State of the Media: Sci-Fi...It's Dead Jim

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28 Mar

State of the Media: Sci-Fi...It's Dead Jim

Written by Jarod Warren

State of the Media: Sci-Fi...It's Dead Jim!

Unlimited Human Imagination Proves Quite Limiting

Many of us contributors at THEMOVIEPOOL can be classified as die-hard fans of specific genres. Jordan is a Monster Action movie follower. I myself am a die-hard Horror aficionado. And I’m pretty certain Gabriel will never quench his inhuman thirst for Children’s Animation, most notably The Care Bears Movie (1985).

Action Horror Pure Speculation

However, one thing I know all of us at THEMOVIEPOOL have in common is our love of Science Fiction. When the implausible, improbable and downright impossible is made celluloid reality, nothing gets us pumped up more. Whether it be aliens, technology, genetics, or some other new fangled vision of the future, we are there to eat it up.

It’s a taste of the new generation…

One thing that has, since its inception as a film genre, been a staple of the Sci-Fi film are the special effects, which have always striven to showcase the best technology available at the time. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is considered a ground-breaking piece that helped to define the genre with its terrifying visuals and brilliant use of simple camera and lighting tricks, some developed strictly for that picture. Other notables that made use of the solid technology of the time would be Blade Runner (1982), Destination Moon (1950), 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Alien (1979), and War of the Worlds (1953). Some of the scenes, music, and technological advances in these films would actually inspire the creators of today in their designs and inventions.

Sadly, I have to admit, Science Fiction as we knew it - for everything it has brought us - is dead. Most likely, it has been dead for some time now, a victim of the limits of the human imagination. Yes, the limits of the human imagination have sadly turned our most endearing and creative genre into the disposable genre it has become. What was once a genre that boasted ingenuity has now become the title of projects that need to increase demographic reach to help insure some return on the investment.

It sickens me these days to see this happening, but what could really be done? The human imagination can only create so many things. From Alpha Centauri to Zardoz, what more can be done? The mind is sadly limited to creating or abstracting only that which we can know and perceive. All creations have basis in what we as people have contact with. Aliens have arms, legs, heads, and are generally organic. But that’s as far as it can go. Take away the arms? Make it metal in composition? Liquid Metal? Really freakin’ angry? We cannot imagine what we cannot comprehend and since the knowledge and experience of humans is itself limited so is our creativity in imagining the final frontier.

Nowadays, our beloved sci-fi has become the tramping ground of less successful, or more accessible, genres. Now we have Sci-Fi Romance, Sci-Fi Thrillers, Sci-Fi Horror, or my favorite of the vague, Sci-Fi Fantasy. What’s worse is recently, sci-fi has taken a back seat. Thriller Sci-Fi, Horror Sci-Fi, Fantasy Romance Adventure Sci-Fi? Huh??

No, that’s not a meat grinder. Yes, it is scientific. Which makes it necessary.

Of course, this was bound to happen. As most things do when we careless humans get involved in them genres too will eventually go extinct. Either by over-production, over-exploitation, or simple overlooking. There is no respect for Sci-Fi anymore, as primarily evidenced this year by the Sci-Fi Channel (probably our last refuge) changing its name, in keeping up with what they view as “the modern demographic”, to: