Is Coruscant the greatest futuristic cityscape, ever depicted on film ?

Throughout the history of the science fiction/fantasy film genre, there have been many elaborate and interesting depictions of furistic cityscapes.
Fritz Lang gave us a glimpse into a harsh totalitarian future earth, in the 1927 expressionist classic Metropolis. In Things To Come, we saw a similar representation of a future earth city. Bladerunner showcased a bleak and rain drenched near future Los Angeles, complete with flying cars, and mile high neon topped skyscrapers. Back To The Future Part 2 showed us a near future tableau of small town America. The Fifth Element paid homage to all of these films, with it's elaborate Art Deco future designs. There have been many other examples, from the Japanese anime depictions of Neo Tokyo in Akira, to the Martian colonies of Total Recall.

But in my opinion, Coruscant is the most lavishly detailed and most expansive future city, ever shown on the silver screen. Especially in AOTC, it really comes into it's own, and the speeder chase and subsequent nightclub scenes, show us the most brilliantly realised future world ever created. The detail and atmosphere is quite breath taking. Sure, it may not be totally original, but I think it improves upon what we have seen before, if only in terms of the visuals.

What are your thoughts ?

 

"The Fifth Element" is my personal favorite; I'm glad you mentioned it. What a visually stunning and beautiful film!

I think you should be sure to consider "Blade Runner"... I'm certain that's gonna get a bunch of votes. EDIT: Whoops, I missed it 'cause you spelled it as one word! Me = stupid.

But I did like Coruscant an awful lot.



Rick McCallum loves you!

 

Well Metropolis really started the whole idea, but then again when it was made special effects weren't really a strong point in films, so you don't really get to see much at all

Fifth Element was very cool, but I would have to agree that Coruscant is the largest and most elaborate

Never saw blade runner though

 

I'd certainly say it's up there.

I'd say the cities of Blade Runner and Metropolis are pretty much the most well-known, but Coruscant is high on the list.

And I liked Fifth Element too

 

Definitely! Coruscant is one of the greatest sci-fi locations ever. Blade Runner still has the edge in the actual sophistication of the design, but AOTC's got it beat in the realization of the design on-screen. Not to take anything away from Blade Runner, though: that movie's effects are still awesome. And Coruscant does borrow a lot from Blade Runner, whereas Blade Runner didn't really borrow from much at all, although the Metropolis influence is certainly strong.

-JDR.

 

It's either Coruscant or Fifth Element.

 

Blade Runner is amazing I read an interview once with Ridley Scott, where he said that he always wanted to show lanes of air traffic with hundreds of hover cars, but they just didn't have the time and budget to do that back then. There are occasional rumours that he will go back and do a new special edition, but I personally love that film exactly how it is in the director's cut.

 

Fifth Element's city is cool, but Coruscant is much more textured and detailed. Interestingly enough, the film Imposter with Gary Senise has a clear homage to Coruscant. There's one shot in particular that looks exactly like it could have come from a Star Wars film with the exception that the amount of traffic is considerably lighter. By the way, Imposter is a terrific film with an ending that will leave you stunned. The first time I saw it, I just sat there with my mouth open then immediately rewound it and watched the ending again. Absolutely brilliant.

 

"It's a CYBORG with a BOMB in his RIB CAGE!"

Me and my friends used to quote that all the time!

We never saw the film (I've never heard anything about it besides that one line, perhaps I SHOULD check it out), we just loved that line


Rick McCallum loves you!

 

I had a vision of Coruscant before they showed it to us in the films . . . and it looked more like Zion.

 

Zion doesn't bear mention.

 

Is Coruscant the greatest futuristic cityscape, ever depicted on film?

In terms of a realistic depiction? Yes.

The sheer beauty, scale, and variation in the types of districts makes it an amazing visual experience.

For two other great sci-fi cities, check out the anime films, Akira and Metropolis.

-Otis

 

Akira was another one of the classics

Yet another great one that I just remembered, is Gotham City, as realised in Burton's 1989 Batman.

 

I've never seen any of those movies but I'd have to say that Coruscant beats them all!

 

I think it is!

 

I don't usually think of terms of this being the best, or that being the best. But I think Coruscant is one of the most visually striking cityscapes that I've seen come out of cinema.

I might even say that it's one of the best.

 

I never gave Akira's city a second look, I thought it looked nice but nothing special by any means

And when I mentioned metropolis before I meant the 20's film, not the anime, can't stand anime

Coruscant is the best I've seen

Was Fifth Element made before or after Episode 1?

 

Fifth Element came out in '97.

Best film of that year IMHO.



Rick McCallum! Multipass!

 

I hate to see such beautiful F/X work go to waste in garbage like THE FIFTH ELEMENT! It's almost as bad as all the money that WB poured into the flaming garbage heap called PLUTO NASH. On the other hand, any effort at all would have been welcome in THE MATRIX RELOADED's Zion. Coruscant and BLADE RUNNER are great though. I hope Ridley Scott does NOT do a special edition of the film with lanes of flying traffic and such. I don't care if it was his original idea back then, doing it now would simply come off as an unoriginal ripoff of Coruscant!

 

I haven't seen The Fifth Element in a long time, I really should check it out again.

Blade Runner was very detailed and looks superb, and I think that and Coruscant may be a hair better.

Both have an incredible attention to detail. Even if AOTC wasn't around, Coruscant would still be up there as number one, souly based on TPM alone.

There are certain scenes from both TPM and AOTC that give me no doubt its at the top of the list. The scene with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan on the balcony at the Jedi Temple comes to mind. The final moments of AOTC when Count Dooku returns to Master Sideous and when the Clones are leaving Coruscant.

It is scenes like that, that put Coruscant above the others for me.

 

Zion doesn't bear mention.

Actually, I think it does. That docking bay scene from Reloaded blew me away competely.

-JDR.

 

It wasn't nothing that hasn't been seen before. And to think, the docking bay was just about the only thing WORTH mentioning that Zion had to offer. I like THE MATRIX RELOADED, but the Zion sequence was incredibly underwhelming and unimpressive, in all aspects!

 

ForceHeretic wrote:

I never gave Akira's city a second look

Maybe you should. A lot of the imagery seen in Coruscant's skyline can been seen in Akira's. I thinking of the holographic advertisements, especially.

Darth Jamus wrote:

the Zion sequence was incredibly underwhelming and unimpressive

Which makes me wonder . . what were you expecting to see in a city carved out of the earth?

-Otis

 

It's funny, I actually preferred the cityscape in The Crow to the one in Batman. But I guess neither of them are futuristic