this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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This movie was okay, but I don’t really consider it to be sci-fi. It’s more a political drama.
If your sci fi isn't making some sort of social or political statement, its not sci fi - its just sparkling futurism.
... wow, "sparkling futurism" is the phrase I didn't know t needed, thx.
It classifies so much stuff perfectly!
Glad to be of service :D
Disagree.
That's fair. What are some of your favourite sci fi pieces?
The apolitical gem, Star Wars!
For me, it's the totally unallegorical Starship Troopers.
Inception, Interstellar, Star Trek movies, Star Wars (originals), probably some I’m forgetting.
Inception is kinda all about closure, which I'll give you isn't quite "social commentary" but its treading dangerously close to mental health commentary.
Interstellar is all about climate change, and the duty of humanity to fix their own mess, which are certainly social commentary points
Star Trek has social commentary and political commentary baked into its DNA, everything is an allegory for some real life issue they want to trick people into thinking about with an open mind, or from a new point of view
Star Wars, well, looking at when it came out the parallels to the Vietnam War are palpable but its dripping with anti-authoritarian messaging
Its funny, I was almost surprised to see Inception in your list. Not because I think its bad media, I think its pretty rad, but because it sort of feels more like a standard heist film with a science-y/fantasy-y gimmick. Certainly by my criteria it wouldn't count as SciFi for the aforementioned lack of social/political commentary, but its an interesting edge case.
It’s not that I don’t understand there are political themes in sci-fi. It’s that it felt like I was being beat over the head with it in D9. Also, just not a big fan of being told something wild exists in a movie but it’s never exposed because the budget doesn’t allow for it.
Yeah, it's not a-political like real sci fi like Star Trek
What was the allegory of the original Stargate movie, actually? Something about the working class overcoming monarchy, maybe? TBH it kind of played off as US Military intervention in the Middle East propaganda... Yeah that's probably it.
Also: Starship Troopers is not just about killing bugs
It's abut mating with them and creating a new race (ie space diplomacy).
Imagine a human capable of butt-to-orbit warfare.
How dare sci-fi explore political issues, like the tendency of humanity to resort to othering people that make them uncomfortable.
I’m fine with it, it’s just that the sci-fi is a thin veneer for the political message.
Gonna be real champ, there's a ton of sci-fi in the movie, it sure sounds like you just don't like hearing the message.
Good God there are so many assumptions about my character based on this post. Thought I was escaping the Reddit hive mind mentality coming here, but seems like it’s the same shit in another place.
The message is fine. A refugee story. The plight of the impoverished. Fine. It might have landed better for me if there were more sci-fi aspects involved.
I actually said you didn't like hearing the message, not what the message was.
It can be both.
counter point: cool robots
I ... actually kinda agree with you.
I get that 'if alien then sci-fi' is the norm for designating sci-fi (like, if it contains science fiction then it's sci-fi, regardless of the plots focus, the entire thing is classified by the setting).
But my head-canon also focuses on what the story is about.
If I could take out the sci-fi elements & the story wouldn't change (ie could be set in today's Earth), then I only see it as -fi. But also the story could be set on today's Earth but with one single smol sci-fi element (a piece of tech of sorts), and if the entire plot focuses on it, then I understand it as sci-fi.
The most controversial example of this (just in my head) wound be Star Wars. Much later in the extended universe things changed, but the movies started out as pure westerns, like, the same story could have been told as a western and especially the screenplay parts wouldn't have to change, just the backdrop (Im not being literal, but not far from it).
Space sci-fi in general has the tendency to use the dimensions in space like if everything was happening on Earth.