Let's Talk About Movies: Why Do I Cover So Much Science Fiction?

Alo Party Peoples.

A lot, and I mean a lot, of my reviews cover movies with a fantastical bent. Why is that? I've asked my readers before if that's a problem to them. They assure me that it isn't, but I can't help but feel that it might lower my credibility in the eyes of some people. Speculative fiction, for all the money Hollywood pours into it yearly, isn't held in the highest regard. Maybe that's because Hollywood pours so much money into it. Most of their genre output is in the form of eye-candy blockbusters, and people don't usually think of blockbusters when they think of artistic achievement.

Unless it's Star Wars, or Lord of The Rings, or debatably the Matrix but I've already given my two cents about that. Did you notice a pattern? Most speculative fiction that does get critical respect tends to have had an influence. Star Wars kicked off the Blockbuster/Franchise Age  and gave a massive boom to the realm of movie merchandizing. The Lord of The Rings became the foundation of the fantasy genre in the West, and helped start the idea of a modern fandom along with Star Wars. The Matrix revolutionized the use of computer effects and popularized the grim grey aesthetic that became so commonplace in action. You can debate for yourselves whether any of that is a positive legacy, but it's still a legacy, and a big one.

Star Wars especially started Hollywood's current fixation on speculative fiction, and specifically science fiction. The problem with that, they might have also believed that speculative fiction in film had to be a blockbuster to turn a profit, and making those is expensive. Maybe they thought it necessary to dumb the stuff down to make it appealing to more people. Don't get me wrong, some good movies came out of the Blockbuster Age and fixation on sci-fi by Hollywood. In fact, I'll list some now.

• The Fifth Element
• Gattaca
• Pleasantville
• Peter Jackson's Lord of The Rings movies
• The currently ongoing Marvel Cinematic Universe is something unique
• The first two Christopher Nolan Batman movies
• Alien
• A good portion of Speilberg's backlog

But for every Dark Knight or Gravity, there will be a Batman and Robin or an Attack of the Clones.

If you've ever wondered why I cover so much science fiction. To be honest, partially because my interests are skewed in that direction, but it's also because Hollywood makes so much of it. 

Have a nice day.

Greg.B