Hollywood had promised to release a number of excellent original science fiction films this year, but it turned out that the majority of them were just average at best, leaving us with far too many unresolved concerns about their narrative flaws. In the meantime, we saw the fantasy industry keep pumping out YA adaptation after YA adaptation in the hopes that one of them would become the next Hunger Games (or, ironically, the next Harry Potter, Twilight, or even Star Wars in the case of The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones).fantasy romance movies
Another popular option, Pacific Rim, would have made this list if the film had reached number 15, as there are a few parts I enjoy among the ridiculous, clumsy spectacle. Film also made a few FSR staffers’ best-of lists and our democratically chosen top 10. Additionally, it was still superior to Oblivion, After Earth, and perhaps even Elysium.
And without a doubt superior to Star Trek into Darkness. Regarding other absences, I haven’t watched About Time, which seems regrettable given how many of the finest sci-fi films this year revolve around love stories. Additionally, I haven’t watched any of the potential qualifying animated films. fantasy romance movies
I hope some of my selections surprise you and that you go check them out.
Beautiful Creatures
This year, there was just one shockingly good YA adaptation that didn’t seem to be trying to copy previous successes. Although the relationship between a fantastical creature, in this case a witch, and a mortal human has elements of the Twilight saga, such situation has existed in stories for thousands of years.
Beautiful Creatures, written for the big screen and directed by Richard LaGravenese (who also wrote the screenplay for Behind the Candelabra this year), feels more like a throwback to the 1990s, when everyone was sneaking in references to Vonnegut and Tim Burton was still entertaining.
The performances, though, are the actual highlights, ranging from the campy Southern Gothic charms of Jeremy Irons, Emmy Rossum, and Emma Thompson to the more realistic Alice Englert, who is a fantastic new talent and is worth seeing this movie for just that reason.fantasy romance movies
Riddick
It’s fairly common for Westerns, even those with Eastern samurai, to be transformed into science fiction scenarios. You may create an entirely new movie by just transporting the settings into outer space.
The only reason the third Riddick movie qualifies as science fiction is because it substitutes horses and Native Americans for hover motorcycles and strange “alien” animals. Otherwise, it belongs on the ranking of 2013’s top Westerns. The fact that the movie seems like a transitional scene but isn’t strictly one is one of the things I truly adore about it. It doesn’t matter how or why Riddick (Vin Diesel) became stuck on an alien planet (albeit an explanation is supplied).fantasy romance movies
He has to find a way to escape and survive, and that is his only goal. And despite facing a variety of challenges along the road, he manages to survive and escape. The conclusion does not leave us hanging, but it does hint at a sequel in a way that encourages our creativity rather than calling for a new movie. I could picture a movie like this encouraging youngsters to continue the adventures of Riddick on their own in their backyards if it weren’t so unsuitable for young audiences.
The History of Future Folk
Inside Llewyn Davis, a 2013 release about folk singers, is the finest fiction movie of the year, but it truly might have been greater as it lacks aliens, laser weapons, and a threat to the human race.
Thankfully, the original independent sci-fi film by John Mitchell and Jeremy Kipp Walker, which many people discovered and fell in love with during Fantastic Fest 2012, also made it to theaters. It concerns two warriors from the planet Hondo who have been ordered to exterminate the current Earth population in order for their people to recolonize the planet. But once they hear music, they understand that people can’t possibly deserve to go extinct.
Additionally, they develop a cult following in the NYC folk scene. Although it’s not a particularly costly movie, it never comes across as being cheap or lacking in production value or special effects. Additionally, Nils d’Aulaire and Jay Klaitz are really endearing and chemistry-filled as the two leads. I would see them in a follow-up film or in another project, perhaps one that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost refused, but that might work better with a more subdued pair.fantasy romance movies
Man of Steel
Being that Superman and Superman II are two of my all-time favorite superhero films, I was concerned coming into this remake about how much of their content it would reuse. The way authors David S. Goyer and Christopher Nolan concentrated on the sci-fi aspects of Superman’s origins and his life on Earth as an alien is what, in my opinion, made it a new creature.
Some of the greatest otherworld-building space adventure sci-fi action content we’ve seen in at least ten years can be found in Krypton’s opening sequence. Once on Earth, in particular in Smallville and Metropolis, it’s an extraterrestrial invasion film akin to The History of the Future People.
While one man seeks cooperation among Earthlings, the other man intends to eradicate mankind and terraform the earth for Kryptonian colonization. But this one is pricey, loaded with special effects, and a fantastic, epic movie. exciting from the to end. You’re probably overthinking it if you have any concerns with some of the decisions made in the third act.fantasy romance movies
Grabbers
And another another space invasion film. This one features the well-known scenario of a small village being under siege by menacing alien invaders.
The concept, with its blend of humor, horror, and sci-fi, very seldom becomes stale; if everyone enjoyed its recent return to the UK with Attack the Block, they ought to enjoy this one as well. Grabbers, directed by Jon Wright (who is now developing a larger film starring robots and Ben Kingsley), is largely based on an Irish stereotype joke and revolves about aliens who resemble squids and suck on human blood—but only if the blood doesn’t include a lot of alcohol. Therefore, the large standoff involves everyone in the community getting drunk at the neighborhood pub.
The humor just serves as a backdrop to the charming and amusing tale of the two officers who save the day and fall in love, so it works. The wordplay used with the aliens wanting to be wet but “dry” and the humans needing to keep dry but “wet” is also fantastic.fantasy romance movies
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
There’s something about the middle film in any trilogy that provides a sense of existential delight, which is related to what I adore about Riddick.
It is neither the beginning nor the end, and taken by itself, it exemplifies the big, continuous storytelling that defines fantasy adventure stories, which place little value in beginnings and endings. The Desolation of Smaug, more than any previous Peter Jackson Tolkien adaptation, has the impression of being a series of bracketed episodes of a continuing odyssey, aside from moral parables.fantasy romance movies
Ender’s Game
Ignore any suggestions that this is a YA adaptation. It comes from a work written before the YA boom. Gavin Hood has focused on the most crucial ideas of this narrative of teenagers entrusted with eradicating an entire alien culture, even if the story now feels like little more than Harry Potter in space on the page. It’s a clever discussion of where warfare is going and how much it depends on technology that desensitizes and isolates us from the adversary, tackling issues like video game brutality, drones, child soldiers, and genocide.
In addition, considering that director Tim Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) is the star, this film looks amazing and is surprisingly well-made. Additionally, Asa Butterfield is terrific and will undoubtedly become a movie star. Given that it’s about much more than spaceships, aliens, and explosions, I can’t say that I’m surprised this didn’t perform well. Even so, the absence of Ender from the action likely prevented audiences from caring about the mission. Though it may seem doubtful, I sincerely hope they do a sequel.fantasy romance movies
Blancanieves
Unless you consider the last image, there aren’t any fantasy elements in this Spanish-set Snow White retelling. Even then, it’s only possible. The Grimms’ work has been given a bullfighting twist, and although much of that magic and wonder is due to the magic and wonder of film, I tend to accept traditional fairy tales within the parameters of the fantasy genre. A young lady carries on her father’s heritage while being threatened by an evil stepmother in Pablo Berger’s silent cinema homage, which is sometimes cliched and corny for what it’s trying to emulate.
Upstream Color
At least with Primer, viewers were aware of and intrigued by the fundamental idea of time travel. Shane Carruth maintained the same degree of intricacy for his eagerly anticipated sophomore work while also presenting the highly perplexing idea of a parasitic life cycle.
But whether you understand it or not, this is one of the most hypnotic movies in recent memory. The entire journey is magnificent, both aesthetically and narratively. In the early half of the movie, when she is more of the focal point and before Carruth joins her on screen, Amy Seimetz has a remarkable presence as a young lady who acts as our guide in the mystery of, well, just more mystery.
Upstream Color is a love story that challenges everything we think we know about love stories, much like a number of the movies on our list. I have to admit that I fluctuated in my feelings about this film, from truly enjoying it to completely detesting it, from respecting it to wanting to see it repeatedly.fantasy romance movies
Europa Report
Europa Report is an easily enjoyed and consistently tense interplanetary mission movie about a crew visiting the titular moon of Jupiter, where there appear to be signs of life. Ignore any stigma attached to the found footage idea (even though this movie makes the best case for that idea since the climactic fight in Chronicle), and you have an easily enjoyed and consistently tense interplanetary mission movie.
This clever, modestly budgeted, and flawlessly realized effort ought to be the antidote to everyone who disliked Prometheus (I actually love both), as well as to all the overstuffed science fiction films Hollywood gave us this year (including another co-starring Sharlto Copley), but it still doesn’t seem to be becoming the sleeper hit it should be.
Sebastian Cordero is a filmmaker I’ve always admired, so I can only hope this is at least a first step in his becoming the Ecuadorian Alfonso Cuarón. It’s quite intriguing that Jeremy Kipp Walker, who co-directed The History of Future Folk, also served as the film’s producer.
Her
Since Children of Men, Spike Jonze’s near-future story about a man who falls in love with his operating system is the most accurate reflection of our culture’s future direction.
Since Minority Report, no; also Gattaca? With its discussion of social media and how artificial intelligence might free us from our current obsessions with our computers, it nonetheless joins the small group of prophetically minded sci-fi classics. also the style.
I’ve never praised a sci-fi movie’s costume design so much, not even in The Fifth Element. It doesn’t matter that it has so many similarities to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind that it ends up being somewhat rational rather than predictable because it isn’t so abstract or has such an odd concept. There are already all three.fantasy romance movies
Mr. Nobody
After a 13-year gap, one of the most underappreciated innovative directors of the 1990s, Jaco Van Dormael, finally released his third movie in 2009.
It took me another four years to see it, but the wait was definitely worth it. Nemo Nobody is the last mortal man alive in the year 2092 (everyone else is now immortal), and he has trouble remembering precisely how his life unfolded from the time of his parents’ divorce during his youth.. Not everyone will enjoy this movie.
If you do find yourself plunging in and continuing on for more than two and a half hours, it’s pretty lengthy, even less linear than Cloud Atlas, and it all builds up to a statement about chance and choice, which is presumably what attracts you in the first place.
Even while the movie makes the point that all paths are the correct ones, it never comes off as being overly cerebral, pretentious, or interested in much else but the characters taking paths that may not have been the best ones for them to pursue. Additionally, Sarah Polley’s documentary Stories We Tell, which she essentially started thinking about while acting in this movie, has a special connection to Mr. Nobody;fantasy romance movies
she even recounts the events leading up to the call that launched the other movie in that movie. You’ve made the proper choice whether you choose to watch this or not, but I do urge you to try it.
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