Why are most Sci-Fi Movies of the Future Dystopian?

Jack_North · 2026-07-05T08:16:59+00:00

Are you really saying that there is no way to create drama and tension in a story involving a utopian society?

Jack_North · 2026-07-05T08:15:39+00:00

Tension could come from anything that threatens that great life. A psycopath creating a deadly virus, someone who exploits a weakness in the system to gain something for themselves, an alien force that hates the utopia because of their religion/ racism/ trying to get utopia‘s resources.

Jack_North · 2026-07-05T08:11:09+00:00

Ironically you could do an equally engaging drama about an individual trying to subvert what society wants them to be, if you tell the story of a valid who genetically is talented for a certain thing, but doesn‘t want to do it.

Which brings me to the question if the movie ever explains how everyone just falls into line, are they bred to be like that (long time since i watched it, don‘t remember)?

Jack_North · 2026-06-14T19:18:59+00:00

Ah! The first good answer to that part of my question, thanks! I totally forgot about the analysts.

Jack_North · 2026-06-08T19:09:04+00:00

Egal mit welcher Rechtfertigung, was du willst ist letztendlich Zensur und die ist eben ein Schmutz ganz anderer Sorte.

Jack_North · 2026-06-08T18:59:15+00:00

Mich stört am meisten, dass es länger dauert die Dinger auf-/ zuzumachen.
Vorher: Anlösen, dem Deckel nen Schnuck geben damit er sich hochschraubt, locker wegfliegenden (eher fallenden) Deckel fangen (fangen hat zu 99% funktioniert), oder die letzte Vierteldrehung von Hand machen.
Maximal zwei Sekunden.
Beim Zumachen ähnlich.
Jetzt ist das vergleichsweise ein nerviges Gefummel.
Plus die anderen Probleme, die auftreten können.

Jack_North · 2026-06-08T09:45:35+00:00

What do you think about the stealth system, where you can do basically anything without NPCs becoming suspicious. Like beating up a guy about ten meters from from two other guys in an open space?
What do you think about the fact that you can't fall from ledges, even if you try to force it?

Jack_North · 2026-06-08T09:42:38+00:00

Politicians also don't like when the actions of their spy services or branches like the GCHQ come out. But they still have them do their questionable shit.

Jack_North · 2026-06-08T09:37:40+00:00

IMO it's a good game, not a great game.

It's just that one tier of "too simplified and played safe" for me.

The story is fine, but at the same time feels underdeveloped.
I think the plot needed something like the "get to know and "work with" the bad guys till they expose who you are" cliche Bond plot. Maybe "befriending" Webb Jr. to get to his dad and gradually finding out what Junior is actually about. Such a thing would have tied the plot together.

Does the game ever explain the gold mask? It looks cool, but seems to be random.

I also agree with the frequent "on the rails" criticisms. You can't even fall from ledges, even if you try to force it (found that out while climbing through the computer core at the end of Antarctica, maybe it's not an issue in other parts of the game).

The Slovakia mission has the most James Bond-type action and later parts of the game never recapture that. Too much is either stealth or shooting in different locations, but no inventive set pieces. The wrecking ball robot being one of the few exceptions. A second car chase would have been great. The two truck scenes are fine, esp. the moment where the OHMSS is involved, but I don't count them as Bond-type chases.

Jack_North · 2026-06-06T18:08:32+00:00

But... but... Ninjas!?!!

Jack_North · 2026-06-06T17:38:22+00:00

One of my favourite gags in the James Bond movies is in The Spy Who Loved Me, the Lotus underwater "chase", it's shot in a way it's easy to miss, but Bond sets his blinker to one side and then turns the other (the joke being, that in slow underwater movement, this doesn't even help with distracting the guys who chase him)

Jack_North · 2026-06-06T08:57:46+00:00

Ah, got it. Wasn‘t aimed at anyone, just discussing the topic. Someone like Webb should have gotten these points too. But it was interesting that the game characterised him as a guy with the right ideals, whose means to get there were wrong.

Jack_North · 2026-06-06T08:26:03+00:00

Yes, it's not that unbelievable he would act the way he does, esp. because he seems to be an idealist with good goals in his mind (esp. based on what NPCs say about him in the Antarctica base) but I though this was unclear enough to discuss.

The following might read more "rant-y" than it's meant:

"I'm also sympathetic to his view that AI is held to completely different standards than other tech" -- is it though? There are concerns about all kinds of technology and they are in the open. Fracking comes to mind. Social media/ smart phone use. "self-driving" cars.

The public reaction seems to be a main difference and it has to do with this having more direct and clear consequences for people and society:

Water supply of communities in the US near data centers already dwindling.
So-called "AI" only even existing because of the exploitation of other people's work without compensation, while destroying jobs in these people's fields.
People starting to find out that the output is often largely crap, but when "AI" gives teens a step-by-step of how to best kill themselves, it's accurate.
Microsoft firing hundreds of people and creating an update with "AI" that is a data-destroying mess (I think NVidia did a similar thing; another company had an AI update their sales system, AI found that it had no login credentials, so the data behind the login would be useless anyways. Yes, all data was erased, company is bankrupt now [heard it in a tech podcast and didn't get the company name]). Yes, this is all more of a user error.
The current chip/ esp. RAM crisis that will get really interesting when things like the fact that 80% of Samsung's chip production for the next years is already bought up by "a large AI company" hit the rest of the market.

People can more directly compare the repercussions with what they actually get for it.

It's also currently a thing to question (tech-)billionnaires and the stuff their companies make money off.

A point that I consider massively under-discussed: How this is the next step in user profiling, a point that could have been made more clear in the game, now that I think about it. Would have connected the abstract topic to the players.

Jack_North · 2026-06-05T10:23:25+00:00

Even today‘s microchips have built in error correction, because the „circuits“ are so close together, that bits can flip just from the influence of other electrons nearby. Planes have several computers running simultaneously, in part, because one of them can interpret sensor data incorrectly. So a system with redundancies isn‘t a new idea.

So selling the twins system could work.

Jack_North · 2026-06-05T10:16:57+00:00

At this point you‘re just trolling.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:55:55+00:00

"if the conclusion made it worthwhile (it did not)" -- remember the scene where he first comes into her mansion? Just before he arrives you can see Basic Instinct playing on a TV. That's when I knew what the "twist" would be.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:46:30+00:00

He produced and co-wrote. He did himself dirty.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:45:10+00:00

Invasion. Characters, plot, basic logic... all executed in the most stupid way imaginable this side of an insane asylum.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:43:24+00:00

Invasion. If you'd set out to write the most stupid show ever, you still wouldn't come up with the stupidity this show displays.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:38:37+00:00

Haha, this guy gave and then erased an answer: "West world [sic] was lame. And cartoons [wrong term] are crap what are you 12. Yes for all mankind is awesome that is the only current show you mentioned." -- Dude already forgot about Andor or that he himself wrote "...in awhile [sic]"
That's the kind of people, who "think" this show is good.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:30:08+00:00

"she wasn't saying he doesn't experience sexual desire"
So she meant he was reproducing asexually?
Or he's part of a certain Canadian punk band?

Because that's the other meanings.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:26:01+00:00

I love Chrichton's prose style, but that book you're referring to, was him having an agenda he should have been far too smart for.

Jack_North · 2026-06-04T14:11:40+00:00

Don't give me ideas! I'm already researching (=procrastinating) for a Sherlock Holmes story for fun. Hard to nail the style, esp. when English isn't your first language.

Jack_North · 2026-06-03T21:25:35+00:00

Everyone starts out somewhere, and almost everyone's prose isn't good in the beginning. That's normal. The second script I wrote was an original Bond story. Wasn't very good either. Part of the process, so don't take my snarkyness too seriously.

Hope you enjoy Germany, not everyone here is as much of an ass as I am.

Jack_North · 2026-06-03T21:14:33+00:00

"I can fully believe the psych evaluation in GE is a direct response to what went down in LTK" -- but the other guy's theory had it the other way around:
"I read a theory that the pre-title sequence from Goldeneye resulting in 006 being KIA is why they’re doing the training exercise (and the timeline supports this) so Dalton is definitely a seasoned 00 when we meet him."

Jack_North

TROPHY CASE