Science Fiction - A Debriefing

*The American Film Institutes's Top Ten American Science Fiction Movies*

My Interpretation

#10 - Back to the Future: This movie is just fun. I really enjoy watching it. Back to the Future is a classic, and even though it's not really traditionally artsy, I'm glad that it got onto the list. We can always use a good time travel story.

#9 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers: Even though it has campy dialogue and the ending doesn't really make any sense, this movie still has a really cool, really memorable concept that really freaks people out, and is really enjoyable to watch.

#8 - Terminator 2: Judgment Day: I liked this movie more than I expected - I'm not usually a fan of action, and this is definitely an action movie. It's a really good action movie though, and has terrific, groundbreaking special effects, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is awesome.

#7 - Alien: Alien was not as scary as I thought it would be, which was disappointing, but I can see how it scares people. Alien really lets all of the tension build up, and it does it well, and I bet it's terrifying if you don't go into it knowing what to expect.

#6 - Blade Runner: Blade Runner was probably my favorite new movie I saw on the list. It looks amazing, Harrison Ford is in it, the storyline is good, it looks really, really cool. I just really enjoyed this movie, and want to watch it again.

#5 - The Day the Earth Stood Still: A classic 50's science fiction movie and really fun, but I don't actually think it's a better movie than Alien or Blade Runner. Or Terminator 2, for that matter. It hasn't really aged well and its message is delivered pretty heavy-handedly, and doesn't actually make sense when you think about it - Keep peace or die? Still enjoyable to watch, though, and probably really needed in 1951.

#4 - A Clockwork Orange: I still haven't figured out if I like this movie or not. Is it too weird? Just weird enough? I do know that it uses music very effectively and gets its message across well, and definitely sticks with you.

#3 - E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial: I know that it's heartwarming and adorable, but I just think that E.T. is boring, and that Elliot is annoying. It's definitely a family classic though, so make of that what you will.

#2 - Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope: Star Wars is just such an iconic part of culture, and everyone knows what it is. It's a good movie and is really fun to watch and is an important part of American film. Everyone is familiar with Star Wars.

#1 - 2001: A Space Odyssey: I wish that I could buy a version of this movie that only had the part with HAL in it, but since I can't, I'll just have to never watch it again for as long as I live. It's a very good and very artsy movie, yes, but it's also confusing and mind-numbingly boring. Just slow-movie machinery after slow-moving machinery. Still not as boring as Reds, though.

Science Fiction #1 - 2001: A Space Odessey (1968)

Oh how I hate this movie. Well, that's not true. Hate is a strong word. There are lots of parts of this movie that I do like - I'm personally a fan of HAL 9000 - but there are also lots of parts of this movie that I'm...less than fond of. I'm sure it's technically a good movie, but that does not make it anymore mind-numbingly boring or intentionally incomprehensible. You're not supposed to understand this movie. Arthur C. Clark once said that if anyone completely understood the movie, the filmmakers hadn't done their job right. Apparently, some people enjoy that sort of thing. I do not understand this. Some people will tell you that the movie really isn't that hard to understand: It's clearly about evolution and how emotionless humanity is and spiritual enlightenment, and in fact is more enjoyable because you can't fully understand it. These people are liars. I don't get this movie. To me, this movie is the cinematic equivalent of modern art. Lots of people like modern art and think it's great and progressive but I do not like modern art - I don't get it. Not all modern art, obviously, but a whole lot of it. I'm just not a fan, and to me this movie is sort the same thing.

One my main problems with this movie is the fact that it is just so slow. I'm sure that real spaceships do move slowly, but that does not mean that I want to watch it. I swear that two thirds of this movie is just slow-moving machinery. The special effects are very good, yes, but I don't want to look at them for that long of a time period. A real spaceship probably does take twenty minutes to get from one side of the moon to the other, but in this movie we have to watch all twenty minutes of that - I'm pretty sure there's some exaggeration there, but the thing is, I'm not quite sure. It might have actually been twenty minutes. Even when we're not watching slow moving machinery it's still slow - we're watching monkeys or scientists making small talk or a business meeting or sleeping astronauts. This movie is definitely very slowly paced. So very slowly.

The movie's a Stanley Kubrick movie (Who, as you may recall, I'm still not sure if I like or not), so it's very weird. A lot of the weirdness I don't mind at all - HAL and the monkeys are fine , and even the monoliths I'm really fine with, (Except for the noise that they make - It's this horrible buzzing, squeaking noise coupled with tuneless, random moaning - Here's a video link for your reference, you'll get a good sense of it if you start about two minutes in - I swear that's the the sound they play over the loudspeakers in Hell.) but I cannot tolerate the colorful Jupiter landing thing. It happens very near the end of the movie, and it really is just colorful lights coming at you, or splotches of color on black, or the ocean in different colors - very screen-saver-esque. This is already weird and not very entertaining and dated now, but to top it off, this scene goes on for, I am not kidding, eleven minutes. Eleven minutes of this:

It's like your DVD player went to sleep and you're just watching the screen saver. Why do people like this movie? I actually know though - People like this movie because of HAL. And I don't blame them - I love HAL, HAL is amazing. HAL is really one of the most terrifying villains I have ever seen in a movie (It should be noted that I don't watch a lot of horror movies.) He's unfeeling and calm and detached and creepy as all get out - His voice is Douglas Rain, who has never done anything else, but has a cool name and is just terrific as HAL. The part where HAL kills the astronaut through the pod, and the camera sudden zooms in on the eye of HAL on the pod is just terrific. I love that part - It's probably my favorite part in the movie. Even though HAL is just a light and a voice, he's still a character, and that light can really emote.

That light shouldn't be as creepy as it really is. And even though HAL is evil, he's also scared and confused (HAL is far more emotional than any of the human characters in the movie - Which is the point. I think.) You kind of feel bad for him, especially near the end. HAL is sympathetic and terrifying. Like Peter Lorre. Unfortunately, HAL is only in about an hour of the movie - the other hour and twenty minutes is filled mostly with, yes, slow-moving machinery. Shame.

Besides HAL, though, I came out of this movie with two ideas. A.) While people talk about this movie a lot - What the monoliths are, why HAL breaks down, what the lights mean - No one ever talks about how much the space pods look like koala heads.

I don't know what other people see when they look at this, but I can only see a koala. B.) Hey!

That guy has grey eyes! That's cool! I didn't even know that people could have grey eyes...You can tell how engaged I was in this movie. I know I should like this movie - Smart people like this movie, movie people like this movie. But I'm just not that into it. I just don't enjoy watching it. I do like HAL. I do like "Also Sprach Zarathustra" (That's the music - you know: da...Da...DA...DAHDAH, dumdum dumdum dumdum...), but the thing is: I don't like this movie.

Science Fiction #2 - Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977)

Well what could I possibly say about Star Wars? It's Star Wars! I don't think there's a single person alive in the western world who hasn't heard of Star Wars. It's such an iconic movie with such iconic characters and a lot of people were practically raised on Star Wars. I'm pretty sure that Star Wars is how I learned the first six Roman numerals. So many parts of these movies have become totally ingrained into modern culture: Darth Vader, Yoda, light sabers, the Wookie noise, R2D2 - the list goes on and on. I could probably come up with a huge list of things from Star Wars that are universally recognizable. Even if you don't know what they're called, you still recognize them. Like these things:

What are they called? I don't know! Have I seen them before? I certainly have! Everyone is at least vaguely familiar with Star Wars - It's like a very recent Shakespeare. The movie can easily get on the list on sheer iconocity alone. They have really impacted our culture in a way that not a lot of fiction does. People love Star Wars, and even people who don't can't get away from it. I am totally following its inclusion on the list of the best American science fiction films ever made.

The one on the list A New Hope, which, for those of you not well-versed in Star Wars, is the fourth one that's really the first one, or the first one that's really the fourth one, depending on how you look at it. This one introduces Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Princess Leia, Han Solo and host of other familiar Star Wars things. Not, tragically, Yoda though. He doesn't appear until the second one that's really the fifth one. Fun fact about Yoda: The guy who plays Yoda also plays Miss Piggy. It's Frank Oz. You can hear it if you listen. Obi-Wan Kenobi is played by Alec Guinness, who we last saw back in Lawrence of Arabia. His career has certainly changed, hasn't it? The movie is directed and written by George Lucas.

Star Wars is well-know for being a really good example of the Hero's Journey. The Hero's Journey is a classic plot pattern that occurs everywhere - I've seen a Discovery Channel special on it, so I know a lot about this subject. You can find the Hero's Journey in ancient mythology, modern cinema, fairy tales, literature, basically where ever you look. Even though the elements that make up the Hero's Journey are really very spesicific, they occur again and again and again. Most fiction that involves any sort of fantasy of sci fi element will turn out to be a Hero's Journey. Basically a Hero's Journey is when our normal main character is chosen for some sort of task, enters the unknown world, discovers themselves an is reborn, and then comes back to the known world. Here's a handy diagram of it - I got it from Wikipedia:

A lot of fiction is a Hero's Journey. Harry Potter is one. So is Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Finding Nemo, King Arthur. You see it all the time, but Star Wars is a really classic example of it - it was modelled specifically after the patten, probably so it looks a lot like some kind of old fable. Star Wars does this a lot - You see a lot of mixing old and new together with Star Wars. And while Star Wars is definitely science fiction, it also has huge streaks of fantasy in it, what with all of its fantastic aliens and its traditional storyline and its frequent rural settings. It's like a twist on the old stories that you used to see all the time. It's fairy tales in space.

Despite being mainstream and geeky and kind of cheesy and makes a lot of money, it does have genuine artistic merit. It subverts an old plot by putting it into a totally new setting, it takes place in a ton of varied and elaborate settings, it features incredibly memorable characters, even just side characters, it creates a totally new universe, has had an incredible lasting impact on modern culture, has music and even just sounds that stick with people (Ben Burtt is the sound guy in these movies, and he's the one who created the sound of the light sabers, R2D2, and Darth Vader's breathing, some of the most recognizable sounds in cinema. He's also responsible for the crack of Indiana Jones' whip and is the voice of Wall-e. The music is done by John Williams, who beside this has done the scores for Harry Potter, Jaws, E.T., Indiana Jones, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Olympics, Schindler's List, NBC Nightly News, Obama's inagaraution, Superman, the Dreamworks logo, and so many more). It really is a good movie. And Harrison Ford is in it, which is awesome. Who doesn't like Harrison Ford?

Science Fiction #3 - E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

I'm really surprised that E.T. is so high on the list. I mean, it's definitely an iconic film, and it was really a new type of movie at the time, and it's heartwarming, I guess, and the special effects are good, but....number three? It's not bad at all, but it's really boring and cheesy and the kid's really annoying and I had to check how much was left every ten minutes. But regardless of all that, it is a classic family film, and Drew Barrymore is adorable, and it does have a fantastic, memorable score. I can see its merit, definitely.


E.T. is a Stephen Spielberg movie about a kid named Elliot who finds an abandoned alien they name E.T., which is kind of like naming a dog puppy but whatever, and befriends it. It's all very heartwarming and charming. For some reason, I really strongly associate this movie with Poltergeist, and I don't know why. I think I once saw a special about special effects that talked about both movies. Or maybe it's just because all of these early eighties movies tend to run together.


Anyway.


E.T. is another one of Stephen Spielberg's major blockbusters, like Jaws and Indiana Jones, but family friendly and adorable. This is actually the third Stephen Spielberg movie we've encountered so far: He directed Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List. He also was the executive producer of Back to the Future, and I don't exactly know what that actually means, but it sounds really important to me. So I'm definitely not going to contest that everything Stephen Spielberg touches turns to awesome, and he definitely should be represented on the list, but E.T.? I mean, E.T.'s alright, but...Elliot is so annoying and it's so boring. It's okay, I guess.


E.T. does have fantastic music - it's composed by the great John Williams, so that's expected (He's been nominated for 45 Oscars). I actually didn't even realize how recognizable the music was until I was watching the movie, but I totally know this music! The special effects are also very good. E.T. almost always looks really real, and the flying on the bicycles look really terrific, too. I'm really not sure how they did it! Look at that:


That's very impressive! So in those respects it's a very good movie, and I can see how people like it. I'm just not that into it really. But Drew Barrymore is really adorable.

Science Fiction #4 - A Clockwork Orange (1971)

A Clockwork Orange is a Stanley Kubrick movie - one of the big ones, actually. For me when I think of Stanley Kubrick, I think of The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and then this movie. Admittedly, those are the only Stanley Kubrick movies I've ever see, but still. Stanley Kubrick is just really...Kubrick-y. You can always tell when you're watching a Stanley Kubrick movie, at least based on my somewhat limited experience. This movie is definitely a Kubrick movie. It's got weird camera angles, music that doesn't match what's going on, bright colors, that thing where people glare from under their eyebrows.

Like that. The thing about Stanley Kubrick is that I'm not sure that I actually like him. He's weird and innovative and everything, but I'm not sure whether or not I think he's too weird. I feel about the same way about this specific movie. It was definitely very bizarre, but was it too bizarre for me, or did I like it? I'm just not sure.

A Clockwork Orange takes place in some sort of futuristic dystopian Britain where teens roam the streets causing havoc. One such teen is the main character Alex Delarge, played by Malcolm McDowell, a murder/rapist/gang leader. Alex is just going along inflicting mayhem until about roughly a third into the movie, when he's arrested. In prison he's offered the chance to go free if he participates in some sort of treatment to make him a good person. He takes it, and through a combination of drugs, movies, and this thing:

Alex developes a sort of Pavlovian reaction thing to sex and violence. He becomes violently ill any time he encouners either of them. He also becomes sick whenever he hears Beethoven's ninth symphony, which is a shame because Alew loves Beethoven. Now that Alex is released into the world, he has to deal with the torment of his former friends and enemies, now that he can't defend himself. No where in the movie does it indicate why it should be called A Clockwork Orange.

The movie covers a lot of things. Violence, the issue of choice and humanity, totalitarianism, things like that. The movie's very satirical and definitely has its steak of dark comedy, and is very, very strange and very, very disturbing. I'm pretty sure I didn't even see the real version - Just the R rated one. The music in the movie is almost always classical music (Except for "Singing in the Rain," but we're not going to talk about that ever.) which is appropriate and completely inappropriate at the same time - Classical music is supposed to be a beautiful thing, and the scenes it's played over are definitely not beautiful. It's very jarring, which is exactly what it's supposed to be. The visuals in the movie are really ugly - bright colors and patterns and things, all next to each other - I'm sure it's intentional, but that doesn't make it any less ugly. It is the seventies, I guess.

Four little notes I have about this movie. Just interesting little tidbits: 1. Do you know who is in this movie? David Prowse! He's the guy in the Darth Vader suit! This is before that ! Look at hat, that minor character went on to be the body of one of the most iconic villains in American film. He looks surprisingly nonthreatening, although he is huge.


He's the guy in the glasses. 2. I don't know why anyone would choose to wear fake eyelashes all evening. I know for a fact that your eyes start watering like crazy after just a few hours. 3. I cannot understand anyone in this movie - Everyone is British. It is frustrating. 4. Malcolm McDowell is very good in this movie - he's creepy and crazy and disturbing and everything - but he has really, really blue eyes. It's weird. It almost doesn't even look right. I mean, look at that:


I'm watching this movie and I keep getting distracted by them. Do they always look like that? Is it the lighting? Did they do something post production? How come nobody else notices? To people notice on the street? Do they look like that now? I don't know! It's strange.

A Clockwork Orange is definitely a good movie, but I'm not sure if I actually ,like it. It's just really weird. I'd have to watch it again, and I'm just not sure I want to. It's very disturbing.

Science Fiction #5 - The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

This right here is a classic science fiction movie. It's a 1951 Robert Wise film that is simply made to be watched in a drive-in movie theater. It has fake-looking robots (It's true), and weird science fiction-y sounding music - the kind that goes oooo-eeeeeey-ooooo-ey, you know what I'm talking about - and a nice anti-war message told through aliens. It's a quintessential science fiction cinematic event. It's quite a perfect summer movie, so I'm glad I watched it now, it really went with the mood of the season.

The movie starts with the landing of a spaceship in Washington, D.C. Since this is obviously a reason for some concern, the army surrounds it and waits for something to come out. When an alien does come out, he's carrying some sort of metal thing that pops open suddenly, one of the soldiers panics and shoots the alien (Whose name, by the way, is Klaatu.) A giant robot, Gort, then comes out of the ship and starts shooting at people until everything calms down. The alien is taken to a hospital, and the robot stays where it is. In the hospital Klaatu says that he wants to deliver a message to all of the leaders of the world in one place. This isn't actually possible, because it's 1951 and probably the worst time he could have asked for that, so instead Klaatu escapes from the hospital and goes out into the world to learn about humans. He befriends a small child, learns about the world, meets a scientist, etc. Eventually he decides to gather up all of the world's scientific leaders and deliver his message, and to demonstrate his power, he cuts off all of the power in the world for half an hour. The government take this as a threat and shoots him. His robot brings him back to life and he delivers his message.

Apparently, there is a sort of galactic peace-keeping organization run through robots. If anything at all violent happens, the robots start killing everyone in sight. You know, for peace. Planets are therefore forced to be peaceful, least they get destroyed by robots. Since humanity is on there way to space travel, they have to stop their warring ways or be destroyed in the name of stopping violence. After all of the movie, the message the alien had was basically just a heads up. Huh. The poster doesn't actually have a lot to do with the actual movie, but it does portray the spirit of it quite accurately.

This is a fun movie. It's cheesy and the robot is just a guy in a suit and the message doesn't really make sense (Fight violence with violence?), but that's what makes the movie fun. It's so 50's and awesome. On the other hand, though, it's also iconic, a big step for science fiction, and has a serious message. I can totally see why it made the list although I don't know if I would have put it as high as it is. The 50's science fiction movies are a big subset of the genre. They're like really long Twilight Zone episodes. I enjoyed watching the movie, even though I kind of enjoyed it because it was so wonderfully cheesy. It's a classic.

Science Fiction #6 - Blade Runner (1982)

Science Fiction is generally separated into two sub-categories - "Soft" Science Fiction and "Hard" Science Fiction. The basic difference between the two is that "Soft" Science Fiction is generally more character- and plot-driven, while "Hard" Science Fiction is driven more by the technology and realism, or at the very least plausibility, of the work. More than that though, Science Fiction that is considered "hard" is usually darker, grittier, and more cynical than "Soft" Science Fiction, which is often light and comedic. I'm more often a fan of "Soft" Science Fiction - something about the whole complicated technology/serious plot combination doesn't entertain me well. So I wasn't expecting that I would like Blade Runner, which, while not exactly logically enough top qualify as "Hard" Science Fiction, is definitely more on the hard side than not. I was therefore pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be totally awesome. I shall elaborate.

Blade Runner is a Ridley Scott film, like Alien, that takes place in the now near future (2019), in an over-crowded, industrial, rainy earth, completely uninhabited by animals and nearly uninhabited by humans. It's also very Asian, for whatever reason. Blade Runner is a very early example of Cyberpunk, a genre involving dehumanization and extreme corporate control. Blade Runner is a sort of Science Fiction Dystopia/Hard Boiled Detective combo where Harrison Ford, who in my opinion obviously has not played enough Hard Boiled Detectives, is Rick Deckard, a "Blade Runner," meaning that he hunts and..."retires" rouge androids (Replicants) who are used as slaves off-planet. These replicants are so realistic that it's possible that not even they know that they're a robot (This particular point has created quite a controversy over whether or not Deckard himself is, in fact, a replicant. There's even disagreement about it within the crew - Ridley Scott says he definitely is a replicant, and Harrison Ford says he definitely isn't). After a few years these highly-realistic robots begin developing emotions and blurring the lines between human and machine and causing other similar troubles, and this simply won't do, so after four years the replicants automatically die. So there four replicants hanging around on earth, looking for a way to live longer, and Rick Deckard is searching for them. It's all very exciting.

Blade Runner is based on the Philip K. Dick novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, which I have actually read, although I don't remember it well, because it was years ago. I do remember that the book was much more cerebral than the movie is. The movie does touch on the issue of humanity - What really separates robots than humans?- which doesn't seem like it would be a practical theme, but is, and has robotic animals and all that, but is doesn't really get into it like the book does. The book is much darker the movie, and tightly themed and plotted, by I enjoyed the movie more. I can see why they changed the name - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? would be hard to fit on a marquis - but I don't know why they chose to name it Blade Runner. There is nary a blade in the entire film. There is running, at least. I guess it just sounds cool - good enough reason as any, really.

This movie is visually stunning. It looks awesome. As apposed to Alien, whose special effects were just fine, and Terminator 2, whose effects were innovative but are now outdated, Blade Runner still looks great. To me, anyway. There's a huge crazy city and umbrellas and flying cars and lots and lots of rain. It's fantastic. I could probably just look at this movie and be happy. I love the way this movie looks - it's blocky and gritty and eighties-y which is awesome. The building they use in the climax is actually an existing building in Los Angeles called the Bradbury Building, which is creepy even when it's not dilapidated and abandoned. It's pretty awesome, actually - all sorts of wrote iron and stuff. Quite a lovely building.

Blade Runner was pretty great - I really enjoyed it. I actually have to watch it again - I don't think I followed the whole thing - what, for example, is with the unicorn? For now, however I will have to move on - I'm already a couple of weeks behind, and not quite halfway through science fiction.

Science Fiction #7 - Alien (1979)

So far in our Science Fiction experience we've seen (1) Time Travel, (2) A Paranoia-Inducing Plot Premises, and (3) Robots. We seen to have already covered most of the basic science fiction motifs. We have not, however, seen the very important science fiction concept that is, of course, space.

Ah, space. It's so big and lonely and blackish. Mysterious, even. It is the final frontier, as they say. The thing about space, though, is that you can't actually enter it, because you'll asphyxiate. That means that you're stuck on whatever sort of spaceship you're on until you've reached earth. That's of course the case in Alien, the Ridley Scott horror film, which is where most of the conflict comes from. (This is not, by the way, the movie with the big yellow thing that they use for lifting stuff. You know what I'm talking about. That's Aliens, in plural. I know, I was disappointed too. It is, however, the movie with the most famous tag line ever: In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream. I can't tel you how often I say that.) There's a big terrible alien on the ship that's going to kill everyone, but you can't just leave because the outside is, you know, space.

At the beginning of Alien, our cast is floating around in space in a commercial cargo ship when they hear a single repetitive distress call coming from an empty plant. They decide to go answer it. If there's one thing that Alien has taught me, it is that if I ever find my self in space, I should never, ever answer any distress call, ever. I suppose we can't really blame the characters for not seeing this coming though, because Alien is the first movie of it's kind. You didn't see a lot of science fiction horror movies before. Instead, future fictional characters will have to learn from their mistakes.

Anyway.

They answer the distress call, and what do you know, everyone on the planet's dead. So one of the guys gets an alien stuck to his face and eventually dies after it bursts out of his chest, which I imagine is very effective if you don't know what's coming. This is by this time pretty much impossible because it's such an iconic film scene, and that means it's not as scary as it would have been if it was a surprise. It's a good effect regardless, and you still get the suspense of wonder when it's coming.

This brings me to my next point. Alien is based mainly on suspense and the threat of danger rather than the actual alien, which works really well. It was not, however, as scary as I thought it would be. I don't know if it's because it's outdated, or if it's because I knew it was coming, or what, but I really was not even slightly scared by most of this movie. I was disappointed. Maybe I should have watched it on a bigger screen or something. The end did get sort of suspenseful, when she was in the shuttle, but that was about it. The alien itself looked really good, although there were a couple of shots where it was pretty obvious that it was just a guy in a costume. For the most part it was a really good alien though. The whole head/mouth system is really iconic, and I can see why. It's really disturbing and disgusting, like a good alien should be. I works best when it's in the really dim lighting and you can't really see it, and not because the effects not good. It's just scarier that way.

So my extensive Internet research tells me that I really need to see the sequel to Alien, confusingly named Aliens, with an S. It's supposed to be more of an action movie, directed by James Cameron, and is widely considered to be just as good as the original. Sigourney Weaver, who's first name I can't quite pronounce, still plays the same character, (Ripley, by the way. I don't think I mentioned it earlier. She's quite awesome.) but now she's this awesome action girl. Sounds fun, right? I'm going to watch it on my Netflix instant queue.

The only serious qualm I have with Alien is how seventies the technology looks. Their computers! They're huge! You can't even pick them up! How can people imagine commercial cargo spaceships and an entire alien life cycle and not be able to think up computers that can generate curvy letters? This computer can run a spaceship, but it can't make a proper C! I just don't find that believable.

Anyway.

There were actually robots in Alien, too, which I did not see coming.

Science Fiction #8 - Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)

Terminator 2, in case you don't know, is the James Cameron sequel to The Terminator, about the future and time travel and indestructible robots and stuff. I've never seen it, but I'm sure it's lovely. Terminator 2 is also about time travel and indestructible robots, this time even more indestructible, and has more explosions than ever before. In the future, you see, there's a super computer network called Skynet that's out to destroy the human race, because that's what supercomputers do. There are also nigh indestructible robots who look like people. One of these robots is Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Obviously.

He's evil in the first movie, but not in the second one, which is good, because I really can't imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger as evil. This is probably because I've never seen The Terminator, but there's just nothing threatening about Arnold Schwarzenegger. He's kind of awesome and ridiculous at the same time. There really isn't anything better than watching Arnold Schwarzenegger stoically riding a motorcycle with a gun, which is good, because that happens a lot in this movie.

A lot.

I suppose I generally liked this movie. I already like it a lot more than I did after I first watched it. It's definitely growing on me. The Young John Connor in it is annoying, and not really a good actor, and Sarah Connor is crazy, which gets tedious, but Arnold Schwarzenegger was pretty awesome, and the action was pretty cool. I suppose I'm at a disadvantage because I've never seen The Terminator. I don't have the background knowledge from the first movie, so I don't know why it's to the machines' advantage t destroy all the humans, or why, of all things, this robot has an Austrian accent. We hear him mimic people's voices in the movie, so why is his default voice Austrian? Beyond simply "Why not," I mean.

The effects in this are really quite awesome. There's this whole big thing with liquid metal and melting and morphing and all that jazz, and it requires these crazy CGI effects that no one had ever used before. It was way ahead of anything anyone had ever done at the time, and it looked amazing then, and still looks good today. Well, not good, actually. More along the lines of....bad. But not really bad! Just sort of bad, some of the time. It doesn't ruin your suspended since of disbelief, and it looks awesome, so it does its job still. The whole end is really cool. The end is the best part, some of the best action scenes I've ever seen. There's that terrible crazy morphing melting molting robot thing, and two Sarah Connors, which was not, by the way, accomplished through computer techniques but by using Linda Hamilton's twin sister, Leslie Hamilton, and The Terminator's thumbs up at the end, which was pretty awesome, I must say.

In conclusion: Terminator 2: Nice movie. Kind of boring if you're not into action (Note: I am not into action), but has really good action scenes and more explosions than you can throw a dead cat at. Or something like that. Nice little commentary about how we should never invent artificial intelligence ever (EVER), good story, follows its own continuity, serious/often humorous science fiction movie, unfortunately made in the 90s, which cannot be helped. Amazing special effects which undoubtedly earned it its spot on the list. I'd watch it again.

As I side note, did you know that "Schwarzenegger" is in the Blogger spell check dictionary? I bet you didn't.

Science Fiction #9 - Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a Don Siegel science fiction movie of the classical vein. Black-and-white, relatively low-budget, good concepts and mediocre acting. It's not quite a B-Movie, but it's just on the edge of it. The whole thing has Film Noir/Hard Boiled Detective-style narration behind it, from the main character, that comes off as wonderfully melodramatic. It's really the best kind of science fiction. Genuinely good, but cheesy all the same.

Now, in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the human race is slowly being replaced with identical, emotionless versions of themselves which grow in giant pods and replace them while they sleep. It's supposed to be a metaphor for Communism, apparently. In the 50's, everything was a metaphor for Communism. It's actually really creepy, and the pods look disgusting. The whole movie is actually a lot like a giant Twilight Zone episode, but unfortunately without Rod Serling or memorable music. Shame. Despite it's shortcomings,

Namely, a lack of Rod Serling,

it's a good story, even though it stops making sense at the end, and not in a twist ending way.

This whole movie is peppered with the campiest dialogue. Every single line is delivered totally strait-faced serious, and it is so cheesy. Entertainingly so, I'll admit, but cheesy all the same. Which brings up an important issue. I think it is time to introduce: The Ashley Wilkes Speech. Ashley Wilkes is a character in Gone With the Wind, and he is prone to delivering this type of speech. An Ashley Wilkes Speech is a speech that's technically related to the current subject, but refers to it in a much more abstract and philosophical way than is at all necessary. An Ashely Wilkes Speech may be deep, but it's not at all practical, and usually delivered at a totally inappropriate time.

"I don't know what we'll do about taxes, Scarlett, but let's take this time to reflect upon our inner character and disintegrating society." Thanks, Ashley.

Our main character here, Miles Bennell (Kevin McCarthy, by the way), is quite liable to Ashely Wilkes Speeches. Look at his philosophical musings latter in the film, while they're hiding in a cave:

"In my practice [He's a doctor], I've seen how people have allowed their humanity to drain away. Only it happened slowly instead of all at once. They didn't seem to mind... All of us - a little bit - we harden our hearts, grow callous. Only when we have to fight to stay human do we realize how precious it is to us, how dear."

Well, I guess that's true, but it's not really at all helpful...

Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a great movie from the classic era of science fiction movies. Cheesy, but totally good, and possessing of a really good concept. Not Rod Serling, though. Not Rod Serling.

Science Fiction #10 - Back to the Future (1985)

Back to the Future, in case you don't know, is a 1985 Robert Zemeckis comedy/drama/science fiction thing about time travel. Marty McFly, a trendy 80's teenager played by Michael J. Fox, is friends with Doc Brown, Christopher Lloyd, a mad scientist who's invented time travel, for fun I guess. So Marty ends up traveling back in time to the 50's and accidentally stops his parents from meeting. What follows is a quite epic time travel comedy filled with many a temporal time paradox. It's a cult classic and has two sequels that only make sense if you watch them all together.

I love Back to the Future. It's probably one of my favorite movies. It's loads of fun, it has the 80's and the 50's, and a wacky scientist, and a hip 80's protagonist, and the best time machine ever.

H. G. Wells has nothing on this.

Honestly, though, I'm kind of surprised that Back to the Future actually ended up on this list. It's a good movie, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't seem like the kind of movie that the people at the American Film Institute would be into. But hey, it's a classic, and probably the only reason I know what a Delorean is.

And to this very day, I ask people if they're sailors when they wear vests like this

This time machine is impressively user-friendly, as far as time machines go. It basically consists of a lever and a panel of numbers. And car parts, obviously. This is very simplistic for a time machine. I mean, look at the TARDIS. It has an entire room full of time travel equipment.

Compared to the Delorean, which is less complicated than my phone, this seems very involved. If he can invent a time machine more simplistic than the ones that aliens build, Doc must really be a genius. Mind you, the Delorean really seems to be a very temperamental car, so I suppose it all evens out.

What's really great about Back to the Future is how fantastically 80's it is. It was cool and current at the time, but now it's hilariously retro and outdated (in a good way), just like the 50's sequences were supposed to be. There's even an aerobics class in the second scene, for goodness sake. Time marches on, I suppose.

This is just such an awesome movie. I absolutely love it. Everyone loves Back to the Future. It's crazy awesome. This is without a doubt the best time travel-themed movie ever. And it has a really great score - the director specifically asked the composer for something big and dramatic because he didn't think the finale could stand up on its own. I think that it makes the movie at least 60% more awesome. In conclusion, Back to the Future is a surprising but totally appropriate choice for the number ten American science fiction movie ever.

Genre #2 - Science Fiction

The American Film Institute defines "science fiction" as "a genre that marries a scientific or technological premise with imaginative speculation." Usually it's used for social commentary - You don't very often find science fiction that isn't trying to teach modern society something.

Science fiction, for me, includes well-done special-effects, innovative ideas, and a good story. Perhaps a new world for a setting. Maybe throw in some time travel, or characters who are machines, or some whimsical aliens. I can always get behind whimsy. Really good science fiction, of course, makes little to no sense. Science fiction is exciting. It takes you to new worlds, and the future, and it's lots of fun, and if it's not done well, it's wonderfully cheesy.

I'm so excited.