Science fiction film studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Science fiction film studies - Essay Example c world that is not real, asks you to suspend your disbelief and pretend that it is, and then return to reality, hopefully, with some new insight for this world. At least that is the basic idea. However, sometimes the medium (or all the gimmicks) becomes the message and it is just for fun. There is nothing wrong with that either, as long as you know which side of the toast the butter is on. In other words if you started out making a message film but it got lost in the medium, than the message never gets out and the film usually winds up being a milquetoast event. All the films in this list have a message and were, supposedly, made to get that message out, let us see how it worked by analyzing a few. One can only imagine the audience seeing Fritz Lang’s Film, â€Å"Metropolis† for the very first time in 1927. The effects had to be as spellbinding as the audiences in 1977 seeing the premier of â€Å"Star Wars.† These two films as well as most others of the genre that have held the test of time as message driven movies have one thing in common. Their message is mythological. As Malcolmson notes in his article, The Matrix, Liberal Education and Other Splinters in the Mind, that, â€Å"Audience fascination with the character types is related to the power of myths.† (2004: 148) Whatever the innate and archetypal need for mythology, beliefs, religion is in the human psyche, it’s presence in sci-fi movies is profound and moving. When this connection is lacking, the movies is usually relegated to the b-movie section of the class. B-movies are fun too but that is another topic of discussion. However, while the effects of mythology in filmmaking are often profound their interwoven texture in the movie should not be too obvious, or it can become a little heavy-handed and the message can get blurred. Malcolmson also notes that â€Å"The Matrix† is â€Å"densely allusive† (2005: 141) and we find that was the intention of the Wachowski brothers as he quotes Larry