Board 8 > Gauntlet Crew Ranks Science Fiction Films I

(+) Yeah! (+)

v_charon posted...

Inviso posted...

I didn't even notice the racial imbalance that so many people are finding fault with >_>;;

Outside of one movie pre-70's, there's literally a massive racial imbalance in all of them.

I think either you accept that older movies are like that and that's just the way they are historically, or you end up not enjoying a lot of these movies in general. I look at older films as glimpses into the historical underpinnings of the society from which they come so, while I would not necessarily be pleased with it now, I'm detached from its function as a moral compass and only let it serve in entertaining me or teaching me something about the world 70 years ago.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

v_charon posted...

Inviso posted...

I didn't even notice the racial imbalance that so many people are finding fault with >_>;;

Outside of one movie pre-70's, there's literally a massive racial imbalance in all of them.

I think either you accept that older movies are like that and that's just the way they are historically, or you end up not enjoying a lot of these movies in general. I look at older films as glimpses into the historical underpinnings of the society from which they come so, while I would not necessarily be pleased with it now, I'm detached from its function in entertaining me or teaching me something about the world 70 years ago.

Yeah. This. One of my favorite movies (if not my favorite movie period) is 12 Angry Men. All 12 of the titular angry men are white, and the criminal they're debating on looks extremely white, yet is treated (by the jury's racist) like some minority thug. Obviously that's bizarre by today's standards (and the remake made an effort to add ethnic diversity to the cast), but that's a product of the time.
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I still have to be able to connect with the characters or I won't really like the movie. I can appreciate a movie as far as technical aspects go without that, but it will severely hurt them in holding up against movies I both appreciate and actually enjoy.

With this particular one, it's one of the 4 on this list I considered generally unenjoyable. Far from the worst things we've watched (sans my #40), but still not something I'd ever watch again. This movie's racial issues are not what cause it to be this low though alone; it's just boring to me. I wasn't wowed by the effects or the acting; really, the effects were surpassed by a movie 20+ years older than it was, in my opinion at least.
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To borrow a phrase, context is always king for me when it comes to movies and films. Having sat through many an English lit. college course, I run into far too many people who want to judge the author for their shortcomings rather than study the work for its messages. The idea of Death of the Author for me is a pretty important aspect to any story for me.
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v_charon posted...

I wasn't wowed by the effects or the acting; really, the effects were surpassed by a movie 20+ years older than it was, in my opinion at least.

That's interesting because When Worlds Collide won its Academy Award for Special Effects. I'm not necessarily wowed by the effects either; I compare it to Gone with the Wind and feel like that movie is far and away grander in scale and scope.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

To borrow a phrase, context is always king for me when it comes to movies and films. Having sat through many an English lit. college course, I run into far too many people who want to judge the author for their shortcomings rather than study the work for its messages. The idea of Death of the Author for me is a pretty important aspect to any story for me.

Were you the person who go into the argument in class about the meaning behind a book, and someone was like "but the author is gay, so it's important". I can't remember the exact thing, but I remember a topic where someone was talking about the stupidity of college literature analysis because of identity politics of the writers.
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I don't think every movie that wins an award or is nominated for one is great by default; maybe 1951 was a weak year.
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Inviso posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

To borrow a phrase, context is always king for me when it comes to movies and films. Having sat through many an English lit. college course, I run into far too many people who want to judge the author for their shortcomings rather than study the work for its messages. The idea of Death of the Author for me is a pretty important aspect to any story for me.

Were you the person who go into the argument in class about the meaning behind a book, and someone was like "but the author is gay, so it's important". I can't remember the exact thing, but I remember a topic where someone was talking about the stupidity of college literature analysis because of identity politics of the writers.

Yeah. I remember getting some pushback from people on the Board for it, too. I think my big thing is I want the text to always be the primary source of conversation and the rest of it to just be noise.
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v_charon posted...

I don't think every movie that wins an award or is nominated for one is great by default; maybe 1951 was a weak year.

I agree. It's just interesting!
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*Ermine is reading this topic*
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Not a Gauntlet Crew Ranks without Inviso spoiling other rankings in his writeups.
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Hint for #39: This movie had three rankings in the 20s.
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Yeah, old movies are very white, but When Worlds Collide was just so definitively white-bread that it seemed extra-worth commenting on. There are just '50s movies that transcend that fact way, way more than this boring movie did.

So yeah, I did kinda figure that'd be first out.

Also Snake's write-up doesn't sound like a #38 placement at all.

I enjoyed 99.9% of these films to be perfectly honest! I don't really have any hate for any of them, my last place had some issues but it was still watchable.
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scarletspeed7 posted...

Hint for #39: This movie had three rankings in the 20s.

I still guess The Fantastic Voyage
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Fair enough! It's definitely a well-cultivated list, and really there's actually only one I straight up disliked, myself. Then my #31-39 are varying degrees of "meh."

I can guess Metropolis.
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things are a little less clear at this point, but i guess that the old movies will continue to have the shit kicked out of them for some time
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I'm gonna predict Barbarella.
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Im also guessing the older ones will all drop first. Probably Metropolis next. Im glad it wasnt in last place.
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#39 - Barbarella (1967)
Stifled - 22
JONA - 25
Wickle - 27
Karo - 33
Snake - 37
Johnbobb - 39
Charon - 40
Genny - 40
Inviso - 40
KBM - 40
Scarlet - 40
Total: 383

"I was expecting absolutely nothing from this movie and I was pleasantly surprised. Its the kind of campy fun I really wanted from some of these movies, particularly the older ones. I can see the creators of Austin Powers REALLY loved this movie and took a lot of inspiration from it. Jane Fonda is naked for the first like 10-15 minutes and I was perfectly fine with it. Not just for the obvious reason of her being super super hot, but it was done for comedy as well. Sexuality was used as a common joke throughout the film and it was done effectively. She ended up becoming a female James Bond after discovering recreational sex for the first time. And I know I bring up Sausage Party being awful a lot, but Barbarella is another example of how raunchy humor can be done very well and another example of how Sausage Party failed to deliver. I hope you enjoyed this movie as much as I did, pretty pretty.

Traviss Opinion: lmao no. No no no. The PG rating was tossed around in the 60s and 70s like herpes and its a huge problem. I am so glad Scarlet told me about the content of this movie because I was gonna let Travis watch it. Lmaoooooooooo" ~Stifled

"Is this movie good? No. Is this movie entertaining? Yes. This movie definitely stands out from the rest of the list so that did help its ranking here. Its a visually striking movie with some colorful environments and characters. Jane Fonda does great here, really helping the campiness of the film. It has its dull moments, but it made the more ridiculous moments of the movie stand out. Its a stupid movie but one I would be willing to watch again." ~JONA

"A movie directed by a penis. Might as well say it that way as the dialogue was weird and plenty of the movie was naked chicks so I guess I gave up whining about nudity and shrugged at the end saying I at least enjoyed it Kind of." ~Wickle

"A young woman is sent to an alien world in a giant flying sex toy to find a missing scientist. Whether she is supposed to be a diplomat or a galactic stripper is unclear, but she is quickly shown to be incompetent at everything except for having intercourse, which thankfully for her is able to solve most of her problems.
She is quickly captured by a group of small children, who in this planet's society are apparently abandoned in the arctic wilderness until they are of a 'serviceable age'. Uh... lets not talk about this anymore.
Anyway she is rescued by a friendly child trafficker who takes gives her a ride in his vehicle which is a sailsled literally propelled by a rear-mounted fan blowing into the sails oh my god why arrrrrrrrrrg!
She then meets a half-naked angel who she inspires to fly by going to his bird nest and fucking him, and he takes her to a city ruled by the Great Tyrant. This is actually not an epithet, but rather her real title. She is literally labeled 'Tyrant' in an official sense.
After some misadventures with Captain Dildo of the rebel alliance and the villains unsuccessfully trying to kill her via orgasm, Barbarella and friends fly off into the sunset to upbeat music while the city burns behind them as a lovecraftian monster consumes all its inhabitants.
There is a bright spot in this incredibly stupid film and she is called Jane Fonda. Her over-the-top and self-aware portrayal of the title character is what drives the movie and what makes one want to continue watching.
The story is nonsensical and the budget looks only slightly higher than your average Lost in Space episode. But at least it is never boring." ~Karo
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"An unabashedly pulpy exercise in late 60s excess, Barberella lacks in plot but makes up for it with absurd set-pieces and a progressive attitude towards sex that make it such a weird time you dont even care that you have no idea whats going on. Jane Fondas charming naivety is adorable at times, and only she could make scenes like the sexual-pleasure machine somehow look passable and kitsch rather than simply super creepy. " ~Snake

"I can't tell if the space stripping is supposed to be exploitation or sexual freedom. The doll thing was really fuckin weird. Pygar is a fucking idiot. Babarella keeps screwing everyone. The sound effects are making me want to claw my ears out. It's like Flash Gordon but with way more LSD and sex with strangers. I don't know what to make of it." ~Johnbobb

"One has to wonder why scarlet thought to include this brainless, booby-doop of a film on a list representing 39 other culturally important science fiction films but those thoughts leave your brain when this film begins to destroy its cells faster than every male character in the film destroys Jane Fonda. There is nothing good that can be said for this abomination masquerading as a film; it offers up nothing of any value whatsoever and was named Worst Film Ever by critics across every galaxy in the year of 4453." ~charon

"What is this intro? What is this movie? WHAT IS LIFE? Barbarella is without a doubt the worst female protagonist I've ever seen in a movie, and I refuse to believe this sci-fi excuse for a soft core porn was popular enough at one point for a band to name itself after one of its characters (which got super distracting by the way)." ~Genny

"Holy SHIT this movie is sixties as hell. Yeah, this stands out as being particularly terrible compared to the caliber of movies Ive watched thus far on the list. First off, I CANNOT unthink of Leona Lansing every time Barbarella speaks, which is REALLY inconvenient given the amount of nudity and sex that takes place in the movie. But yeah, the acting is terrible, the plot is incoherent, and this movie seems like a vehicle for allowing the director to capture a bunch of his weird fetishes on film. The fact that I couldnt enjoy a movie with this much blatant sexuality in it says something about just how nonsensical it all was. This was like a pornographic version of Alice in Wonderland, edited down to a PG rating for some reason." ~Inviso
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"There are a couple of really good things in this movie namely, the music, the production design, and Jane Fonda's body. Unfortunately, anything beyond that and this movie lost me. It played like a PG-rated porno, only with even worse acting. There are a few moments of unintentional hilarity, whether it's Barbarella's ridiculous costumes, Milo O'Shea hamming it the fuck up as Durand Durand, that guy at the beginning displaying his chest hair, or just the name Dildano. But this story would have felt paper-thin in a Star Trek episode, much less a full-length film. John Philip Law is particularly awful as the blind angel, Pygar, and quite frankly, I didn't think Fonda's acting was great, either. I probably would have had more fun just watching clips of this one." ~KBM

"What It Is: In the far future, the President of Earth assigns Jane Fonda the unenviable task of fucking her way to an evil super-weapon.

Why It Matters: Adapting one of Europe's most popular characters of the time, Barbarella was a hugely successful film in Europe, serving as the highest grossing film of the year in France and second-highest in the UK. It's visuals have been noted to influence a host of science fiction films afterwards, including The Fifth Element. Hell, Duran Duran took its name from the film.

What I Think: Absolutely schlocky and awful in every sense except one, Barbarella is definitely a great representation of the kooky European cult film scene of the 1960s. Pulling from source material that is every bit as head-scratchingly silly as the film itself, Barbarella's only real saving grace is the unique, enjoyable performance of Jane Fonda. Her character strikes me as acutely sheltered and innocent. It's an interesting subversion of being sexually liberated; she's not. There's no sense of promiscuity or judgment in this society. She's just... different. She comes from a different world. And I definitely appreciate that point of view. Aside from that, though, this movie is an unmitigated drug-addled bizarre pot stirred with colors, lights and the occasional line of dialogue." ~scarlet
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The Outlander Game Part II: Rankherhella Low

JONA - 31
Stifled - 21
Wickle - 18
Inviso - 14
Karo - 9
Johnbobb - 5
Snake - 4
Charon - 3
Genny - 2
KBM - 2
Scarlet - 2

Stifled soars like an angel to second place, although JONA retains his grip on the lead.
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Oh thank god. I was gonna say, I seriously doubted I would be the only one with my #40.

charon posted...

a list representing 39 other culturally important science fiction films

For the record, this movie actually was waaay more culturally relevant than a lot of this list. Now, the quality is another matter. But this movie has a huge legacy in cinema and was very popular in its time. For what reason, I don't know.
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I wanted to make an Arctic Monkeys reference but just couldn't squeeze it in.
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Holy boobs. I did not expect that. I kinda figured bottom 10, but damn. All the Sausage Party fans hopped off the raunchy train apparently.

Im also shocked I was the highest ranking. I went into the movie assuming Id hate it and I had a laughing good time.
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I didn't expect that either. It got 1 ranking higher than I thought it would.
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StifledSilence posted...

All the Sausage Party fans hopped off the raunchy train apparently.

at least Sausage Party had decent audio. Everything in that movie from the music to sound effects was too grating to ignore
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Also I'll say, of the 40 movies on this list, only the bottom 3 are ones I'd consider ultimately bad movies

it's a really, really good list
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I'm very heartened by the positivity towards the list.
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pretty much both that have dropped so far I considered locks for the bottom 5, so no real surprises yet
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Hint for #38: The first member of a top half falls, and no film left DOESN'T have top half rankings.
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Johnbobb posted...

StifledSilence posted...

All the Sausage Party fans hopped off the raunchy train apparently.

at least Sausage Party had decent audio. Everything in that movie from the music to sound effects was too grating to ignore

It did? It was just a bunch of eff words and sex noises though.
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I'm gonna go with Outland
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Its likely older movies will still drop, but Ill take a wild guess.

Ex Machina
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I think Fantastic Voyage is still a good guess.

a few of these guesses are straight up crazy so im going to do a more sane guess of forbidden planet
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I loved Vis' reference to Leona Lansing by the way.

"I have business in front this Congress, Charlie!"
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scarletspeed7 posted...

charon posted...

a list representing 39 other culturally important science fiction films

For the record, this movie actually was waaay more culturally relevant than a lot of this list. Now, the quality is another matter. But this movie has a huge legacy in cinema and was very popular in its time. For what reason, I don't know.

I was kinda pressed for time and couldn't really formulate it as such.

I knew what kind of writeup I wanted to do for this movie, but I didn't spend a huge amount of time putting it together either. Hopefully my one parody writeup was enjoyed!
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StifledSilence posted...

Johnbobb posted...

StifledSilence posted...

All the Sausage Party fans hopped off the raunchy train apparently.

at least Sausage Party had decent audio. Everything in that movie from the music to sound effects was too grating to ignore

It did? It was just a bunch of eff words and sex noises though.

Sausage Party, as crass as it might have been, still had a message to get across. It was only soured by the awful food orgy near the end; everything before then was just fine in my opinion. I feel like Barbarella serves no purpose and seeks to teach you nothing except what Jane Fonda's boobs look like.
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v_charon posted...

scarletspeed7 posted...

charon posted...

a list representing 39 other culturally important science fiction films

For the record, this movie actually was waaay more culturally relevant than a lot of this list. Now, the quality is another matter. But this movie has a huge legacy in cinema and was very popular in its time. For what reason, I don't know.

I was kinda pressed for time and couldn't really formulate it as such.

I knew what kind of writeup I wanted to do for this movie, but I didn't spend a huge amount of time putting it together either. Hopefully my one parody writeup was enjoyed!

It was very enjoyed. I gave an audible chuckle to it. I just thought I would mention that it actually was a somewhat influential movie just in case you weren't aware.
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I thought Ex Machina was well liked generally, it would surprise me if it were this low. Ava is not the modern day Barbarella.
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v_charon posted...

StifledSilence posted...

Johnbobb posted...

StifledSilence posted...

All the Sausage Party fans hopped off the raunchy train apparently.

at least Sausage Party had decent audio. Everything in that movie from the music to sound effects was too grating to ignore

It did? It was just a bunch of eff words and sex noises though.

Sausage Party, as crass as it might have been, still had a message to get across. It was only soured by the awful food orgy near the end; everything before then was just fine in my opinion. I feel like Barbarella serves no purpose and seeks to teach you nothing except what Jane Fonda's boobs look like.

I mean yeah, there was definitely no message to Barbarella. It was just campy fun with boobs. But I also just dont think Sausage Partys message was presented clearly at all and it just got lost in the raunch. Which is why initially I was kind of confused by people who ranked Barbarella low and SP high. But when you put it like that, I see where youre coming from.
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Raka_Putra posted...

I thought Ex Machina was well liked generally, it would surprise me if it were this low. Ava is not the modern day Barbarella.

yeah, Ex Machina is one of the biggest and most universally popular sci-fis of the last few years

A lot of this list is hard to predict but that in particular I can't imagine dropping in the bottom 20
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It was mostly a joke since another movie with a ton of nudity just went out.

It will likely be an older film next like usual.
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As someone that didnt participate in this, Ex Machina is in no way showing up soon.

I would hope.

i have at least that much faith in the group
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