GUEST POST: Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movies You Need to See Now

I love a good Sci-Fi film, If you're stuck as to which one to watch next then have no fear as guest blogger, Cassie, is here to help with her list of the top 5 underrated Sci-Fi ready to stream now. I hope you enjoy this great post.

Cassie is a blogger and writer who focuses mainly on technology and entertainment. She is a huge Sci-Fi and film fan and hopes that these recommendations will bring some deeper thought and excitement into your life. You can find more of her writing on Secure Thoughts or Culture Coverage. She's also on Twitter: @Cassie_Culture.

Whether we know it or not, science fiction has been the primary influence of most genre films and modern filmmaking. They make up most of our blockbusters, and we are now more than ever able to make our grand dreams reality through the use of computer effects and expert filmmaking.

Some sci-fi films slip through the cracks or are poorly marketed. This does not diminish their quality. Fortunately, however, you can now easily access most movies through streaming websites of one sort or another. There are so many films to get lost in that it’s nearly impossible to know what to watch from a glance.

Here are some movies that you'll want to check out on a rainy day when you want to see some unfamiliar worlds and ideas:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

If you haven’t heard of this movie, then your expectations of Jim Carrey will not be met. In probably his best role, he plays a man who had his mind erased after a relationship turned out poorly and discovers that the woman had the relationship erased from her mind first. The script is from Charlie Kaufman, whose work is some of the best in the film industry in general and who won an Academy Award for this film. This movie simply doesn't get the attention it deserves.

This is a profoundly intellectual movie, and as a film about the corners of the mind, it is about the standard science fiction fare you would expect. Expect to spend some time thinking about the movie long after you've finished watching it. You probably won't look at relationships and memories the same.

The Day the Earth Stood Still

This is not a new film (the one I'm talking about came out in 1951), but it's readily available on streaming websites, still relevant today and yet still contains the charms of a film that came out over 60 years ago. It is likely you’ve heard the plot (or some variation of it) before, in which an alien lands and tells humanity they must be peaceful or be destroyed by other alien races. It speaks to humanity on a grand scale and takes a high-minded approach to the world’s problems.

While the effects and visuals might be hard to bear for some (the movie shows its age at points), one of the main draws of science fiction are the ideas contained within the work. The ideas are the reason this movie has stood the test of time.

Ex Machina

Ex Machina is one of my favorite films of last year, and it just simply gets the release and hype it deserved. It follows a programmer who wins a contest to spend a weekend at the private estate of his company's brilliant CEO. It turns out the true purpose of the weekend is to test the consciousness of a robot the CEO has been working on. A movie small in scope and large in concept, it tackles the divide between machine and man as well as some of the current debates regarding artificial intelligence today.

An extremely philosophical film, people will either love or hate the third act of the movie based on their expectations. That doesn't stop Oscar Isaac from standing out as tech CEO and genius Nathan Bateman. Alicia Vikander also is amazing as Ava, bringing an almost otherworldly presence to the character. Watching it now will be the best part of your day.

Under the Skin

Under the Skin is a film that will mess with your head and a movie some people won't like. You need to see it for yourself, as you simply can’t call it a standard science fiction film. Scarlett Johansson plays an extraterrestrial “woman” who lures men into fatal situations, and it's hard to decide whether the movie feels real or not.

Johansson is amazing in this role, and you can't help but feel intentionally uncomfortable with her character. You aren't certain of her intentions. You don't know what she wants. There are dozens of theories as to how her character and the film, in general, represent women in our culture (I'll leave it to you to create your own theory). The film tries to trick you. It tries to horrify you and then dares you to understand it. You absolutely need to watch this film.

Serenity

If you've intended to watch Joss Whedon’s masterpiece Firefly, you should probably skip this one for now and go watch the series. If you've already seen it, then you absolutely need to find this movie on your favorite streaming service and watch it. 

In many ways, it picks up right after the series left off, but it still manages to contain a story for people who are watching with you who might not be too interested in the series. The fact that Whedon gets a feature film budget to work with means we get some stunning action sequences within this already excellent universe.

There we have it, enough films for a great day’s worth of streaming. While you might prioritize some over others, know that you’ll most likely appreciate these films more than the numbers give them credit for.

Are there any other science fiction films that you think deserve a watch or are underrated? Have there been any films you watched recently that you think are awesome and want to share with your fellow readers? If so, please leave a comment below.

Thanks for reading!

Her

I had high expectations for Spike Jonze's new film Her and I can safely say that those expectations were met. Her is a really sweet film about human emotion, love and happiness and the different ways we seek it. I am big fan of romance films that push the boundaries and try something new, hence why Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of my favourites. Her takes the sci-fi element of A.I and doesn't have it destroy the world at the end, it uses it in a different way, to explore the need for social and human interaction.

Set slightly in the future, Her follows Theodore Twombly after his recent breakup with his wife. Lost and lonely Theodore finds love with a new A.I operating system named Samantha. The two go through the highs and lows of relationships as well as exploring what it means to be human, especially if you can't be because you're a computer.

The relationship is helped made real by the brilliant performances of Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson, who really are good in this film, they turn the unconventional relationship into something believable. This is more Phoenix's show though, he holds the piece together as the ever sweet and lovely Theodore, you can tell Spike Jonze knew this as well because the film is pretty much made of just close ups of his face.

Although it mainly is made of close ups the film still looks really beautiful. The soft camera focus really brings warmth to the story as well as helping realise a futuristic hipster like Los Angeles. There are some really cool looking gadgets in the film that are never to far from the reality of today. The whole film doesn't seem to far from a truth that could soon be realised.

I spent a lot of the film wondering how it would end and I think Jonze did too, because unfortunately the final act feels a bit rushed compared to the slow burning build of the relationship throughout the film. The film connected to me on a basic emotional level but I was still left wanting more. Don't get me wrong, I still think Her was great and I was happy that it was as good as I had hoped it would be, but it did not hit me as hard emotionally as I thought it would.

The writing and style of the whole piece is really well done and I feel that Jonze was able to get across his message nicely in the film, however I do feel it could have been a bit shorter as it started to drag a little near the end. The good points of this film very much outweigh the bad, that are really just small personal niggles for me. I am rating Her a 4/5.

What did you think of Her? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Ruby Sparks

I am a sucker for romance films with some kind of genre twist, I wrote a whole case study about it for my media studies course! So when I heard about Ruby Sparks I knew it was a must watch and that feeling was solidified when it got such good reviews in the states, but now it is out cinemas over here in the UK and after the screening I was glad it had hit all expectations, but still took twists that I had not seen coming, making it different from any other romance I have seen before.

It's been six years since the directorial team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris brought us the incredible Little Miss Sunshine, it has been long awaited there next project and it was definitely worth the wait. Ruby Sparks is about a novelist struggling with writer's block and finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character, Ruby, he thinks will love him, then willing her into existence. The script for the film was ironically written by Ruby Sparks herself, Zoe Kazan. Zoe Kazan is also the real life partner of Paul Dano who plays the novelist Calvin. No wonder the two of them had great on screen chemistry!

The directors had a host of stars to play with in this film, such as Steve Coogan, Antonio Banderas and Annette Bening, they are all great fun even though most of them don't get that much screen time. Though it is Dano and Kazan who make the film work, not that we were expecting anything less. Has Paul Dano ever had a bad performance?

The story in this film is great, it's kind of sci-fi element creates a lot of fun to be had and a lot of thinking about morals and life from the audience. The script is great and there are some really great lines that make you think about your own life and relationships and brings a great new perspective to them. What makes a perfect girl? Would you change anything about your partner? These great questions are asked over again throughout the film and depending on what kind of person you are, shapes how you feel about the characters. I found myself switching sides a lot throughout the film.

I love the theme of morals and doing the right thing, the film reminded me a lot of my favourite film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there were a lot of things similar to this. Though the film was less arty then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind it did however go much darker, much darker then I thought it would and this was just emphasised by the unnerving soundtrack.A scene in the final act also feels like it has come from a horror film, but don't worry this isn't all doom and gloom, in fact it is quite a feel good film by the end of the rolercoaster ride of a journey. A journey enforced with an incredible cast, script and very natural visuals that almost make this film feel as if it was real.

The film unfortunately is not as good as Michel Gondry's masterpiece, neither is it as good at the directors previous work Little Miss Sunshine. It is not a bad film but it did not grip me in the way the other two did. It is still however, up there with a lot of the best romance films and is definitely another contender for best films of the year, that is why I am rating Ruby Sparks a  4/5.

What did you think of the film? Genius or pretentious? Another great indie romance or just another quirky girl love story? Please comment below!

Thanks for reading!

Reinventing Romance

I'm sorry it has been quite slow on the blog recently, this is mainly because I have finally caught up on the two seasons of The Game of Thrones, but don't worry here is a new post to satisfy your need, if you have any. This post contains my case study on new and improved romance films from my year 13 Media Studies course. This is the case study which helped shape and create my short film Broken Hearts. So please read and enjoy and more posts will be coming your way soon!

Considering films such as Up in the Air and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, why is the romantic genre being reinvented?

 

It has been proven that in the last few years, audiences going to the cinema have declined. ‘This summer saw US cinema attendance figures hit their lowest point in 5 years. Hollywood.com estimates that 552 million people hit theatres across the States, compared to the previous lowest point of 563.2 million back in 2005.’ ^[1] One of the most popular genres of film has taken the biggest hit with this decline, the romance genre. But why are audiences so reluctant to see the latest boy meets girl film romcom chick flick?

 

A traditional romance film is made up of a narrative that consists of boy meets girl. Is this narrative slowly becoming more tiresome and unoriginal with its audiences and therefore is the genre slowly starting to lose the audience it cares about most?

 

The plot of a romance runs very much like Propp’s Character Theory it runs like the perfect fairy tale love story, where at the end of the story the hero gets the princess and they live happily ever after. Though as we see in (500) Days of Summer, this is no longer the case in new anti romance films as in this film the hero doesn’t get the princess, the princess marries another man. Though Propp did state ‘The character of a genre is determined by the kind of reality it reflects,’ ^[2]  which may be the reason that we as an audience are turning to films like (500) Days of Summer because their characters are more believable and reflect reality.

 

The romance genre has a large female audience ‘it appeals to women because it relates to the sufferings they endured in patriarchal culture.’^[3] Some argue that the fact it has not been doing well is that it is too unrealistic in the harsh times we are in. Theorist Stuart Hall argued that audiences can reject messages [in films] and compare representation to their own views and understanding of the world. At the moment we are going through a depression as most of the world is in economical crisis and the threat of war is getting too close to home. The Uses and Gratifications theory suggest that audience actively engage with media texts that will satisfy their needs.  Maybe audiences don’t want to sit down and watch a fantasised film that teaches them the ways of true love. Most audiences don’t buy this and many could argue there is no such thing. This view helped start the birth of the anti-romance genre.

 

The anti-romance genre has been the most used genre in the last 10 years, in order to create ‘original work’. For example (500) Days of Summer which advertised itself as an anti romance film and had reviewers saying ‘It looks you right in the eye and tells the truth.’^[4] The film takes the boy, meets girl convention of a romance and turns it on its head by the main girl not believing in love, which goes on to end her relationship with the male lead. The film is narrated by the male character and follows his experiences with her; this goes against the normal conventions of a romance film, as it is from the male’s point of view. The film steps away from the happily ever after ending that many romance films have, and allow the audience to remember their first loves and how it may or may not have worked out. The director Marc Webb, is known for his work on characterisation and the final product allowed the audience to feel for the main characters, sometimes angry at their decisions and sometimes happy ‘Audience members could clearly feel the affection in the relationship, the affliction of the falling out and the maturing in the aftermath. The less-than-desirable ending left an impact on the audience, reminding them that while hurt exists in life, they must learn and mature from it.’ ^[5]

 

But is this the only realism that audiences wanted in the new anti-romance genre? Audiences wanted to be able to relate with characters going through the same hard times due to the state of our economy. Up in the Air best shows this. It is a social commentary about our current state. Up in the Air was released in a time where more and more people were being made redundant; the film looks at a company that are hired out by businesses to fire their employees. During the film the main character starts a relationship with a woman who he slowly learns to love, at the end of the film he turns up at her house to tell her this and when she answers the door we find that she is already married with a family. The star of the film, George Clooney said in recent issue of Total Film ‘the film is a commentary on a real and pressing issue for so many.’^[6] The comment was about the themes of unemployment in the film but this shows that even the big Hollywood actors want to connect more with their audiences. The film is also a social commentary on industrialism and how it leads to misery.

                             

Recent romance film Crazy Stupid Love, seemed to work for both male and female audiences. Containing most of the elements that make a romance film except it was also a smart, touching and realistic view on a couple’s relationship. Although this also seems to be the start of an anti-romance it is not, the main character learns the fact by the end of the story that love is hard and cannot always overcome obstacles, and what seems like true love might not be. These themes and narratives are not of your average romance film but more realistic. The film was a hit with a range of audiences and showed that the compromise between new and old romance conventions works. So is this the way forward for the genre?

 

Though it isn’t just reality that’s being added to the romance genre there has also been merging of genres to create a hybrid. This allows for even more originality within the narrative being told. 2011 saw the release of sci-fi romance film The Adjustment Bureau which had conventions of both the sci-fi and the romance genre. This allowed the institution to attract a wider audience. Incorporating different genres into the romance mix allowed for new audiences to watch and enjoy a romance film.  

 

Hybrid genres were the start of an uprising against ‘The Culture Industry’. This is a term created by theorists Adorno and Horkeimer. They stated ‘The culture industry fuses the old and familiar into a new quality. In all its branches, products which are tailored for consumption by masses, and which to a great extent determine the nature of that consumption, are manufactured more or less according to plan.’^[7] They basically argued that media institutions produce entertainment that has no originality but they know it will sell within general public. This is what can be argued has happened to the romance genre as institutions produce the same boy meets girl films like Bridget Jones’s Diary and Two Weeks Notice. Maybe this is the reason that the romance genre has been failing to bring in the audiences. It can also be argued that institutions continue to create repetitive films due to the romance being an ideology that distracts people from rebellion (Chomsky and Herman 1988). So the bourgeoisie through different media texts is forever controlling us. For the audience this also means a lack of originality in the media texts they consume.

 

The theorist Lyotard argues that society maintains stability on metanarratives. ‘For Lyotard, modernity is characterised by metanarratives used by western societies in order to legitimate science and the state.’^[8] The metanarrative in the romance genre is the fact that there is such thing as true love and that love can overcome all obstacles. ‘In the classics, the dynamic protagonists often undergo struggles, whether due to internal or external circumstances, and battle their problems in order to obtain love.’^[5] The beginning of these anti-romance films is the beginning of the collapse of metanarratives. Lyotard argues that in a post modern world these metanarratives are no longer central and therefore society is no longer stable but fluid. This argues that audiences are no longer believing in true love and therefore do not believe it in the movies either.

 

But the auteurs of our time are fighting back against ‘The Culture Industry’, bringing out new films of their own that mix up and redefine the romance genre. More and more directors are now putting their own signature on their movies. The improvement is that directors are allowed more freedom on the creation of their films and instead of seeing it as just a film they see it as a work of art that they want to show off to the world. Therefore more time and effort is put into the final product allowing a film to become more personal and engage more with audiences.

 

An example of a romance film that has been given the auteur treatment is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, directed by previous theatre and indie film director Michel Gondry. The institution Momentum Pictures wanted a more artistic style to their film, so they hired Michel Gondry due to his previous work in theatre. Theatre is ‘thought’ to be a more artistic form of entertainment to film, so hiring a previous theatre director meant that the film would have a more abstract artistic style and a more practical approach to effects such as using frosted glass to create blurred and faded backgrounds behind characters, rather than relying on computer generated images. Michel Gondry is described as a ‘visual director’ ^[9] and is now known as an auteur. Bringing in a director with a ‘unique’ style proves that studios are trying to reinvent the romance genre.

 

Though you can also argue that sometimes we need escapism, we don’t always want to be reminded of how bad our life or relationship is. This means that in this ‘post modern world’ that Lyotard talks about, there will always be metanarratives. Society is brought up on stories of history and narrative structures and that is unlikely to change. Romance films have been a source of escapism since they have begun. “I like watching people fall in love onscreen so much that I can suspend my disbelief in the contrived situations that occur only in the heightened world of romantic comedies” ^[10] So if the original romance codes and conventions still work, is the ‘Culture Industry’ such a bad thing after all? Is there such thing as the ‘Culture Industry’ as Adorno and Horkeimer suggested? Every film has a different storyline doesn’t it? It’s just the codes and conventions that stay the same. Every genre needs a set of rules, that’s what defines a text as a certain genre. Dyers Utopia sees the ‘real’ world as full of negatives and that the ‘mediated’ world is one that is hopeful, one where the audience can escape from their troubles.

 

In conclusion I believe that this is the start of a new generation of romance genre movies. Traditional romance films are becoming too predictable and unrealistic for audiences in our current economic state. Don’t get me wrong, we all need to have a form of escapism, but not to an over fantasised world that has been used over and over again. Romance films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and The Adjustment Bureau, hybrid films that mix two genres together are the way forward. And finally, institutions are starting to realise that you can make romance films that appeal to males and females, with the proof being Crazy Stupid Love. As an audience we are finally starting to see past the brainwashing of ‘The Culture Industry’ and seeing films for what they are, a piece of art that auteurs take pride and care in making.

 

Word Count: 2007

 

Bibliography

 

Websites:

[1] http://www.techdigest.tv/2010/08/low_cinema_atte.html

[4] http://www.observer.com/2009/movies/love-actually

[5] http://nique.net/opinions/2011/06/24/romance-genre-films-decline-in-integrity/

[9]http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind/

[10] http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/i_love_romcoms

 

Books and Magazines:

[2] Theory and history of folklore – By Vladimir Propp – Published by Manchester Printing Press 1984

[3] An Introduction to Film Studies – Third Edition – Edited by Jill Nelmes – Published by Routledge 2003

[6] Total Film Issue 186

[7] The Culture Industry Reconsidered – By Theodor W. Adorno and Anson G. Rabinbach

[8] Engaging Deconstructive Theology – By Ronald T. Michener – Published by Ashgate 2007

 

DVDS:

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

(500) Days of Summer

Up in the Air

The Adjustment Bureau

Crazy, Stupid, Love

 

 

 

Thank you for reading! Do you agree with my conclusion? Please comment below.

I Need Your Help & The Descendants

I NEED YOUR HELP! I am currently writing a Spider-Man SPECIAL blog post, and I would like you to get involved! What better way to promote our love for The Amazing Spider-Man then to have the images be made from real fans! So please send me your pictures, art work etc... I have had a few sent in already and I am currently working on my own piece of art as well!

Send your pictures and images to either:
My twitter account: @SuperAlexMan
Or email me: alex-moppy@hotmail.com

All who submit a picture that is used will be mentioned in the post!
Thanks! Now on to my review of The Descendants.

I love it when a film surprises me. Although I am a big fan of George Clooney, this film did not appeal to me before hand. Maybe I should have taken notice of its Oscar win for best screenplay or its other nominations for best film, editing, directing and acting. But the Oscars rarely nominate anything that is worthy. This time though, they were right to nominate such a brilliant and touching film.

The Descendants is one of those films that has a perfect contrast of happy and sad, not many films can do this, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is the only other film I can think of that did. There are some really sad moments in this film, I mean it's about a guy who's wife gets put in a coma during a boating accident. He then finds out his wife has been cheating on him and he has to come to terms with this and his two unruly daughters who he struggles to handle.  George Clooney's life pretty much sucks, or at least his character Matt King's does! So you may be thinking right now, where's the funny in this? Well actually there are a lot of moments which make you chuckle or even laugh out loud. Most of these moments involve Sid, played by Nick Krause, his character is a friend of Matt's daughter who sticks around to keep her 'more civil'.

All the acting here is great, I can't really pick out anyones performance and says its bad. I possibly would have liked to have seen more of Mathew Lillard's character Brian Speer, but that's about it really. The acting is so good that we even get a feel as to what Matt's wife was like before the coma. George Clooney does well at playing one of those characters that is dislike-able but like-able, if you get what I mean. We don't like him but he's George Clooney! This character is a lot like the character Clooney played in Up in the Air. Why has this man only won one Oscar?

This film is pretty much flawless, but I guess if I was to pick out anything it would be the music. It keeps with the Hawaiian theme of the film but there is a lot of it and can get quite tedious. But that's just me.

Overall this film is incredible and I am so happy that it turned out to be much better then expected! I recommend this film to everyone, it is brilliant and George Clooney gives another perfect performance! I'm giving this film a rating of 5/5.

Thanks for reading! If you like blogs then you will love this new one my friend has just created! The Daily Blog strives to entertain each individual with a new post everyday! Be sure to check it out here: http://thedailyblogdb.blogspot.co.uk/