Could this decade see a revolution in sci-fi cinema?

Admittedly, I am not a fan of 99% of the science fiction genre. Over the last two decades, I have found it to be dull, I have found it to be utterly cliched and I reckon too much focus is put on the special effects rather than intelligent and interesting stories. Last year's Avatar was a perfect example of this. And let's not forget the terrible Transformers franchise, the ridiculous Alien and Predator sequels, the tedious Terminator movies and a film that looked so bad I refused to even watch it's trailer: 2012.

Having said that though, there is still the 1%. Moon, the film directed by David Bowie's son, was so unique and clever that it was one of my highlights of the decade. Also, the 2006 movie about a future where women cannot conceive, Children Of Men, was incredibly powerful and thought-provoking stuff. The adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road, though unable to reach the book's standards, was very impressive as well. Hell, let's not forget the likes of District 9 either; a film which showed the likes of Michael Bay and Paul W.S. Anderson that you don't need a huge budget to have a hit sci-fi flick as long as you have a great story. It's just a shame that these aforementioned gems are so few and far between though. However, their influence could be leading this decade into a new era of good, unique and exciting science fiction films.

Why do I say this? Well, we're only 5 months into the decade and already there looks like there could be two classics arising out of the genre.

First is Christopher Nolan's mysterious new movie Inception. This is the director's follow-up to the phenomenon that was The Dark Knight and it seems that, because of this fact, Warner Bros. have given him the freedom to whatever he wants. After all, who can blame them? He became so famous after directing the Batman sequel that his name alone will fill a whole load of seats, all his films have been hits with both critics and audiences alike so it's almost guaranteed that this will be too, and most of all, TDK made more money than any of us could ever imagine so it's just as likely that Inception will as well.

Nolan doesn't appear to have taken his freedom for granted either as Inception looks to be a science fiction film unlike anything we have ever seen before.

Second is an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick short story entitled The Adjustment Bureau. At first, I dismissed the film as another one of those special effects sci-fi films like I mentioned above. But after watching the trailer, it seems like the Bourne Ultimatum writer, George Nolfi, has crafted a philosophical and clever movie that asks whether we really control our lives or whether it's all fate. Reminiscent of Blade Runner and the masterful Solyaris with a hint of Nolfi's previous work on The Bourne Ultimatum, The Adjustment Bureau will be one to keep an eye on this autumn.

So do these two films mark the beginning of a new era for the genre? One in which special effects doesn't replace storyline and one in which creativity and originality soars? They could well do. And even if they don't turn out to be that good in the end, there are still plenty more science fiction films coming our way in the coming months that might revolutionise the genre. Duncan Jones' follow-up to Moon which was named the best unproduced script in Hollywood, Source Code, is already in it's early stages of filming and the Children Of Men director will once again be travelling to the future for Gravity.

Or maybe I'm just being optimistic? At the end of the day, there's an Avatar sequel planned, Transformers 3 is coming soon, there's another Predator movie out next year and Resident Evil is still going strong.

We'll see, I guess!

By Daniel Sarath with No comments