So I didn’t ignore this… I’ve been thinking about it but haven’t been able to mentally compose a good response. But I do have some unstructured thoughts…
For me one thing science fiction is good for is using the “science fiction” aspects of the plot (e.g., intelligent robots, alien life forms, super advanced technology, etc.) to examine deep or interesting questions about our human condition. (Hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious. I love a big dumb movie as much as the next person.)
The first movie I thought of in response to your question is Ex Machina, mostly because I’ve seen it kind of recently. (Not sure if it’s on any “top 100” lists since I don’t really track that kind of thing.) The setup of having a guy “Turing test” an AI-powered robot opens the door to exploring questions about consciousness, sentience, humanity, personhood, etc. It made me think during and after, as well as making what I saw as some on-point commentaries on hubris and smug tech-bro complacency.
As far as some additional titles, I pulled together this list of recent-ish views from my various watchlists. They’re not all “top” movie candidates, or particularly deep in some cases, but I enjoyed them and feel they’re worth watching.
Ghost in the Shell Freaks Prospect Altered Carbon (show) Arrival District 9
Anyway, I’m not all that snobby about movies (I think) but I do think The Midnight Sky fell well short of its potential. Hopefully my hot take on it won’t change your enjoyment of it.
Wow, I was surprised to see Trolly and Risky call me out re: The Invisible Man so I looked it up on RT and apparently I don’t know how to watch movies lol.
I dunno, I’m clearly in the minority but it just didn’t do much for me. I saw the brother as part of the invisible men from the first time we met him and I suspected the main bad guy was alive too and they were working as a team.
The public murder of Elisabeth’s sister irritated me as did the keystone cops routine in the mental hospital breakout scene.
Basically the thing that annoyed me most is someone who went to that length to develop the power of invisibility throwing it all away because of some dumb girl. I get it, that’s his character and “who he is.”
But I want to see an invisible man movie where it’s realistic and the creator of the invisibility suit steals lots of stuff and pervs on women and watches famous bands record albums and everything that you can’t do as a normal human.
Paul Verhoven already made Hollow Man. Interested if I add it to the Watch Party schedule? Stars Kevin Bacon doing all of the stuff you note.
People lust for different kinds of power. This is a story about domestic abuse that uses the concept of invisibility tech to make the story accessible for people who otherwise wouldn’t watch this. And it lets the storyteller explore new ways of experiencing and processing both sides of that. Observers and survivors of abuse have a new way of thinking about the experience, and fans of the invisibility concept get a brand-new way of approaching that concept too through the frame of a domestic thriller.
There are approximately 20 books chock-full of swashbuckling adventures to mine for movie ideas too. You have to think this “property” is in somebody’s pocket waiting to get used again at some point.
Good article. I totally agree with you, and it’s something the article touches on. The relationship between Aubrey and Maturin is the capstan (to use a nautical term) that the stories revolve around, and Crowe and Bettany nailed it.
One issue could be that the guys are 17ish years older now, but that could be dealt with. The novels cover basically the whole span of Aubrey’s career, so it wouldn’t be hard to put together some scripts in which he and Maturin are older and dealing with all the things that come with that.
Because Master and Commander was a commercial failure and the Fast and Furious franchise is printing money. Nobody’s going to gamble 9 figures on a sequel. They should remake it as an HBO series or something like that.
I was going to skim coverage but stopped one paragraph into this. For sure this is one I need to see blind. I’ll read the article after I watch. Thanks for suggesting it.
