending disbelief with time travel, it was pretty great to see a highly
complicated, yet somehow plausible representation of time travel.
Primer is that movie. Firstly this film was
made for $7000 dollars and was written, directed, scored and acted by Shane
Carruth, in his first film ever. Pretty impressive seeing as it looks pretty
good, sounds pretty good and acted pretty well, not bad
for a cheap film. It also made over $400 000 dollars at the box office, so it
can be seen as quite a successful film, however, the film reaches way past its
budget, and conceptualises way past every other time travel film I have seen.
The
scientific jargon, the simple-looking design, and the scientific process, makes this
film pretty great to watch. I mean it looks like machine I could build after
several beers with a tech head, however it is really complicated when they talk
about it. Sci Fi usually gets a bit boring when it becomes dialogue heavy, but
in this instance it plays as a great strength.
Dense
is really the only way I could describe the plot, and it is literally
impossible to spoil this film by talking about it, because I still have no
fucking clue what it all even means. I may never figure it out. I can see this
being a problem for some people who don’t like open endings, but for me, I
loved the first 2 acts more than enough to forgive the third.
Essentially
I feel that if this movie had a bigger budget the whole movie would be more
realised and possibly have garnered a bigger following. Unlike the others on
this list, I feel that this movie is almost better left for the people who
stumble upon it. It is a real treat to have that feeling of discovering a great
film, and just sharing it with that one friend who would really appreciate it
for what it is, we all have that friend.
There
are great science fiction films out there that everybody knows about, and the
reason why is because most of the time they are great. Who doesn’t love a good
original trilogy Star Wars marathon, or
ponder about what it means to be alive with Blade
Runner, or even just watch shit blow up with a box of popcorn with Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
So don’t
discount the classics, and don’t forget about those that are good enough to be
classics, even though they never had their moment.
So
that’s it, Science Fiction, underrated, forgotten, or maybe just never
appreciated in some cases. There are plenty of others that I didn’t write about
that I probably could have, but that is for another day.
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Article By. Jack Bayley