Comments on: The Two Ways Science Fiction Is Slowly Destroying Itself

By: Neoflux

Neoflux — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:52:00 +0000

‘They’ll keep changing the timeline in the Terminator universe as long as the name sells tickets.’

When was Terminator not about time travel and changing the timeline in an attempt to stop a dystopic future? If you take those things away form the Terminator series what are you left with?

By: patrick zazzaro

patrick zazzaro — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 20:40:00 +0000

could someone please explain to me how piranha 3dd is a science fiction movie ?
(i would also argue that “seeking a friend for the end of the world” is in no way a science fiction either)

By: Robert Hildenbrand

Robert Hildenbrand — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 13:36:00 +0000

I agree, dystopian futures aren’t the problem, it is poor writing or attempting to make every lead character have a happy ending by finding their lover.

There really isn’t any bad plot, only bad writing to get to the plot. You can have the star crossed lovers who fight the world to be together… But you need to have good writing to make it work and not become whinny.

You can have characters who send a good moral message, if you don’t try and make them perfect or change too quickly. Take starwars IV, V and VI for example.

Han had a conscious and quit the Empire, but he still had to pay the bills and to do that, he had to become a criminal. When he joined the alliance, he didn’t magically become the good guy he was in return of the jedi, he transitioned into the good guy he became.

I think too many books and movies try and force the change too quickly. Namely the redemption of a character too quickly and as a result we get poor writing, because the writer isn’t able to wait… They lack the patience to get their beloved characters to the place the writer desires them to be.

This is likely why most of my book ideas turn into series spanning 3-4 books or span a number of years for the character to change who they are with small nudges rather than one great big bump.

By: Denice Laws

Denice Laws — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:34:00 +0000

Thank GOD I’m not the only one. Can we please, please, PLEASE have a new Star Trek series now????????

By: Steven Roberts

Steven Roberts — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 21:41:00 +0000

I’d say American sci-fi is in trouble. With anime I’m getting sci-fi of alien princess landing on Earth and crazy hijinks, massive fleets of ships battleing it out, and armies of giant robots at war. It’s good to be an anime fan.

By: John

John — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 09:59:00 +0000

The biggest problem is neither of those two things.
It’s that the majority of films in that list were either part of a series (prequel or sequel) or remakes.
A few better ideas and a few less effects? A film, built to that formula, would be far more memorable than those listed above.

By: dosmastr

dosmastr — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:07:00 +0000

in other news, noah is right, you couldn’t do a star trek the next generation today… its too “bubbly and clowie and happy” (yeah thats a ds9 reference sue me) people saw that as something we could and should aspire to in the 80′s and 90′s… today we know that more likely than not, we will destroy this planet to some degree or another, that corporations are the true rulers, and that things are getting worse, not better.

By: dosmastr

dosmastr — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 10:04:00 +0000

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[| From: http://www.elyrics.net |]
(6 months later)

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Lyrics from eLyrics.net

By: John Timothy Pepper

John Timothy Pepper — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:11:00 +0000

OK, I will agree whole heartedly where you’re coming from. But you’re preaching to the choir. There is good Sci-Fy still out there but it’s the shock awe that the movie companies are trying to sell. You need to tell the studios and the writers themselves. True, a lot of sci-fy writers have lost their way. But they write what they think what you want. Real Sci-fy is about life not death. If you notice in all the movie remakes; Everyone has to die instead of just enough to establish the story like in the original. Everyone involved has forgotten that WE are suppose to win not THEM. And, we are suppose to win over insurmountable odds with a hope of an acceptable future. There has got to be something in the future to look forward to besides a post Armageddon world ridden with blood splattered scenario’s.

By: Winston Grant

Winston Grant — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 05:26:00 +0000

Three words: POOR STORY CHOICES.

By: Sylvain Pimpare

Sylvain Pimpare — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 17:58:00 +0000

Agreed but in a society who still believe that we went on the Moon even if that’s impossible to survive the cosmic radiations below our protective magnetosphere, it’s hard for those people to known about REAL science by being brainwashed by the Mass Media.

By: Jim Bob

Jim Bob — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:42:00 +0000

I for one am tired of all the the end of the world “doomsday” settings. Stories need to be made much simpler and about fewer characters. That way there is plenty of room to completely realize the sci-fi setting that the story is set in, and to flesh out the character adequately enough for the audience to actually care about them.

By: John

John — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 22:58:00 +0000

Isn’t walking dead more survival horror then sci-fi?

By: Ivan Chen

Ivan Chen — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 07:57:00 +0000

besides being touchingly patriotic and despite that everybody KNOWS Scandinavian countries have the highest standard of living in the world; you do realize that Norway can only function so luxuriously because its a relatively small country, where everything is so much easier to manage than say like, USA or China? so in fact there really ISN’T enough resources for everyone in the world to live in as much bliss as the Norwegians, and to brag about how your country can be so awesome and why all our other crappy countries can’t be more like you, is frankly severely rubbing salt in the wound.

In reality, for one Norwegian to enjoy the prestige of being a Norwegian, a million other third world country people must live a poverty-stricken life. After all, Isn’t that how our society works? 5% possess the majority of wealth while 95% slave away in order for the 5% to continue being the 5%. So in essence, your description of Norway is of it being the elite 5% whilst condescending and belittling the other 95% for being, well, not as good as you. If Norway was a bigger country with more people, there is no way it would sustain its standard of living. Much like the case of Singapore with its marshal cleanliness.

By: Guy Caballero

Guy Caballero — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 23:16:00 +0000

Very True.. but I agree as well that a lot of the writing and acting is very poorly done. Also this is yet another phase/ “flavor of the month” of zombie-post apocalyptic Doomed time travel genre— we just have to wait it out with a few compelling and original stories in the mix until an original new premisecomes along (a la Star Wars 1977, Alien 1979, Blade Runner 1982). Plus remember you are dealing with Hollywood which is famous for being trite, unoriginal, and only in it for the money. There are probably 100′s of great stories and new genres sitting in the studios basement–simply because they do not have the guts or forsight to make them.

By: Hellgramite

Hellgramite — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 15:22:00 +0000

So many people can’t see the main problem. The problem with these thing is that all too often the writer is merely using a fantastic setting for a DRAMA. Remove the sci-fi trappings and if you still have a movie, then it’s not sci fi, it’s a drama with some “fantastic elements thrown in to draw an audience of geeks and nerds”. The Walking Dead is a PRIME example. It’s a survival story – a drama about people surviving an apocolypse. OLD OLD OLD. In the beginning it wasn’t, but that’s all it is now. LAZY writers use comfortable plot line and hang them on a sci-fi rigging and BAM, they just wrote Sci Fi. NO NO NO NO NO ….. now we have night time soap operas with an element of sci fi or horror to keep us interested, and it’s BS. The audience by and large is not intelligent enough to support real science fiction. Look at Dr Who – hard core fans, it can’t exist without science fiction elements, and it’s despised by soooooo many in the US. The US audience simply can not handle real science fiction. We are a stupid people who become angry easily when confronted with something that challenges the intellect in new and different ways – so the “popular” crap is nothing but warm, fuzzy dramas with a sci-fi seasoning thrown on top. And the stupid train continues to run and even seems to be picking up speed.

By: Philip Mitchell Graham

Philip Mitchell Graham — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 23:45:00 +0000

I don’t think Hollywood has ever gotten over the success of The Road Warrior. I movie that only works because its limited budget forced tight scripting around restrained set design and locations. The film stays on track because its world is strictly limited by the interaction of the characters.

Film makers love fleshing out an apocalyptic world because it is fun to get the audience to identify with a familiar ruined landscape.

Hollywood forgets the symbolic nature of honest speculation.

A detailed ruined world is more realistic and easier to relate too? WRONG.

Who really knows what a ruined world would look like? We only know about localised disaster zones. In a dead world there is no unharmed area from which help can arrive.

A ruined New York is just disaster porn. A wrecked statue of liberty on its own is a far more effective dramatic device. Hitchcok’s opening door writ large.

Throwing a lot of money at epic post apocalyptic films has ALWAYS dilutes the story. Modern post apocalyptic films meander aimlessly over ruined landscapes that have no symbolic tension. They also destroy credibility.

People simply cannot survive in endless deserts without food and water, no matter how fantastic their fighting skills are.

By: Heartland Patriot

Heartland Patriot — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 03:03:00 +0000

Massively agree. Good analysis. Ready for something sci-fi that is actually COOL and interesting for a change.

By: IG

IG — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 02:42:00 +0000

Oh don’t worry we’ve got hunters for those.

Besides they usually only appear in souvenir shops.

By: ☆ForeverAeon☆

☆ForeverAeon☆ — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 22:40:00 +0000

Joah, please kill yourself. You are part of the problem.

By: Peter Robertson

Peter Robertson — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 18:23:00 +0000

maybe because those movies are well-made, popular and feature charismatic acting and directig. Superhero movies are in their heyday.

By: GotChewZ

GotChewZ — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 20:29:00 +0000

Looper was a great example, that time travel movies can still be awesome.

Dredd was awesome too. So much better than Judge Dredd. It’s one of the most overlooked and underrated movies of 2012.

By: kwak

kwak — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:38:00 +0000

okay, we can’t call our shuttle “enterprise”
how about “nomandy”?

By: squigeon

squigeon — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:55:00 +0000

PROMETHEUS is about preventing doomed humanity, so that means its the same as the rest. Also most of them are prequels sequels or re-makes thats what the problem is, lazy directors, writers and producers more worried about money than creating something original

By: Jon Melius

Jon Melius — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:54:00 +0000

Enders Game movie gives me much hope for the Sci Fi genre if they do it right.