Cyberpunk, Dystopian SciFi film & miniseries

[EyeSeeCold]

Inspired by THD's thread.

It seems that the bulk of these types of movies must be obscure as it's usually the same titles always listed for the genre. So here's a thread to discover new material, please post works you've seen. The bold are my favorites of course.


Aeon Flux
Akira
Armitage III: OVAs
Armitage III: Dual Matrix
Blade Runner
Demolition Man (?)
Escape From New York (?)
Escape from L.A. (?)
Equilibrium
The Fifth Element
Gattaca
Hackers
Mad Max (?)
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
The Matrix Trilogy
Terminator
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
The Running Man
Total Recall (1990)


Ghost in the Shell - I've seen the Stand Alone Complex show but not any of the other work yet
Battle Angel Alita - Read the manga, haven't seen the OVA
Metropolis (2001) - On my watchlist

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

nineteen eighty-four (1984)
the handmaid's tale (1990)
they live (1988)

will add more if i think of any.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Thanks, I'm looking forward to watching They Live. I'm familiar with it but I don't remember how.

 

[Cherry Cola]

Is Armitage III good?

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Is Armitage III good?

Overall, yeah. It comes in four parts (later re-edited as single video). Part I and II open with an excellent Blade Runner approach of detective noir, III falters a bit on the punk attitude and IV seems kind of all over the place. But considering everything, the concept, characters, and presentation were solid and enjoyable if you are looking for cyberpunk.

The film sequel, Dual Matrix, I wouldn't consider essential, it has even more a lack of direction.

 

[Jennywocky]

I've seen most of the movies in the OP. (Is there a reason Gattaca is greyed out? It's one of my faves.)

Strange Days (1995)
eXistenZ (kinda meh, but interesting ending I guess)
Johnny Mnemonic

Not sure if you want to count the Resident Evil games + Ultraviolet. They're okay movies, I guess.

Other ones I'm not sure if they fit the category:
Dark City
Never Let Me Go (futuristic theme, but far more drama than cyber)
The Thirteenth Floor

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I've seen most of the movies in the OP. (Is there a reason Gattaca is greyed out? It's one of my faves.)

Well it was like 6 years ago when I watched it in highschool, but I don't remember finding it stimulating at all. I guess that's long enough to rewatch it though. I haven't seen any of the others ones you've listed yet.

 

[Jennywocky]

Well it was like 6 years ago when I watched it in highschool, but I don't remember finding it stimulating at all. I guess that's long enough to rewatch it though. I haven't seen any of the others ones you've listed yet.

Strange Days is a James Cameron movie that was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Ralph Fiennes and Angela Bassett star -- they both give very fine performances. But it involves VR and jacking into recordings, synced up with the turn of the century, race riots in LA, solving a mystery involving a VR recording, etc.

Dark City is kind of like scifi-horror noir with decent effects; it excels in terms of tone, they just nailed that.

now I want to read Neuromancer again. I read that years back + played the video game.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

@PNB
I remembered that I did see Nineteen Eighty-Four, Equilibrium and Aeon Flux are similar to it.

Bookmarked Strange Days, Johnny Mnemonic, and Dark City. I might check out Neuromancer since it is a fairly short novel.

 

[h0bby1]

snow crash, but they never made a movie =)

 

[digitalbum]

I've seen most of the movies in the OP. (Is there a reason Gattaca is greyed out? It's one of my faves.)

Strange Days (1995)
eXistenZ (kinda meh, but interesting ending I guess)
Johnny Mnemonic

Not sure if you want to count the Resident Evil games + Ultraviolet. They're okay movies, I guess.

Other ones I'm not sure if they fit the category:
Dark City
Never Let Me Go (futuristic theme, but far more drama than cyber)
The Thirteenth Floor

Strange Days is one of those films that most of my friends have never seen, but is in my top 20.

 

[Jennywocky]

Strange Days is one of those films that most of my friends have never seen, but is in my top 20.

Yeah, I know I mentioned it before, but Fiennes and Bassett are pretty awesome; Julliette Lewis plays one of her typical kinds of characters but is really really good at it; and the tone / look / feel is great. I'll admit the movie has some flaws, but they don't bother me much.

 

[kris]

'Cyberpunk' is an awkward category. Vaguely in the right vein:

Sleep Dealer
Cowboy Bebop
A Scanner Darkly
Metropia

All I can think of off the top of my head at the moment.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Gamer

It was released 5 years ago but seems even more appropriate a film for modern society. Basically a company has developed a technology that allows "players" to control other people, which it has marketed into an FPS-RPG for deathrow inmates, and an MMORPG for people who have sold their bodies in desperation. There are lots of cyber visuals, too much probably, and somewhat of a youthful/punk feel but it doesn't focus on that. The story is primarily about one of the inmates who has been caught in the system. Maybe not an AAA film, but it's definitely within the cyberpunk / dystopian sci-fi theme and I'd recommend it.​

Dark City

Weird film, all I can say is that I was reminded of the Matrix and Memento.

Dark City is kind of like scifi-horror noir with decent effects; it excels in terms of tone, they just nailed that.

Yeah, it really helped that it was literally nighttime 24/7.​

They Live

"Kick ass and chew bubblegum", that's where I knew the movie from. Interesting plot. I thought it could've been much longer though, and the 80s acting is very apparent, for better or worse.​

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I finished reading Neuromancer, I also watched Johnny Mnemonic at the same time which helped with the imagery (and a plot connection late in the story).

Pretty fascinating considering how much the novel predated the internet. I noticed the influence of Escape From New York, and the novel's influence on The Matrix.

"Case had spent ten minutes in a urinal, trying to discover a convenient way to conceal his cobra" - That had to be intentional.

And the dub music , that was cool, but I couldn't imagine the dub working with the setting/plot.


Oh yeah, Johnny Mnemonic had good visuals but bad acting. I feel like it could have been done better, but we've already had The Matrix.

 

[KDX]

Children of Men

 

[nanook]

Salute Of The Jugger/the blood of heroes is a cute end time movie that has the gladiator flair of battle angel alita, but like mad max or waterworld it's not cyber, since all electricity is gone. it has joan chen and rutger hauer, which makes it pretty cool, in my book.

slipstream (1989) is an end time movie with many technology elements. not the best movie, but has a real sci fi flair, that feeling of a unique situation. reminds me of Tom Cruise's Oblivion, for visual reasons. perhaps something you should have seen 20+ years ago, to appreciate. have to admit, headhunters ain't punks though.


12 monkeys is pretty much cyberpunk i think.

A.I. Artificial Intelligence is a bit cyberpunk meeting walt disney flair. mixed up cliches.


cyborg girl is a forgettable but fun movie. she looks like battle angel alita. no punk involved.

dredd (2012) is cyberpunk and even though judge dredd is a ridiculous cock, the movie has good good suspension.

In Time (2011) with justin timberlake is pure cyber punk and future vision

The Island (2005) has cyber punk elements but more.

Total Recall 2012 just visual cliches in an action movie, but has okay suspension

Elysium (2013) also a rather ridiculous action movie.

Tron Legacy

looper & Repo Men = some sci fi & punk
minority report = little punk, much cyber

classics:
Rollerball, perhaps (because battle angel alita, but no cyber and no punk)
THX-1138 is a classic by george lukas. very cyber, no punk but rebellion.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Thanks. Some of those I will add to my watchlist, others I already have.

12 Monkeys is definitely good, I wasn't sure if it was relevant to the thread but I'd recommend it for '90s action/Sci-Fi anyway.

I just watched the original Judge Dredd, there was good mindless action and humor but that's about it, they didn't take much advantage of the futuristic technology/setting.

I saw Minority Report but I want to watch it again, don't remember much.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_%281927_film%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four_(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World_(1980_film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THX_1138

 

[nanook]

The first dredd movie had a hero and villain, which is retarded like a preschool fantasy, the second one had pure violence, which is too brainless to be retarded and it doesn't have sylvester stallone, so it's two times as good, meaning 6 stars instead of 3. It's more like a video game. I don't really recommend it over being alive, but for zombies it's a nice waste of time.

 

[Pizzabeak]

http://youtu.be/zfFWBWKwQT8

 

[Red myst]

Logan's Run
A Boy And His Dog
A Clockwork Orange
Cherry 2000
Idiocracy
Looper
Genesis II
Serenity
Silent Running

Mostly 70s 80s vintage stuff, but its the stuff I grew up with.

 

[Variform]

Cherry 2000 is awesome. I want her.

Most films mentioned here are good. Although some do not fir the cyberpunk, dystopian requirement. Like The Thirteenth Floor, which is a great film, but it is not cyberpunk nor dystopian.

Lots if these films fall also in another categorie: what is real? Like The Thirteenth Floor, Existenz, Matrix trilogy. I love that sub-genre. Videodrome is another.

 

[Red myst]

Cherry 2000 is awesome. I want her.

Most films mentioned here are good. Although some do not fir the cyberpunk, dystopian requirement. Like The Thirteenth Floor, which is a great film, but it is not cyberpunk nor dystopian.

Lots if these films fall also in another categorie: what is real? Like The Thirteenth Floor, Existenz, Matrix trilogy. I love that sub-genre. Videodrome is another.

I forgot about Videodrome.... I watched part of it when I was a younger, but had no appreciation for it then. I need to look it up and have another go at it. I have been revisiting many movies from my youth and beyond. Some I find stupid now, and some I find awesome now. And some are just timeless. Oh, and what about Waterworld? Seem like it fits the genre. And maybe Planet Of The Apes, original and new. Also Gene Roddenberry's tv pilot "A Brave New World". And one of the latest Tom Cruise movies "Oblivion".

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Looper was good, not really cyberpunk but I liked the concept. Although a person is the same person as they develop through life, does either "you" at a certain point in time have the right to make universe-altering decions for all other "yous" in different time periods?

And did anyone notice how the main actor looked like Robert Deniro? Weird because he was supposed to seem more like Bruce Willis.

Surrogates wasn't as good as Gamer, where they overlap in having humans control proxies, but it's a mild thiller and detective themes are always welcomed for me.

RoboCop... not much to say, it's pure action. I guess you could ask whether we should trust a robotic police force, and I think the answer would be no because criminality and disorder are not always so clear cut.

The Animatrix I felt like it didn't even need to be made. Somewhat interesting but overall irrelevant or ineffectual to the main story.

 

[(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

ones I've seen and liked:

brazil
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/plotsummary

tetsuo the iron man
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096251/plotsummary

max headroom
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092402/plotsummary

964 pinochio
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0225009/plotsummary

soylent green
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070723/plotsummary

fortress
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106950/plotsummary

screamers
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114367/plotsummary


great resource:
http://cyberpunkreview.com/movies-ordered-by-star-rating/

 

[EyeSeeCold]

@Everyone Thanks for the contributions

(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), that site is pretty useful. I like how it lets you see related entries according to specific themes.

12 Monkeys > Brazil . While I get the satire on technological bureaucracy, and the tragic irony of the main character's fate, I still feel like I'm missing something about the greatness of the movie. The ending of 12 Monkeys definitely hit me harder.

 

[(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

That's funny I thought 12 Monkeys was bland and Brazil a crazy experience.

Different strokes.

Watched A boy and his dog because of the recommendation from this thread also because I found it on YouTube. Oh boy that was great, thanks for that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDxqhI9qDw