Unpopular Sci-fi/ Fantasy movie opinions!

[The Doctor]

My only real pet-peeve is over-interest in the 'world' that a particular piece of sci-fi inhabits. I couldn't give less of a toss what made-up technology powers the ship or if the various bullshit constructs are consistent with each other. Is the show/movie/book/story populated by people? Are they at times relatable or reviled? Does the human drama capture my interest? These are the questions that truly matter.

That's why Star Trek was at its best when Gene Roddenberry had the least to do with it and why Glen Larson and BSG TOS fans can go take a walk.

I'm also a sucker for pure whimsey, which is probably why I so very much dig the new Doctor Who. The old series? Not so much.

 

[RandyS]

The genre peaked decades before the term was even coined.

TEMPLE OF DOOM is the only Indiana Jones sequel worth a damn.

Star Trek IV is the worst Trek film.

Babylon 5 was at least 60% garbage. But that's a t.v. opinion.

I insist you turn in you fandom card.

And you will pay a fine.

 

[bullethead]

-Everything with the word "Macross" in the title and is not SDF Macross, DYRL, or Macross Plus sucks
-Robotech, despite being hampered by 80s censorship and other problems, is a lot more interesting than post Macross Plus Macross
-Gundam's Universal Century stories are a lot better when they don't focus on Newtypes
-You miss nothing if you go from the original Gundam and the One Year War OVAs straight to Char's Counterattack
-Gundam 00 season 1 is probably the most "Western" feeling Gundam show ever and should be the direction of future Gundam shows, not pandering to the UC fans
-The Lucian Alliance in Stargate is a good idea that has been horribly executed
-Dr. Rush on SGU should've been the leader from the start
-Firefly is a good show and nothing more
-Battlestar Galactica's finale was okay and would've been better if the Colonials had become proto-Greeks and the Cylons had become proto-monotheists
-seaQuest DSV/2032 is a lot more interesting than a lot of scifi that's come out since, due to the use of the underwater setting
-Blue Submarine Number 6's music is horrible
-Most Expanded Universe works suck, including Mass Effect's and Halo's (not including the Nylund novels, because he's more competent than the people who came up with Halo)
-Transformers would've been better had Steven Spielberg not forced the inclusion of "a boy and his car, coming of age" plot and let the military guys be the focus of the human plot
-Fanfic writers can do just as good a job or better than the people actually paid to write TV shows, movies, and video games
-I don't care about a show being deep or thought provoking as long as it has interesting characters and interesting situations that cause those characters to develop

 

[Kemaiku]

I hate Star Trek 4.

 

[flemm]

What these threads always teach me is that I have fewer opinions, unpopular or otherwise, than most people on the interwebz. I should watch more tv

 

[Vasquez Rocks]

D.A.R.Y.L. is better than A.I.

 

[Harvey]

Babylon 5 creatively and commercially burned out quicker than Berman era Star Trek.

I'm not sure if that would be so hotly contested, honestly. That it burnt out faster than Berman's reign over the Star Trek franchise is an objective fact (25 seasons and four theatrical movies vs. 5 1/2 seasons, a failed pilot, and five television movies). That it peaked creatively during the fourth season seems to be an opinion awfully widely held.

Tron, Sunshine, The Fountain and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow prove conclusively that VFX does not and never will make a movie a hit.

Again, is that hotly contested by anyone other than studio executives with memories that fade past their last big hit?

The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi were a single movie in two parts, and claiming one is better than the other is nuts.

Even accepting your proposition as true (the gap in production and differing writers make this a different situation than the Matrix and Back to the Future sequels), that claim is no more preposterous than proposing that you liked the first half of a book more than the second half.

Not only Dark City but The Thirteenth Floor were better movies than The Matrix.

Seconded, on the Dark City count. I have yet to see The Thirteenth Floor.

Whether horror movies use science fiction or fantasy elements is irrelevant, they are horror movies.

Surely films can occupy more than one genre?

To throw out a few more...

Serenity is at best a medicore movie, and a bad follow-up to the television series, Firefly.

Event Horizon is a good movie, and the last act is logical given the set-up.

Sunshine is terrible--not only in the last act, but from the very beginning.

Moon was better than any other science fiction film released in 2009.

 

[StarshipDefiant]

I liked the Star Wars prequel trilogy...

 

[JediKnightButler]

The two (live action) Transformers movies weren't totally awful.

I actually enjoyed them for the most part, particularly the second one- since the characters had already been established and didn't require (re-)introduction and we could move right along with the main storyline.
I suppose that a large part of why I like them (or at least don't hate them) so much is because I loved Transformers as a child and was really pleased that they kept Optimus Prime looking the way he was in the original G1 series AND got the same voice actor. They may not have been the best movies ever and are basically your average mindless "popcorn flicks" but I don't think that they're like the worst movies ever made by any means either.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

The two (live action) Transformers movies weren't totally awful.

I actually enjoyed them for the most part, particularly the second one- since the characters had already been established and didn't require (re-)introduction and we could move right along with the main storyline.
I suppose that a large part of why I like them (or at least don't hate them) so much is because I loved Transformers as a child and was really pleased that they kept Optimus Prime looking the way he was in the original G1 series AND got the same voice actor. They may not have been the best movies ever and are basically your average mindless "popcorn flicks" but I don't think that they're like the worst movies ever made by any means either.

I agree. The forest battle kicked ass

 

[stj]

Tron, Sunshine, The Fountain and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow prove conclusively that VFX does not and never will make a movie a hit.

Again, is that hotly contested by anyone other than studio executives with memories that fade past their last big hit?

Did you not read any of the Avatar threads? Seems to me a very large proportion of this bbs attributes the movie's success to VFX. They are especially adamant that the VFX overcome a terrible story.

Even accepting your proposition as true (the gap in production and differing writers make this a different situation than the Matrix and Back to the Future sequels), that claim is no more preposterous than proposing that you liked the first half of a book more than the second half.

Maybe I'm style deaf. To me, it's perfectly obvious you say "The book was going good but the ending ruined it all."

Whether horror movies use science fiction or fantasy elements is irrelevant, they are horror movies.

Surely films can occupy more than one genre?

As in rom-com or such? Of course. But science fiction is not a genre, it's having something fantastic, like the future or uninvented gadgets or whatever. Saying it's science fiction is like saying a movie is a period piece: It tells you nothing about what kind of story it is. You could even call a piece of poetry science fiction. Using "genre" for anything other than kind of story seems unnecessarily confusing. And using it as an antonym for "literary" seems unnecessarily tendentious.

Serenity is at best a medicore movie, and a bad follow-up to the television series, Firefly.

Serenity jumped ahead to the ultimate goal of the series, the heroes overthrowing the evil Alliance. How that can be a bad follow up is a mystery to me.

Event Horizon

is a good movie, and the last act is logical given the set-up.

Event Horizon is terrible science fiction because it is senseless. It is a good horror film. (The irruption of the irrational into the mundane world may be the essence of horror.) As I was saying, in horror films, it just doesn't matter whether the monster (literal or metaphorical) is science fictional or magical.

Moon was better than any other science fiction film released in 2009.

On this bbs, anything being regarded more highly than Avatar is a popular position.

 

[Harvey]

Did you not read any of the Avatar threads? Seems to me a very large proportion of this bbs attributes the movie's success to VFX. They are especially adamant that the VFX overcome a terrible story.

A fair point. Still, there's little doubt in my mind that the visual effects worked in Avatar's favor (I'd be surprised if you could find a review that doesn't bring them up in a significant way), but it is obviously more than an effects reel. Cameron understands more than most other directors how to create appealing, visual effects heavy films.

Maybe I'm style deaf. To me, it's perfectly obvious you say "The book was going good but the ending ruined it all."

And if the end of the story is packaged as the third film in a trilogy you say that you didn't like the third film. I'm not even sure what we're arguing about here.

As in rom-com or such? Of course. But science fiction is not a genre, it's having something fantastic, like the future or uninvented gadgets or whatever. Saying it's science fiction is like saying a movie is a period piece: It tells you nothing about what kind of story it is. You could even call a piece of poetry science fiction. Using "genre" for anything other than kind of story seems unnecessarily confusing. And using it as an antonym for "literary" seems unnecessarily tendentious.

If the science fiction label tells you that the story will include something fantastic, then it is telling you something. As long as a genre label helps to categorize by narrative elements and conventions they seem useful to me. Of course, people quibble about what constitutes different genres all the time. But that's not what I thought you were doing, and that's my mistake.

 

[Gaith]

Jedi was better than Empire.

The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi were a single movie in two parts, and claiming one is better than the other is nuts.

Wow... now I've heard it all!

My (partial) list...

- Batman Begins sucks.
- PotC 2 is awesome, the other two should be forgotten.
- Slave Leia isn't all that hot. I'll take Gladiator Padme or even Hoth Leia any day of the week.
- Post-Goblet Harry Potter sucks. Ron should've bit it.
- Terminator 3 is a splendid popcorn flick and a worthy sequel to T2, considering what an impossible act to follow that is. Btw, Nick Stahl should totally have been Anakin.
- The SW PT shoulda been in black and white.
- Chett in Weird Science the movie isn't funny... in any form.
- Gondor should have set up a parliamentary republic at the end of RotK.
- Firefly and Serenity were both just "meh".
- The Mummy remains the best archeology-themed movie since Raiders.
- Stephen Sommers could just maybe do a great job of directing The Hobbit, and should be seriously considered.
- Mission: Impossible II is a great flick, the others are mediocre.
- Reeve and the score aside, Superman: The Movie is boring to the point of cruelty.
- Superman should use some sort of holography to "wear" a different face as Supes than as Clark Kent.
- Kristen Kreuk: only decent-looking.
- Megan Fox: not so much.
- LXG sags a bit in the middle, but overall is great fun.
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies makes me ashamed to be a geek.
- The whole idea of Transformers is pretty dumb, so people should stop complaining that the second one was so terrible (the first one is pretty good until the absolutely interminable finale).
- Quidditch should be played by standing on brooms, not sitting on them.

And, finally...

- SW fans should disown the PT. As in, resolve not to watch the movies again, not to show them to our kids, not to fan-edit them, not to buy them on any media format, never to agree to such absurdities as Anakin building 3PO and generally continue the already-begun process of shutting them out of our cultural memory (while just about all the OT elements are still going strong). (And yes, this includes both Clone Wars cartoons; the Clone Wars was NOT good clones vs. bad droids.)

This doesn't mean that we must entirely forget about the awesome costumes, sountrack cues, planets and etc., only that they should be treated as ephemera with no formal ties to the OT.

 

[Myasishchev]

Jedi was better than Empire.

The Empire Strikes Back/Return of the Jedi were a single movie in two parts, and claiming one is better than the other is nuts.

Wow... now I've heard it all!

Empire doesn't have the sweetest space battle of all time!

- Kristen Kreuk: only decent-looking.
- Megan Fox: not so much.

They're both very hot, although Fox has a odd, artificial, fembot-v.1.0 quality to her--possibly because she only barely passes the Turing Test in the first place,* but also it's just her look--that is very distracting.

I certainly have found the worship of her bizarre; but I've found that bizarre with any celeb lusted after. I mean, are there not women 18-30 where some people live? Maybe I'm spoiled because my school adjoins a major university, but on any given day I could count dozens of women at least as attractive as your Megan Foxes and Kristen Kreuks, only maybe without the benefit of professional makeup, fashion coordinators, a blocking expert, and image editing software.

*In her movies, anyway; looking around just now, some of her interviews actually come off as, if not brilliant, actually kinda witty.

- SW fans should disown the PT. As in, resolve not to watch the movies again, not to show them to our kids, not to fan-edit them, not to buy them on any media format, never to agree to such absurdities as Anakin building 3PO and generally continue the already-begun process of shutting them out of our cultural memory (while just about all the OT elements are still going strong).

Rifftrax are okay, though, right?

 

[Mistral]

Sliders was one of the most original series ever created. It had an interesting plot arc, amusing stories and even memorable characters. It is a shame the quality levels weren't sustained over the whole run.

Spaceballs deserved a sequel more than Star Wars.

Doctor Who is drek, always has been drek, and only really was worth watching for Christopher E's single season.

BSG's finale was great tv, absolutely satisfying, almost magical in its execution.
LOST's finale was(see BSG, above).
All Good Things was a lame series finale with holes in the plot a mile wide. The only redeeming feature was the last 90 seconds or so.
Quantum Leap's finale was a lesson in how to. More shows should pay attention to that when they are wrapping up.

Anime is crap and should remain in Japan. Same with manga. It(anime) looked dated and primitive in the early 70s and really doesn't have a leg to stand on in the new century.

Early DS9 was absolute garbage. The show should be watched with the seasons in reverse order-and the viewer should stop at season 3 or 4.

HP, Twilight, and The Transformers- aren't close to the hype levels they are accorded. Shrek, ET and the Matrix are far more deserving. Lost Boys was a better vampire movie than Twilight. Robinson Crusoe On Mars was better scifi than Transformers-and had 3 times the plot.

And, no, I'm not poking a bear with a stick here-I truly believe what I've written. Take it for what its worth...

 

[stj]

The story of Empire Strikes Back isn't finished. You don't know what's happened to Han and you don't know what Luke will do about Vader, or how. How can one say they like an unfinished story? If you don't like the finished story, then you don't like the story, including the first half. This is too bizarre to argue about any further though.

I have in my possession three boxes. In box #1 are three SF novels. In box #2 are three SF novels. In box #3 are three SF novels. Make your choice!

For the audience watching, box #1 has a John Birmingham, a David Weber and a John Ringo. Box #2 has a Catherine Asaro, a Kage Baker and a Justina Robson. Box #3 has Isaac Asimov's Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn.

If I'd said, one contained military novels, one contained romances and one contained mysteries, I would have given real information. A person could have a reasonable chance of getting the kind of story they like. Even people convinced they didn't like SF might find they liked their favorite genre even contaminated with SF elements. This sort of thing is why I think it's a bad idea to confuse "science fiction" with real genres like mystery, romance, war novel, when it's a term more like "prose" or "short story."

 

[Rett Mikhal]

-Robotech, despite being hampered by 80s censorship and other problems, is a lot more interesting than post Macross Plus Macross

I'd have to agree with you that Robotech is just a whipping boy for fanboys. People don't realize when you translate something you have to change it, because languages are different. In that respect, the Robotech version is better, in my opinion. More polished stories and dialog.

Watch Cowboy Bebop in English, then the same episode in Japanese with English subtitles. They're completely different. Doesn't mean one is better than the other, but it does mean people will side with one or the other. I side with English Robotech Macross, because that's what I grew up with. Skull Squadron forever.

Dana still looks retarded with her blonde fro, though.

 

[Lapis Exilis]

Terminator 2 is merely a louder, glitzier rehash of the original movie. It was a terrible sequel and birthed a pointless franchise. The sad part is, there was a good story to continue from The Terminator - what we got wasn't anywhere near it.

Christopher Reeve was actually kinda goofy and stiff as Superman and the real magic of the performance was the chemistry between him and Margot Kidder.

Star Wars is wildly overrated in general. The first two flicks were fun, but that's about it.

 

[Gaith]

- SW fans should disown the PT. As in, resolve not to watch the movies again, not to show them to our kids, not to fan-edit them, not to buy them on any media format, never to agree to such absurdities as Anakin building 3PO and generally continue the already-begun process of shutting them out of our cultural memory (while just about all the OT elements are still going strong).

Rifftrax are okay, though, right?

Well, for very occasional research purposes only, perhaps. Same for the RLM reviews.

 

[Lt. Brannigan]

I have no real unpopular opinions.... which disappoints me as it shows I should be more discerning in what I find enjoyable.