It’s a slightly click-baity title, but as we’re still generating more content for our magazines, this one included, why not?
My Sci-fi unpopular opinion is that 2001: A Space Odyssey is nothing but pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. I’ve tried watching it multiple times and each time I have absolutely no patience for the pointless little scenes which contain little to no depth or meaningful plot, all coalescing towards that 15 minute “journey” through space and series of hallucinations or whatever that are supposed to be deep, shake you to your foundations, and make you re-think the whole human condition.
But it doesn’t. Because it’s just pretentious, LSD fueled nonsense. Planet of the Apes was released in the same year and is, on every level, a better Sci-fi movie. It offers mystery, a consistent and engaging plot, relatable characters you actually care about, and asks a lot more questions about the world and our place in it.
A lot of nerds seem super pissed at Star Trek: Picard because it’s “not Trek” and “too dark” but I actually like it because it’s like “ummm this is colonialism actually???” and I have a tough time watching most older Trek because it is in fact colonialism actually.
It’s both. I don’t love it when the Federation stands in for the US specifically, but since the pushback against that notion comes and goes, if it is the US then it is colonialism, actually.
But that cuts both ways, I dislike it when Picard does it, but also when TNG does it. Picard has bigger issues than that, though.