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The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies 1 (Rough Guide Reference)
Thе Rough Guide tο Sci-Fi Movies іѕ a comprehensive guide tο thе ”final frontier” οf film. It explores ουr fascination wіth space exploration, time travel, fantastical worlds аnd uncommon futures. Thіѕ guide сlаrіfіеѕ hοw everything frοm thе way οf life οf Plato tο classic Victorian tаlеѕ аnd cult comic books hаνе hеlреd tο mаkе one οf cinema”s mοѕt engaging genres. Learn thе classics frοm Mexico, Russia аnd Japan, nοt forgetting thе Anime science fiction tradition, along wіth everythin
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Clad if imperfect reference book,
To someone unfamiliar with the genre, science fiction movies can appear to be a collection of dreadful movies that rely on small more than cheesy special effects. To some extent, it’s right: to paraphrase Sturgeon’s Law (he was a sci-fi writer), 90% of science fiction is garbage, but 90% of everything is garbage. Here are bounty of lousy science fiction movies out here, but here are also some real gems.
The Rough Guide to Sci-Fi Movies is a clad, though not perfect, reference book about these movies. It starts with a brief description of science fiction literature and then gives a description of sci-fi at the cinema, from the early silent days through the serials of the 1930s to the “golden age” of the 1950s to the darker works of the 1970s to the special effects driven movies of present times. Essentially, but, the description of sci-fi films can be divided into two periods: Before Star Wars and After Star Wars.
The Guide also provides what the author, John Scalzi considers to be the key 50 movies. As he admits up front, you may disagree with his choices as I certainly did, but many of his choices are solid ones: choices such as Blade Runner, Star Wars, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey have to rate on the list of anyone traditional with the genre.
Here are also sections on the faces of science fiction, the locations of science fiction and science fiction movies produced around the world, as well as a couple other sections. Even as not comprehensive, the book doesn’t really neglect anything truly significant either. For a reference book, but, we do get a lot of opinion, and for a book that seems to be well place collectively, here are lots of typographical errors. This is not a fantastic book, but it is excellent enough (maybe a low four stars) and for an introduction to these movies, it is more than adequate.
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|Solid, Not Stellar,
This is an fascinating guide to…well, sci-fi movies. (It also features a minor digression at the end that covers well-known SF TV shows and other resources.) Chapters deal with the author’s personal choices for the 50 classic SF movies, the 50 iconic robots/ships/villains/actors, SF films from countries outside the U.S., and so forth.
Entries are, for the most part, small and to the point, only growing somewhat longer when it is necessary to upbraid George Lucas for his myriad sins, and rightly so. The author is also not worried to proffer his opinion on which movies have withstood the test of time and which now seem tragically out-of-date or flat-out embarrassing.
On the downside, I found the numerous typos (particularly in public’s names) and layout errors to be extremely annoying. For instance, in the entry for the recent “28 Days Later”, the actress Naomie Harris (currently appearing in the latest “Pirates Of The Caribbean” movie) ends up being credited as one of the composers, just because the typesetter lazily goofed up and pushed her name out of place. Yes, it’s a “rough” guide, but I didn’t expect it to be reasonably THAT rough.
I’d give this an extra half-star if it were possible, but since it isn’t, I’ll have to round down on this one.
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|A well written book with a small TO much truth about Sci-Fi,
I got the opportunity to look at this book extensively at my local barnes and noble. It does a very well written summary of most of the luminaries of the Sci-Fi genre. Here are alot of amusing inside jokes that only fans of these films will get. But, it also introduces Sci-Fi to those who aren’t traditional with it.
Need a book to clarify your obsession with Sci-Fi to your significant other? Heres the book. Complete with amusing notes and misc. bits and pieces that will help them catch up to the culture. Who knows? After reading it they might know more than you.
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