not another sci-fi

Not long after I started this blog I came up with a list of generalizations for "girl movies." When I was doing that I promised myself I'd make a similar list for sci-fi movies to even out some of the bias I showed in that post. Since I just recently remembered this promise I made to myself, here's my sci-fi list.

• Most futuristic sci-fi movies assume an idealistic view of the future (like the ethically advanced and cashless society in Star Trek) or a pessimistic view of the future (like Waterworld, where we've destroyed the earth and no one is to be trusted). There's not much middle ground.
• If technology is the focus of a sci-fi, be assured that it will turn on humans. In Terminator 3 we even learn that judgment day is inevitable, even if it can be delayed. In I, Robot we learn that even establishing rules within technology will backfire.
• If sci-fi movies are any indication, human existence will be threatened by aliens (The Puppetmasters, Titan AE), a natural disaster (Armageddon, Deep Impact), or overuse of resources (Lost In Space, Soylent Green) some time in the next fifty to one hundred years.
• When aliens do attack they will fail due to some minor issue they failed to consider, but had absolutely no excuse of overlooking (ID4, Signs, War of the Worlds).
• There are few unattractive men and no unattractive women on spaceships (or starships for Trekkies).
• Speaking of people on spaceships, for some reason the perfect captain is always the rebel who, even though he is a rebel, still thinks twice before shooting. Both Captains Kirk and Picard follow this mold. Han Solo is too hotheaded to qualify when he is introduced in the first Star Wars movie, but he mellows just enough by the end of Return of the Jedi.
• The perfect way to address a complicated problem is to present a solution in technobabble that the audience can't understand or question. This is a major issue in Star Trek, but also shows up in ID4 with the "computer virus."
• The government (X-Files, Muppets from Space) and big business (the Alien movies) always have something nefarious to hide.
• Clothing fashions in the future will just be more skintight and outlandish versions of the clothes that were popular at the time when the movie in question was created (The Fifth Element, Flash Gordon).
• You can go anywhere in the universe in an instant if you just know how to use wormholes (Contact, Wing Commander, Event Horizon, Stargate).
• It doesn't matter if you use a wormhole or not, travel that should take lifetimes even at greater than light speed will only take a few days in a regular spaceship (multiple occurrences throughout both the Star Trek and Star Wars series, Serenity, The Chronicles of Riddick, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy).
• Physics in outer space are the same as within the earth's atmostphere. In the Star Wars series you can hear the Death Star blowing up, spaceships can bank to turn, and some sort of phantom space wind blows hostile robots off the wings of ships.
• I have to give credit for this one to a coworker/blurker. When aliens are actually friendly, we will be hostile to them (E.T., Flight of the Navigator).

As you can tell, I don't watch too many sci-fi movies. I need to pick up the pace a bit if I am ever to truly understand and appreciate the genre.

The following are movies I wanted to work into this list, but didn't get around to: The Matrix movies, Gattaca, eXistenZ, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Time Machine, Short Circuit, Zathura, Predator, Black Hole, Total Recall, The Running Man, Pitch Black, Dune, Blade Runner, and many others. If you figure a way to include any of these in new points for the list, let me know.