Genre: Science Fiction

Science Fiction is a film genre that has existed since the 1920's roughly, with the introduction of Metropolis created in 1927, seen as the first in a long line of great science fiction films. Science fiction has stayed in our cinemas in all that time with some incredible movies coming from it. Science Fiction also shows off the best special effects of that time and techniques film creators did to create realism and how the human imagination can cross with science.

1920's
1920's was a time when cinemas, movies and actors/actresses all started. Films were being made to entertain audiences around the world and science fiction was on the horizon. Metropolis is now scene as a great from that era. Created in 1927 film, this silent film is about a futuristic city divided by workers and city planners. The film used some pioneering effects including for the first time: miniatures, a camera on a swing and most notably the Schufftan process. The Schufftan process was using mirrors to convince the viewer that the actors were in the miniature sets. This idea was used a few years later by Alfred Hitchcock. The film is still recognised today and  it is ranked 86 in top 250 films on IMDB by users. Metropolis was seen as one of the most expensive films at the time the film is seen as  a great of the silent era, especially with its special effects. The films was so influential that Metropolis in the Superman comics was called this because of this film. Its also reported to be one of Hitler's favourite films and the robot (right) helped inspire C-3PO from Star Wars. This film was recognised by powerful figures and helped inspire great science fiction and even comic ideas. 2 years later the first Academy Awards was held through the masterpieces of movies coming out at that time. Although Metropolis didn't win a Oscar as it was not in the time frame from when the awards were judged. Films like this saw the film industry come to life.

1930's
Academy Awards, films stars and famous directors were surfacing and the thirties bought some films know by people all around the worlds. The 1930's saw many monsters come into the movie world. The Invisible Man was released in 1933, based on H.G. Wells novel, this film was know for its "Ground braking" special effects. This is what gave the film success. Sequences where The Invisible Man held objects but gave the impression like nothing was supporting it, to the viewers.That was achieved through attaching props to thin wire. Another sequence is when The Invisible Man takes clothes off or puts them on. This was done by getting the actor Claude Rains to wear a all black velvet suit put him against an all black background and then take his clothes on and off. This was then merged with the shot of the location. The trailer above will show these special effects at work. The Invisible Man was a huge success as it Claude Rains career ignited and the film got four other films. This film sparked many remakes and is seen as one of the greatest science fiction films of all time.

1940's
Sequels and remakes dominated the 40's. The Invisible Man Returns (Sequel to The Invisible Man 1933), Son Of Frankenstein, The Ghost Of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf man & House Of Frankenstein (Sequels to Frankenstein 1931) and a remake of Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde. The 40's were heavily affected by World War 2, as rationing and enrolment to join the army swept America and Europe. Many of the films like the remake of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde flopped at the cinema and couldn't get the money or resources needed because of the war.

1950's
Films out of this world dominated the science fiction age in the fifties and the introduction of films set in space began. The decade begun with The Day The Earth stood Still, created to portray the destruction humans create especially with the cold war era beginning. The film is about an alien telling humanity to be more peaceful or be destroyed. This is one of the first film to use a space concept, this was influenced by the space race as Russian man Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space. The film had a robot played by 7ft giant Lock Martin, who wore a costume filled with robotic wiring to give a more realist look. This unconventional idea was one of the first costumes to use actual robotic technology in a movie. This technology was then taken to the next level with Robby The Robot (right), featured in Science Fiction classic Forbidden Planet, this was a one of the first real robotic icons of science fiction. Forbidden Planet's space age robot ideas influenced other Science Fiction. Star Trek and Doctor Who creators based much of there work on this.

1960's

Dominated by one movie, still described today as the best science fiction film of all time by many leading film magazines and sources. 2001: A Space Odyssey, a film concept of what humanity would be be like at the start of the new millennium, this got the attention of thousands. Ideas of Pan Am space flights, BBC 12 and flights to the moon loved by thousands of people in the time of the space age between the USA and Russia. The films idea of the future can be shown in today world, maybe not space flights but computer giant apple, had it's iPad sued by Samsung for basing the iPad's design on tablets seen in the original film. Also Apple application Siri uses "I'm sorry I can't do that", referencing to the HAL computer in the films when asked to open the pod bay doors.  However the films contribution to science fiction was through its Oscar winning special effects. The (right) shows a pen floating under zero gravity, this was achieved by sticking the pen to glass and placing the glass in front of the camera, with two people moving the glass slowly to give the impression it was floating. Another well known effect is the space hostess walking on the ceiling (right). This was done by rotating the entire set but keeping the camera in the same spot and having the actress walk on the spot. Theses scenes were only a few of the memorable special effects used. Huge model space ships, futuristic sets with incredible detail, won this film an Oscar. This science fiction film influenced George Lucas the creator of Star Wars and Stephen Spielberg who would do Science Fiction classics like A Close Encounter.  Special effects techniques in 2001: A Space Odyssey would be used in many other films to create realism. This film connotes the impact it had not just on science fiction by showing audiences at that time, the beauty of our universe in a time where men going to the moon was becoming a reality.

1970's
Space was starting to be used conventionally in films now. Star Trek and Doctor Who were both in action. Doctor Who was running its TV series, whilst Star Trek exploded from TV to movies. But it wasn't till the end of the 1970's that two films showed reflections of Stanley Kubricks' 2001: A Space Odyssey. Both came out on the same year and both were directed by well known directors. The first is Close Encounter: directed by Stephen Spielberg this film ideology is through the UFO ideas of that time, especially with the widely known story of Area 51. The plot of the film is a line worker feeling drawn to a wilderness part of America to witness something incredible after encountering a UFO experience of his own. Awarded an Oscar for its cinematography, this science fiction film includes some amazing special effects of space ships. This film however is known for its five note song. Recognised by millions this short piece of music is used to make contact with the aliens. Since then the sound has been used in films such as James Bond film, Moonraker, many TV references such as The X-Files and even then Simpsons. Its also been used by Canadian DJ Deadmau5. Close Encounter of the Third Kind will stay as a Science Fiction great through its original ideas of government cover ups from the true life case of Area 51 and because its five note piece. Nevertheless an even greater science fiction film came out and bought the world to its knees. Star Wars: A New Hope was the start of a incredible trilogy of films across the seventies and eighties. Star Wars was created through everything that had happened in science fiction before that time. Influences from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Metropolis gave this film it's space age and futuristic design. Influences however didn't just come from films, dogfights between spaceships came from World War Two, enemy assaults pictured in the film came from the Dambusters and fictional planets came from science fiction books. Star Wars recognised all the great thing that make a good science fiction movie needed to be, for example loud music that creates attention like 2001: A Space Odyssey and robots that serve humans like Robby The Robot from The Forbidden Planets. Star Wars erupted the film industry and influenced directors like James Cameron to go into the film industry who would then make The Terminator and Avatar, Ridley Scott who created Alien and Prometheus said he was heavily influenced by Star Wars and Peter Jackson said Star Wars helped him create realism when making fantasy blockbuster Lord Of The Rings.

1980's
The 1980's begun where the 70's left off, aliens crammed into science fiction with films like E.T. and another Star Wars film setting the decade as alight. Alternatively Star Wars's influences like Blade Runner were not the main change of science fiction. Although special effects might be getting better, but in 1982 Disney released TRON a  unconventional film which brought a new meaning to science fiction. The films ideology came from the computer game Pong released in 1976. Computer engineering was growing with company's like Apple starting to make a name for themselves, Steven Lisberger who created TRON saw this technology and wanted to incorporate it into a film. The film was a major step forward in movie making as the filmed combined early computer created visuals and back lit animation to live action sequences. The film was one of the early pieces of computer generated imagery and helped create Disney company Pixar with the animation group saying without TRON, Toy Story would never of been created.  The film also inspired French electronic dance music group Daft Punk who have a real fascination with the films futuristic attributes. The French duo would later score the music for the 2010 sequel TRON: Legacy. This new computer animation would start to be recognised in more and more films at the turn of the eighties and would develop to a whole new level in the nineties.

1990's
Computer generated effects created more realism in the 1990's with dinosaurs in Jurassic Park looking as real as some of the effects in today's film industry. Through TRON's ideas of incorporating computing to science fiction. The Matrix was released in 1999 and showed off the dramatic change in effects from set designs and action scenes to create the realism compared to past computer effects. One effect in particular was bullet time. Which allows a shot be in slow motion but have the camera going at normal pace. This effect is used in the film to show the control the characters have whilst in the Matrix. The films concept of bullet time and being one of the first films to use slow motion influenced modern day films like Inception and Dredd. The films was influenced by TRON and after Disney saw this and how computer generated effects had evolved, Disney was influenced to make another TRON movie. In similar consequences to the growing special effects, the Star Wars prequels begun and turned out to be one of the biggest film let downs in years. Although it had huge financial money success through its huge following, the film bought science fictions first major blow in its prestige history, however the hype this film had was always going to be compared to the originals and maybe the greatness of the originals brought this film down. Star Wars: Episode I shows that science fiction of the eighties was difficult to match now. This can be linked to the new TRON film which was not well received on its release.

2000's and 2010's
The new millennium saw the prequels of the Star Wars franchise limp to a possible good recovery with the last film. This decade was full of remakes of classic science fiction films such as The Time Machine, War Of The Worlds and The Day The Earth Stood Still. These films similar to Star Wars and TRON failed in making any real film impact compared to its predecessors had achieved. It was the end of the millennium when Avatar broke box office records for truly capturing the  modern day films humans can make. Not even set on Earth, a paraplegic marine must choose between the native aliens and humans. Special Effects were used in the movie that hadn't been used by any other film company before. A specially designed camera allowed the actor's facial expressions to be used on the native aliens through animation (above). We don't know how this film has influenced people as its so new but the technology in the film connotes how science fiction has is leading the technology race, by being the first in pioneering new methods of film making to the world.

Over the last 90 years, science fiction has led the technology front in film making. Most visual effect Oscars go to science fiction films. The supposed greatest science fiction film of them all 2001: A Space Odyssey shows this clearly when compared to other films of that era. Science Fiction will live on with the growing technology in the real world like social media, being incorporated in the film world, questions might be asked however on whether planned films like the next Star Wars trilogy (set to be released in 2016) and new Independence Day films (2016-17) will be a movie flop like many other science fiction films remade or have sequels, which could create damaging consequences on science fiction.