Retro science fiction seems to be en vogue again. It seems that very few new stories are being brought to movies and TV. For decades the same plots have been reused over and over. How many different version of War of the Worlds can we take? When will audiences stop believing the premise that aliens from another planet with a vastly different biology from ours will be brought down by a virus uniquely adapted to Earth organisms? Even Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone took many of its plots from earlier sci-fi writers.
This rant was spurred by this trailer for Will Smith’s new movie I am Legend.
The movie is the third time the 1954 novel by Richard Matheson has been adapted to the big screen. Will Smith’s presence gives some assurance (but not much) that this movie will be better than 2005’s A Sound of Thunder. The movie is a (bad) reinterpretation of the 1952 short story by Ray Bradbury.
While this is the only film adaptation of the story, its plot should be widely recognized by anyone who’s watched any amount of science fiction in the past 40 years.
Now I don’t have a problem with remaking great science fiction, but there has been a great want of new sci-fi ideas. Great original movies are few and far between. I’d like to see more movies like Blade Runner, Dark City, and Gattica and fewer movies like Independance Day, and Armageddon. Movies that use modern ideas as well as modern special effects.
Retro style however is always cool check out this webgame on adult swim’s website. Nine Billion Miles From Earth
And these pictures featuring Futurama, which gets old school science fiction right, and Serenity which is probably the coolest thing to happen in science fiction since Star Wars.
Love love LOVE the Miranda poster. Where did you find it?