Science Fiction

SCIENCE FICTION/ FANTASY

In hypothetical futures that are typically technological imaginary worlds of tyranny and chaos: Blade Runner, Minority Report. In Fantasy the screenwriter plays with time, space, and the physical, bending and mixing the laws of nature and the supernatural. Imaginary worlds and scenarios are constructed – often with the aid of special effects – to enable the improbable to become possible. Themes within these films include alien life forms, space and time travel, and futuristic technology. The science fiction film is to society what the horror film is to the person – a tale of catastrophe, a story of our worst nightmares. The central character is an innocent bystander who is victimised by a technological accident or an unnatural phenomenon or another world; the central character may or may not overcome the challenge of the antagonist; the antagonist may be a scientist or the product of science or nature – the scale of the antagonist is so great (giants ants as an example) that the central character is reminded not only of mortality, but also of humanity; the outcome is often more hopeful; the story line if often plot intensive and presents a specific threat to the natural order – the plot outlines the central character’s response to the threat.

What to Watch: Metropolis (1926), The Wizard of Oz (1939), The Time Machine (1960), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Solaris (Russian, 1972), Star Wars (1977), The Matrix (1999), Blade Runner (1982), Minority Report (2002), Time Bandits (1981), Brazil (1985), The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1984), The Terminator (1984), Back to the Future (1985), A.I: Artificial Intelligence (2001), War of the World (2004).

The extra realities of Fantasy attract the Action genres but also welcome others such as the Love Story (Somewhere in Time), Political Drama/ Allegory (Animal Farm), Social Drama (IF…), the Maturation Plot (Alice in Wonderland)