Most underrated SF movies

[Mage]

You mean reminiscent.

If a person says one thing, and you autocorrect because what they're saying doesn't suite your opinion on the matter, you're not really coming acros as a nice person.....

Anyway, I think I'm gonna go out an limb here, and say....

Prometheus.
I loved it, and feel that as both a prequel to Alien and as a film by itself, it's highly misunderstood and underappreciated. People complain that it leaves so many questions unanswered. I say that was intent, and people are so used these days to have a movie completely filling in every blank there could be. I liked that it made me want to know more about was going on, that we as the viewer have as many questions left as the characters.

 

[jaime]

If a person says one thing, and you autocorrect because what they're saying doesn't suite your opinion on the matter, you're not really coming acros as a nice person.....

Anyway, I think I'm gonna go out an limb here, and say....

Prometheus.
I loved it, and feel that as both a prequel to Alien and as a film by itself, it's highly misunderstood and underappreciated. People complain that it leaves so many questions unanswered. I say that was intent, and people are so used these days to have a movie completely filling in every blank there could be. I liked that it made me want to know more about was going on, that we as the viewer have as many questions left as the characters.

I can live with unanswered questions from the story.
I can recognise that friends who like Alien movies (a lot) call the film proof that you can indeed Polish a turd.
The thing that annoys me about Prometheus are all the direct result of utter confusion at the production stage (it's a prequel, it's not a prequel, it's sort of a prequel but not, it's the first part of a prequel trilogy) leading to really really bad decisions making it on screen (not changing the screenplay enough for it Not to be a prequel, filing the serial numbers off a planet, everything to do with weyland that necessitated the aging make up...which then had no actual purpose in the film..people becoming absolute idiots because the story needed to cull them off..the designs clearly belonging to an alien prequel that it was at the time claiming not to be...hating on where the AvP sequels went but then aping them...falling into the common trap of prequel sci fi where the tech is more advanced than the originals but not doing a damn thing to address that.) and leading me to the conclusion that Ridley Scott may actually hate everything he's ever done that people actually like.
He may also have a few odd hang ups.

I really really don't want a Blade Runner sequel anymore, due in a large part to this film and it's mess of a production. (Alien 3 is only a worse production because of how terrible it's flaws were to start off with...it's possible however that it's a better film at the end. I guess bad decisions may be better than indecision in this case.)

It's an interesting film but....if it's part of the Alien narrative, it's pretty bad, and if it's not, then it's too derivative of Alien to work well as a stand alone.
On the plus side...it still gets to be better than Avp2 on so many levels.

 

[Mage]

I can live with unanswered questions from the story.
I can recognise that friends who like Alien movies (a lot) call the film proof that you can indeed Polish a turd.
The thing that annoys me about Prometheus are all the direct result of utter confusion at the production stage (it's a prequel, it's not a prequel, it's sort of a prequel but not, it's the first part of a prequel trilogy) leading to really really bad decisions making it on screen (not changing the screenplay enough for it Not to be a prequel, filing the serial numbers off a planet, everything to do with weyland that necessitated the aging make up...which then had no actual purpose in the film..people becoming absolute idiots because the story needed to cull them off..the designs clearly belonging to an alien prequel that it was at the time claiming not to be...hating on where the AvP sequels went but then aping them...falling into the common trap of prequel sci fi where the tech is more advanced than the originals but not doing a damn thing to address that.) and leading me to the conclusion that Ridley Scott may actually hate everything he's ever done that people actually like.
He may also have a few odd hang ups.

I really really don't want a Blade Runner sequel anymore, due in a large part to this film and it's mess of a production. (Alien 3 is only a worse production because of how terrible it's flaws were to start off with...it's possible however that it's a better film at the end. I guess bad decisions may be better than indecision in this case.)

It's an interesting film but....if it's part of the Alien narrative, it's pretty bad, and if it's not, then it's too derivative of Alien to work well as a stand alone.
On the plus side...it still gets to be better than Avp2 on so many levels.

I love how there are so many different opinions on this movie, atleast it means there's always enough to talk about.
I don't agree with your opinions, but I do respect your opinion and I do see where you are coming from and why people feel the way they do. To me, the negatives that are a part of this movie, are not nearly so big to outweigh what I personally felt was good about it. Thankfully, we can all disagree on what we like and dislike. For me, I hope Covenant will give me everything Prometheus had that I loved and more. For you, I hope it doesn't have what you disliked and can give you everything you love about the Alien franchise.

 

[Gov Kodos]

If a person says one thing, and you autocorrect because what they're saying doesn't suite your opinion on the matter, you're not really coming acros as a nice person.....

Anyway, I think I'm gonna go out an limb here, and say....

Prometheus.
I loved it, and feel that as both a prequel to Alien and as a film by itself, it's highly misunderstood and underappreciated. People complain that it leaves so many questions unanswered. I say that was intent, and people are so used these days to have a movie completely filling in every blank there could be. I liked that it made me want to know more about was going on, that we as the viewer have as many questions left as the characters.

Prometheus is an underrated film. The flaws really didn't hurt the vision of the film as an epic history behind the Alien films. Sure, they do show there was much more that should have been done to give coherence to the story but for what it was it was a great film. I'll gladly sit through Prometheus on a tape loop for a day before I'd look at more popular things like Nolan's Batman films again which are overrated tripe.

 

[jaime]

Prometheus is an underrated film. The flaws really didn't hurt the vision of the film as an epic history behind the Alien films. Sure, they do show there was much more that should have been done to give coherence to the story but for what it was it was a great film. I'll gladly sit through Prometheus on a tape loop for a day before I'd look at more popular things like Nolan's Batman films again which are overrated tripe.

On that we are possibly agreed. I would try Prometheus again...but Nolan Batman is just


Meh

 

[jaime]

I love how there are so many different opinions on this movie, atleast it means there's always enough to talk about.
I don't agree with your opinions, but I do respect your opinion and I do see where you are coming from and why people feel the way they do. To me, the negatives that are a part of this movie, are not nearly so big to outweigh what I personally felt was good about it. Thankfully, we can all disagree on what we like and dislike. For me, I hope Covenant will give me everything Prometheus had that I loved and more. For you, I hope it doesn't have what you disliked and can give you everything you love about the Alien franchise.

If ridley let's someone else keep control of the story aspect, we might be ok. He's a great visual director, but loses his way in the story.

 

[Vandervecken]

M. Night Shymalan's "Unbreakable". One of the best superhero movies ever made, IMO.

So much this. Sam Jackson deserved an Oscar for that one.


1980 version of The Lathe of Heaven. Really captured this favorite of LeGuin's novels for me.
Enemy Mine
Videodrome (James Woods and Deborah Harry. What's not to like?)
They Live. Love that fight scene. Love the whole thing.
The Omega Man (surprisingly watchable after all these years)

Back on topic..
The Day the Earth Caught Fire

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Just watched this a few months ago. Very interesting, different...overall I liked it. Edward Judd's constant "look at me I am so bitter and worldly" sophomoric rants start to become pretty grating after a while, though. On the other hand--pixieish Janet Munro looks delectable, and her dialogue is very well written. Her character is more than a match for Judd, rare for a woman in a film of this vintage.

 

[EmoBorg]

Lifeforce

Millennium

Enemy Mine

 

[eyeresist]

In the composers thread (Williams vs Goldsmith) a little while ago I mentioned Outland.

This is a little known sci-fi from the early 1980s, starring Sean Connery, with a great soundtrack by Goldsmith. The down to earth, gritty style was obviously influenced by Alien (the first one), while the story is borrowed from classic western High Noon (I think).
Connery plays the marshall of a mining colony on a moon of Jupiter. Miners are starting to go crazy and kill themselves/other people, and Connery has to find out why (hint: it's a conspiracy).
No aliens involved.

 

[Klaus]

Surprised we got this far w/o a mention of The Quiet Earth... I know in the past on here it's been a sharp division between those [myself included] who consider it a minor masterpiece and those whom it bored silly.

 

[jaime]

In the composers thread (Williams vs Goldsmith) a little while ago I mentioned Outland.

This is a little known sci-fi from the early 1980s, starring Sean Connery, with a great soundtrack by Goldsmith. The down to earth, gritty style was obviously influenced by Alien (the first one), while the story is borrowed from classic western High Noon (I think).
Connery plays the marshall of a mining colony on a moon of Jupiter. Miners are starting to go crazy and kill themselves/other people, and Connery has to find out why (hint: it's a conspiracy).
No aliens involved.

Drugs. The miners were on them.
It's very gory film but very stylish with its sets etc. Fits right alongside alien as you mention.

 

[Set Harth]

In the composers thread (Williams vs Goldsmith) a little while ago I mentioned Outland.

This is a little known sci-fi from the early 1980s, starring Sean Connery, with a great soundtrack by Goldsmith. The down to earth, gritty style was obviously influenced by Alien (the first one), while the story is borrowed from classic western High Noon (I think).
Connery plays the marshall of a mining colony on a moon of Jupiter. Miners are starting to go crazy and kill themselves/other people, and Connery has to find out why (hint: it's a conspiracy).
No aliens involved.

The DVD transfer is one of the worst ( if not the worst ) I have ever seen. And yes, it is High Noon... in space.

 

[eyeresist]

Drugs. The miners were on them.
It's very gory film but very stylish with its sets etc. Fits right alongside alien as you mention.

Spoilers, man, spoilers.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Maybe it's because I was watching it on cable late at night, but I have to admit I thought Kevin Costner's The Postman was actually pretty good.

Minor trivia: A friend of mine worked on that film. He did the drawing on the "O little mind of Bethlehem" fliers.

FREQUENCY was a cool time-travel movie that didn't get enough love.

I've only ever actually cried at 2 films in my life-- Frequency & Toy Story 3.

I'd say the original Stargate movie is underrated these days.

Yeah. Solid example of 1990s action sci-fi. It was one of the first non-current movies I ever bought on DVD, so I used to watch it a lot.

Speaking of the 1990s-- Lost in Space. Some of it is a bit cheesy but I like what they did with the robot. And anything with Gary Oldman is usually worth watching.

Speaking of Gary Oldman-- The Book of Eli and the RoboCop remake.

David Lynch's Dune is excellent, particularly thanks to the endlessly quotable lines that the actors scream at the top of their lungs!
"I will kill him!"
"Long live the fighters!"
"He who controls the spice controls the universe!"
"Get out of my mind!"

I didn't really understand The Chronicles of Riddick until I saw Dune. On a stylistic standpoint, the 2 films are very similar.

Since people have been constantly badmouthing the Star Wars prequels ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm Ltd., I would just like to give a shout-out to Revenge of the Sith & Attack of the Clones, my 2 favorite films in the saga. #stophatingtheprequels

As we've been talking about in the recent X-Men thread, X-Men Origins: Wolverine deserves more credit than it gets. It's got a really good supporting cast with Liev Screiber, Danny Huston, & Dominic Monaghan.

I Robot with Will Smith was a much smarter movie than it needed to be and doesn't get enough credit for that.

I love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a movie which most fans found difficult to love. Granted, it's not as good as the books but no movie adaptation of Douglas Adams ever could be. His genius was in his exposition, which is the first thing to go in any book-to-film adaptation. But the movie was still faithful to much of the original novel while also making strides to strengthen the central narrative and make the characters more engaging & sympathetic.

Shame that The Thirteenth Floor didn't make more money. It was well done for what it was. I didn't see it in theaters but I bought it on DVD a few years ago as part of a triple-pack with Screamers. Does anyone else remember Screamers? I bought the DVD only because no one ever talks about it anymore yet I remember the TV ads so vividly.
"It's called a Screamer."
"Where do they come from?"
"Underground."

I need to rewatch The Fifth Element. I own the DVD but I haven't actually watched it since it was in theaters 20 years ago.

Technically, I guess it's "speculative fiction," not "science fiction," but V for Vendetta is one of the best movies ever made ever! And since there are some people that don't think this and many who have never even seen it at all, that makes it underrated in my book.

 

[eyeresist]

As we've been talking about in the recent X-Men thread, X-Men Origins: Wolverine deserves more credit than it gets.

Agreed. This is one of those cases where fanboy groupthink decrees we MUST regard it as terrible, and it's really not. The plot is a bit rambling, but there are a number of good moments, and Logan's throughline is solid. (And I don't really care that they 'ruined' Deadpool.) I thought follow-up "THE Wolverine" was much weaker, a genuinely bad movie just on account of how silly it was.

I love The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, a movie which most fans found difficult to love. Granted, it's not as good as the books but no movie adaptation of Douglas Adams ever could be. His genius was in his exposition, which is the first thing to go in any book-to-film adaptation. But the movie was still faithful to much of the original novel while also making strides to strengthen the central narrative and make the characters more engaging & sympathetic.

Not a disaster, but really needed a better director. How did a first-time feature director even get this gig? I also had a lot of issues with the casting, but Mos Def was a high point as Ford Prefect.
As it is, I much prefer the TV version.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I liked The Wolverine up until the giant robot fight.

 

[jaime]

Spoilers, man, spoilers.

They show them shooting up in the first quarter of the film at least. (it's been a while since I saw it mind you.)

 

[Set Harth]

Agreed. This is one of those cases where fanboy groupthink decrees we MUST regard it as terrible, and it's really not.

The worst part is that the hatewagon position was already officially decreed before the film was even released, due to twerps who had seen the leaked workprint with unfinished effects.

 

[eyeresist]

They show them shooting up in the first quarter of the film at least. (it's been a while since I saw it mind you.)

I think you are wrong. Anyway, Connery, the viewpoint character, doesn't find out till pretty late. It's supposed to be a mystery.

 

[jaime]

I think you are wrong. Anyway, Connery, the viewpoint character, doesn't find out till pretty late. It's supposed to be a mystery.

Really? I thought it was all about him being the sheriff in the middle of no where and finding out who was bringing the stuff in, then tracking them down and facing off with them.
As I say, it's been a while...I remember shotguns, crawlspace, airlock lift, decompression issues and a solar panel array. It's like a grim red dwarf.