Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Going to post this in a separate post so it doesn't get lost. If you're looking for a movie that counts for "watch film that takes place in the "future" but the year has already come and gone," A Quiet Place would qualify. It takes place in 2021 and it's now 2022. I know that I have problems finding films for this one and usually go with Escape from New York.

Also, if you've never seen A Quiet Place, it's worth the watch. I usually hate horror films. I know this one was highly rated and totally spoiled myself before watching, but I did tonight and really enjoyed it. I don't know that I'd watch it again, but I'm glad I did at least once.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

An interesting bit of trivia here. The second movie was filmed entirely in my local area

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

We seem to be losing a lot of genre actors this month. Time to fire up Time Bandits and Tron. RIP David Warner.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Here are a few more...

Lost In Space (1966) - the 60s TV series. Their ship launched in 1997.
The Running Man (1987) - takes place in 2019.
Akira (1988) - takes place in 2019 (plus is an animation challenge crossover).
Strange Days (1995) - takes place in 1999.
Back to the Future 2 (1989) - sees them travel to the future - 2015 - to tidy up things.
Blade Runner (1982) - takes place in 2019.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - 2001 of course.
2010: The Year We Make Contact - 2010.
The Island (2005) - takes place in 2019.
The Manchurian Candidate (2004) - takes place in 2008.
A Scanner Darkly (2006) - set in 1994.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1992) - set in 1997
2012 (2009) - in 2012.
The Postman (1997) - His tale begins in 2013
A Clockwork Orange (1971) - takes place in 1995
Escape from L.A. (1996) - perfect companion to ...New York takes place in 2013.
Predator 2 (1990) - set in 1997
Timecop (1994) - set in 2004
I Am Legend (2007) - 2009 to 2012.
12 Monkeys (1995) - questionable - the virus was released in 1996 though the main character traveled back from 2035.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Fun! Did you get to see any of it being filmed? There's a horror film that was made where I went to college, the summer before I went. Some of my friends got a chance to watch filming and it's always fun watching the film just to see the campus how it used to look.

I'll add him to the list for next year.

Thanks! I'm totally going to steal this and put it in the opening post. If anyone else has some titles, let me know, please!

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

^ . Only in passing because most of the filming was closed. I remember that when the scene by the lake was being filmed, I was actually on the way to the harbor for a day of fishing, but couldn’t get into the harbor. And the scene on the bridges was on the Grand Island bridges on the way from Buffalo towards Niagara Falls.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

My glib note is that the primary villain of Picard S2 wasn't Q; it was the writers room. Less glibly, this isn't the same obnoxious Q from yesteryear. He has little humor and no whimsy. Also, aside from being the catalyst in the beginning, he doesn't have an especially active role throughout the season. He's not even in three episodes at all. I had no real desire to ever see the character again, either. I hated the whole damn season, but Q wasn't a problem for me. If anything, his periodic appearances were among the few things I even liked.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I can't say that I disagree with this. Going in I was dreading Q - and he was one of the better things in the season. The rest was just not that good, very overblown, incredibly bloated, terribly cliche', and full of recycled tropes/characters/plots. There seems to be *tons* of "fan service" and little else. Picard himself comes across as tired, old, and feeble - barely able to function. Not at all the great captain of TNG. I could have done without all the overly long flashbacks to his youth.

I still have the last episode of the season to go but don't expect to change my overall opinion. Like with the first season it's nothing I see myself re-watching at all.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Just Imagine (1930) Takes place in the futuristic world of 1980!

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Totally forgot these:
Things to Come (1936) - covers a future history from 1940 to 2036.
Space 1999 (1973) - 1999 - and I watched that one this year!!
The Abyss (1989) - takes place in 1994
Aeon Flux (2005) - takes place in 2011
Barb Wire (1996) - takes place in 2017
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) - depicts events of 1983-1991
Edge of Tomorrow (2014) - takes place in 2020
Event Horizon (1997) - takes place in 2015
Westworld (1973) - takes place in 1983
Futureworld (1976) - takes place in 1985 (I watched this, too!)
It! the Terror from Beyond Space (1958) - first Mars mission returns to Earth in 1973
Johnny Mnemonic (1995) - takes place in 2021

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

The Omega Man (1971)-takes place in 1977

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I finished S2 of ST: Picard. That was the most trite, cliche' bit of fan service I've seen in quite some time with horrible writing, plotting, and execution. It embodies everything I dislike about TNG *and* Voyager - Q, Guinan, the Borg, Wesley, and Seven-of-Nine coupled with attempts to add (half baked) history to established events from TOS as well as TNG. All in a story that could, and should, have been told in 3 or possibly 4 episodes but was expanded with completely boring filler to 10 episodes. I find it strange to say that I actually liked S3 of Discovery far more than either of the 2 seasons of Picard. Even though I don't care for the animation style and "Rick and Mortyesque" treatment given Lower Decks, I actually like *that* one better as well. Not sure about Prodigy, though, as it's just too much "Nick" oriented and is currently at the bottom of my Trek series rankings. Travis was 100% correct when he said the "primary villain of Picard S2 wasn't Q; it was the writers room." I have zero desire to see where this goes in S3 (supposedly the final season of this particular series).

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Class of 1999 (1990) - takes place in 1999
Soylent Green (1973) - takes place in 2022 (will be eligible next year)

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Dreadful as the second season was, I'm looking forward to Picard's third and final season. In addition to the TNG cast returning, they also brought back a dozen or so of the key behind-the-scenes crew members from that show. Unfortunately, I don't believe any of them were writers. I'm hopeful with that many veterans hanging around, there's been some guiding influence. We'll see. Some of my interest is also based on knowing this is the last season. I can sit through ten more episodes. There's a line from the TNG finale spoken by Crusher that's been circulating in my mind for awhile: "...He's Jean-Luc Picard, and if he wants to go on one more mission, that's what we're going to do."

You mentioned Discovery's third season. I hated that show's second season as much as I hated Picard's, but its third and fourth seasons were quite satisfying overall. David Ajala is fantastic as Book, and finally gives Sonequa Martin-Green some depth to explore with Burnham. They have terrific chemistry. Plus, they figured out what to do with Dr. Culber. Wilson Cruz has absolutely crushed it and emerged as my favorite new character of the CBS era. Anytime he's onscreen, I'm happy. I think the writers also kinda settled down and started to find their Star Trek voice. I could recognize a lot more of what I know as Star Trek in those two seasons.

My favorite series remains Deep Space Nine. I don't just mean my favorite Star Trek series; I mean my favorite TV series altogether. There's been a part of me champing at the bit to go back there and see old faces, but the writing in the CBS era has been so sloppy that I've kinda hoped they'd just leave DS9 alone. They're going to the station in the upcoming season of Lower Decks, but I haven't heard anything about any specific characters who might turn up. I'll say this: Of all the CBS era shows, it's the one I most trust with DS9.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Slightly off-topic (the 'tape' does involve UFO's though)...I received my WNUF Halloween Sequel dvd today. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out what it was cause I didn't remember ordering a Halloween dvd from Trader Tony's Tape Dungeon and the name on the dvd is Out There Halloween Mega Tape and I'm going 'what the hell is this? Did I order this? This is odd...'. The cover and disc art have a very Something Weird vibe to them. After skimming through the feature it clicked and I confirmed it was the sequel. The bonus material leans into the conceit. I'll give it a proper watch in October.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I'm 3 episodes into S4 of Discovery and don't like anything I've seen so far. Sonequa Martin-Green needs to learn how to *speak* lines rather than deliver everything in a whisper mode. It's very one-note and ruins scenes consistently. I also don't care for the "Book" character. He, and the ghost Trill, feel like tacked on "back story" junk they need to fill out these bloated stories. I find them rather boring and uninteresting. The writing for this season seems amateurish quite often. There's been some truly horrible dialog so far. I'll finish the season but have little hope it'll improve. At 3 episodes in I've seen enough of a real story to make almost half an episode. And they just need to admit it's "V'Ger" in the center of that anomaly and move on...

My absolutely favorite Trek series has always been TOS. DS9 comes in 2nd with Voyager 3rd. After that it's kind of a crap shoot though Enterprise tends to score higher for me than the others.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

There really just is no other substitute for TOS. Nothing else can scratch that itch when I want to revisit it.

As for me, I've had a light challenge this year so far. Sunday, I revisited Sam Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. I hadn't them in ages. I still dig the first, still get frustrated by the second, and still think the third is better than its reputation (and by that I mean it's average). I'm about to start The Amazing Spider-Man, which I've never seen, and my hope is to squeeze in that movie and its sequel, and the three Spidey solo movies with Tom Holland. I'm excluding his appearances in other MCU movies to limit the scope of this foray.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I kind of liked the third Spider-Man too. Thomas Haden Church made a pretty good Sandman. And the Harry Osborne Green Goblin wasn't too bad. Minus Norman's glider being turned into a flying snowboard. The only real issue I had was I thought Eddie Brock was miscast. That may have been poor writing though. Because I could never get past Venom referring to himself as I.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

If anyone is interested in some sci fi animation from the 80s, I just read on a Transformers group that I'm on on Facebook that today is Peter Cullen's birthday. Also, he portrayed the voice of Optimus Prime in the Michael Bay movies.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I’m self isolating because of having COVID, so I was settling in to watch some DVDs today, and what happens? Utility work accident knocked a tree onto a power line, so I don’t even have power now.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

Hope you’re feeling ok, shadokitty

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

It’s mild so far. Let’s hope it stays this way. I am vaccinated though.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

My guess was always that they cast Topher Grace as Eddie Brock in part because he and Tobey Maguire have a certain physical resemblance, which would have played into the "mirror image" story angle of contrasting Peter & Spider-Man from Eddie & Venom. But it must have been decided to distinguish them as much as possible because Grace is styled so unlike his typical appearance that it can only have been done with that intention. And yeah, that first person pronoun bit was a misstep. I should note that this time around, I watched the editor's cut of Spider-Man 3. I hadn't seen the theatrical cut since I watched it once as a DVD rental in 2007 so I can't account for any of the specific changes. I only know for sure that I was irked that Thomas Haden Church felt underused and squandered by the theatrical cut, but that he had a decent arc in the editor's cut. For that, with apologies to Sam Raimi, I count the editor's cut as an upgrade.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I've always enjoyed the third movie of the first Spider-Man trilogy. The worst sin is caused by too-many-villains-itis - that whole "Well... if *one* villain was good then *three* will be super good!" plague that seems to hit many superhero movie sequels. That typically does nothing but dilute a movie making it *less* interesting.

I've seen, but don't really remember much about the 2nd Spider-Man iteration. I just watched "Homecoming" and, like the first time I saw it, think it has more of an "Avengers" vibe than a true Spider-Man vibe. It's not bad but I'd have preferred more of a stand-alone film than one that's pretty much tied to the MCU.

Re: The 15th Annual Sci-fi/Fantasy Challenge Discussion Thread
 

I have another addition to a future that has already passed. Robotech is introduced that the SDF-1 crashed in 1999, and once the story begins, 10 years have passed.