2007 Hugo Nominations

[filkertom]

Final ballot. A really good year all around. Long Dramatic, I have yet to see Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, and A Scanner Darkly, but unless Pan's is incredible my vote is for The Prestige. Short Dramatic, "The Girl In The Fireplace" (although "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" rocked hard). I understand thatcrazycajun's distress that Heroes didn't receive even one nomination. (And thanks, Matt, for the heads-up on this.) Novel, Her Majesty's Dragon.

Thoughts?

Comments

[greenlantern-oa.livejournal.com]

I think Pan's Labyrinth is an AMAZING movie (seriously you need to see it soon ) and a great period movie as well!! It had a villain in it that I found myself seriously hating with a passion throughout the movie!!! I love when a movie has a villain I feel that strongly about!!!
The Prestige is also an amazing movie!! I have a strange rating system I apply sometimes!! Basically my father is very hard to please when it comes to a lot of movies today soooooo if my father and I enjoy it (and he loved The Prestige enough to have a movie night with this movie as the feature) then I think it had to be a great movie!!

The ballot really is incredible this year.....some hard decisions, I think, are going to be made!!

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I still think of "Hero's" as a Drama with some SF elements rather than a SF show. It's SF for people who don't want to know they are watching a SF story for whatever reason.

"You are watching SF"
"No I'm not. This is Star Trek."
"... Excuse me while I swab your last words out of my ears."

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Heroes is a live-action comic book equivalent. As such, it's well within the sf (as "speculative fiction") spectrum.

[solarbird]

You should see Pan's Labyrinth before voting. I have similar thoughts on novel. I actually voted for "Downloaded" for short-form, but my second and third choices were your top two.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

I'd SO suggest seeing Pan's Labyrinth

[chriswaffle.livejournal.com]

I just saw Pan's Labyrinth today and it blows The Prestige away. Of course, I love Children of Men over them all.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

Children of Men had me stuck to the screen from beginning to end. I thought it was a really amazing movie. Chiwetel Ejiofor gets an excellent role. Actually, I thought the acting throughout was really superb.
And I ended up just buying Pan's Labyrinth the other day, on a hunch. Haven't managed to watch it yet, but will very soon.

[que-sara-sara.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, the only movie on that list I have any desire to see is A Scanner Darkly. *sigh* We knew there was something wrong with me. I'm just doomed to follow Phillip K. Dick through that completely personal world before I go completely insane and kill myself. I would say, "shoot me now" but I know that y'all are just too attached to me still.

[lizreay.livejournal.com]

Any movie that includes a list of the writer's friends who either went mad or died from drug addiction in the credits qualifies as "ye gods depressing", but it was a great, interesting, and cool-ass film.

[que-sara-sara.livejournal.com]

And that's what really tears me on everything that Dick wrote, I'm cautious because I know I can get sucked into that world all too easily but at the same time I am completely intrigued by it.

The fact that Scanner Darkly was the Dick book a very dear friend of mine told me I "had to read" only makes me want to see it that much more.

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

Pan's Labyrinth is fantastic. I liked Children of Men and The Prestige, but of the three, I would call Pan's the best.

Of course, I also liked The Illusionist just a *little* more than The Prestige, to be honest. So your mileage may vary.

[lizreay.livejournal.com]

Pan's IS incredible. Incredibly dark, much more so than Devil's Backbone was, but incredible. A Scanner Darkly was also very cool, but not as cool as either The Prestige or Pan's Labyrinth. I still have to see Children of Men.

[drzarron.livejournal.com]

DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: LONG FORM

Children of Men - BARELY qualifies as SF, and just not that great a story.

Pan's Labyrinth - An AMAZING fantasy, bold, creepy and disturbing

The Prestige - Very good, cracker jack story, surprisingly light on magic for a movie about magicians

A Scanner Darkly - Interesting film making, but not particularly good F or SF

V for Vendetta - I quite liked it (In fact I liked the move much more than the comic) with a couple of fine performances.

For me, hmm.. It's either Pan's or Prestige, and for over all, Pan's Labyrinth


DRAMATIC PRESENTATION: SHORT FORM
Battlestar Galactica: "Downloaded"
Doctor Who: "School Reunion"
Doctor Who: "Army of Ghosts and Doomsday"
Doctor Who: "Girl in the Fireplace"
Stargate SG-1: "200"

BSG "Download" was pretty good, and Dr Who "School Reunion" was touching and sent my little fanboy soul into a tizzy, but best overall, "Girl in the Fireplace"

[rmjwell.livejournal.com]

As much as I love Stargate SG-1 and I laughed at "200", it is in no way deserving of a Hugo nom.

As to "Girl in the Fireplace" I get the impression that Steven Moffatt may be a perpetual nominee in this category (I can't wait to see his adaptation of "Jeckyll").

[hms42]

Heroes from what I heard (I still have 1/2 season to watch) really started taking off towards the 2nd half of the season, which aired in 2007. That is why it might not have a nomination this year, but I suspect it will make the ballot for Denvention.

Her Majesty's Dragon is definately a good choice for novel IMHO. Also she is up for the Campbell award this year. (Both of those were my votes for winning it.)

As for Dramatic Presentation, I have not seen any (nor was interested in) the Long Form. As for Short forum.... Definately though Dr. Who as the top 2 choices... Girl in the Fireplace was definately the better show over School reunion. Stronger story.

And I already voted on the awards since I have a supporting membership this year. (Have to mail in the site selection ballot for 2009.)

Harold

[sarekofvulcan.livejournal.com]

I find it hard to believe that any of the other nominations could break my heart as thoroughly as "Girl" did.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Scanner - Badly movie-ised version of the much better book. The cartoony visual style is the main culprit - it adds nothing and reproduces the shot film stock so slavishly that there's no real point in having it other than setting the story at one more remove from reality. In trying to look like a comic book, it ends up looking like a Photoshop filter, and the entire story felt like the first act out of three - and it dragged.

Pan's - Interesting concept, great effects, but clumsily executed. Would have been much better as a TV series, although the mix of fantasy and digitally-enhanced fascist ultraviolence might have resulted in a minimal audience. Several elements remained so unresolved it hurt the story.

Prestige - Would get my vote. Not as potentially complex or intriguing as Pan's or as groundbreaking as the original (book) Scanner, but it wins on having a much stronger narrative thread and complete ending than either, while still being a disturbing look into deep, dark obsession.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

For Long Dramatic, I've seen all of them except A Scanner Darkly. For me, The Prestige is the best. Pan's Labyrinth is very powerful, both emotionally and visually, but there's nothing particularly original about the fairy tale aspects.

We're farther apart on novel. I just read Her Majesty's Dragon for a book club, and gave it a B minus. Good action scenes, but shallow characterization, a too-good-to-be-true hero, and an out-of-nowhere gimmick at the end really hurt it for me. The only other nominee I've read so far is Glasshouse. I liked it a lot, though not as much as I liked Accelerando, Stross' nominee from last year.

I've really got to start catching up on Doctor Who.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Her Magesty's Dragon is good beach reading, nice and fluffy and fun, but it isn't awards material. Aside from all the reasons you mentioned it's also got poor worldbuilding IMO. The last is corected somewhat in the second book, but it still doesn't make the thing worth a Hugo.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'd begun to think I was missing something in Novik. I mean, it's a fun book, but not Hugo material, in my personal opinion.

[bright-lilim.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I thought that Her Majesty's Dragon is fluff, pure and simple.

[sdelmonte]

Yeah, that's about how I feel about Her Majesty's Dragon.

[sdelmonte]

I am very remiss in my film viewing. I haven't seen a one. Must catch up.

I'm only familiar with the Dr Who episodes, and would lean towards School Reunion.

[sazettel.livejournal.com]

I seem to be a dissenter here. I found Pan's Labyrinth, while visually stunning, really a very familiar story that told me nothing new (loved how she figured out how to defeat the big toad though). And did love the housekeeper and her knife, except...well, this is probably not a good place for spoilers.

OTOH, I personally think The Prestige may be one of the best constructed, best written movies ever made. I watched it repeatedly, and it lays EVERYTHING out right in front of you. It doesn't cheat once. You could figure out the whole complicated thing as it unfolded, but you don't because you're enjoying watching the show so much. Loved Micheal Caine. Loved David Bowie. Loved the mystery, loved the subtle use of the SF elements.

[singlemaltsilk.livejournal.com]

For me, it's either Children of Men or Pan's Labyrinth, both of which quite honestly moved me to tears without making me feel manipulated (a remarkable feat, trust me). I enjoyed both V For Vendetta and The Prestige -- especially The Prestige, a cunningly wrought piece of filmmaking -- but they didn't quite make the final transition from craft to art for me.

[purpleranger.livejournal.com]

Best Related Book -- HEINLEIN'S CHILDREN.

[idiotgrrl.livejournal.com]

Pan's Labyrinth was incredible. Not your Disneyfied fairy tale. Mercedes the housekeeper is a strong, thoughtful mother figure/fairy godmother and the creatures had the dark, unpredictable, dangerous feel of real fairy tales. I could even see the stepfather - the fascist captain- as a human being and knew why he was doing what he did and in what spirit (for that matter, in what tradition. In those parts at that time, *everyone* expected the Spanish Inquisition.) None of the heavy overacting and portentius music and murky camera angles so beloved of American maker of Art Fillums.

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

I don't understand where the Analog stories are...?