7 replies on “Greatest Science Fiction Film Tournament Week 8: Round 1”
Putting 2012 releases on this list, including at least one that hasn’t yet been released to DVD, doesn’t sit well with me. Especially since I typically wait for the DVD release to see most of my movies.
They’re on there because they were on the IMDB top lists for the genre. I didn’t want personal bias on the list, which I why I collated other lists. I’m trying to come up with ways to do it differently for a future fantasy tournament, including open submissions for candidates, a shorter tournament schedule, etc.
This sounds fun! My money is on a certain Empire striking back.
And people, I know you want to look all artsy fartsy voting Metropolis up – but really, it’s not a great movie! Don’t dooooo iiiiiiit!
“Greatest” doesn’t necessarily mean it has the best lasers and explosions. Or you know. Plot. It could mean it was greatly influential, and without it we wouldn’t have a lot of the movies with lasers and explosions and plots. Then there’s historical and social context, etc. For example, the SFX in Metropolis might’ve been, for the time, as advanced anything is nowadays. Don’t de-greatify something just because it’s old and artsy.
Besides, the version of Metropolis in the latest vote (the 2001 anime) is not the one he’s probably thinking of anyway.
And speaking of artsy movies, just remember that Dark City came out before The Matrix. One of the few examples of sci-fi noir.
One of the few, yes. The first? Metropolis (1927), directed by Fritz Lang, who was credited with creating the film noir genre in his later effort M (1931), which was the first German talkie and featured Peter Lorre in his first starring role.
Putting 2012 releases on this list, including at least one that hasn’t yet been released to DVD, doesn’t sit well with me. Especially since I typically wait for the DVD release to see most of my movies.
They’re on there because they were on the IMDB top lists for the genre. I didn’t want personal bias on the list, which I why I collated other lists. I’m trying to come up with ways to do it differently for a future fantasy tournament, including open submissions for candidates, a shorter tournament schedule, etc.
This sounds fun! My money is on a certain Empire striking back.
And people, I know you want to look all artsy fartsy voting Metropolis up – but really, it’s not a great movie! Don’t dooooo iiiiiiit!
“Greatest” doesn’t necessarily mean it has the best lasers and explosions. Or you know. Plot. It could mean it was greatly influential, and without it we wouldn’t have a lot of the movies with lasers and explosions and plots. Then there’s historical and social context, etc. For example, the SFX in Metropolis might’ve been, for the time, as advanced anything is nowadays. Don’t de-greatify something just because it’s old and artsy.
Besides, the version of Metropolis in the latest vote (the 2001 anime) is not the one he’s probably thinking of anyway.
And speaking of artsy movies, just remember that Dark City came out before The Matrix. One of the few examples of sci-fi noir.
One of the few, yes. The first? Metropolis (1927), directed by Fritz Lang, who was credited with creating the film noir genre in his later effort M (1931), which was the first German talkie and featured Peter Lorre in his first starring role.