# Brain-Dead Science Fiction Films that, nevertheless, Look Great **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470 "2008-08-18T20:29:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2008, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/41 "2008-08-19T22:56:16Z")
All of them except “Solaris” with George Clooney? I’m still waiting for the day when Hollywood realizes that sci-fi fans can handle a little plot and thinking in their flashy entertainment. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/42 "2008-08-20T00:08:21Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] As for good-looking-but-empty-headed science fiction movies, I’ll throw out the 1980 version of **Flash Gordon**. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it but about the only things I remember about the film are Ornelia Muti and the fact that it at least looked good. [/QUOTE] Yes, the Bimbo-wear in the film was pretty damn good. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/43 "2008-08-20T00:36:20Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] Minor nitpick, IIRC, the aliens were CGI, but the spaceships were actually models. [/QUOTE] Yeah, the spaceships were real models. A friend of mine, who turned me onto Kurosawa, worked as one of the model builders. She said it was the last ‘big’ movie to use physical models. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/44 "2008-08-20T00:47:19Z")
[QUOTE=adam yax] Yeah, the spaceships were real models. A friend of mine, who turned me onto Kurosawa, worked as one of the model builders. She said it was the last ‘big’ movie to use physical models. [/QUOTE] What is the distinction? I know all the Lord of the Rings movies used miniatures extensively. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/45 "2008-08-20T01:00:53Z")
[QUOTE=Terrifel] What is the distinction? I know all the Lord of the Rings movies used miniatures extensively. [/QUOTE] Well, it might be a matter of scale. The models used for StarShip Troopers were as big as eighteen feet long. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/46 "2008-08-20T01:31:17Z")
1. STARSHIP TROOPERS: absolute crap, but funny. The giant insects were cool, plus the giant tick-like thing that liked to suck out human’s brains! Plus, the coed showers made up for a lot. 2. MARS ATTACKS: good visuals, and the demented US president was hilarious! The martians-destroyed by country and western music-stupid! ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/47 "2008-08-20T01:48:18Z")
[QUOTE=NDP] As for good-looking-but-empty-headed science fiction movies, I’ll throw out the 1980 version of **Flash Gordon**. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it but about the only things I remember about the film are Ornelia Muti and the fact that it at least looked good. [/QUOTE] [I actually liked this movie enough to write a one-minute summary.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=9922736&postcount=33) Yes, I know it was lame. Give me a break, I was sober! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f07891/32.png) [@Little\_Plastic\_Ninja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Plastic_Ninja)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/48 "2008-08-20T05:28:57Z")
For people who hated Van Helsing (well, for anyone who watched it), I offer up [this little treat](http://www.night-sky.org/~october/Pages/ArtcPages/Movies/Movi-CRvw-AAVanH.html). (That link SHOULD work. If not, mention it and I’ll fix it somehow.) ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/49 "2008-08-20T10:51:52Z")
Barbarella was Groovy, Man! ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/50 "2008-08-20T12:55:19Z")
**Alien** and **The Matrix**. You can’t get more brain dead than those, but they do look impressive. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/51 "2008-08-20T13:04:58Z")
I have to agree about **Alien** , but I thought there was more to the **Matrix** than mere surface glitz. ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/52 "2008-08-20T13:12:04Z")
[QUOTE=BrotherCadfael] I’d suggest **The Matrix** , and especially the sequels. Brain-dead plot (batteries???), but oh so stylish. [/QUOTE] When I saw the thread title I figured that had to be listed in the OP. There couldn’t be a film series that more perfectly fit that description. The original had some huge plot holes and the sequels have so many holes there’s not even a consistent run of anything resembling plot. But the looks were so awesome everyone and his kid sister copied from then on. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/53 "2008-08-20T16:16:42Z")
I like _Wing Commander_, but admittedly, it doesn’t have the strongest of plots. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/54 "2008-08-20T17:14:26Z")
And, most of most of **The Matrix** was a real snooze, with all potential for drama completely eliminated (why show us the traitor? And why the phony suspense about whether Neo was the chosen one – if he’s not, then no movie?) and a bunch of very superficial and elementary “philosophical” points thrown in that were treated as though they were grand revelations. The final fight sequence (starting in the subway station) was very impressive, as were the first sequence, but all the rest was just filler. The sequels were even worse, with no logic at all and rules that changed at the whims of the filmmakers. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/55 "2008-08-20T17:20:41Z")
[QUOTE=Raguleader] Well, it might be a matter of scale. The models used for StarShip Troopers were as big as eighteen feet long. 🆒 [/QUOTE] I got a tour of LucasArts offices the other day, and there was a “minature” of the house from _The Spiderwick Chronicles_ that was seven feet tall, and ten feet across. I suspect **adam yax** ’s anecdote might be obsolete. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/56 "2008-08-20T17:25:33Z")
[QUOTE=Dan Norder] When I saw the thread title I figured that [**The Matrix**] had to be listed in the OP. [/QUOTE] Well, it WAS in Post #4… ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/57 "2008-08-23T04:06:49Z")
I have to add another to this list. I just finished watching **10,000 B.C.** / I knew what I was getting into, having seen the trailers, but I wasn’t prepared for how nonsensical this film is. I kept hoping that \*something[/i[ would happen that would sorta make it make some kind of sense, but of course it didn’t happen. Nordic people living on a northern glacier folow slave traders across swamps and deserts, through lands popuilated by blacks (and some random whites) to an Eqypt-clone being run by the last of the pseudo-Atlanteans who’d building pyramids and a Sphinx in a pseudo-Egypt that seems to lack any actual _plants_. (What the hell are the people and all those wooly mammoths eating??!!!). There’s only one blue-eyed woman anywhere. The few language clues I could pick up on came from Mesopotamia (“Uru-Anna” = “Orion” there) and Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (“Mammak” is just too damned close to “Mumakil” for the Mammoths). There’s even less sense and consistency than in Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian Age, which this looks like it’s trying to be. But it sure looks good… ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/58 "2008-08-23T15:25:51Z")
Wanted to mention _Silent Running_ (1972). Absolutely ludicrous premise, but great to look at: directed by Doug Trumbull, so there’s a fantastic model spaceship and visual effects. Watching the DVD with the commentary is educational about making a movie look good on a modest budget. The robot drones were inhabited by bilateral amputees; the interiors were shot aboard the decommissioned aircraft carrier _USS Valley Forge_; the largest interior was the hangar deck, which would have cost a fortune to build as a set. And, you’ve got Bruce Dern gettin’ all crazy, and Joan Baez singin’ hippy-dippy tree-hugger songs. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2008, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/59 "2008-08-23T15:38:40Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Joan Baez singin’ hippy-dippy tree-hugger songs. [/QUOTE] Hippy-dippy tree-hugger songs written by PDQ Bach, no less! > [@Wikipedia](#): > > The soundtrack contains two songs — “Silent Running” and “Rejoice in the Sun” — written by **Peter Schickele** and Diane Lampert and performed by Joan Baez. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470/60 "2008-08-27T02:38:16Z")
I think the 1999 remake of **The Haunting** , though admittedly a horror film, is quite sufficiently brain-dead and special effects-laden to earn it a mention in this thread. Some of the visuals are genuinely striking; the exterior of Hill House is represented by the opulent Baroque architecture of England’s Harlaxton Manor, while the brooding interior sets run the gamut of styles from Criminally Insane Gothic to Late Victorian Pointy Thing. Unfortunately the technology used to create the multitudinous CG ghosties was rather conspicuously unconvincing even by the standards of the film’s release date. Fortunately their shortcomings in versimilitude are cleverly mitigated by the fact that they are on screen at all times, until the audience is forced to avert its eyes in shame. I believe that director Jan de Bont was hoping that the spirit of Robert Wise, who directed the original 1963 version, would rise up in vengeance so they could film it. Unfortunately for this plan, Wise wasn’t dead yet; and somehow de Bont’s film didn’t kill him. There’s one particularly remarkable scene where a bedroom’s walls and ceilings come alive to pursue its victims, so the viewer is treated to the spectacle of one room of the house chasing people through other rooms of the house. I hear that Jan de Bont owns a dictionary in which the definition of the word ‘subtle’ glows in the dark. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brain-dead-science-fiction-films-that-nevertheless-look-great/460470.md?page=2)