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 Post subject: "Serenity" voted best sci-fi film
PostPosted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 1:20 pm 
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Joined: Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:23 pm
Posts: 121
Joss Whedon's "Serenity" which came out in 2005 hs just been voted the best sci-fi film; knocking "Star Wars" of it's perch. Coming in this 30th anniversary it's a kick in the face for George Lucas and shows just how far he and the franchise have fallen from grace (the awful prequels won't have helped nor would Lucas's habit of continually tampering with the original films).

I haven't seen "Serenity" but if anyone has what did they think of it and did it deserve to be voted best sci-fi film. Also what are your personal favourite sci-fi films?

Here's my personal list. I guarentee you won't have heard of any of them:

Quatermass and the Pit
The War of the Worlds
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Invasion
First Men in the Moon
20,000 Leagues under the Sea
It Came from Outer Space
Stalker
This Island Earth
The Invisible Man (1933 version)
Time After Time
The Night Caller
Logan's Run
The War Game
Threads

Thanks


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:28 pm 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Mon Jan 17, 2005 10:31 pm
Posts: 3365
Location: N.Humberside.UK
I've not seen "Serenity" myself but those I know who have say it's very good.

My favourite sci/fi films list is quite short as I generally prefer Fantasy/Horror films, and no old classics I'm afraid:

Time After Time
War of the Worlds (Spielberg's version)
Independence Day
Reign of Fire
Final Fantasy, The Spirit Within (Love the graphics)
The Thing (John Carpenter's)
Riddick
Terminator 2, Judgement Day
Men in Black
Aliens
Mars Attacks
Enemy Mine
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 1:13 pm 
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I'll add the Wells/Korda 'Things To Come' and 'Starship Troopers' for its blacker than black sense of humour.

Morrisvan, good to see 'Quatermass and the Pit' there - have you seen the original TV serial? There's a crackingly well restored version on DVD now.


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 1:33 pm 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:00 pm
Posts: 2870
Location: Liverpool, UK
I've seen Serenity. I enjoyed it but it isn't as good as any of the films on your lists. Full of cliches and back story from the tv series. It was fun. Nowhere near as good as Star Wars or Empire Strikes Back.

I like all the films on your lists. Hard to have a favourite, Logan's Run is probably my favourite. Both your lists have many of my favourites and here are some more

Planet of the Apes
Matrix
Silent Running
Robinson Crueso on Mars
ITV Quatermass
Flash Gordon
Star Wars
Empire Strikes Back
Dune
Mad Max 2
Predator
Alien
Aliens
The Fly(80's and origional)
Phase 4
The Blob
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (%0's and 70's version)
Omega Man
Soylant Green
The man with X-Ray Eyes
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Extro
Shivers
Dark City
I'll stop now, cos I can go on and on...


Bah bah black sheap April diamond spheres, Rigsby, Rigsby, Eight sided Pears.


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PostPosted: Sat Apr 07, 2007 8:28 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Location: N.Humberside.UK
:D I'd probably add 'Silent Running' to my list as well, it's one I watch whenever it's on TV and the same with
'Dark Star' (Let there be light) :mrgreen:


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 08, 2007 7:24 pm 
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McTodd, I'm watching the original TV version of Quatermass and the Pit" at the moment and the restoration is excellent with the studio sequences restored to exactly as they looked in the original broadcasts, and the film sequences - with one or two exceptions - clear and crisp. A vast improvement on the fuzzy film print that was made available on VHS years ago. I also agree that Andre Morell's civilised, intelligent Quatermass is the definitive performance though Andrew Keir's from the 1967 film comes a close second.

I've also watched the original production of "Quatermass II" and feel it's often overshadowed by the others which is surprising considering it's the original sci-fi conspiracy thriller; later done to death by "The X-Files". John Robinson as Quatermass is very tense but when you consider he was brought in at short notice to replace Reginald Tate it's understandable, and his tension does help his performance and the production's atmosphere. Rudolf Cartier - often overlooked when "Quatermass" is discussed - was a very strong director and his images are memorable such as Quatermass's visit to the plant with it's looming, metallic structures, the chilling shot of the dead family's car brought in by a tow-truck and the destruction of the plant with masked figures looming out of the smoke.

You could say that Nigel Kneale takes the themes of "Quatermass and the Pit" to their grim, logical conculsion in the ITV "Quatermass." Mankind has given in to it's warlike, racist tendancies, and an alien race seeks to take advantage of it.

I'll pop over to the horror film section and leave my list there. In the meantime, has anyone else seen "Serenity?"


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 10:16 am 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:00 pm
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Location: Liverpool, UK
morrisvan wrote:
McTodd, I'm watching the original TV version of Quatermass and the Pit" at the moment and the restoration is excellent with the studio sequences restored to exactly as they looked in the original broadcasts, and the film sequences - with one or two exceptions - clear and crisp. A vast improvement on the fuzzy film print that was made available on VHS years ago. I also agree that Andre Morell's civilised, intelligent Quatermass is the definitive performance though Andrew Keir's from the 1967 film comes a close second.

I've also watched the original production of "Quatermass II" and feel it's often overshadowed by the others which is surprising considering it's the original sci-fi conspiracy thriller; later done to death by "The X-Files". John Robinson as Quatermass is very tense but when you consider he was brought in at short notice to replace Reginald Tate it's understandable, and his tension does help his performance and the production's atmosphere. Rudolf Cartier - often overlooked when "Quatermass" is discussed - was a very strong director and his images are memorable such as Quatermass's visit to the plant with it's looming, metallic structures, the chilling shot of the dead family's car brought in by a tow-truck and the destruction of the plant with masked figures looming out of the smoke.

You could say that Nigel Kneale takes the themes of "Quatermass and the Pit" to their grim, logical conculsion in the ITV "Quatermass." Mankind has given in to it's warlike, racist tendancies, and an alien race seeks to take advantage of it.

I'll pop over to the horror film section and leave my list there. In the meantime, has anyone else seen "Serenity?"


What did you think of the ITV Quatermass, with John Mills?


Bah bah black sheap April diamond spheres, Rigsby, Rigsby, Eight sided Pears.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:29 am 
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morrisvan wrote:
I also agree that Andre Morell's civilised, intelligent Quatermass is the definitive performance though Andrew Keir's from the 1967 film comes a close second.

Totally agree, Morell is superb as Prof Q. Ironically, IIRC, Morell was approached to play the Prof for the first serial but turned it down as sci-fi had such a poor reputation at the time.

Quatermass and the Pit has always seemed to me to be the flip side to 2001. Both involve alien intervention in man's prehistory, but whereas Clarke's view is benign, Kneale has a far darker (and, ultimately, more thought-provoking) vision.

Quatermass II is also a marvellous story but, I have to confess, much harder to watch as the production values are so much more primitive than those of The Pit, even though only a few years separate them (a mark of the leaps and bounds television was making). But I agree that there are some incredibly atmospheric scenes and you're right, Rudi Cartier has been too often underappreciated. I think the booklet with the DVD set goes some way to highlighting Cartier's vital role.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 11:54 am 
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Martian War Lord

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McTodd wrote:
Quatermass and the Pit has always seemed to me to be the flip side to 2001. Both involve alien intervention in man's prehistory, but whereas Clarke's view is benign.

Would you call it "benign"!? Clarke says "the aliens consider 'mind' the most important thing in the Universe, they sow, they tend and sometimes dispassionately they have to weed as with the Dinosaurs". and the same is about to happen to us in one of his sequels, I can't remember which. The Aliens are more like ruthless farmers with a 'slash and burn mentality'.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 1:32 pm 
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Well, I'm talking about the fillum rather than the (very different) novel(s), seeing as we're comparing films/TV serials. True, the book's take is rather different, but in the film, there's certainly a far more benign (if dispassionate) cast to the aliens' actions.


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PostPosted: Mon Apr 09, 2007 3:26 pm 
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Loz. I remember having mixed feelings towards ITV's "Quatermass". The scenario of society collasping was more memorable than the alien threat and John Mills' performance was very good making Quatermass more vunerable than before. However none of the other characters stood out with the exception of Margaret Tyzack's Annie Morgan, Brewster Mason's Russian defector, P.G. Gurov and Ralph Arliss's Planet People Leader Kickalong, and even they had little to do. The idea of distant aliens harvesting the human race was chilling but I don't think the horror of it was put across or the threat the human race was under. Piers Haggard's direction, while it had some good tracking and craning shots didn't really stand out.

However I would like to see it again as Kneale foresaw such things as urban violence esspecially the collaspe of the Soviet Union, the concerns over gun crime and gangs shooting it out on the streets. The massacre of the Planet peopleand gangs at Wembley Stadium and Quatermass walking amongst the debris points towards the football disasters at Bradford, Heysel and Hillsborough in the 1980s, and the scene where Quatermass encounters a group of elderly people hiding in a scrapyard looks towards concerns as to how Britain's elderly are treated and belittled. The lack of communication between young and old is a running theme in Kneale's writing at this period; turning up in "The Year of the Sex Olympics," "What Big Eyes" and his unmade play: "The Big, Big Giggle" about a teenage suicide cult.

It's a shame Kneale never started, or if he did, never complete, a proposed Quatermass prequel which he was mulling over towards the end of his life. According to his biographer Andy Murray it would have dealth with Quatermass at the start of his career in the 1930s launching an experimental rocket. The launch goes wrong and his young wife is killed in the disaster (tying in with his comments in "Quatermass II" that he never had a silver wedding anniversary) The Goverment cuts off his finances and a distraught Quatermass accepts an offer to go and work on the German rocket programme with Werhner Von Braun (who he mentions in "The Pit") It's the time of the 1936 Olympics, and once there Quatermass becomes intrigued in the Nazis obsessions with magic, lost Ayan civilisations and the Master Race which could lead to his first encounter with the uncanny. Kneale said that it's subject matter and cost put off producers but he made those comments in 2003/2004. Since then we've had "Doctor Who," "Life on Mars," "Torchwood", "Primeval" and the remake of "The Quatermass Experiment". Programe makers are aware that there is money, ratings and critical aclaim to be be gained from telefantasy. It would need a writer sympathetic to Kneale's style and having studied the "Quatermass" stories carefully, but it could be that it's a gaunlett that Kneale has thrown down postumously.


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PostPosted: Tue Apr 10, 2007 2:39 pm 
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Martian War Lord

Joined: Sun Feb 13, 2005 10:00 pm
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Location: Liverpool, UK
Good points. I really dug it at the time. It was on ITV 4 very recently and I caught one episode. It was probably a little slow more than anything, which is typical of a lot of TV from that era. If you remember buried alien devices were behind the youth dropping out and becoming gang like. The idea being they would then gather at sites such as Stone Henge and Wembley so that the aliens could focus their energy beams and get huge catches in one go. What was most chilling was the fat they only wanted a tiny part of us, like musk from a dear.


Bah bah black sheap April diamond spheres, Rigsby, Rigsby, Eight sided Pears.


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PostPosted: Sun Apr 15, 2007 9:52 am 
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I remember that and Quatermass's suggestion that the standing stones were there to mark the sites that had visited. If you have the novelisation then you'll remember Disneyland was another ancient site and also Ely. The idea of an entire city being devastated by the alien ray I found chilling. I think the idea was emphaised more in the novel than in the serial.

There's a difference in slow but gripping such as in the original productions of "Quatermass II" and "Quatermass and the Pit". They may seem slow by today's standards but, it helps in the development of the story and gradual building tension. Other examples are a 1972 production of Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone" which I saw on DVD recently, and the thriller serial "Five Days" shown earlier this year. Then there's slow and meandering where the pace is too sedate and that's what I felt was wrong about the ITV Quatermass was that the direction didn't have the urgency or fluency that Rudolf Cartier brought. I think it seems to be a fault with ITV drama in the last twenty-five years. Some people complained that the recent "Prime Suspect" was far too slow and the same was also said of "Brideshead Revisited" when it was reviewed a few years ago. It was a fault with some episodes of "Primeval" too.


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PostPosted: Thu May 17, 2007 8:43 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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morrisvan wrote:
In the meantime, has anyone else seen "Serenity?"

The Sci/fi channel, showed the entire series a couple of weeks ago, I think it was a great series and I think I'm in love with Kaylee (Jewel Staite) :lol: .
I've just finished watching 'Serenity':a103: great film.

SPOILER:

I take it they aren't planning on making any more as they killed off key-characters, at one point it looked like six of the nine were about to die, in the end only two snuffed it, but it was certainly edge of the seat stuff.

END OF SPOILER.

Has anybody heard whether there's going to be any more firefly's or films? [-o<


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PostPosted: Sat May 19, 2007 9:00 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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Serenity has a huge fan-base but was dropped from the American networks. But because of the fan-base they made the movie. Maybe they'll make more, especially now as it has been voted best Sci Fi movie ever or whatever.


Bah bah black sheap April diamond spheres, Rigsby, Rigsby, Eight sided Pears.


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PostPosted: Sun May 20, 2007 1:39 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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I hope they do because the show and film were very different to anything else that's out there now, basically a serious Sci/Fi Story with a little bit of humor thrown in, well written with great characters.


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 Post subject: Re: "Serenity" voted best sci-fi film
PostPosted: Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:14 am 
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morrisvan wrote:
Joss Whedon's "Serenity" which came out in 2005 hs just been voted the best sci-fi film; knocking "Star Wars" of it's perch. Coming in this 30th anniversary it's a kick in the face for George Lucas and shows just how far he and the franchise have fallen from grace (the awful prequels won't have helped nor would Lucas's habit of continually tampering with the original films).

I haven't seen "Serenity" but if anyone has what did they think of it and did it deserve to be voted best sci-fi film. Also what are your personal favourite sci-fi films?

Here's my personal list. I guarentee you won't have heard of any of them:

Quatermass and the Pit
The War of the Worlds
The Day the Earth Stood Still
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Invasion
First Men in the Moon
20,000 Leagues under the Sea
It Came from Outer Space
Stalker
This Island Earth
The Invisible Man (1933 version)
Time After Time
The Night Caller
Logan's Run
The War Game
Threads

Thanks


You're wrong and I have and some are among my faves. Quatermass was the my first film I was spooked by and still am.

Serenity, like the series I adore the film. It was a very great shame they axed the series, there was plenty of material in it. Shame the film didn't answer all the questions raised. But why did they have to kill Wash? :a010:


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 28, 2007 7:41 pm 
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Martian War Lord

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And 'book'(The Shepherd) you always knew Book had a dark secret but you never found out what it was :a009:


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