I know it's a show, not a movie, but I can't leave The Expanse unmentioned. It's some of the best sci-fi I've ever seen adapted to TV or cinema.

Yes, Starman is a beautiful movie. Jeff Bridges + Karen Allen + John Carpenter = safe win. (And I've actually used excerpts of it in an anthropology lesson for high school students.)

Synchronicity (2015), starring Chad McKnight & Brianne Davis, has some of the best writing of any film I've ever seen. Unfortunately, it's a little low budget, so a couple scenes featuring special effects are a little odd. Google calls it a Mystery/Thriller.

I can vouch for this in regards to Jurassic Park. Without the tired cliche of "the book was better than the movie", the book had more discussion on core themes only touched on by the movie. By necessity, the movie had to cherry pick and digest the discussion dealing with genetic engineering & company ethics etc to avoid making the movie overlong or have it stall in places and bore the audience. As it was, they picked the story apart and changed it quite a lot.
I think it DID succeed in saying what the book did, but only in broad strokes.

As for Starship Troopers, I only saw the movie. Enjoyable as a mindless action film. Intelligent just enough for you to get a taste of political / social themes, but not enough for a full picture obviously. Which is why although it was staring me in the face when I opened my DVD cabinet to post ideas on this thread, I didn't include it. Running Man had things to say as well, but it basically turned out mindless too.

running man works WAY better as a piece of fiction. mainly because it has time to breathe that way. plus, that version of the story was WAY different.

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[sort of related and added in hours after the fact: i think he did this premise to better effect in "the long walk." it's age notwithstanding, because these things tend to age poorly, that story is probably the "seed" for the running man, but also it is just a - probably - more emotionally reasonant story than the running man ever was.]

You actually liked the odd numbered entries?
Not everything, but some of the philosophy is present enough to get a few ideas. You just don't get all the ideas or the big picture without them. Some of the ideas like Chaos theory are only touched upon. It seems to be a common theme with these movies: the director sees the philosophy as filler, while the writer sees the action as the filler.

Starship Troopers (the movie) is a spoof of fascist or any totalitarian regimes. Not even the actors knew what they were filming, but that makes it even more hilarous. Apparently the book has a completely different tone, but I haven't read it. I would recommend the movie just because it's so unique, and reminisces of a style (the 90s) that probably won't come back.

It's actually not, and only the director thought so. The screen writer and original author wrote a utopian fantasy. If you'd like more info on the topic, i have a great video that goes into details, and suggests that the director probably only said as much as an excuse after the movie flopped at the box office, trying to suggest that maybe people didn't get the humor that wasn't really meant to be there.

Interesting. If the director changed the original screenwriter's vision, he succeeded. At least with me, that's the impression I got.

Judging from the comments section of the video i watched, he only made minor changes to accomplish this goal. Overall, the government is still a meritocracy, and service caters to disabilities, so no one's screwed just because they're disabled. Contrary to fascism, speech is not censored, but promoted (misinterpretation is understandable, given the focus on state sponsored messages), militarism is voluntary (you only loose the right to vote, which is tied to proving you don't have special interests by requiring service), government is regulated by a constitution, leaders admit mistakes, and the list goes on. Society is largely free, as evidenced by the pilgrims getting slaughtered by the bugs (they chose to ignore reason and became victims of evolution).

Have a good watch, because of this video i actually want to see Starship troopers, now. The government outlined seems absolutely fantastic.

While I generally agree with kohlrak and video he referenced, I think we shouldn't discuss it in this thread. Otherwise we end up in arguing what facism is and other political questions. And we have enough politics in other threads.

So if someone wants to discuss Starship Troopers - better to create separate topic. Unless it was already created.

I second this. It's amazing sci-fi. Well written, very well acted, superb special effects. It's been a while since every episode of a show held all my attention from beginning to end. I'm very glad Amazon came along and picked up the show.

- The Outer Limits (New Series).

150+ episodes, all thoughtful cerebral sci-fi with a point, MANY of which are better than the best sci-fi movies I've seen. Also, many great actors like Mark Hamill appear in it. The entire series is on Hulu.

And the original series has writers of great sci-fi such as Harlon Ellison if you don't mind black and white.

Krull. One of the best bad movies ever made. More on the fantasy side of sci-fi, but hey it does have laser shooting slayer monsters and a castle-shaped, teleporting spaceship, so it fits. Plus it has one of James Horner's best music as its soundtrack.

Krull - Main Title
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RllRPZw--9Q