Sci-Fi Movies

Sci-Fi movies are generally the films that explore the great potential when it comes to technological and scientific advancement, and the impact this could have on humanity and the world we live in. The component that make up a sci-fi movie can be diverse, but with the most common ones being a protagonist, foreign or distant settings (beyond what conventional travel can reach), an impossible task or quest, strange and alien enemies, and advanced technology gadgets.

Many popular sci-fi movies will have plotlines that cover anything from time travel to space journeys to raising the dead, all presenting a universe or challenge that is not part of the audience’s regular world.

Sci-fi movies can also act as cautionary tales of the dangers to advancement and humanity’s place in the world, such as with The Terminator series, which showed that technological advancement is not necessarily always in the world best interests.

In fact, sci-fi movies have often been pegged as somewhat prophetic in nature, showing potential futures for earth if certain paths are taken.

Of course, sci-fi movies also are a perfect vehicle for escapism with some of the most successful movies and television series being based on this genre, including Star Trek, Star Wars, and The Matrix trilogy.

Examples of Sci-Fi Movies, The Matrix Revolutions and Pitch Black:

Themes, imagery, and visual elements

Science fiction films are often speculative in nature, and often include key supporting elements of science and technology. However, as often as not the "science" in a Hollywood science fiction movie can be considered pseudo-science, relying primarily on atmosphere and quasi-scientific artistic fancy than facts and conventional scientific theory. The definition can also vary depending on the viewpoint of the observer.

Many science fiction films include elements of mysticism, occult, magic, or the supernatural, considered by some to be more properly elements of fantasy or the occult (or religious) film. This transforms the movie genre into a science fantasy with a religious or quasi-religious philosophy serving as the driving motivation. The movie Forbidden Planet employs many common science fiction elements, but the film carries a profound message - that the evolution of a species toward technological perfection (in this case exemplified by the disappeared alien civilization called the "Krell") does not ensure the loss of primitive and dangerous urges. In the film this part of the primitive mind manifests itself as monstrous destructive force emanating from the freudian subconscious, or "Id".

Some films blur the line between the genres, such as movies where the protagonist gains the extraordinary powers of the superhero. These films usually employ a quasi-plausible reason for the hero gaining these powers.

Not all science fiction themes are equally suitable for movies. In addition to science fiction horror, space opera is most common.Often enough, these films could just as well pass as westerns or World War II movies if the science fiction props were removed. Common motifs also include voyages and expeditions to other planets, and dystopias, while utopias are rare.

Some of these elements include:

• Alien invasion 
• Environmental disaster
• Man supplanted by technology
• Nuclear war 
• Pandemic
• Monsters
• Mind and identity
• Robots
• Time travel

Copyright: This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sci-Fi film".