Here Comes The Sun

[viktor_haag]

James Wallis says that Boyle's new Sunshine is "the best science-fiction movie since The Matrix".

Hm.

Using The Matrix as some sort of benchmark point of comparison with regard to SF movies bothers me considerably.

Here are movies that have been released since The Matrix which I consider better movies, and also better exemplars of science-fiction than The Matrix:

• Solaris (Soderbergh's remake, admittedly)
• Code 46
• Minority Report
• 2046 (admittedly, this is a bit of a stretch as SF, but better movie certainly)
• Primer (not necessarily a flashier movie, but certainly a better example of SF)
• A Scanner Darkly
• The Fountain
• The Prestige (the science doesn't have to be up-front to be SF)

And those are just the ones that fairly leapt to mind like keener kids in the front row.

I suppose you could also want to include Vanilla Sky on the list, but it's a pale remake of Abre los ojos, which came out two years before Keanu's resuscitation vehicle. And by including that, let's chalk up three writer credits for Philip K. Dick on that list (five, if you are brave enough to include Impostor and Paycheck, which are neither better films than The Matrix, and arguably not quite as good SF either, but that last point is certainly arguable -- it's really hard to completely obscure and butcher Dick's ideas, but Georgaris' woeful adaptation of "Paycheck" certainly comes close).

Comparing Sunshine to The Matrix, and not, say, Solaris leads me to have serious doubts about whether I want to see Sunshine. And that's not good. Frankly, I want more films like Solaris or Code 46 or Scanner Darkly as exemplars of the SF genre: a genre that, primarily, seeks to invoke wonder and thoughtfulness in the audience.

What I don't want is more films like The Matrix and Serenity which, frankly, are to SF as the entire modern James Bond movie franchise is to the espionage genre.

I really hope that Sunshine isn't just another big-guns, big-explosions, big-nothing movie. I had hopes for so much more.

Comments

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

Ping wannabes

Yep. But I thought his choreography was used to better effect in films he had more of a direct hand in like Tai Chi Master and Iron Monkey.

puffed up
Yes, you make a good point, and it was my point that was poorly worded. I was thinking primarily in terms of the production design when I said what I did. I thought the Matrix's visual style was essentially based on an attempt to "look cool" to the point that it chewed it's own self. By contrast, I thought Code 46's production design was more subtle and well integrated into the movie. As for it being "po-faced and stuffed with its own self-importance", I did think it took itself seriously, but didn't think it was stuffed with its own self-importance. I guess we just differ in opinion.

As for the Matrix knowing that it had all the importance of a roller-coaster ride, perhaps that's part of the problem? To me it seemed like one long exercise in stitching together cool visual gun/fist-fights with nothing to back it up. It didn't propel me to the edge of my seat and keep me there: it got me interested with the opening sequence in the apartment building with Trinity, and then progressively bored me more and more as each fight got bigger, longer, and blander.

I guess what I object to is the seemingly automatic corellation between "SF" and "rollercoaster". I'm not really interested in rollercoaster much anymore, and I don't think that rollercoaster was ever a characterstic that had much to do with "SF".

Was the Matrix a decent action movie? I suppose so, although, in retrospect, I didn't care for it all that much. Was it a good SF movie? I don't think it was. Was it a good movie, just as a movie? Again, I don't think it was.

[sixteenbynine.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem with "The Matrix" sequels that I did with all the "Star Wars" movies barring the first three. The idea was far better than the execution.

In "Matrix"'s case, the idea was incredibly ambitious but the execution seemed to be a lot of work for very little payoff. "SW" Ep 1-3 had the opposite problem: the execution was terrifically ambitious, but the actual story being told was pathetic.

Both franchises suffered from one problem in common, though: they kept trying to top themselves in all the wrong ways.