Most overrated SF/F films

[DigiFluid]

So? There's always films out there that it seems that a ton of people love and you're the only one who either hated it or gave it a "meh" at best.

Obviously this is going to be a very subjective and opinion-based thread, so please be kind to one-another


300
To this day, I have no idea why this movie gets so much attention. Terrible, terrible, horrid acting meets the most obvious of lens filters, and is introduced to bullet-time. Yeehaw? And let's not forget the uh....racial overtones

2001: A Space Odyssey
I love science fiction, I love classic science fiction, and I adore virtually the entire body of work directed by the masterful Stanley Kubrick. But for all its accolades, I just can't stand this movie. I find that by any standard this movie is painfully slow to watch; the bloody ship STILL crawls across the screen even if you're watching it in fast forward.

Avatar
The most profitable film of all time, and an absolute credit to advancing CGI technology by leaps and bounds....but ultimately that's the only part of the movie I found interesting. Otherwise the movie was bland, uninspired, a repeat of a very tired story, and unreasonably long.

Donnie Darko
Certainly not a moneymaker, but for some reason this movie has a huge cult following (seemingly) among high school kids and university students. And for the life of me, I just can't figure out why. All it really is is It's A Wonderful Life with a talking rabbit and George commits suicide at the end instead of realizing the value of his life. Whoopee.

[xxxevilgrinxxx]

300 - I liked because of the Frank Miller thing
2001 I have a soft spot for, but it's mostly nostalgia
I detest Avatar - it was pretty, sure, but the whole thing just stank
Donny Darko, again because of nostalgia

My overrated:
Armageddon

[Petra]

I agree wholeheartedly about 300, Avatar and 2001: A Space Odyssey, precisely for the reasons you stated. I don't hate any of them (well, except Avatar, but that's mainly due to the hype it got), I just find them 'meh'. I really want to like 2001, but it just bores me to tears.

I haven't seen Donnie Darko.

As to the other movies I find overrated:

Starship Troopers (recently placed on The Guardian's TOP 25 SCI/Fantasy Movies of all Time)

Terminator trilogy - I really, really don't understand what's so good about these movies. To me they are boring, predictable and the fights - especially at the end - are rather ridiculous. The fourth movie was very different, I'm still trying to make up my mind whether it was worse or not. I don't hate them, I just think they are pretty average.

Spiderman trilogy - second movie is by far the best, and it only manages 'average'. First and third movies were incredibly bland and cliched, IMO.

The Dark Knight - now, before you start throwing things at me - I like this movie. I didn't enjoy it as much as Batman Begins, but I still like it. I love Nolan's work in general. It's just that when it comes to Batman, I'm a huge fan of Tim Burton's movies, which for me are far superior. I also much, much more prefer Jack Nicholson as Joker. So for me TDK is a good movie, but not as good as people say it is. *shrug*

[Linda06]

Bladerunner _ Inever understood the fascination for that movie.

Terminator 4_ Idon't like Christian Bale and usually try to avoid films with him in thrm which is why i haven't seen any of the latest batman movies.

[KEK]

Star Wars

[gotthammer]

re: 300
I loved the comic book (I have both the individual issues and the large hardcover). Seeing the comic book on screen for me was great. It was over-the-top, but, then again, so was the comic.

re: Avatar
It was so-so, for me (so, yeah, I think it's overrated). IF it had ended with an orbital strike (kinetic, nuclear, whatever), wiping out the Smurfs, I may have loved it...but as it was, meh. I don't like the 'tree huggy' message much, either.
James Cameron should just make another Aliens movie (something with a cool title like: "Aliens: Colonial Marines" or "Aliens: Beserker" )

re: Bladerunner
Well, cyberpunk isn't for everyone. I loved it, and I'm still into cyberpunk (sorta, not much new stuff on that sub-genre these days. The upcoming Deus Ex game, tho', looks quite promising)

re: Starship Troopers
Book >>> movie (I mean, wasn't the movie a 'parody' of the book?)

[Cold Fuzz]

2001: A Space Odyssey
I love science fiction, I love classic science fiction, and I adore virtually the entire body of work directed by the masterful Stanley Kubrick. But for all its accolades, I just can't stand this movie. I find that by any standard this movie is painfully slow to watch; the bloody ship STILL crawls across the screen even if you're watching it in fast forward.

This.

[VampyreWraith]

Avatar- It was very pretty to look at and the actors were good but he characters and the story were pretty boring(despite what seemed like a 1/2hr battle in the forest) and horribly cliche imo.

300 - It was ok I guess, I didn't really see it as a big deal though.

Transformers- Revenge of the Fallen (the first one wasnt that great either imo) This had to be the biggest excuse to blow stuff up that I have ever seen. I don't even know what else this movie was about other that blowing stuff up.

[Morgania]

Transformers- Revenge of the Fallen (the first one wasnt that great either imo) This had to be the biggest excuse to blow stuff up that I have ever seen. I don't even know what else this movie was about other that blowing stuff up.

It was about... um, I don't remember either. I only just remember giant robot cars and explosions.

[thekillman]

and a railgun. "sir, that's top secret". top secret my ass. the navy has released lots of pictures and even videos of the tests. everyone knows they have it.


Avatar:
i liked this movie for, well, three reasons.

-scientific accuracy of the vehicles and spaceships. FINALLY A REALISTIC SPACESHIP.
-utter prettyness. it's 10x prettier than they told you. an orgasm for your eyes.
-nuke-free (overdone IMO)

at some point in the cinema, i started predicting the movie. having spent quite some time on TVtropes.com, that was pretty easy. still don't understand why they didn't send a torrent of arrows at the top and back of the helicopters since that obviously was their weakspot.


so it's pretty to look at. kinda like the only reason i rewatch BAMSR. i just love big space battles.


300. aside from some awesome kills, it was kinda "color coded for convenience", but then even for blind people. Spartans. six-packed, large handsome men, pretty much all with beards, leather knickers and a shield and spear. the enemy? obviously dark-colored, some ugly. all so obvious it's not funny.

[Wayston]

hands down 2001: A Space Odyssey

[Linda06]

Can I ask a question? What's cyberpunk?

[DigiFluid]

Can I ask a question? What's cyberpunk?

A couple definitions I've stolen from Urban Dictionary:

"a subgenre of sci-fi in which there is strong sense of helplessness, misery, dystopic ideals and loss of morality and/or humanity. corporations control the lives of their workers and reside in microcosms dictated by the status quo"

"a sub genre of sci-fi usualy whith deep philosophical stments about the nature of freedom and reality. cyberpunk is usualy set in a de - humanised and futuristic society. the protagonist is usualy paranoid or suspicous about society , and usualy gets it right"

[Linda06]

A couple definitions I've stolen from Urban Dictionary:

"a subgenre of sci-fi in which there is strong sense of helplessness, misery, dystopic ideals and loss of morality and/or humanity. corporations control the lives of their workers and reside in microcosms dictated by the status quo"

"a sub genre of sci-fi usualy whith deep philosophical stments about the nature of freedom and reality. cyberpunk is usualy set in a de - humanised and futuristic society. the protagonist is usualy paranoid or suspicous about society , and usualy gets it right"

Ah right, thanks for the clarification

[SaberBlade]

Inception is currently rated the number 1 scifi movie by users on IMDB, so definitely starting with that one.

I'd also agree with Blade Runner (boring), 2001 A Space OdyZZZzzzzzy. I also want to say A Clockwork Orange. I've tried to watch this, but I give up almost immediately.