Dark City and other strange and imaginative places

[galleywest]

Google "Last Year at the Overlook." It's a short video mashup of the two movies.

That's very interesting, how the stylistic themes seem to mesh together! Thanks for posting that.

I like The Shining and I confess...I don't like Stephen King's writing. I did like Carrie, but for the most part I can't get into his books. So for me, the movie is great because I don't have anything to compare it too! But I know there's a large contingent of fans of the book that don't like the movie, so I get it.

I'd be remiss of I didn't bring both Blade Runner and 2001 into the discussion. Blade Runner in particular had such a unique look, I sometimes watch it just to look at it's visuals. In the realm of, "who watched this one?" are a couple of SyFy originals, Tin Man and Alice, interesting takes on classic stories.

I forgot about Immortal, it's been years since I saw that. I recall it being visually very strange and I honestly can't remember the storyline at all.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Steven King famously hates Kubrick's adaptation of The Shining.
https://screenrant.com/shining-movie-stephen-king-hate-reason-why

I prefer the movie although I get that King intended Jack Torrance to be a more sympathetic character than Kubrick had Nicholson play him.

As for intriguing SF universes, I would nominate the planet Ygam, home to the Traags in the 1973 animated film La Planète sauvage (aka Fantastic Planet).

 

[publiusr]

By Planetary Treveler, do you mean this?

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Yep. The voice over work was well done

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ I freaking loved Planetary Traveler, but not its sequel (Infinity's Child). That one was just a random melange of animation, not the beautiful worlds that the original had.

 

[Truffula]

Dark City was a really imaginative movie, and I loved its creativity and mysterious air. I hope a series from it becomes reality, that could be something I'd want to watch.

 

[JD]

]
In the realm of, "who watched this one?" are a couple of SyFy originals, Tin Man and Alice, interesting takes on classic stories.

I really enjoyed both of those. Did you see Neverland? It was a Peter Pan origin story from the gy who did those, with Rhys Ifans as Hook, Bob Hoskins as Smee (again), Charles Dance, Anna Friel as the pre-Hook Pirate Captain, The Expanse's Cas Anvar, and Keira Knightley as the voice of Tinker Bell.
I know I've watched a few foreign and indie SFF movies that were really interesting and unique, but I'm coming up blank trying to think of any off the top of my head.

 

[Truffula]

Some of the "Inception" moving cityscapes reminded me of what Dark City might be like if remade. Also some of the effects in Dr. Strange echoed this.

 

[Steve Roby]

Some of the "Inception" moving cityscapes reminded me of what Dark City might be like if remade. Also some of the effects in Dr. Strange echoed this.

Echoed a little too closely. The Doctor Strange comics have had some gloriously bizarre settings over the decades, thanks to Steve Ditko and those who followed, so I never got the point of ripping off Inception for a Doctor Strange movie.

 

[tomalak301]

I've been wanting to see this movie for years, yet I never got around to it. Maybe during the holidays I will finally rent it and see it. It's not an expensive rental.

 

[Ridcully]

Loved it...miss these kind of movies...today it is all fast blurry and noisy as fuck! No imagination is required!

 

[Steve Roby]

Loved it...miss these kind of movies...today it is all fast blurry and noisy as fuck! No imagination is required!

Science fiction fans started complaining like that in the late 1970s, when movies started imitating Star Wars instead of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the slow dystopian SF films of the early 1970s. Star Wars (the original movie) seems rather sedate itself now.

 

[JD]

Loved it...miss these kind of movies...today it is all fast blurry and noisy as fuck! No imagination is required!

The place to look for this kind of stuff these days is TV and streaming.
Movies are more focused on spectacle so other mediums are the place to go if you're looking for more worldbuilding.
One show that came to mind with a pretty interesting setting was Carnival Row, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of it whenever we get the second season.
Another one that I liked a lot was See, I loved all the little details they included for the blind characters, like the writing being knotted ropes, and how they had a whole network of ropes tied above some of the buildings that the characters used to get around one of the villages.

 

[galleywest]

Echoed a little too closely. The Doctor Strange comics have had some gloriously bizarre settings over the decades, thanks to Steve Ditko and those who followed, so I never got the point of ripping off Inception for a Doctor Strange movie.

Totally agree with this. And re: Inception, it's so funny--after all the hype surrounding Inception, when I finally saw it I was so disappointed because I thought it was so unimaginative. You have the power to make any of your dreams come true, and what you make come true is a cityscape? Why aren't you riding robot unicorns on the planet Bhlrgzxfgg? So it's really interesting that I found Dark City to be so fresh and strange and Inception to feel so stale, and they used the same kind of setting. It really is the story that makes it.

 

[galleywest]

The place to look for this kind of stuff these days is TV and streaming.
Movies are more focused on spectacle so other mediums are the place to go if you're looking for more worldbuilding.
One show that came to mind with a pretty interesting setting was Carnival Row, I'm really looking forward to seeing more of it whenever we get the second season.
Another one that I liked a lot was See, I loved all the little details they included for the blind characters, like the writing being knotted ropes, and how they had a whole network of ropes tied above some of the buildings that the characters used to get around one of the villages.

What a good point! Carnival Row had a great world, a little overshadowed by some hackneyed storytelling, but a really visually arresting world nonetheless. I'll be tuning in for the second season for sure. Another TV show that I really enjoyed in terms of the universe that it created, which was a very small universe, was the first season of The Terror. The setting was so vital to the storytelling that much like in Dark City, it becomes almost a character in and of itself. It lent to the feeling of oppressiveness and isolation that pervaded the whole series.

 

[Steve Roby]

For a more rural/small town take on strange places, there's always the Amazon Prime series Tales From the Loop, with its alternate universe 1980s small town and its fields and woods full of bizarre abandoned technology from the mysterious underground Loop project. There are stories of time travel, robots, personality transfer, and alternate universes all in the same setting, with some characters who carry over from one story to another. I loved it (it's based on an illustrated book by Simon Stalenhag) and have hardly encountered anyone who's seen it.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

@galleywassail I've thought of another movie that might interest you - 1979's 'Stalker' by Andrei Tarkovsky; who also directed 'Solaris'.
It's hard to describe what the movie is about, only that it's very good at being unsettling when there is absolutely nothing happening on screen.
I should give you a head's up - it's almost three hours long and entirely in Russian and there's a lot of long stretches of silence followed by ruminations on the meaning of life.

 

[galleywest]

@galleywassail I've thought of another movie that might interest you - 1979's 'Stalker' by Andrei Tarkovsky; who also directed 'Solaris'.
It's hard to describe what the movie is about, only that it's very good at being unsettling when there is absolutely nothing happening on screen.
I should give you a head's up - it's almost three hours long and entirely in Russian and there's a lot of long stretches of silence followed by ruminations on the meaning of life.

That's the most Russian thing I've ever heard. sounds like my mind of movie! Then you for the recommendation.

@Steve Roby, I watched Tales from the Loop! It reminded me of a few atmospheric computer games I've played, particularly The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I loved the setting, particularly that they didn't hit you over the head to explain everything about it. It just unfolded with the story.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Anyone see Virtual Nightmare? A 2000 made-for-tv movie with John Noble in it. It blew my 16 year old mind when I saw it.

 

[Truffula]

@galleywassail I've thought of another movie that might interest you - 1979's 'Stalker' by Andrei Tarkovsky; who also directed 'Solaris'..

Stalker is amazing. It's based on Roadside Picnic, a classic Russian sci-fi novel which is also really good. The setting of them both is very weird, but it's not portrayed in the same kind of way as Dark City. It's all the story...

 

[JD]

I know it's not quite the same as the other stuff we've been talking about, but I've loved the titular town ever since I first saw Eureka.