Science Fiction Movies of This Decade
.Why have there been so few good ones? I noticed this a while back, and having discussed the matter with some friends, it appears to be the case that the first decade of this millennium is really bad for cinematic science fiction.
I saw Children of Men last night, enjoyed it a lot and found it eerily plausible, and it is now at the top of my list of sf movies in the last eight years—but it doesn’t face much competition at all.
The only other movie I can think of that would compete with it is Code 46, which was quite good if low-key. But where are the instant classics?
The 80s had Alien, Blade Runner, The Empire Strikes Back, The Terminator, Aliens, and RoboCop, to name just those that spring to mind offhand. The 90s had Total Recall (unless you want to call 1990 the tenth year of the 80s…), Gattaca, Starship Troopers, and The Matrix, and doubtless more that I’m forgetting.
Those are all easy to come up with, but this decade? The Star Wars and Matrix movies released during it were awful. Serenity, while good, is very dependent on its parent series and wouldn’t be a classic on its own. There have been many terrible sf movies, from I, Robot to Transformers.
The comic-book adaptations might improve the picture a little bit, if one were to consider the X-Men movies, and possibly V For Vendetta as science fiction, but even then, they’re not really in the same league as the movies mentioned from previous decades.
I don’t know why this is the case, although Hollywood dynamics and economics doubtless play a large part. I hope it’s not a trend that will continue. Am I forgetting any major films that would prove me wrong about this decade? Or will they all be released in the next two years?
02 Jul 2008 at 15:46
I’d nominate ‘Primer’ epsecially for having the guts to go intentionally non-linear towards the end
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390384/
11 Jul 2008 at 16:37
Alex beat me to it. No special effects whatsoever, but I think Primer was amazing.