What happened to awesome space movies?

[Cannon]

2013 - Gravity

2014 - Interstellar

2015 - The Martian

and then nothing for 3 years (afaik). Is there anything on the way that's as good as these 3?

[Chel]

28 minutes ago, Cannon said:

and then nothing for 3 years (afaik). Is there anything on the way that's as good as these 3?

Yes! The Star Wars prequels! Episode 1, 2, and 3!

[Geonovast]

7 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Yes! The Star Wars prequels! Episode 1, 2, and 3!

I wouldn't call 20 years ago as "on the way"   Also, you must be the only person I've ever encountered who actually likes those... things.

2016 - Hidden Figures (Which Google lists as a comedy...huh?)

2017 - ?

2018 - First Man (Haven't seen yet, though)

Maybe it was just a quick fad that burned out, I dunno.  There are a few movies I'm looking forward to next year, but none that are really realistic space movies.

 

[Chel]

4 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

I wouldn't call 20 years ago as "on the way"   Also, you must be the only person I've ever encountered who actually likes those... things.

I love the prequels. The meme quality is amazing! Also, Rogue One and Solo are both prequel, so it's still alive (and we don't need to get a medical capsule)

[tater]

1 hour ago, Cannon said:

2013 - Gravity

Looks pretty. Bullock in yoga shorts. Past that, it's garbage.

1 hour ago, Cannon said:

2014 - Interstellar

The Pearl Harbor of space movies. I want my 2+ hours back. Among the worst movies I've sat through.

 

1 hour ago, Cannon said:

2015 - The Martian

and then nothing for 3 years (afaik). Is there anything on the way that's as good as these 3?

The Martian was good, though I wish he'd taken the opportunity of a screenplay to reboot the premise for the stranding to a collapsing lava tube, or liquefaction (waste heat?) or something--indeed anything--other than the silly storm.

 

First Man was OK. Really, for hard SF, there isn't much that's any good, period (ever).

[Bill Phil]

Look to TV, friends. The Expanse has been considerably harder than most series, though it still has problems.

[tater]

35 minutes ago, Bill Phil said:

Look to TV, friends. The Expanse has been considerably harder than most series, though it still has problems.

I tried to get into it, but just couldn't. Then I decided to give it a second try, and I picked the episode where there is a ridiculous slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, and it was so stupid I changed channels.

[Chel]

What about Star Trek: Voyager? It's still a great series to rewatch every now and again

[Geonovast]

7 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

What about Star Trek: Voyager? It's still a great series to rewatch every now and again

It's also about as far from realistic as you can get science-wise, and ended 17 years ago.  @Cannon is asking about hard [(accurate-ish) based on the provided examples] movies in the future.

[Chel]

1 minute ago, Geonovast said:

It's also about as far from realistic as you can get science-wise, and ended 17 years ago.  @Cannon is asking about hard [(accurate-ish) based on the provided examples] movies in the future.

Ohhhhh. Now I understand. Why am I feeling so confused today? First it was with the kerbal courage/stupidity, and now with this!

[Geonovast]

Just now, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Ohhhhh. Now I understand. Why am I feeling so confused today? First it was with the kerbal courage/stupidity, and now with this!

It's cool.  Voyager is an awesome show, though.  I do wish we had some good hard scifi movies coming.  I'm a huge Star Trek fan (My daughter's name is Jadzia, after all), but the last thing you would want to call it is scientifically accurate.

[Chel]

7 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

It's cool.  Voyager is an awesome show, though.  I do wish we had some good hard scifi movies coming.  I'm a huge Star Trek fan (My daughter's name is Jadzia, after all), but the last thing you would want to call it is scientifically accurate.

Agreed. Every episode before Scorpion part 1 is boring, only when Jeri Ryan comes in do the episodes actually become good. Lots of explosions

[Gargamel]

18 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

(My daughter's name is Jadzia, after all),

She's either going to love you or hate you later.....  ;D

 

Problem with Hard Sci Fi, is that the fan base is somewhat limited.  The general population wants drama and action, like what we saw with Gravity, Interstellar and Armageddon.    They sacrificed quite a lot of realism for these aspects.  The HSF wants realism first, and drama and action a close second.  It's very difficult to appease the HSF fanboys without a faction going off on a tangent about how that's not how *insert technical stuff* works!

 

[Bill Phil]

53 minutes ago, tater said:

I tried to get into it, but just couldn't. Then I decided to give it a second try, and I picked the episode where there is a ridiculous slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, and it was so stupid I changed channels.

Yeah... that was bad. The show isn’t problem free. Even so, I wouldn’t consider that to be a series killer. At the very least the ships don’t have improper deck alignment.

[Superfluous J]

I really liked Solo. It pushed Rogue 1 out as my favorite of the modern Star Wars movies. Also most of the Marvel movies since Guardians of the Galaxy have had more in common with Star Wars than Superman. Oh, Guardians 2. That came out just last year and it's fantastic.

I'm assuming you don't require the movies to be hard sci fi because you listed Gravity and Interstellar on your list.

 

 

[XB-70A]

I found Salyut 7 (2017) pretty nice. Somewhat a bit redundant on some points, but otherwise enjoyable. Otherwise, Tik Tik Tik (2018) was... laughable. I found it fun, really! Even if it was supposed to be a drama.

On the other hand, I give the medal of the "disappointment known in advance" to Life (2017).

[Chel]

1 minute ago, 5thHorseman said:

I really liked Solo. It pushed Rogue 1 out as my favorite of the modern Star Wars movies.

I loved Rogue One more than Solo. Especially the space battle. But the prequel trilogy is still fun to watch.

1 minute ago, XB-70A said:

On the other hand, I give the medal of the "disappointment known in advance" to Life (2017).

Isn't that the movie about the growing alien organism on the ISS that kills everybody and makes it's way down to Earth at the end?

[XB-70A]

2 minutes ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

Isn't that the movie about the growing alien organism on the ISS that kills everybody and makes it's way down to Earth at the end?

Yup! Virus from 1999 but in Space. With a slight pinch of The Thing.

[tater]

5 minutes ago, 5thHorseman said:

I'm assuming you don't require the movies to be hard sci fi because you listed Gravity and Interstellar on your list.

I'd say that the premise/setting for Gravity is "hard sci if," even if deeply flawed. There's no magical drives, and the physics violations are entirely because they were clueless, not as a fundamental plot device.

Interstellar was pitched as hard sci fi, and it was tripe.

[Chel]

Just now, XB-70A said:

Yup! Virus from 1999 but in Space. With a slight pinch of The Thing.

I haven't seen it, but just looked at the plot on Wikipedia. I think those Vietnamese fishers have made a huge mistake

[StrandedonEarth]

The 2003(?) reboot of Battlestar Galactica was pretty good, it had action and drama and a reflection of real world events. It was more realistic too, not a laser in sight and the Vipers had RCS

[kerbiloid]

5 hours ago, tater said:

a collapsing lava tube, or liquefaction (waste heat?)

Because those idiots buried the working RTG underground. At least in the book.

3 hours ago, XB-70A said:

I found Salyut 7 (2017) pretty nice.

Especially the sledgehammering of a sensor.

***

(In Russian, sorry).
The real participant of that story about it.

Spoiler

 

 

3 hours ago, The_Cat_In_Space said:

I think those Vietnamese fishers have made a huge mistake

Don't underestimate their cooking abilities. Just one more meal made of invertebrates, better with hot soy sauce.

Edited November 14, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Chel]

1 hour ago, kerbiloid said:

Because those idiots buried the working RTG underground. At least in the book.

Especially the sledgehammering of a sensor.

***

(In Russian, sorry).
The real participant of that story about it.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Don't underestimate their cooking abilities. Just one more meal made of invertebrates, better with hot soy sauce.

So they try to cook the alien organism. I wonder how that's going to turn out...

[GearsNSuch]

Well, really realistic sci-fi would just be a lot of waiting and failure due to small factors so...

 

 

"Captain Smith! The aliens have incredible hyper-drive systems! They can arrive at Earth in only 0.001% of the time it would take with conventional propulsion!"

"When will they arrive?"

"Well, they'll have to wait fifty years for the transfer window to open up, and about twenty to travel."

or

"The station is exploding leaking! We must escape but the computer is down!"

"Don't worry, I'll fly the escape pod manually!"

"Congratulations. You burned in the wrong direction and stranded us."

or

"I'm all out of monopropellant from these cinematic rotations!"

 

 

So, I suppose "good sci-fi" or "awesome space movies" are really defined by what you consider realistic enough and enjoyable. After all, entertainment is one of the few truly relative subjects, at least to some degree. I personally would consider an hour-long tour of the internals and workings of the ISS or Shuttle or Apollo, down to the wiring, an "awesome space movie," but hey. I like me some cinematic explosions every now and then as well.

Oh, to answer your question... Uh... It does seem that the space movie boom was a five-year trend, but they seem to still be coming out with some good ones, especially slightly fictionalized biographies. Then, I haven't watched a movie for two or three years...

So I'm no expert.

[tater]

If we broaden to include TV, and also consider that the only requirements are that "space" be an important element in the story lines, and that it at least be real science fiction, not fantasy (Star Wars is fantasy, IMO), then maybe we can hope that Foundation and Consider Phlebas scratch our collective itch.