Movie Genres: Sci-Fi

Movie genres: Science Fiction (sci-fi)

Science fiction, majorly known as Sci-Fi, is a genre that mainly incorporates hypothetical scientific ideas in its plots. This includes features such as aliens, space, advanced futuristic technology, questionable outcomes of the future etc. It's main plot purposes raises issues to audiences of things such as the danger of knowledge in society and what it can lead to, ie Frankenstein. It may also raise awareness to things such as society's anxiety to technology and the idea that it may seem good and useful when its working but what happens when it starts to turn against people, and things such as robots start to turn dangerous, an example would be The Terminator for instance, with its evil robots and advanced AI. 

However, the movie The Terminator also includes another feature of Sci-Fi; the idea of time. This is a major focus in many Sci-Fi films as it can be explored in many different ways, the common one being the future. The future in Sci-Fi films is mainly presented as what may happen in the future and the outcomes, whether that be in circumstances seen in Pacific Rim, with aliens threatening Earth,  dystopian futures such as Mad Max or Snowpiercer that results in an 'every man for themselves' attitude, or most famously, The Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy with the factor of the apocalypse hanging over the audiences head. However, the most famous ideas of the future come mainly from the topics set by films such as Star Trek, including many of the features seen in conventional Science Fiction films; aliens, space, time and futuristic 'gizmos'. Although many of these films raises the topics of the future, the genre of Sci-Fi also brings up the awful ideas of 'what if' and 'what could', as although to many people Sci-Fi can be seen as just Star-Wars and Star Trek, it can also be very frightening in its potential accuracy for the future, especially in films such as The Day After Tomorrow which looks at climate change to the extreme, reflecting issues of today. 


With Science Fiction also seeming scary in some places for its accuracy with issues, it can also be intentionally scary with how it presents its villains and monsters. Films such as Alien which depicts man-eating aliens can be seen by many as having a horror effect to it as the monsters themselves are scary and are usually seen in a horror genre, however, unlike the horror genre, the monsters themselves usually derive from a scientific explanation. This also includes films such as Predator or Cloverfield, where it keeps the audience on the edge of their seats, waiting to be scared. 


Much of the Sci-Fi genre plays into what could happen in the future as well as what could be happening now, whether that be in government labs or in space. However, it raises topics that are constantly present in whatever decade you watch them as science is truly unpredictable and 'the future' could be whenever. The topics seen in Sci-Fi will also never become irrelevant as there will always be scientific advancement in everyday society, something that will never leave the genre short of new ideas to play out, making it a genre endless to audiences of film.  

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