It's kinda sad where the genre has ended up, but Marvel has stolen summer from sci-fi.
sharethat's true when you look at The Martian, Gravity even Interstellar (all huge hits as well). ok both the Alien prequels were summer but they were 'Alien' which is traditionally summer
yet a decade or so ago a space set SF film like Ad Astra with a major A list star would've been a huge summer event (think Armageddon, Apollo 13).. now thanks to superheroes its almost like the studio be like 'wait a minute theres no superheroes in this? um.. just dump it sept/oct ..or maybe it shud just go straight to dvd..'
I don't think superheros are the ones to blame. Sci-Fi as a genre has declined heavily. Hugo Awards are not even a shadow of the past, they've become a bad joke: Jemisin, black woman, the only writer to have won the Hugo three years in a row (not even Robert Heinlein could do that), the (supposed) greatest sci-fi writer in modern history... couldn't even articulate a proper speech in the Hugo ceremony. A f***** writer. A f*****g multi-awarded writer. Robert Silverberg was furious.
The whole genre has become more like a B-genre.
It's someway logical: sci-fi is a genre of ideas. The real golden sci-fi era, novels and movies, happened from mid 60s to late 80s. The moment freedom of thought reached its peak. The hard decline in sci-fi is just a consequence of the hard decline in the freedom of thought.
Very interesting points, I'm sure you're right about the golden era. I'm trying to think of good/great sci-fi in the 90's and the only thing I can think of is Arnie in Total Recall and Terminator 2.
I read that great book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and there's a lot of talk by insiders about how the success of Star Wars caused so much change in Hollywood. Not only because it was Sci-Fi but the strategy of raking in so much money off of tentpole movies made for kids. Aladdin, Toy Story, Monsters Inc. Incredibles, these movies never end.
Nah, you're underrating the 90s for good sci-fi.
The Matrix, Contact, Independence Day, The Fifth Element and Starship Troopers were all great. Gattaca, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, Stargate and Species round out a solid B-list.
Also, are we going to call Jurassic Park sci-fi? I guess it is, really. So if you include Jurassic Park we also have one of the greatest films of all time on the list.
The 90s were actually not just a solid decade for sci-fi, overall it was an excellent decade for movies as a whole. It may even be the single greatest decade.
WHOA....90S WERE A GOOD DECADE FOR SCI FI...SINGLE GREATEST DECADE???HELL NO,AND I WAS A TEENAGER IN THE 90S.THE 90S AND EARLY 00'S ARE ONE OF THE WORST ERAS IN FILM MINUS A FEW EXCELLENT EXCEPTIONS.
shareDude, there are so many enjoyable fucking movies from the 90s that it's insane.
I mean, just to start rattling off a list, without already mentioning the ones I listed earlier. . .
Goodfellas
The Rock
Fight Club
Dances With Wolves
The Game
The Shawshank Redemption
Se7en
The Mummy
Edward Scissorhands
Face/Off
Heat
Bravehart
The Hunt for Red October
Hackers
Forrest Gump
Terminator 2
The Silence of the Lambs
Fargo
Good Will Hunting
Scream
Single White Female
Pulp Fiction
Point Break
Sleepy Hollow
Tombstone
Glengarry Glen Ross
A Few Good Men
I mean, do I need to go on? Because I can. I can go on for a while actually, eventually getting down to 90s hidden gems like Copycat and The Big Hit.
Make no mistake, the 90s was an EXCELLENT decade for movies. It's easily my favorite.
Nah, you're underrating the 90s for good sci-fi. The Matrix, Contact, Independence Day, The Fifth Element and Starship Troopers were all great. Gattaca, Dark City, 12 Monkeys, Stargate and Species round out a solid B-list.
Fair point.
I tried to give a period for both novels and movies, but probably that's not right. Golden era for sci-fi novels and the peak of freedom of thought went from 60s to 80s, while in movies it went 70s-90s. There's a delay, probably because movies feed on literature. The Matrix is 1997, while Neuromancer is 1984.
The Matrix is 1999.
shareRespectfully disagree as 2000s is Golden Age wid Pluto Nash
sharenever heard of this one.
shareI also just noticed that, despite the looks of the poster in the theater, some outlets aren't even calling this a sci-fi. I just noticed that the IMDb genre-listing is "Adventure, Drama, Mystery".
I guess Pitt would not be associated with something that could very well have been relegated straight to Netflix.
These are sad times for sci-fi.
Speck
Very true, another Avengers movie or 3 is in the works.
shareYeah, random CGI exercises get the prime spots. But, it's good that there is SOME place for these movies in the release schedule.
share