Here is my tribute to 1982.
Here is my tribute to 1982.
In two months, it will be 2012. 30 years ago, 1982 was undoubtedly the most prolific year for SF movies. Sure, a Star Wars movie wasn't released that year, but 1982 outshines any other year in terms of quantity and quality of great SF movies. Here are the best ones, in my opinion.
 Blade Runner. What can I say about this movie that I haven't already said? I've drooled over this movie on my website over and over again. There are so many reasons why this is such a cult classic: the typical Philip K. Dick "Who am I? What is reality?" premise, the bleak vision of a dystopian Los Angeles, the incredible cyberpunk-inspired visuals, the Syd Mead designs, the critique of consumerism, the depiction of the immorality of creating artificial human life forms, and also that the flying police cars and Deckard's blaster pistol are so incredibly bad-ass! As a lonely teenager who wanted to hide in his dark room all the time, this dark movie spoke volumes to me in my youth.The Final Cut is the definitive version of this movie, since it fixes some glitches and continuity errors, as well as introducing a few added visuals that didn't make it through editing before. The original, theatrical release was fun, I guess, but despite the appeal of the Maltese Falcon-style narration, it really talks down to the audience by having Deckard's character explaining everything and spelling everything out. Blade Runner works so much better as a dark, silent movie, in which the viewer is emotionally distanced from the protagonist, Rick Deckard, leaving the viewer to ponder the ultimate question, "What does it mean to be human?" Ridley Scott is planning to make a sequel, and I am hesitant to get my hopes up about it. Blade Runner depicts a 1982 interpretation of what the year 2019 will be like, complete with noisy neon signs, bulky electronics, and CRT monitors. The year 2019 is only eight years away, and it is unlikely we will be discovering wormholes and colonizing the stars as the movie alludes to, especially not since the terrible Obama Administration has all but demolished NASA. So, it would be best if the sequel continues the '80s image of the 21st century, without trying for "realism" like cell phones and flat panel LCD monitors. If a sequel will be made, here's an idea I had once while having a bit of insomnia: So we know that Replicants are banned on Earth, but what about the offworld colonies? Is everything swell on those colonies? Wouldn't it be intriguing if the "golden land of opportunity and adventure" turns out to be a sham, and life in the colonies really sucks for those who believed the Shimada-Dominguez propaganda? Why not have a whole ton of Replicant problems in the colonies, contributing to the reason why Replicants are banned on Earth? Perhaps the setting for this sequel could be on such a colony. Are they colony planets? Or Gundam-type colony cylinders? Perhaps a premise like that would be detached enough from the original movie and still appeal to the normaltards out there. | ||
 Tron. There will never be another movie like this ever. The computer network of the Encom Corporation is taken over by a fascist, all-consuming control program. Hacker Flynn is sucked into the computer network via a matter transportation laser and he joins computer programs Tron and Ram in trying to overthrow it. This movie appealed to my generation, the first generation to grow up playing video games. After this movie came out, we would throw frisbees at each other so hard that we had welts on our bodies. Gosh, growing up in the '80s was awesome.It is a miracle that this movie even came together the way it did, with different computer animation studios each doing separate sequences of the film and Steven Lisberger fitting them all together. There were so many challenges. For example, the people were filmed and the frames of the film were rotoscoped (painted over) by a team in Korea. When they put the movie back together from receiving the film as a disorganized mess, the discoloring of the people made the frames seem to flicker. Sound effects were added to these visual flickers, adding to the other-worldly computer-like feel to the movie. The Syd Mead designs are fantastic. As much as I enjoyed the sequel, Tron Legacy, it still didn't quite have the same magic as the original. And as much as I like Daft Punk, they should have made the soundtrack a lot more electronic. The soundtrack to the orignal film by Wendy Carlos did a much better job at capturing the essence of a virtual world, I think. | ||
 Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. So it took a non-Trek fan to make arguably the best Star Trek film ever made. Sadly, as with Blade Runner, kids of the current youth generation would likely find this movie to be dull, even though both of them are top-notch SF action flicks. Not wanting to retire, Captain Kirk mourns the passing of time and does not want to give up on the Starship Enterprise, which he commanded for many years. An old nemesis emerges, hijacking a Starfleet vessel, and captures a device of tremendous creative powers for the purpose of using it as a weapon. Kirk and his crew must stop him, and he does so at the cost of a dear friend.It doesn't matter to me how much Kirsty Alley wrecks herself and gains all that weight these days. To me, she'll always be that hot Vulcan/Romulan chick in The Wrath of Khan. I really wish her commitment to doing Cheers could have allowed her to reappear in the following two Star Trek films, since the actress who replaces her role as Saavik just doesn't even come close to Alley's appeal as both an actress and a hot chick. | ||
 The Road Warrior. When society falls, gasoline becomes the most precious substance, and bandits roam the wasteland. By chance, Max comes across a band of people defending their own oil refinery from a warlord and his henchmen, and he finds himself with no choice but to help them. What's odd is that I grew up watching this movie with its action sequences frequently sped-up for some dumb reason, and it always looked cheesy. I recently saw this movie on cable TV and it wasn't sped up. I need to figure out how I can get this version on DVD and hunt it down.OK, so technically this movie was released in 1981, but it wasn't released in the USA until '82. So according to my America-centric mind, I consider this an '82 movie. Mel Gibson was the quintessential bad-ass of the '80s, especially in this movie. It's not necessary to see the first movie, Mad Max, to understand this film. While it introduces Max's character and how his wife is killed and also how he gets his bad-ass Interceptor car, The Road Warrior is a fantasic, post-apocalyptic film that stands on its own. (Actually, I really should get around to watching Beyond Thunderdome someday...) | ||
 The Thing. A team of scientists in the Antarctic comes into contact with an alien life form that can assimilate any life form as a means to survival, and it will do anything to prevent being found. Those infected by the alien won't even know it, but when discovered, the alien can mutate any part of living tissue into becoming a terrible, disgusting killing machine. Evenually, they realize that their own survival is no longer an option, as the entire world is at stake unless they can stop it.This movie is the perfect blending of science fiction, mystery, and horror. Based on the short story Who Goes There? by John W. Cambell Jr., this movie was more than a mere remake of the original 1950's Frankenstein-esque creature movie since it brings back elements of the original story, namely the fact that the alien can assume any living creature, that were ignored in the old black & white movie. They recently made a sort of prequel movie to The Thing, but from what I gather, it doesn't do any real justice to John Carpenter's 1982 masterpiece. Watch the documentary on the DVD and you'll see the intensive labor invested into making this wretched alien become real, often with only one shot at filming to make it work. Now that movies are inundated with computer graphics, there is no more labor of love that shines through the silver screen like this movie does. | ||
 The Dark Crystal. This movie freaked me out when I was a kid, especially the Skeksis' eating habits and Aughra's eyeball that she pops out of her eye socket. Many kids I grew up with saw this as a double feature with Star Wars. I had seen The Empire Strikes Back in the theaters when it was released, but I didn't see the first movie until it was re-released. I saw it as a double feature with Bambi, but many kids saw it with The Dark Crystal. It's fitting, since Gary Kurtz had quit producing Star Wars movies after Empire and had gone on to produce Dark Crystal, Jim Henson's fantasy masterpiece.The Dark Crystal is another one-of-a-kind movie that you will never see anything like again. The entire movie is puppetry, and the story is so very other-worldly. The vulture-like Skeksis and the sloth-like Mystics live a symbiotic life, being polar opposites of evil and compassion respectively. Both are dying out, so it is up to a boy named Jen to try to repair the Dark Crystal and save the world. The movie is incredible, with fascinating creatures. Particularly cool, I thought, were the Landstriders on which Jen and Kira rode. These creatures were puppeteers walking on all fours with stilts. That seems rather dangerous to me, especially considering how clumsy I am. When I was a child, Kira's pet Fizzgig was particularly endearing, both vicious-looking and adorable at the same time. | ||
 The Secret of NIMH. Don Bluth was a former Disney animator who decided to show us that not every animated movie needs to be singing, dancing, and talking down to children. In return, this movie just got mixed reviews. This is a very dark movie, and you may notice that there isn't a blue sky until the end of the movie. Mrs. Brisbee is a field mouse whose house is in danger of being destroyed, but she cannot move her son because he has pneumonia. She goes on a quest to find the rats of NIMH (former test subjects of the National Institute of Mental Health) to ask them to assist. Along the way, she discovers the mystery of her husband's death. Don't be fooled about what you've read on somethingawful.com about furries. Most are somewhat normal people, and this movie is a prime example of what a so-called "furry" story is about: an anthropomorphic animal adventure. But regardless of the animals in this movie; this movie is a pure science fiction/fantasy movie full of magic, action, sowrdfighting, blood, murder, and betrayal. Yes, there is a song, but it's a beautiful lullaby Mrs. Brisbee sings to her son, so it fits well with the movie. I think children need to see movies like this; not movies about stupid dancing penguins. This is another movie that scared me a bit when I saw it in the theaters as a child. The Great Owl was fearsome, voiced by John Carradine. Also, a young Wil Wheaton plays one of the mouse children, before he went on to star in Stand By Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation. I love Wil Wheaton. What I hate is the dumb-looking artwork on this movie's DVD cover, as they try to make the movie look adorable. They gave Mrs. Brisbee long eyelashes even! Stupid. When I first showed the DVD to my wife, she was like, "Ugh, what's this?" I told her to not be misled by the crappy artwork. This is a seriously intelligent movie. | ||
 E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial. Okay, so this isn't one of my favorites, but this movie must be mentioned since it was a hugely successful SF film, and one of the most successful films of all time. The story of a boy who befriends an alien that is abandoned on Earth and helps it to communicate with its people has an undeniable charm. Giving the alien bizarre Jesus powers like healing and raising from the dead was a bit bizarre, and I really wonder if it was necessary for the plot of the movie. I mean, he just starts dying for no reason, and nobody's even hurt him. I read the novel when I was a kid, but I really shouldn't have to search this out on the Internet to find out why he starts croaking. Then poof! All the sudden he's alive again. Oh my, wasn't that just almost dramatic? That said, this movie really speaks to the geeks of my generation. The boys playing a game of Dungeons and Dragons, the scene where Elliot is teaching E.T. the names of his Star Wars action figures, big brother Michael's Space Invaders shirt and his impersonation of Yoda, all sorts of neat stuff like that makes this movie charming. The kids are all great actors, and the scene with the mom reading Peter Pan to Gertie is so beautiful. What I don't get is that the novel says that Elliot was feeding M&Ms candy to E.T., yet in the movie he was giving him Reeces Pieces. I was sad about this, because I hated peanut butter as a kid. I still just don't like it. So maybe E.T. just nearly died from a peanut allergy? Oh yeah, and unlike the updated version of Blade Runner, the updated version of E.T. was dumb, especially how Spielberg replaced the guns in the hands of the federal agents with walkie talkies. That was just ridiculous, and it reeked of George Lucas in the wake of the Star Wars "Special Editions." I'm all for added scenes and director's cuts, but while I liked the additional scenes to the movie, the walkie talkie thing ruined it for me. | ||
 Firefox. Clint Eastwood plays a spy sent into the Soviet Union to steal a revolutionary prototype jet fighter. His only qualifications are that he can fly and he can speak Russian, which are both necessary since the ability to think in Russian is necessary to fly the plane. Dad took me to see this movie in the theaters when it first came out. The majority of the movie was a bit lost on a six year old kid, with all the espionage and such. My young mind was disturbed when the soldiers started shooting all of the scientists with machine guns too. However, once the hero was in the sky, I was excited. Afterwards, Dad admitted that the movie was a bit beyond my age group, but this was before the PG-13 rating was invented, and it was certainly before the Internet in which we can all learn from blogs and such which movies are best for certain age groups. Anyhow, the fascinating, science fiction element to this film was that the Firefox plane can be partially controlled via a neuralink. The plane also can fly at Mach 6 and is invisible to radar, which was still an unknown since the Stealth had yet to be released to the public in 1982. Heck, I remember putting together a plastic model of a conceptual prototype of the Stealth fighter in the '80s because at the time, nobody knew what it would look like. The concept of thought control weaponry seems very futuristic, yet this is an example of science fiction we are starting to see come to life in reality.
|  Conan: The Barbarian. Alright, so it's not SF, but rather comic book fantasy. It's great fun, full of good quotes. I'm certain that this movie was the inspiration of the Tower of Fanatics in Final Fantasy VI.
|  Megaforce. I remember seeing the this movie trailer as a little boy. Motorcycles firing rockets? Dune buggies firing lasers? Oh gosh, this is gonna be the best movie EVAR! ...Or so I thought. It reminded me of G.I. Joe. I never got around to seeing this movie until recent years. Oh man, it is horrible.
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"I don't think I'm alone when I say I'd like to see more and more planets fall under the ruthless domination of our solar system." ---Jack Handey
mail: greg -atsign- stevethefish -dot- net
Next is a quick paper I wrote in college comparing and contrasting Blade Runner and Bubblegum Crisis.