Late the other night I watched ALTERED STATES for the very first time. The film, released late in December of 1980, stars William Hurt as Edward Jessup, a university professor of abnormal psychology interested in researching sensory deprivation. To achieve this, he takes psychoactive drugs and locks himself inside a box for extended periods of time. Eventually, he regresses back to primitive forms of man … and beyond.
While watching the film, I found myself asking, “Why don’t we have more challenging science fiction films like this one anymore?” It was actually startling to see a film in which every character in it has a college degree, and is able to discuss intricate and complex scientific ideas with some amount of conviction. Nobody showed up in a fat suit and farted. The characters didn’t need to make awkward pop culture references at any time. These are intelligent and thoughtful people tackling disturbing questions about the universe. I thought it was refreshing.
Intelligent science fiction films are not made today partly because of the expense of films like this. Most science fiction films require larger budgets, which means they need to recoup those costs on the backend. With the costs of film production rising, Hollywood simply doesn’t trust the average American moviegoer to support smarter films like this.
And who can blame them? When you see the unwashed, mouth-breathing masses lining up to chortle at brainless fart-fare like NORBIT or WILD HOGS or WOLVERINE, Hollywood has little reason to go out on a financial limb for more intelligent fare. Just toss another scoop of slop in the trough, and they’ll squeal every time!!!
Seriously – when was the last time we had an exceptionally intelligent science fiction film? Some might argue TIMECRIMES, although that film is more of a gimmick than it is a serious film about time travel. Darren Aronofsky’s THE FOUNTAIN is a possible contender, even though the film doesn’t really work. Perhaps films like PI or PRIMER might be the best examples, although tellingly both were made outside of Hollywood. The last intellectually-stimulating science fiction film from Hollywood might be THE MATRIX a decade ago. Suffice it to say, films of that caliber are quite rare.
When I look back on the history of film, it’s shocking to see how few chances are being taken today in the area of science fiction. Where are bold risk takers like METROPOLIS … THINGS TO COME … THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL … 2001: A SPACE ODDESSEY … ALTERED STATES … ALIEN … TRON … BLADE RUNNER … and so on? We live in the most technologically advanced age in history, yet thought-provoking entertainment is rapidly becoming an endangered species.
There are several possibilities behind why science fiction seems so rare today. Perhaps science fiction, unlike other genres of film, are more cyclical in nature; they rely on ideas that spring from invention, unlike comedies or dramas. Maybe science fiction films can only come around every few years to remind us of where we’re going as a race. Hell, it might be as simple as a lack of imagination or wonder in a generation that has seen technological feats and devastating real-life events.
Whatever the reason, intellectual science fiction is a dying art form in desperate need of a visionary and some risk takers in Hollywood.
24 Comments
It’s because Hollywood thinks you’re an idiot. And you (not you, Ray, the collective “you”) keep proving them right by plunking down money on movies that simply aren’t risky.
Look at Danny Boyle’s SUNSHINE. Financially, it bombed, but it asked important questions (until the act 3 cop-out). People want to check their brains at the door. Doesn’t matter if you or I agree. They don’t want to think. They don’t want to be challenged. They don’t want to go have coffee and cheesecake after the movie to discuss whatever moral dilemma came up.
It’s called showBUSINESS for a reason. As much as we (I) bitch about the shitty movies, people KEEP. GOING. TO. SEE. THEM. And like Churchill said (and I paraphrase) “you’re doomed to the government you elect.” Well, by voting with our dollars, we’ve ensured that, sooner rather than later, we’ll be seeing NUTTY PROFESSOR IV: I JUST SHIT MY DRAWERS! some time next summer.
Grrrr…
Also, “cube” was a good low-budget sci-fi with a brain.
Mark
@ MEDavidson – Yeah, you’re right. Hollywood churns out the crap, and people keep buying it. If a movie like MOON (which I have not seen yet, but I’ve heard is amazing) makes $200 million at the box office, I’m sure Hollywood would take notice.
Of course, THE MATRIX made that much. The problem is Hollywood thought people went to it because of its ground-breaking effects, rather than the compelling storyline … so they created a bunch of special effects movies in response.
I gotta call bullshit. The last 15 years have been pretty good to science fiction:
Dark City
12 Monkeys
Donnie Darko
Wall E
Children of Men
AI (overlong as it was)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Contact
A Scanner Darkly (I thought it was crap, but many disagree)
Minority Report
Gattaca
Sunshine
Plus the ones you already mentioned.
@ cambion – brilliant!!!! You’re absolutely right!
Why does it just seem that way, then?
I think Sturgeon’s Law is relevant here – 99% of everything is shit – and that applies to both films AND the mass of people who go to see them.
Ray, I think it’s easy to see older movies as classics while overlooking the great stuff that comes out in our own generation. I’m not sure why that is, exactly, but I do know I catch myself doing it all the time. I guess it might be because a lot of the films I listed still have to stand the test of time before their real impact can be measured.
Anyway, at first glance I completely agreed with the article, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it wasn’t true.
@ cambion – actually I’m a little ashamed that I missed some of those. I mean CHILDREN OF MEN???? It’s one of my all time faves!!!! You were absolutely right to some degree… I think I get frustrated at the level of stupidity in movies generally.
Wait wait wait… Hold on now…
Ray, your original premise IS correct. That doesn’t mean that there haven’t been good Sci Fi flicks over the 15 year period (since we’re now picking a time frame…)
BUT… there about 300 films released theatrically in the US (sorry, don’t know figures for UK) every year. So that’s about 4500 movies over the past 15 years. Even if we take the list we’ve haphazardly compiled, add in 20 more that we haven’t thought of, we’re talking in the neighborhood of 1% for “good” sci fi.
M A R K
@ MEDavidson – Yikes … well thanks for going into algebraic equations to make me feel better :)
I absolutely agree with you Ray. Science fiction has always been my favorite genre of both film and literature, and it saddens me to think that there just aren’t that many good, intelligent, and thought provoking sci-fi films these days.
Recently, Sunshine, while as mentioned above deviates greatly towards the end, is about the only true sci-fi film I have found myself enjoying. By recently, I mean within the last 2 years or so. The problem is that sci-fi films are all effects driven these days, but since their budgets suck because hollywood know they won’t recoup costs, their effects are even subpar, which can take away a lot from a film in this particular genre.
Hopefully Inception and Avatar will both go a long ways to making people discover that thought provoking sci-fi can be entertaining and still make money.
Here’s my ten pence – SOLARIS.
As unpopular as the George Cloony remake is, I really rate it as intelligent sci-fi.
The Solaris remake wasn’t that bad. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t really leave a lasting impression on me like other films styled that way have in the past. Just felt like it was going through the motions of being a remake instead trying to develop its own identity.
@ KC and Johnson – SUNSHINE and SOLARIS both sucked. Especially SUNSHINE … man what a horrible ending!!!!!
Sunshine is a good example of when studios get their hands into something that’s cerebral. They’re just too scared to take a chance. And hey… it’s their money. Do what they want or raise the 50M yourself.
@ MEDavidson – And maybe THAT’S more along the lines of what I was saying in this article. Almost every recent science fiction film has been test-marketed to death and fiddled with until the chances are completely wrung from the thing. It happened with SUNCHINE and SOLARIS and AI.
I don’t know if I agree about AI…
But the remake of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is a good example of the studio’s f*cking with a production. Jaden Smith killed (KILLED) the damn movie. Why? So it would “play to more quadrant’s” Why? Because “we need to expand the demographic.”
Not to pick on the kid (he’s only 10) but… DAMN… talk about just KILLING a movie! If there was ever any life in DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, little Jaden stomped the living shit out of it.
There’s another movie called PASSENGERS. It’s straight Sci Fi, but not in production yet. It’s about a huge space ship traveling to populate a new planet. Two of the people are awakened for some reason, but they still have 50 years till they get to the planet. Chaos ensues. It’s a good read. Keanu Reeves is producing and is supposed to star.
And MOON looks good as well.
I can see how one could feel that smart sci fi is gone. Smart sci fi movies do not make the ’splash’ in the media and with the viewers that they used to. Consider Back to the Future, Alien, Blade Runner, The Fly or 2001. These blew audiences AYWAY. Sci Fi today is just a business venture. Investments are made and we receive a slick product. The unusual projects that should catch our attention usually pass by below the radar.
But there are still worthy films, real jewels, out there. Since 2000, and depending on one’s taste and among many others, movies like Equilibrium, Minority Report, The Dark Knight, Serenity or A Sound of Thunder could be mentioned (sorry about the last one there, but I love that film). Also, there is I am Legend, which I have not seen, yet, but which is supposed to be very good.
On the other hand, there is the shitfest that Hollywood unleashes on its care-(and brain-)free audience: Transformers, every second comic adaptation, 10.000 BC or the second batch of Star Wars. SHAME ON YOU, GEORGE LUCAS! My rule of thumb is to be VERY wary of anything that has major money connected to it.
If you are interested in an extensive list of Sci Fi movies by year, go to the list of the top sci fi movies on astropix:
http://www.astropix.com/HTML/L_STORY/STARLIST/TOP25SF.HTM
Also, I completely forgot to mention that one movie is going to ressurect good high-quality storytelling in the sci fi genre this year: The Road is going to be awesome (I hope). At least, that was the best book I have read in many years!
@ Phoenix – No, not Serenity.
As far as THE ROAD, yeah I agree that it was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time; it’s like narrative poetry. I hope the movie can capture the essence of the book without getting too maudlin. I’m not sure if I’d classify it as hard science fiction, though. It’s basically a survivor tale set in a post-apocalyptic world …. it doesn’t even explain what happened in great detail.
@Ray
I honestly really enjoyed the first hour or so of Sunshine, after that the ending is a complete disaster. The part where it is actually a sci-fi film as opposed to some half-ass sci-fi horror is awesome.
Solaris, like I said, it was good for what it was, but left no real lasting impression. If I had never seen the original I’d have no clue what happened because nothing in it was memorable at all.
Honestly, the overuse of CGI is what is killing most sci-fi films for me. Its overused and not done all that well so its obviously very fake. It takes me out of the experience of the movie because I’m sitting there thinking “what the fuck happened with that creature effect?”
Maybe the reason we’re a bit blind to the intelligent scifi of today is that it blends so seamlessly into other genres.
The dystopian-near-future movies almost always turn kind of actiony, and when they’re set in the present day it’s even more complicated. Eternal Sunshine is many people’s favorite love story even though it is straight great scifi, and so forth.
Scifi metaphors have become more subtle, perhaps?
@caroline – that’s exactly what i was thinking. if audiences tend to sort of link scifi with stuff like star trekwars, then its got this kind of ‘nerdy’ stigma to it. if the metaphors are more subtle and believable, maybe less fantastic, then audiences are probably more likely to respond positively.
anyways, moon looks awesome, big-time excited for that one.
DUDE, Children of Men! Serenity! Even Minority Report and Vanilla Sky were at least interesting.
You guys are forgetting The Prestige. Amazing film and only a few years old.
Not to mention a great little indie called The man from Earth.