Sci-fi Timeline
There were relatively few science fiction films in the 1960s, but some of the films transformed science fiction cinema.
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) brought new realism to the genre, with its groundbreaking visual effects and realistic portrayal of space travel and influenced the genre with its epic story and transcendent philosophical scope. Other
1960s films included Planet of the Apes (1968) and Fahrenheit 451 (1966), which provided social commentary, and the campy Barbarella (1968), which explored the sillier side of earlier science fiction. Jean-Luc Godard's French "new wave" film Alphaville (1965) posited a futuristic Paris commanded by an artificial intelligence which has outlawed all emotion.
The era of manned trips to the moon in the 1970s saw a resurgence of interest in the science fiction film. Andrei Tarkovsky’s slow-paced Solaris (1972) had visuals and a philosophic scope reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Science fiction films from the early 1970s explored the theme of paranoia, in which humanity is depicted as under threat from ecological or technological adversaries of its own creation, such as Silent Running (ecology), Westworld (man vs. robot), THX 1138 (man vs. the state), and Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (threat of brainwashing). Conspiracy thriller films of the 1970s included Soylent Green and Futureworld. The science fiction comedies of the 1970s included Woody Allen's Sleeper and John Carpenter's Dark Star.
Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both released in 1977 , were box-office hits that brought about a huge increase in science fiction films. As well, Star Wars helped to blur the distinction between the science fiction, fantasy, and superhero genres. In 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture brought the television series to the big screen for the first time. Ridley Scott's films, such as Alien and Blade Runner, presented the future as dark, dirty and chaotic, and depicted non-humans such as aliens and cyborgs as hostile and dangerous. In contrast, Steven Spielberg's E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, one of the most successful films of the 1980s, presented aliens as benign and friendly.
The big budget adaptations of Frank Herbert's Dune and Arthur C. Clarke's sequel to 2001, 2010, were box office duds that dissuaded producers from investing in science fiction literary properties. The strongest contributors to the genre during the second half of the 1980s were James Cameron and Paul Verhoeven with The Terminator and RoboCop entries. In the 1980s, animation began being used for science fiction films, such as the Japanese anime film Akira (1988) and the French animated science fiction film Light Years (1988).
In the 1990s, the emergence of the world wide web and the cyberpunk genre spawned several movies on the theme of the computer-human interface, such as Total Recall (1990), The Lawnmower Man (1992), Virtuosity (1995), Johnny Mnemonic (1995), eXistenZ (1999) and The Matrix (1999) . Other themes included disaster movies (e.g., Armageddon and Deep Impact both from 1998), alien invasion (Independence Day from 1996) and genetic experimentation (e.g., Jurassic Park from 1993 and Gattaca from 1997).
As the decade progressed, computers played an increasingly important role in both the addition of special effects and the production of films. As the software developed in sophistication it was used to produce more complicated effects.
Developments in software also enabled filmmakers to enhance the visual quality of animation, which was used in the science fiction films Ghost in the Shell (1995) from Japan and The Iron Giant (1999) and Titan A.E. (2000) from the US.
During the 2000s, fantasy and superhero films abounded, as did earthbound SF such as the Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. In 2005, the Star Wars sextet was completed with the darkly-themed Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
Science-fiction returned as a tool for political commentary in films such as A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Minority Report, and Children of Men. The year 2005 saw a remake of King Kong.(*)
source: wikipedia
photo:forum.myspace
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses speculative, science-based depictions of imaginary phenomena such as extra-terrestrial lifeforms, alien worlds, and time travel, often along with technological elements such as futuristic spacecraft, robots, or other technologies. Science fiction films have often been used to provide social commentary on political or social issues, and to explore philosophical issues, such as "what makes us human."
In many cases, tropes derived from written science fiction may be used by filmmakers ignorant of or at best indifferent to the standards of scientific plausibility and plot logic to which written science fiction is traditionally held.
The genre has existed since the early years of silent cinema, when Georges Melies' A Trip to the Moon (1902) amazed audiences with its trick photography effects. From the 1930s to the 1950s, the genre consisted mainly of low-budget B-movies. After Stanley Kubrick's 1968 landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey, the science fiction film genre was taken more seriously. In the late 1970s, big-budget science fiction films filled with special effects became popular with audiences. The hugely influential Star Wars trilogy and Close Encounters of the Third Kind appeared, paving the way for the blockbuster hits of subsequent decades, such as E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982), Independence Day (1996) and Men in Black (1997).(*)
source:wikipedia
photo: otr
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