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Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Me vs. IMDb

Short comparison of my top ten list vs. top ten SF movie rankings on IMDB (as of 2/7/07):

Common Films:
Star Wars, Metropolis, Alien, Aliens, Blade Runner

On the IMDB list, not mine:
Empire Strikes Back, The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Incredibles.

On my list, not IMDB:
The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Terminator, THX 1138, Forbidden Planet, A Clockwork Orange.

Why the IMDB films aren't on my list:
The Incredibles: Great Film, but wrong century.
Empire Strikes Back: Unlike Aliens, which was a sequel that was completely different in tone, theme and even genre from its predecessor, Empire was pretty much a direct continuation of Star Wars and doesn't IMHO merit it's own slot on the list.
Terminator 2: Again, while it is a very good film, it's almost a too-polished rework of its predecessor. Terminator exploited its limitations so that when the effects did show up, they had a real impact.
The Matrix: I posted my rationale for skipping it.
2001: A Space Odyssey: Ok, this is where I'm a heretic. In my opinion, 2001 does not hang together as a film. There's very little narrative unity, and while there are some spectacular sequences, it never really jells. It is three different movies, with different characters, and a WTF transcendent sequence tagged on the end that has been the father of way too many exercises in self-indulgent 1970s psychedelica from Zardoz to Charlie. While a lot of people are going to yell "art" at me, and to them I will answer "A Clockwork Orange," which is just as much a work of art, in addition to being a fully functional movie.

1 comments:

RobRoy said...

It's always nice to see The Day the Earth Stood Still make any scifi movie list. A highly under-rated movie that has really held up over time.