The Hoard Potato vs. Generation Rape-My-Childhood.

[athelind]

quelonzia arranged for a long weekend for her birthday, and so, on Friday, we went to see District 9, and today, we finally wended our way to downtown San Jose to see Moon.

We are two for two on Smart, Well-Done, Thought-Provoking SF movies this weekend. The previews indicate several more are on the way -- and a few smart, thoughtful non-genre flicks, as well.

I was tempted to do a blog entry castigating District 9 for being an uncredited remake of Alien Nation, Moon for being a rip-off of all those '70s SF movies, right down to the rip-off set designs, and The Time Traveler's Wife for being based on a novel and thus proving Hollywood has to steal all their ideas from someplace else -- but I don't think the target audience would get the sarcasm.

If Generation Rape-My-Childhood thinks that Hollywood can't do anything new or non-derivative, maybe they should expand their horizons beyond the latest formulaic blockbuster or the remakes of 30-minute toy commercials from the '80s.

Sure, movies like this are in the minority, but they always have been. Sturgeon's Revelation holds, and has always held. If it seems that there was a higher percentage of good movies in decades past, that's because people prefer to remember the stuff they liked -- and because TV stations and cable channels seldom run the real crud.

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Comments

[cpxbrex.livejournal.com]

I have but one thought about this: Shakespeare wrote almost nothing original.

Man, what was he doing? I bet Hamlet would have been better if he hadn't been stealing from The Prince of Jutland! And King Lear?! Holy shit, it had been around forever - his wasn't even the only remake!!

Nuff said, hehe.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Y'know, there's a reason Moon's look is so familiar... And it's entirely intentional. }:D

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah. That was kinda my point.

I LOVED the Moonbase set, and its deliberate visual referents to 2001 and Space: 1999. Gleaming white walls, oddly-shaped doors, padded panels along the corridors... they even used the ubiquitous Microgramma FONT.

This is what the future was SUPPOSED to look like.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Mmmmm, sweet sweet Microgramma. I'm a little more fond of Helvetica, but Microgramma is also typographic love.

[kinkyturtle.livejournal.com]

Basically, Microgramma is... SPACE HELVETICA.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just followed the link -- huh. This guy doesn't have any credits before 1980.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Scroll down- he's got multiple sections.

[hafoc.livejournal.com]

"If it seems that there was a higher percentage of good movies in decades past, that's because people prefer to remember the stuff they liked -- and because TV stations and cable channels seldom run the real crud."

Exactly so, in my opinion especially the last part. You introduced me to the Tropes website, and they have a name for that one: Nothing But Hits. In their case they meant music, but it applies to movies and everything else as well. Perhaps most of all to news stories-- but then, when they're doing the Mr. Sandman Scene to establish the date in the viewer's mind, it wouldn't work to use the obscure, soon forgotten stuff that makes up most of the so-called news (and always has).

[archteryx.livejournal.com]

Just sorry I didn't get to see Moon with you and Quel. But at least this time, you didn't have to run the twin gamuts of a major festival and easy-bake-oven heat to get to it. :>

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this was actually a mellow, relaxed day. It was warm, but not hot, and the shade from the trees made the warmth pleasant instead of oppressive.

And no fershlugginer EVENTS cluttering up the middle of downtown.

[halfelf.livejournal.com]

I felt Time Traveller's Wife insulted my intelligence. Not because it's based on a book, but because it has plot holes the size of Kansas. The book, however, is not too bad. I've been poking through it, and it fixes all the problems I had with the movie.