Science Fiction Movies Work Place ReviewScience Fiction, hi, come in, take a seat. How’s Pam? And the kids? Excellent. Great. So, here we are. Ahem. It’s that time again. Before we start, is there anything you’d like to, I don’t know, get off your chest, any issues burning to be released, might, you know, add a bit of context?
What’s that? You still don’t feel that script writers and studios are using you to your full potential? Yes. Okay, hands up, fair enough. In fact, that’s going to come up in the notes I’ve got. And, yes, okay, fair comment, people throw things into your department just because everyone’s dressed up in tinfoil and the chronological setting is some time in what seems to be the distant future. We will try to take these things into account when we do the review, yes. Now, to prepare for this we have done extensive research and collated out a list of career highs and lows for the Science Fiction department over time and here are our results… What? No. We absolutely didn’t just Google “Top 10 Best SF Movies” pick two lists that “looked good” and then repeat the search substituting “Worst” for “Best”. How can you think we’d be that lazy… Stop looking at me like that. 
We'll ignore that the Jedi didn't sign a return to work form
Anyway, let’s turn our attention to the best you have to offer. Things that consensus appears to tell us are among the best SF movies of all time are E.T., Metropolis, Alien and Star Wars. The first thing I’m going to note is that there’s not a lot of “science” in these fictions. It’s more like you have a kid’s movie, a disaster movie, a monster movie and a high fantasy movie all with bits of tin-foil and flashy lights in them to make them look “science fictiony”. Calm down, I understand that you don’t ask for third parties to throw unrelated material into your in-tray. If you want us to be specific what do you think is a great example of your department operating at top whack? Yes, yes, 2001, absolutely, no doubt, Science Fiction street cred from here to Alpha Centauri. Thing is, though, it’s a bit… how to say this… slow. And, well, the end, what the heck is all that about? No, no, it’s absolutely intelligent, absolutely, but, you know, it’s quite, um, demanding. We’re obviously concerned that you’re reviewed on the most relevant works but we have to remember that you are a movie genre, so we have to assess things as movies, in addition to being examples of the genre. The Matrix, ah yes, some might argue your greatest success, still confuses a lot of people though, doesn’t it. I’m sorry, we have to take into account all segments of the audience. So… I mean, do you want to talk about Terminator? What do you mean time travel doesn’t count in your opinion? I think you’re making a big mistake there. The very nature of time travel stories is to exploit looping, re-working and re-playing, all things that the montage of cinema is very good at visualising. 
As manager's go, HAL isn't the most flexible
Alright, I accept that time-travel is, as far as we know, impossible, and the nature of paradox *is* more philosophy than available to actual scientific research but look at the successes in movies Back To The Future, Predestination, Primer, seriously are you willing to just throw all that away on a technicality? You are. Okay. Fair enough. Maybe we should go and look at the list of movies where you haven’t been doing so well. Maybe we could find some room for improvement. I see in your pre-review briefing form you have written, where was it, oh yes: “The difference between the apparent best of my department’s performance and its reputed worst is largely a matter of execution, not content.” Could you elaborate on that? Well, yes, AvP: Requiem does share a franchise with Alien, but that’s just one… I’m not sure that you could equate the basic premises of Battlefield Earth and War for the Planet of the Apes, no. Well, broadly, I suppose, but… Extrapolation? What’s that got to do with anything. Back to the Matrix, fine. Yes, yes, I accept that the Matrix successfully takes a premise and explores its implications in a satisfying way. Is that your core concern because, well, we have Arrival in the same place. I think we can agree that keeping your department, how shall we say, uncluttered, is probably going to be an ongoing challenge. Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap this up. Oh, I did hope you weren’t going to mention politics. I mean there’s an argument that political messages do run the risk of ruining just about any movie, so you’re not alone. No, I don’t really know how you ended up saddled with any part of an “Atlas Shrugged” adaptation either. 
Xenomorphs always cause an issue when carpooling
Oh, and while we’re on about things that don’t belong we have received your memo about “The Emoji Movie” having absolutely nothing to do with your department and we shall be looking to have that classification nullified as soon as humanly possible. We realise being a contemplative genre in a medium driven by visual metaphor and character beats is a tough call. I think the best we can do is try to concentrate on when you really are doing what you should be doing and try to recognise when other departments are just “using” you for a bit of visual flavour. See you again in a decade, SF, let’s hope things look a little clearer then. The following articles were used as the basis for this piece: Rotten Tomatoes - Best Sci Fi Movies of All Time https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/guide/best-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time/1/ Guardian - Top 10 Sci Fi movies (from 2013) https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/oct/16/top-10-sci-fi-movies Business Insider - Worst Science Fiction Movies of All Time According To Critics https://www.businessinsider.com/worst-science-fiction-movies-all-time-critics-2018-8 Taste Of Cinema - The 10 Worst Sci Fi Movies of All Time http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2018/the-10-worst-sci-fi-movies-of-all-time/ This article accompanies the podcast Revenge of the 80s Kids Episode 132 which asks if Science Fiction and Cinema can ever be friends. The cast can be streamed or downloaded at http://theeightieskids.blogspot.com where you can also find an extensive archive of content about movies and popular culture. You can also get news about the podcast and other projects at https://www.facebook.com/RevengeOfThe80sKids 
|
|
|
Social Trash Mutant |
|
Friendly & associated sites
|
© 2012-2020 TRASH MUTANT. All rights reserved. Some materials used are © their respective copyright owners.
