Gee, Sombody called Natalie Wood's and Chris Walken's sci-fi
pursuit film, "Brainstorm"  " . . .forgettable."  Please, look again.  For
those of  us who hope and pray [in vain it seems] for a meaningful
breakthrough in the genre,"Storm" represented a nice step in the right
direction, both in screen-writing and SFX production.
 
"Storm" anticipated the arrival of "virtual reality" technology at a time
when it seemed like a wild idea. It showed us the experiental benefits of
VR as well as the dangers of symbolistic communication technologies in
the hands of abusive organizations [shades of "The Manchurian Candidate"].
Not bad for a little sci-fi film .  Most SF seems locked into into horror,
blood and disfigured people, ala TOTAL RECALL or post-nuclear societies
[omegaman/roadwarrior].  Storm gave us an "insider" who "built the bomb"
and then tried to disarm it.  Compare that to the "reluctant boy-hero vs.
entire world" theme in WAR GAMES, which is REAL fantasy.
 
But the most astonishing thing to me was the vision of how "modern" SFX
[in its time] was used to take us through the death experience in a
thoughtful,  provoking way, in a most unique POV.  It was a big screen
spectacle, and most *un-forgettable*, both from a production and
philosophical pov. [All the more ironic,as well, since one of it's stars
died while making the film.].
We have the tek power now to give us visions beyond description, but all
we get is techno-babble and radiation.  The genre is under-developed, and
studio abuse is common.  I'd Like to think "Brainstorm" was different.
Pat in WA.