Did yiannisdigital even bother to check the statistics on this film?
Men in my age group (45+) only rated the film 7.1, which is below its overall score of 8.1. Interestingly, people aged 18-29 rated it 8.5 and people under 18 gave the film an 8.8. Frankly, the numbers are exactly the opposite of what I expected. I thought older people like myself would find it more interesting than younger people who presumably would have been bored without the action scenes.
As for myself, I was a sci-fi fan during my adolescence, but as I grew older I eventually concluded that most modern sci-fi movies have little to do with science. To me Star Wars is just another adventure story with a colorful setting. Without the fancy special effects it may has well be called Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers, or some other adventure story where the heroes rush off to rescue a damsel in distress. It represents a trend in modern films that I have learned to dislike, which is a lack of originality in terms of the actual theme. My favorite sci-fi movies are designed to appeal on an intellectual level. For example, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Planet of the Apes (1968), and 2001 a Space Odessy make novel statements about the possibility of alien intelligence and, in the case of Planet of the Apes, about human nature.
Personally, I found Stalker to be a rather thought provoking analysis of human nature, but I still agree with yiannisdigital that it was rather slow moving and, moreover, I found the scenery to be rather dull. Of course Tarkowsky intentionally tries to convey a sense of abandon and ruin. His 'slow' technique does work rather well, but I don't think its quite right to shoot the whole film this way. In Planet of the Apes, slow footage of boring landscapes is used to convey a sense of abandon, but the plot develops more quickly and there is plenty of action.
I like special effects, action scenes, sex and violence just as much as the average guy. But, I am different in that I want a film that is intellectually challenging. Stalker delivers the intellectual challenge, but its flawed in that it doesn't deliver the excitement that appeals to my emotional nature.
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