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The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that

The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. Gattaca chose to focus on the story and create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.

js2 4y ago
Despite Gattaca being one of my favorite movies for years I only recently learned, right here on HN, that the cinematographer is Sławomir Idziak, frequent collaborator of Krzysztof Kieślowski, which explains why Gattaca looks so much like one of my other favorites, The Double Life of Veronique. > create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later. See also: Dark City
- cstuder 4y ago
  And for the love of god, watch the directors cut of `Dark City`, not the cinema version.
  - the_af 4y ago
    I watched the cinema version and found it outstanding. What are the changes in the director's cut?
    - riffraff 4y ago
      I second this, I love dark city and never knew there was s director's cut.
    - forgotpwd16 4y ago
      The main reason director's cut is recommended for first-time viewers is theatrical version having an intro that reveals many elements. That said the list of all the differences is quite extensive: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/alternateversions/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/alternateversions/.
      - the_af 4y ago
        Interesting. Will definitely watch the director's cut. I must say though that I don't think the opening monologue reveals too much. It reveals something but the city still feels weird, you don't truly understand the strangers' goals at the beginning, and there are still plot twists. If you don't even know about the strangers at the beginning, I wonder how the movie would play... a pity I cannot wipe my own memories and re-experience it ;)
      - UI_at_80x24 4y ago
        A general rule of thumb that I've adopted is to intentionally skip the first 10 minutes of any movie. This happened accidentally with Memento [0], it it became an incredible film. Without all that setup in the first scene, you exist with the protagonist as he discovers his world. I've tried it with other films and they give away too much information, you the viewer are practically handed the whole script. Give it a shot, you might like doing it that way. [0][https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/ ]
        usrusr 4y ago
        I observed a similar effect with University lectures: being there from the start I often lost myself in some embarrassing state of deep distraction, but when I missed the beginning I went into attentive panic to make up for what I missed that echoed on even after I fetched up.
        the_af 4y ago
        The difference between university lectures and movies is, of course, that one is not normally trying to derive a lesson from a movie; there's nothing to "optimize". Every part of the movie is necessary unlike a lesson.
        jvm___ 4y ago
        So you use the Wadsworth constant on movies? "The Wadsworth Constant is the idea (and 2011 meme) that one can safely skip past the first 30 percent of any YouTube video without missing any important content." I don't quite think the UI_at_80x24 constant has the same ring to it.
  - nickstinemates 4y ago
    I have never watched the directors cut of any movie. This will be my first.
    - implements 4y ago
      Director’s cuts and Director’s (and actor’s) commentaries are a good reason to still buy physical media.
      - nickstinemates 4y ago
        These are also available on the high seas as I found after posting this comment.
      - harha 4y ago
        it's too bad so much goes missing from the original DVD / Blu-ray - not even sure if the streaming releases are cut further or not. Probably there's also less effort in collecting and making this content available.
    - chongli 4y ago
      Also check out the one for Bladerunner.
      - midoridensha 4y ago
        Arguably, the theatrical version of Blade Runner is better for first-time viewers, because the voiceover explains a lot of stuff they don't understand. Fans almost always say they prefer the DC (or actually the "Final Cut"), but my theory is that their opinion isn't really valid because they all saw the theatrical version first, so upon viewing the later cuts, they had the benefit of already knowing the story and background, and of course they can't just forget that when watching a voiceover-less cut.
        chongli 4y ago
        I'm not one of those who saw the theatrical version. I didn't see the movie until much later in my life. I think actually read an article about how the "Final Cut" is Ridley Scott's "true vision" for the film before I actually saw it. That prompted me to go track it down and watch it for the first time with that version. So, I've never actually seen the theatrical version with the voiceover. However, I don't believe there's anything in the film that I don't understand. I understood the symbolism and the message that was being conveyed. I'm being deliberately vague here because I don't want to spoil it for any random reader who might see this. I don't think there's anything particularly difficult to understand about the film. Perhaps you think I am giving people too much credit? I don't think I am. There are lots of films out there with deeper meanings and hidden ideas/messages. There are lots of very critical viewers out there who pay attention and don't need everything spelled out for them. These are also the people most likely to get annoyed when a voiceover spoils it for them.
- motohagiography 4y ago
  I had no idea about the Kieslowski connection, wow. I follow his other great collaborator, composer Zbigniew Preisner, where if you take anyone involved with Kieslowski chances are it's going to be a good film. I have his tri coleurs and decalogue on dvd, and double vie on vhs in a box somewhere. Strange to think when these things were artifacts now that nothing is, and that they could even be somewhat rare. I have the original House of Cards series on dvd in that box, The Big Sleep and other classics as well.
  - kyaghmour 4y ago
    Kieslowski's "thou shall not kill" and "thou shall have no other god" from Decalogue remain some of the most haunting films I've seen.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Dark City is one of my favorite movies.
voytec 4y ago
> A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. I, for one, enjoy low-budget scifi very much. Crappy CGI has it's charm but CGI aside, I have the feeling that actors in lower-budget shows were more involved than those in shows written to be ratings winners. It's kind of like with websites created with passion and websites created for SEO.
- snozolli 4y ago
  A lower-budget production, particularly by an independent studio, will also have far less interference from "producers" who try to justify their salary by giving notes. Gattaca is from '97, which was right in the middle of a golden era for movies. Independent films took off and even big studios were affected by the shift. With regards to GP's comment about bad effects, look at the cult classic Event Horizon from the same year. It still holds up in a lot of ways, but there's one laughably bad element: horrible CGI water droplet effects. It was a hot new effect and they shoved it into way too many shots.
  - canucker2016 4y ago
    You don't know how good you have it until you see really bad stuff. Take the animated TV series Space Angel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Angel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Angel ), which evidently used the patented-at-the-time Syncro-Vox ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchro-Vox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchro-Vox ) to display moving lips on the animated characters. It makes Hanna-Barbera cartoons look like Disney-quality works in comparison. The lips made me cringe back when I was a kid watching reruns of the show. YouTube has episodes of the show.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  If you haven't seen it yet: Primer.
  - BLKNSLVR 4y ago
    Great movie, needs a re-watch or three...
duxup 4y ago
I was watching an Industrial Light And Magic documentary on Disney+ and it had Spielberg talking about the transition to digital, and he goes out of his way to make the point that effects are great but if you're not presenting it right and telling a story that is worthwhile the film just won't last.
- agumonkey 4y ago
  Last time I watch Terminator 2, I stopped frame by frame during the mall shooting scene, and I realized how cheap some effects were, but how editing made it subtly perfect. It just conveys the blow to represent the T1000 liquid metal visually. No need to do more. I think today's era is obese.. too much power, too available .. no constraint.. the movie gets lost in the technology.
  - lifeisstillgood 4y ago
    I believe there is one shot in the final steelworks where Arnie is wrestling with a guy wrapped in tinfoil. But it's quick, not obvious and you just accept it as part of "metal dude killing people". It's only in freeze frame that you go - oh yeah.
  - jimbob45 4y ago
    I know exactly which scene you’re talking about and I haven’t seen that movie in decades. I thought the point was to subvert audience expectations though. Cameron would have the first real SFX on screen be practical so that you think you’re going to see something fairly run-of-the-mill. Then, the shrapnel shrinks digitally and you realize T2 is like nothing you’ve seen.
    - agumonkey 4y ago
      Well even the first bullet impacts were suspiciously strange but yeah you don't fully get slapped until the body regenerate. I really wonder how these people (movies, tv or music) felt about things and what emotions made them operate / edit / select shots and tricks to use.
  - 4y ago
Bayart 4y ago
Your point can be extended to other sci-fi movies that rely on practical effects and sober aesthetics, 2001 comes to mind.
- the_af 4y ago
  And Blade Runner. The original settings/artwork are miles ahead the 2049 sequel just for this reason.
GuB-42 4y ago
Generally, movies that focus on set design age much better than movies that focus on effects. If you make a good set, it will look good no matter how technically advanced your setup is. It may look better when filmed using the latest cameras, but it will never look wrong when it isn't, because it is the real thing. Effects are not the real thing, and as technology improved people have gotten better at noticing and are less tolerant of the details that make it look fake, that's what makes them look dated.
- Barrin92 4y ago
  it's why I think the Farscape puppets were absolutely genius. They look so timeless compared to a lot of the heavy CGI use during that era of TV sci-fi.
  - buildbot 4y ago
    Farscape is criminally under rated/known! It’s also amusing that SG1 ended up with two of the leads from it too for a bit.
    - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
      Leading to the best joke in the Episode 200.
    - bsder 4y ago
      I like Farscape very much, but, to be fair, the really good episodes were few and far between. You had to slog through a lot of sub-par episodes, and people can be forgiven for not really taking to it because of that. It's really a shame that Farscape didn't have stronger writing because the whole puppets and minimal effects thing works pretty well. (I can forgive Season 1 a bit as the actors and the writers were still figuring out the characters. Season 2 and forward sub-par episodes were all on the writers.) However, as I understand it, the problem with the puppets is that they are expensive.
  - yellow_postit 4y ago
    No upres issues either like what happened with Babylon 5 when they did the hd transfers for dvd.
peoplefromibiza 4y ago
that's because props >> vfx props cost much more, so you have to focus on everything else, because you cannot rely on tons of CGI to fill the gaps jaws is still a terrifying movie about a killer fish, meg is already a joke.
the_af 4y ago
I totally, 100% agree. Gattaca is amazing, and my all time favorite Blade Runner also has outstanding practical effects (flawed, sure, but you stop noticing soon enough). One of my favorites that, while very cool in general, suffers from some dodgy effects is Aliens. In general I wouldn't change a bit from it, but some of the dropship scenes are terrible and were pretty bad even back then. Then again, be careful what you (um, I) wish for: if they were to touch up Aliens they wouldn't stop at the dropship and they would ruin it with unnecessary CGI.
- lancesells 4y ago
  I noticed those dropship scenes on a rewatch a couple of years ago. I think when I watched it as a kid it was on a CRT on cable television and you couldn't see the details as much. Plus, I was a kid. On that note, I just rewatched the original Alien and there's really only one or two shots that looks kind of bad or goofy. Holds up so well for a film from 1979 with what would be a lower range budget in today's money ($44M).
  - the_af 4y ago
    Yes, and also: imagine Alien in the hands of a director with access to today's budget and CGI: it would completely ditch any ambience, pace and characterizations in favor of showing one -- nay, thousands -- of monsters and chase scenes.
    - chaostheory 4y ago
      This is exactly why I hated the last half of Will Smith’s I Am Legend. The first half did so well at showing a post apocalypse, and the last half ruined everything with CGI video game monsters. They also butchered the main plot.
    - bigDinosaur 4y ago
      Well you don't need to look far, that's one of the problems with films from the exact same director such as Alien: Covenant.
eternalban 4y ago
> a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright a few decades ago, building started in 1960, so "~60 years later" /g https://franklloydwright.org/site/marin-county-civic-center/ https://franklloydwright.org/site/marin-county-civic-center/ https://secretsanfrancisco.com/marin-county-civic-center-san-francisco/ https://secretsanfrancisco.com/marin-county-civic-center-san... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center
- giantrobot 4y ago
  Hey don't forget the CLA building at Cal Poly Pomona[0]! [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLA_Building https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLA_Building
- bin_bash 4y ago
  If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend just going in and walking around. It's incredible.
- beau_g 4y ago
  I always enjoyed pretending I was Jude Law's character when I got summoned to jury duty there
cm2187 4y ago
Particularly when the supposedly futurist technology has already become obsolete since (CRT screens, rudimentary 3d animations, lack of portable communication, absence of networks, etc). Also lots of sci-fi movies underestimate how much will not change, we live today with 200yo buildings, our cities won't look that different in 200 years.
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago
  Not until improved concrete replaces current reinforced concrete: https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-concrete-56078 https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-conc...
  - heikkilevanto 4y ago
    Well, I live in Copenhagen, in a brick building that is some 130 years old, like most of the buildings around here. Reinforced concrete has arrived, and most new buildings are built with it. I guess when the next level of super-concrete comes, we will start building with it, but old buildings will still stand for 50-100 years.
- Swizec 4y ago
  > Also lots of sci-fi movies underestimate how much will not change My favorite detail of the Battlestar Galactica reboot was how normal it all felt. For the most part your only clue that it’s The Future was that every rectangle had chopped off corners to become an octagon. They even found a clever plot-driven reason for why that’s the case. Loved it.
  - goatlover 4y ago
    It also wasn’t set on Earth. It was the future of the 12 colonies.
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    BSG wasn't in the future, it was in the distant past. The people there were the distant ancestors of modern humans (in combination with humans who evolved here on Earth separately from the colonists, and were magically genetically compatible, apparently due to likely divine intervention according to the characters). So some technologies were more advanced than ours, but other technologies were very much not (such as cassette recorders, radio, etc.).
thelittleone 4y ago
I instantly loved this film the moment I saw vintage cars with futuristic engine sounds. Simple genius. Compared this to an example such as Total Recall, where cars were designed to look futuristic. Looked great when the film was released, but terribly dated now. It affects the re-watchability for me.
caycep 4y ago
with the Marin County Convention Center to boot!

js2 4y ago

Despite Gattaca being one of my favorite movies for years I only recently learned, right here on HN, that the cinematographer is Sławomir Idziak, frequent collaborator of Krzysztof Kieślowski, which explains why Gattaca looks so much like one of my other favorites, The Double Life of Veronique. > create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later. See also: Dark City

cstuder 4y ago
And for the love of god, watch the directors cut of `Dark City`, not the cinema version.
- the_af 4y ago
  I watched the cinema version and found it outstanding. What are the changes in the director's cut?
  - riffraff 4y ago
    I second this, I love dark city and never knew there was s director's cut.
  - forgotpwd16 4y ago
    The main reason director's cut is recommended for first-time viewers is theatrical version having an intro that reveals many elements. That said the list of all the differences is quite extensive: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/alternateversions/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118929/alternateversions/.
    - the_af 4y ago
      Interesting. Will definitely watch the director's cut. I must say though that I don't think the opening monologue reveals too much. It reveals something but the city still feels weird, you don't truly understand the strangers' goals at the beginning, and there are still plot twists. If you don't even know about the strangers at the beginning, I wonder how the movie would play... a pity I cannot wipe my own memories and re-experience it ;)
    - UI_at_80x24 4y ago
      A general rule of thumb that I've adopted is to intentionally skip the first 10 minutes of any movie. This happened accidentally with Memento [0], it it became an incredible film. Without all that setup in the first scene, you exist with the protagonist as he discovers his world. I've tried it with other films and they give away too much information, you the viewer are practically handed the whole script. Give it a shot, you might like doing it that way. [0][https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/ ]
      - usrusr 4y ago
        I observed a similar effect with University lectures: being there from the start I often lost myself in some embarrassing state of deep distraction, but when I missed the beginning I went into attentive panic to make up for what I missed that echoed on even after I fetched up.
        the_af 4y ago
        The difference between university lectures and movies is, of course, that one is not normally trying to derive a lesson from a movie; there's nothing to "optimize". Every part of the movie is necessary unlike a lesson.
      - jvm___ 4y ago
        So you use the Wadsworth constant on movies? "The Wadsworth Constant is the idea (and 2011 meme) that one can safely skip past the first 30 percent of any YouTube video without missing any important content." I don't quite think the UI_at_80x24 constant has the same ring to it.
- nickstinemates 4y ago
  I have never watched the directors cut of any movie. This will be my first.
  - implements 4y ago
    Director’s cuts and Director’s (and actor’s) commentaries are a good reason to still buy physical media.
    - nickstinemates 4y ago
      These are also available on the high seas as I found after posting this comment.
    - harha 4y ago
      it's too bad so much goes missing from the original DVD / Blu-ray - not even sure if the streaming releases are cut further or not. Probably there's also less effort in collecting and making this content available.
  - chongli 4y ago
    Also check out the one for Bladerunner.
    - midoridensha 4y ago
      Arguably, the theatrical version of Blade Runner is better for first-time viewers, because the voiceover explains a lot of stuff they don't understand. Fans almost always say they prefer the DC (or actually the "Final Cut"), but my theory is that their opinion isn't really valid because they all saw the theatrical version first, so upon viewing the later cuts, they had the benefit of already knowing the story and background, and of course they can't just forget that when watching a voiceover-less cut.
      - chongli 4y ago
        I'm not one of those who saw the theatrical version. I didn't see the movie until much later in my life. I think actually read an article about how the "Final Cut" is Ridley Scott's "true vision" for the film before I actually saw it. That prompted me to go track it down and watch it for the first time with that version. So, I've never actually seen the theatrical version with the voiceover. However, I don't believe there's anything in the film that I don't understand. I understood the symbolism and the message that was being conveyed. I'm being deliberately vague here because I don't want to spoil it for any random reader who might see this. I don't think there's anything particularly difficult to understand about the film. Perhaps you think I am giving people too much credit? I don't think I am. There are lots of films out there with deeper meanings and hidden ideas/messages. There are lots of very critical viewers out there who pay attention and don't need everything spelled out for them. These are also the people most likely to get annoyed when a voiceover spoils it for them.
motohagiography 4y ago
I had no idea about the Kieslowski connection, wow. I follow his other great collaborator, composer Zbigniew Preisner, where if you take anyone involved with Kieslowski chances are it's going to be a good film. I have his tri coleurs and decalogue on dvd, and double vie on vhs in a box somewhere. Strange to think when these things were artifacts now that nothing is, and that they could even be somewhat rare. I have the original House of Cards series on dvd in that box, The Big Sleep and other classics as well.
- kyaghmour 4y ago
  Kieslowski's "thou shall not kill" and "thou shall have no other god" from Decalogue remain some of the most haunting films I've seen.
jacquesm 4y ago
Dark City is one of my favorite movies.

voytec 4y ago

> A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. I, for one, enjoy low-budget scifi very much. Crappy CGI has it's charm but CGI aside, I have the feeling that actors in lower-budget shows were more involved than those in shows written to be ratings winners. It's kind of like with websites created with passion and websites created for SEO.

snozolli 4y ago
A lower-budget production, particularly by an independent studio, will also have far less interference from "producers" who try to justify their salary by giving notes. Gattaca is from '97, which was right in the middle of a golden era for movies. Independent films took off and even big studios were affected by the shift. With regards to GP's comment about bad effects, look at the cult classic Event Horizon from the same year. It still holds up in a lot of ways, but there's one laughably bad element: horrible CGI water droplet effects. It was a hot new effect and they shoved it into way too many shots.
- canucker2016 4y ago
  You don't know how good you have it until you see really bad stuff. Take the animated TV series Space Angel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Angel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Angel ), which evidently used the patented-at-the-time Syncro-Vox ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchro-Vox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchro-Vox ) to display moving lips on the animated characters. It makes Hanna-Barbera cartoons look like Disney-quality works in comparison. The lips made me cringe back when I was a kid watching reruns of the show. YouTube has episodes of the show.
jacquesm 4y ago
If you haven't seen it yet: Primer.
- BLKNSLVR 4y ago
  Great movie, needs a re-watch or three...

duxup 4y ago

I was watching an Industrial Light And Magic documentary on Disney+ and it had Spielberg talking about the transition to digital, and he goes out of his way to make the point that effects are great but if you're not presenting it right and telling a story that is worthwhile the film just won't last.

agumonkey 4y ago
Last time I watch Terminator 2, I stopped frame by frame during the mall shooting scene, and I realized how cheap some effects were, but how editing made it subtly perfect. It just conveys the blow to represent the T1000 liquid metal visually. No need to do more. I think today's era is obese.. too much power, too available .. no constraint.. the movie gets lost in the technology.
- lifeisstillgood 4y ago
  I believe there is one shot in the final steelworks where Arnie is wrestling with a guy wrapped in tinfoil. But it's quick, not obvious and you just accept it as part of "metal dude killing people". It's only in freeze frame that you go - oh yeah.
- jimbob45 4y ago
  I know exactly which scene you’re talking about and I haven’t seen that movie in decades. I thought the point was to subvert audience expectations though. Cameron would have the first real SFX on screen be practical so that you think you’re going to see something fairly run-of-the-mill. Then, the shrapnel shrinks digitally and you realize T2 is like nothing you’ve seen.
  - agumonkey 4y ago
    Well even the first bullet impacts were suspiciously strange but yeah you don't fully get slapped until the body regenerate. I really wonder how these people (movies, tv or music) felt about things and what emotions made them operate / edit / select shots and tricks to use.
- 4y ago

Bayart 4y ago

Your point can be extended to other sci-fi movies that rely on practical effects and sober aesthetics, 2001 comes to mind.

the_af 4y ago
And Blade Runner. The original settings/artwork are miles ahead the 2049 sequel just for this reason.

GuB-42 4y ago

Generally, movies that focus on set design age much better than movies that focus on effects. If you make a good set, it will look good no matter how technically advanced your setup is. It may look better when filmed using the latest cameras, but it will never look wrong when it isn't, because it is the real thing. Effects are not the real thing, and as technology improved people have gotten better at noticing and are less tolerant of the details that make it look fake, that's what makes them look dated.

Barrin92 4y ago
it's why I think the Farscape puppets were absolutely genius. They look so timeless compared to a lot of the heavy CGI use during that era of TV sci-fi.
- buildbot 4y ago
  Farscape is criminally under rated/known! It’s also amusing that SG1 ended up with two of the leads from it too for a bit.
  - AnIdiotOnTheNet 4y ago
    Leading to the best joke in the Episode 200.
  - bsder 4y ago
    I like Farscape very much, but, to be fair, the really good episodes were few and far between. You had to slog through a lot of sub-par episodes, and people can be forgiven for not really taking to it because of that. It's really a shame that Farscape didn't have stronger writing because the whole puppets and minimal effects thing works pretty well. (I can forgive Season 1 a bit as the actors and the writers were still figuring out the characters. Season 2 and forward sub-par episodes were all on the writers.) However, as I understand it, the problem with the puppets is that they are expensive.
- yellow_postit 4y ago
  No upres issues either like what happened with Babylon 5 when they did the hd transfers for dvd.

peoplefromibiza 4y ago

that's because props >> vfx props cost much more, so you have to focus on everything else, because you cannot rely on tons of CGI to fill the gaps jaws is still a terrifying movie about a killer fish, meg is already a joke.

the_af 4y ago

I totally, 100% agree. Gattaca is amazing, and my all time favorite Blade Runner also has outstanding practical effects (flawed, sure, but you stop noticing soon enough). One of my favorites that, while very cool in general, suffers from some dodgy effects is Aliens. In general I wouldn't change a bit from it, but some of the dropship scenes are terrible and were pretty bad even back then. Then again, be careful what you (um, I) wish for: if they were to touch up Aliens they wouldn't stop at the dropship and they would ruin it with unnecessary CGI.

lancesells 4y ago
I noticed those dropship scenes on a rewatch a couple of years ago. I think when I watched it as a kid it was on a CRT on cable television and you couldn't see the details as much. Plus, I was a kid. On that note, I just rewatched the original Alien and there's really only one or two shots that looks kind of bad or goofy. Holds up so well for a film from 1979 with what would be a lower range budget in today's money ($44M).
- the_af 4y ago
  Yes, and also: imagine Alien in the hands of a director with access to today's budget and CGI: it would completely ditch any ambience, pace and characterizations in favor of showing one -- nay, thousands -- of monsters and chase scenes.
  - chaostheory 4y ago
    This is exactly why I hated the last half of Will Smith’s I Am Legend. The first half did so well at showing a post apocalypse, and the last half ruined everything with CGI video game monsters. They also butchered the main plot.
  - bigDinosaur 4y ago
    Well you don't need to look far, that's one of the problems with films from the exact same director such as Alien: Covenant.

eternalban 4y ago

> a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright a few decades ago, building started in 1960, so "~60 years later" /g https://franklloydwright.org/site/marin-county-civic-center/ https://franklloydwright.org/site/marin-county-civic-center/ https://secretsanfrancisco.com/marin-county-civic-center-san-francisco/ https://secretsanfrancisco.com/marin-county-civic-center-san... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_County_Civic_Center

giantrobot 4y ago
Hey don't forget the CLA building at Cal Poly Pomona[0]! [0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLA_Building https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/CLA_Building
bin_bash 4y ago
If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend just going in and walking around. It's incredible.
beau_g 4y ago
I always enjoyed pretending I was Jude Law's character when I got summoned to jury duty there

cm2187 4y ago

Particularly when the supposedly futurist technology has already become obsolete since (CRT screens, rudimentary 3d animations, lack of portable communication, absence of networks, etc). Also lots of sci-fi movies underestimate how much will not change, we live today with 200yo buildings, our cities won't look that different in 200 years.

anonymouskimmer 4y ago
Not until improved concrete replaces current reinforced concrete: https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-concrete-56078 https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-conc...
- heikkilevanto 4y ago
  Well, I live in Copenhagen, in a brick building that is some 130 years old, like most of the buildings around here. Reinforced concrete has arrived, and most new buildings are built with it. I guess when the next level of super-concrete comes, we will start building with it, but old buildings will still stand for 50-100 years.
Swizec 4y ago
> Also lots of sci-fi movies underestimate how much will not change My favorite detail of the Battlestar Galactica reboot was how normal it all felt. For the most part your only clue that it’s The Future was that every rectangle had chopped off corners to become an octagon. They even found a clever plot-driven reason for why that’s the case. Loved it.
- goatlover 4y ago
  It also wasn’t set on Earth. It was the future of the 12 colonies.
- midoridensha 4y ago
  BSG wasn't in the future, it was in the distant past. The people there were the distant ancestors of modern humans (in combination with humans who evolved here on Earth separately from the colonists, and were magically genetically compatible, apparently due to likely divine intervention according to the characters). So some technologies were more advanced than ours, but other technologies were very much not (such as cassette recorders, radio, etc.).

thelittleone 4y ago

I instantly loved this film the moment I saw vintage cars with futuristic engine sounds. Simple genius. Compared this to an example such as Total Recall, where cars were designed to look futuristic. Looked great when the film was released, but terribly dated now. It affects the re-watchability for me.

caycep 4y ago

with the Marin County Convention Center to boot!