Star Wars: Rogue One

[Brian Peacock]

Indeed. SF fans are generally of a literary disposition, but films don't lend themselves to literature. Even Peter Jackson's pretty good iterations of TLOTR stuff (personally I prefer the films to those dull tomes) is pitched at the emotional level rather than the intellectual, for the simple reason you don't inhabit a film in the same way you inhabit a work of literature. I'm not saying one is better than the other - they're just different forms of expression that engender different kinds of experience.

[Hermit]

Indeed. SF fans are generally of a literary disposition, but films don't lend themselves to literature. Even Peter Jackson's pretty good iterations of TLOTR stuff (personally I prefer the films to those dull tomes) is pitched at the emotional level rather than the intellectual, for the simple reason you don't inhabit a film in the same way you inhabit a work of literature. I'm not saying one is better than the other - they're just different forms of expression that engender different kinds of experience.

With very few exceptions, books are better than the films that are based on them for two reasons. One is that it is almost impossible to do 500 pages or so of text justice within the confines of typically 96 minutes of celluloid. The other is that books give the reader space to imagine, to expand stuff that visual renditions just can't. On a superficial level those giant spice worms in the film version of Dune were a huge let-down to me. Reading the book was like a film playing inside my head in a way that an actual film can only aspire to. Almost all the time, anyway. There are two films I consider the equal of the the novels they are based on, and one of them was actually better.

As for the science fiction genre in general, I used to devour it until I realised that most of it consists of little else than rendering contemporary scenarios, legends, fairy tales and mindsets in a setting placed somewhere in the future. This is particularly so in the case of the only Star Wars film I have watched.

There are exceptions. Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud is one. In the unlikely event that someone makes a film version of it, I will watch that.

[Scot Dutchy]

That is true of all literature. Seldom is the film as good as the book. We all make our own adaption of the book. A director is only another person.

[Hermit]

With very few exceptions, books are better than the films that are based on them

That is true of all literature.

[Brian Peacock]

Indeed. SF fans are generally of a literary disposition, but films don't lend themselves to literature. Even Peter Jackson's pretty good iterations of TLOTR stuff (personally I prefer the films to those dull tomes) is pitched at the emotional level rather than the intellectual, for the simple reason you don't inhabit a film in the same way you inhabit a work of literature. I'm not saying one is better than the other - they're just different forms of expression that engender different kinds of experience.

With very few exceptions, books are better than the films that are based on them for two reasons. One is that it is almost impossible to do 500 pages or so of text justice within the confines of typically 96 minutes of celluloid. The other is that books give the reader space to imagine, to expand stuff that visual renditions just can't. On a superficial level those giant spice worms in the film version of Dune were a huge let-down to me. Reading the book was like a film playing inside my head in a way that an actual film can only aspire to. Almost all the time, anyway. There are two films I consider the equal of the the novels they are based on, and one of them was actually better.

As for the science fiction genre in general, I used to devour it until I realised that most of it consists of little else than rendering contemporary scenarios, legends, fairy tales and mindsets in a setting placed somewhere in the future. This is particularly so in the case of the only Star Wars film I have watched.

There are exceptions. Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud is one. In the unlikely event that someone makes a film version of it, I will watch that.

I'd watch that too - but we'd be disappointed I'm sure.

But SF films fail in many ways even when they are not based on a book. The contemporary tranche of SF epics invariably follow the mythic narrative of the (American) hero being the most important person in the universe and vanquishing the (English) vilain with a bit of engineering 'magic' thrown in for no apparent good reason. A recent exception to this was the 2009 lowish-budget film Moon, which dealt with a multitude of issues include machining intelligence, slavery, isolation and the psychological effects of confinement, corporate malevolence, and the nature of memory and of family ties. One rarely gets a film as good as that in any genre.

My father took my brother and myself to see the first Star Wars film in the days when you still expected a short film before the main feature - a documentary about Aussie Hells Angles I think. It was a marvel to my callow eyes, and though now I can see it for the rather simplistic good vs evil space western that it is, the sights and sounds of the whole thing where beyond my everyday experience and gave me a feeling I've been looking to recapture ever since.

[pErvinalia]

I was going to mention Moon.

[rachelbean]

I love Moon

[tattuchu]

I love Dick. Rarely, I feel, does anyone give Dick the proper loving attention it deserves. One nearly always ends up disappointed

Next I'd like to talk about Moorcock







Now, you see? This is why we can'thave nice things

[Hermit]

I love Dick. Rarely, I feel, does anyone give Dick the proper loving attention it deserves. One nearly always ends up disappointed

Next I'd like to talk about Moorcock







Now, you see? This is why we can'thave nice things

Overdoing the proper loving attention of Dick thing can result in Cockburn.




So I've been told.

[PsychoSerenity]

Finally watched it today. I found it a bit hard to watch to be honest. It was brilliant Star Wars and everything, but just the feeling of inevitability, knowing how it was going to end was a bit upsetting. It was always going to be a dark chapter of the Star Wars story, but as a stand alone film there was almost no investment in characters that were saved by the actions of the Rogue One rebels. It did add some deeper back-story to the first Star Wars though.

[pErvinalia]

What are the other standalone movies going to be about? I've heard there might be a Han Solo one. That would be cool. I want to see a Sith one. Some explanation about where all the Sith come from and hang out.

[JimC]

What are the other standalone movies going to be about? I've heard there might be a Han Solo one. That would be cool. I want to see a Sith one. Some explanation about where all the Sith come from and hang out.

They were Seths who turned to the even darker side...

[rachelbean]

Saw it again. Possibly my favourite now

[Jason]

If it had a John Williams score it might take second place in my list.

[Brian Peacock]

What's first place S?