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Cerebral Sci-Fi Films

You know, nobody mentions what I consider to be the companion piece to Collossus - Demon Seed. A follow up sequal to that would be great following the female child baby of the computer establishing a new order on Earth. It could be fascinating if she was omnipotent. What was that actresses name? and Fritz Weaver.
 
You know, nobody mentions what I consider to be the companion piece to Collossus - Demon Seed. A follow up sequal to that would be great following the female child baby of the computer establishing a new order on Earth. It could be fascinating if she was omnipotent. What was that actresses name? and Fritz Weaver.

Julie Christie.
 
Greg Cox - That'd be fair. I love Alien, but it is basically a monster B-movie with a great budget and some inspired design.

I would argue that the adjunct "cerebral" is a bit redundant, since a film has to be cerebral in order to constitute an actual science fiction film.
And I'd argue that then we're getting a little tricky with how we're defining 'science fiction'.

For example, if two films have basically the same premise - one smart, one dumb - is only the smart one a science fiction film?

I suppose by this definition bad sci-fi movies would be films that are smart, but boring.
 
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Yeah, I think we should resist the idea that only cerebral scifi films are "real" science fiction, or that they are somehow intrinsically superior to space operas or monster movies or whatever.

It's a subcategory, not a value judgment.
 
I would definite cerebral scifi as sf movies that are not primarily action-adventure stories. Or monster movies. Or war stories.

Note: this doesn't mean that sf action movies are brainless. ALIENS and WRATH OF KHAN are both smart, clever movies. But they're intended, to a large degree, to be rousing adventures that get your heart pumping, not thoughtful, twisty meditations on the nature of time and space or whatever . . . .

GATAACA is a cerebral sf movie. COLOSSUS, which has almost no action sequences or special effects, works on a mostly cerebral level.

Is BLADE RUNNER cerebral scifi? That's a tricky one . . . .

I like to define cerebral as a movie that makes you "think" about it for more than a few minutes, or usually has some high concept, that is explored relatively well. This does NOT mean it can't have action or adventure in it.

RAMA
 
The best thing about cerebral sci-fi is that it is not easily definable and resonates on multiple levels of deep philosophical and metaphysical meaning and is open to many interpretations and who's larger themes are tied into reality itself and how it is reflected in us. Like the child at the end of 2001 and what the monilith really means, ect. i.e. a mystery with no single one answer. To me it's a tombstone with Humanities name written on it. But that's just this week.
 
Fahrenheit 451, don't get me wrong, the execution of the movie itself is iffy, but the story and the message is great.

The book (strangely enough) is better.
 
What does cerebral mean? Intelligent or what?


Appealing more to the brain than the emotions, and probably dealing with big philosophical or sociological issues, and/or brain-twisting scientific concepts.

Thought-provoking, in other words.

In the real world, of course, we're talking a spectrum of approaches that may overlap with other kinds of films. Very few scifi films are strictly cerebral, although some are definitely more cerebral than others . . . .

PLANET OF THE APES, for instance, is thought-provoking, satirical, and a thrilling adventure.
 
Well it's like a mirror which reflects the universe which is everything and nothing at the same time. It speaks to our subconscious by creating something that we can't know yet we are somehow familiar with our ultimate reality - some kind of answer that we can understand, like it or not such as the possibility that we are unreal or unusual pov's like we don't really exist, etc.. Things that shake the foundations of science, beliefs and reality and sees them with a new perspective which would radically alter our perceptions of the universe, if even that exists as well.
 
RAMA mentioned Sunshine which has to be the most squandered first half of a film ever. It could have been a great contender but instead it's just dreadful. I place it firmly with Event Horizon as a good idea turned into a schlock splatter movie.

Come to think of it, Supernova almost falls into that category but there wasn't any splatter.
 
Greg Cox - That'd be fair. I love Alien, but it is basically a monster B-movie with a great budget and some inspired design.

I would argue that the adjunct "cerebral" is a bit redundant, since a film has to be cerebral in order to constitute an actual science fiction film.
And I'd argue that then we're getting a little tricky with how we're defining 'science fiction'.

For example, if two films have basically the same premise - one smart, one dumb - is only the smart one a science fiction film?

I suppose by this definition bad sci-fi movies would be films that are smart, but boring.
"Science Fiction" is a story which hinges on the extrapolation of science or technology and how it effects an individual or society. The diminutive "Sci Fi" means anything using the tropes of Science Fiction, but not necessarily the substance, although stories can fall into both categories (as well as others). Wrath Of Khan, for example, was Sci Fi (Space Opera) with a Science Fiction subplot.
 
"Science Fiction" is a story which hinges on the extrapolation of science or technology and how it effects an individual or society. The diminutive "Sci Fi" means anything using the tropes of Science Fiction, but not necessarily the substance, although stories can fall into both categories (as well as others). Wrath Of Khan, for example, was Sci Fi (Space Opera) with a Science Fiction subplot.


That's a very specialized, ivory tower definition of "Science Fiction." I'm not sure that's how the term is used in the real world, where pretty much everyones consider FLASH GORDON, STAR WARS, and TERMINATOR science fiction.
 
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Moon and Solaris immediately came to mind.

Dark City was great. So was Contact.

Andromeda Strain (the original)
Children of Men
Inception

As for Primer, I had to spend a half an hour with that graphic chart trying to understand it....it was good though...

:lol:
 
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