Hollywood has a real problem with science fiction. It almost always waters it down into a creature-feature, with the usual generic sex and weapon play.
Deeper questions about culture, mystery, and identity tend to be removed at the screen writing stage.
There are exceptions - Contact and Arrival - but the trend at the moment seems to be towards shallow empty spectacle with a lot of running, jumping, shouting, shooting, and CGI. Add a few wisecracks and skin-tight costumes and you're done.
For a different take I'd recommend anything by Tarkovsky. Stalker and Solaris are brilliantly imaginative masterpieces with no modern CGI at all.
I agree with most of this post but Solaris is truly painful to watch. A five minute long shot of a freeway is really pushing the line between "slow, subtle artistry" and "banal, cheaply produced filler" (and yes, I'm aware Tarkovsky said it was to get rid of impatient viewers). Also I found the unexplained usage of dwarfs for no reason other than to add "weirdness" questionable.
Solaris is one of those rare stories that has been reinterpreted multiple times in very different ways, and they are all interesting. Both films and the book are good, but with different tones and focuses.
Hollywood has a real problem with science fiction. It almost always waters it down into a creature-feature, with the usual generic sex and weapon play.
Deeper questions about culture, mystery, and identity tend to be removed at the screen writing stage.
There are exceptions - Contact and Arrival - but the trend at the moment seems to be towards shallow empty spectacle with a lot of running, jumping, shouting, shooting, and CGI. Add a few wisecracks and skin-tight costumes and you're done.
For a different take I'd recommend anything by Tarkovsky. Stalker and Solaris are brilliantly imaginative masterpieces with no modern CGI at all.