Is Sunshine the best sci-fi flick of the century? - Page 4

One interesting contrast is that Kubrick's future was a plastic future. Solaris and Sunshine are metal futures. So much of the look of 2001 is bright and plastic and primary colors, sort of like the inside of a modern grocery store when you come into one at night from the dark. Solaris and Sunshine are washed out palette metal visuals. Has anyone since that 70's era really gone for that sort of bright, plastic look? So much of sci-fi since then seems to be either almost monochrome metal or that 'old tech' look of things like Alien, where it's modern technology but just as dirty and beaten up as much current technology is that is in real world use.

Kubrick I guess caught the very tale end of the 50's view of the future and of technology, at least in the visuals and technology as displayed, but with the distopian 70's view of human nature and computers layered over it. Sort of makes sense given that his childhood was in the one era and his early film making career in the other.

Back when 2001 was made NASA was going strong with many, many missions going on at once.
We were taught in school and in the media, our space missions had to be "clean" and fastidious (Star Trek picked up on this).

For the sake of safety, no dirt/bacteria or lost screwdrivers allowed.
I remember this well.

From that perspective, it makes sense why Kubrick made the aesthetic decisions he did.
It was Star Wars that changed all of this.

Star Wars still had some of that Kubrick look. Think of the interior of the diplomatic ship that is boarded at the very beginning, and of course the Storm Trooper outfits. But it doesn't really show up much anywhere else that I can recall. The Death Star is super-clean, but has that washed out, gray scale, sterile look, appropriate for badies.

SW (particularly Ep. 4) served as a bridge between "Kubrick visual style" and what we have today IMO.

Yes, Steve Jobs and all of his many minions and followers.

Star Trek mostly holds to this aesthetic, especially Abrams' reboot movie, with its Apple Store-inspired iBridge.

Agreed.

I am not so sure Abrams had much of a choice.
All of the subsequent ST series retained the same approach as the original show.
It's kinda engrained into the Trekkie consciousness.

Speaking of Star Trek... The IMAX I saw The Hobbit at, showed an 'exclusive for IMAX' mini-sneak preview of the new Trek film in 3D. Looks FANTASTIC!

Rutgar, did you see it in digital IMAX or film-based IMAX?

Digital HFR