Guest Post: Where Have all the SF Movie Maestros Gone? by J. C. Hutchins

First off, I want to thank John for the opportunity to write a guest post, and — if you kind readers are cool with it — ask you to send a some positive vibes to his puppy Darra, who’s been under the weather lately. My elderly cat has had some health issues recently, so I completely sympathize with John and his beloved critter. Let’s send Darra some good juju!

Now, on to my guest post about sci-fi movies, and missing maestros.

I was born in the 1970s, and grew up watching movies in what I consider the second “golden age” of science-fiction cinema. Thanks to several technological breakthroughs in that decade and the 1980s (mostly in motion-control cameras, animatronics and makeup), we were treated to some excellent sci-fi flicks: Close Encounters, Star Wars, Superman, Star Trek (Wrath of Kahn specifically), E.T., Alien and Aliens, Blade Runner, Back to the Future, Cocoon, Akira, The Thing, The Abyss, even the subversive Robocop … goodness, I could go on, and on, and on.

I try not to let nostalgia cloud my perception of these movies, but the fact that I can indeed go “on and on” is kinda my point. In my view, the late 1970s and 1980s represented a incredible time in SF cinema — and generally speaking, I don’t think it’s been as good since.

Lately, I’ve been wondering why that is. A post-Vietnam nation craving ultra-escapist entertainment? Young, super-talented creators being at the right place at the right technological time? The creative hunger to not just push the visual envelope, but strap it to a rocket and send it into the stratosphere? All? None? Hard to say, and I’m not highfalutin’ enough to make such proclamations, really.

I base most of my (highly) unscientific judgments on what I see and feel. Modern-day films can certainly deliver sci-fi spectacle in doses those earlier movies could only dream of: new locales, never-before-seen alien landscapes, battle sequences that’ll make your guts do barrel rolls. The Star Wars prequels excelled at pixel-powered spectacle, as did the Matrix and Jurassic Park sequels. Transformers unhinged my jaw with its visual effects.

And yet, those films — and a great many other SF pictures from the past 20 years — fall short for me. To be sure, there are grand exceptions (The Matrix, Jurassic Park, The Lord of the Rings, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Serenity, Dark City), but I fear most sci-fi flicks are phoning it in, funneling money into CGI that could be better spent on story. Pretty wrapping paper, empty box. There’s plenty of SF movies from all eras that suffer from such failings.

I’m a sci-fi novelist (my human cloning thriller, 7th Son: Descent, was released by St. Martin’s Press late last month), so story is awfully important to me. So is direction — having directors whose creative vision is committed to serving the story and its characters above all. Spielberg, Cameron, Lucas, Scott, Donner, Zemeckis and Howard are good examples of such creators helming 1970s/1980s projects with rich stories and characters.

The best stories — regardless of medium — place characters above all. They truly are the stars. I examine recent SF movies and feel that their characters exist simply to be yanked from one action sequence to another, with the occasional dialogue quip to satisfy “character” requirements. Also, I believe that somewhere along the line, film producers began to believe that snazzy VFX and fireballs were the only ingredients an SF movie required to be narratively successful.

Now I loves me some fireballs — my fiction’s packed with ‘em — but emotional resonance is key. I need to root for protagonists because I feel for them, not because the plot tells me to. The Matrix sequels failed here. The Jurassic Park sequels failed here. Spielberg’s The War of the Worlds failed here. Star Wars prequels. The remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still and Planet of the Apes … Superman Returns, The Dark Knight, The Fifth Element, Stargate, Independence Day, A.I., I, Robot, Johnny Mnemonic, Constantine, Pitch Black, V for Vendetta, Watchmen … all decent movies with excellent premises — but a commitment to style over substance ultimately sabotaged these endeavors. They had the potential to be Great movies, in the way character-driven, ultra-violent Aliens and sublime E.T. are Great movies.

It’s disappointing. I bear witness to hundreds of millions of dollars being spent in the name of entertainment, and come away mostly seeing missed opportunities. In contrast, recent years have given us some some excellent sci-fi television: Battlestar Galactica and early seasons of Lost are the best examples; FlashForward and V appear very promising.

Are we entering a new golden age of SF cinema? My friends insist that great character-fueled SF stories are here: Iron Man, X-Men, Spider-Man (see a pattern?), District 9, Moon. I hope they’re right. I love supporting great stories — SF tales especially — and I pine for movies whose characters and stories are as emotionally moving as their visual effects.

Am I wrong, a nostalgia-addled codger in the making? Am I right? Sound off in the comments with your own opinions. I’d love to learn your take on the current state of SF cinema, and where it’s heading.

Related posts:

1. Guest Post: What is Your Favorite Speculative Fiction Genre?
2. Guest Post and Giveaway: The Significant Other’s Guide to Dating a Science Fiction/Fantasy Writer by Chloe Neill
3. Guest Post at Market My Novel
4. Guest Post: Don’t Discard Those Old Rags
5. Giveaway: 3 copies of 7th Son: Descent by J. C. Hutchins