An open letter to Vin Diesel

(chiroptera) no, with denzel washington. well, no alien kind of revolutionized it. everything since then has basically ripped it off, including saturn 3. pitch black is, at heart, an alien ripoff.however, the association with horror, i think began with "forbidden planet"i thought riddick might be good because it looked like it could be real sci-fi. the last REAL sci-fi movie i saw was gattaca. good movie, btw. i haven't seen a decent fantasy flick, besides lotr, ever. neverending story makes me wanna barf.

that movie would have done better by dropping the last 45 minutes, and ending on down note of the kid saying "mommy" and jumping off the building.and nobody gets that the robots at the end were robots -- not aliens -- until i have to explain it to them.

As would many Spielberg movies. Notably Minority Report.PS- you see my list of decent fantasy films other than LOTR?Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke
Ninja Scroll
Highlander
Excaliburto name a few

Custard! You're into Miyazaki too? Awesome!

Yeah I saw Spirited Away in the theater and was literally blown away. What a film. It's not sword and sorcery, but I think it counts as fantasy - certainly if Never Ending Story does.You see V, Vampire Hunter or Ninja Scroll? Those are pretty good. Not same caliber as Miya, but good.This message has been edited by custard, 06-29-2004 05:47 PM

Definately. Haven't seen V. Are you talking about that alien invasion mini-series from the 80's? I remember when it was on but I was to young to be allowed to watch it. Vampire Hunter D didn't exactly blow me away. The sequel was better, to me. Ninja Scroll, I have on DVD. Before I had a DVD player If you can find them, I would view Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds and El Porco Rosso. Miyazaki has this thing about the exhilaration of flight that you may have picked up on from Spirited Away, and these two movies are about that.

Don't forget Conan the Barbarian.What is best in life?

Listening to the lamentations of their women?

highlander is old. (most of the highlander sequels sucked, but the series was good. i'm not sure you can call them fantasy)ninja scroll is also old, and i wouldn't call it fantasy.spirited away and mononoke were both very good, and i suppose a type of fantasy, but more of the "children's storybook" variety. i also tend to group anime seperately, but for this sake i guess i have to include them and stand corrected.excalibur gets put in fantasy, but i think it falls more under "historical epic fiction." i haven't seen it, however.although, i suppose i have to correct my original post anyways, because i did in fact enjoy legend, directed by ridley scott.

quote:

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Princess Mononoke
Excalibur
Highlander
Spirited Away
First Knight

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I noticed that you included a couple anime films (I recognize the titles but still haven't seen them). If we could go off topic real quickly, are there any series that you would recommend with more of an adult, sci-fi feel (really enjoy Cowboy Bebop)? I have really enjoyed anime that I see on tv and am thinking of starting a collection. Prices on Ebay are great compared to in store prices, even if some of them are bootlegs, so I hope to build a collection quickly. Include a few movies as well (keeping in mind that Akira and Ghost in the Shell are already on my list). Thanks in advance.

series that actually begin with the entention of being series are usually have pretty good sequels. like indiana jones, star wars, lotr, and now spiderman. (please note that the matrix is nowhere to be found in this list, as it seems to be the exception)this is usually because the films are made more directly and incompletely, because uncovered ground can be covered in the next movie, and issues can be resolved later as the plot continues to develop. a good way to do this is to adapt a pre-existing multi-part storyline. compare this with the standard sequel: "the first one made a lot of money, lets make another one that's exactly the same" which in order to continue the plot, has to find loopholes in the first's conclusion, or dig for issues not totally resolved. (or in some cases, outright ignore the first movie altogether, and just use the same plot, character types, and complicating incidents, with different actors.there are of course several notable exceptions, where a large enough hole was found, the ending not totally resolved, and an entirely different movie is made, like aliens. i was hoping riddick might be another.as for spidey 2 being better than batman... i dunno. tim burton had the perfect visual style for it, but it has its flaws of course. still a good superhero movie -- if you can call it that. batman is not a superhero, just a hero. but the first spiderman told a good story, had great character dynamics (something batman lacked, i think), and an overall moral. it was also quite realistic, where batman was purposefully dark and surreal in areas.i think number 2 stands a good chances of being the best, yes. if it continues the trend of the first, at least.coincidentally, they're trying to fix the batman series, by making a more realistic, darker, prequel about how batman becomes batman. no one should have directed batman movies other than tim burton, and i think everyone agrees after the last two.

Swordfights? Magic powers? A battle of good vs. evil? Redeeming love? What's not fantasy about Ninja Scroll?

i guess i had forgotten that part. i haven't seen it in a while, and frankly wasn't terribly impressed with it.all the rest can easily be found in other genres.as for anime, i like "ghost in the shell" but that's science fiction...

Anime Movies:Urotsukodoji was a real trip. Space demons taking over the earth.Tank Police 1 & 2 is sci fi but really tongue in cheek - sort of like Ghost in the Shell meets Speed Racer.I've heard the Neon Genesis series is supposed to be really good and I have it in my netflix queue.I think Legend of Arslan was OK, but it was fantasy.Nazca is weird fantasy - japanese teenagers are reincarnations of ancient Aztec warriors. Bizarre.A really good anime that is neither sci fi nor fantasy (although it has elements of the latter - surreal, etc) is Grave of the Fireflies. That will make a big strong man get misty eyed - so watch it with a chick.I have so many yet to see... thank god for netflix.

Yes, as we learned from the master in a previous thread - it's all about the props.Ninja Scroll is definitely fantasy, yeah, definitely fantasy... can I watch Wopner now?