Friday, September 28, 2018

Day of the Science Fiction Movie Spaceship

"The rocket ships on sci-fi screens today are simply boring, whether they are piloted by earthlings or space aliens."

That is a provocative statement from Toronto Star movie critic Peter Howell in his piece, Where have all the UFOs gone? Blame the movies. I've not seen many SF flicks of recent years, but from what I have seen, in promotional pictures and clips, I would agree.

I'm also in synchronous orbit with Mr Howell in his summations of three space vessels: the flying saucer from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951); the Aries moon lander from 2001: A Space Odyssey; and the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars (1977 and beyond).

Why all the mundane design work in science-fiction movies today? The Lookalike Film Designers Club has an active membership.

Really:

"Remember when humans and aliens used to take pride in the design of their spaceships?"

Well, for starters, Walter "Matt" Jefferies died back in 2003.


2 comments:

Jon said...

"The ungainly extraterrestrial craft in last year’s Alien: Covenant resembled a giant flying shrimp. It was built by a race called the Engineers, who certainly weren’t artists."

Um, that was a duplicate of the derelict alien ship designed for ALIEN in 1979 by H.R. Giger, an artist.

Simon St. Laurent said...

Thanks for the info. Being so out of the (space) loop, I had no idea. My guess is Mr Howell is not enough a geek to make such a bold statement.