Movie Genre: Science Fiction

Some of Hollywood's most entertaining films have been science fiction, but lately they have seemed to run out of original ideas.

The animated Monsters Vs Aliens was a tribute to many science fiction films. Like many current films of the genre, it steals heavily from films of yore. Some of Hollywood’s most entertaining films have been science fiction, but lately they have seemed to run out of original ideas.

A Trip to the Moon (1902) was the very first science fiction film ever made. Some men take a rocket to the moon, where they encounter aliens. It did not start a craze of any kind, but it did demonstrate that man was fascinated by space, and alien encounters from the very beginning of film making.

Science fiction films were almost nonexistent until the 1950's when films like, The Thing from Another World (1951),The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), When Worlds Collide (1951), War of the Worlds (1953), Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (1958) and The Time Machine (1960) dominated theaters. None ever featured an A-list star, although Steve McQueen made his film debut in The Blob,(1958).

After the glut of 50's science fiction films, they became scarce. There was Fantastic Voyage (1966), the campy Barbarella (1968), and The Planet of the Apes (1968). Interesting to note is that all three films had a major star in the lead. Raquel Welch played a curvy scientist. Jane Fonda made space travel sexy, while Charleton Heston became the science fiction star of the time. After Apes, he made Omega Man (1971), and Soylent Green (1971). The most notable science film of the time was 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Director Stanley Kubrick was nominated for a best director Oscar. Along with Steven Spielberg for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, and George Lucas for Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope they are the only three directors so nominated for a science fiction film.

With few science fiction films coming out in the early 70s, Disney's Escape to Witch Mountain being an exception, the genre seemed to be a dying art. Then in 1977, George Lucas took audiences to a galaxy far far away. Star Wars was the phenomenon of its day. It broke every box office record and had studios racing to capitalize on it. It was referenced in countless movies. Released later in 1977, Close Encounters of the Third Kind features a scene where Terri Garr cuts out a newspaper article about UFOs. Articles about Star Wars are on both sides of the UFO article. In E.T.(1982) someone trick or treats in a Yoda costume, and Eliot shows ET his Star Wars action figures.

Will Smith in I Robot

Star Wars spawned two sequels, and four prequels. It also opened the door for a huge crop of science fiction films; Alien (1979), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Blade Runner (1982), The Terminator (1984), and Mad Max (1979). This time around, science fiction films were taken far more serious. They attracted important directors and major movie stars.

Many of these films spawned numerous sequels, and the genre got a bit stale by the 1990s. Will Smith nearly single handedly breathed new life into the genre when he made a series of quality science fiction films; the War of the Worlds inspired Independence Day (1996), Men in Black (1997), it’s sequel in 2002, and I Robot (2004). In 2007 he appeared in I am Legend which was a remake of Omega Man.

With few exceptions like Signs (2002),Minority Report (2002), and Artificial Intelligence: AI, (2001) many of the recent science fiction films have been remakes. From War of the Worlds (2005) to Planet of the Apes (2001) to The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008) to Race to Witch Mountain (2009), it seems Hollywood has run low on original science fiction story lines. Although science fiction films are here to stay, they definitely need a good creative, ORIGINAL shot in the arm.