ABBOTT, Stacey. Blockbuster SF Film. In: BOULD, Mark. BUTLER, Andrew M.

ROBERTS,
Adam. VINT, Sherryl (Org.). The Routledge Companion to Science Fiction. London:
Routledge, 2009. p.468-472.

“sf came to replace the religious epic as the genre most associated with the blockbuster.
Merging with the blockbuster introduced certain characteristics into sf film. The most
recognizable conventions of the blockbuster are its ‘enhanced production values,’ ‘large-
scale story material and [a] display of technical virtuosity,’ and it has often been used to
showcase developments in new cinema technologies such as sound, widescreen, and
digital effects (Allen 2003: 101)” p.468.

“Julian Stringer notes that blockbusters, primarily due to their large budgets, are
characterized by size, excess, and the promise of something that ‘will excite you, expose
you to something never before experienced, (...) prick up your ears and make your eyes
bulge out in awe’ (Stringer 2003: 5). it is important to note that these elements are not
exclusive to blockbuster sf, for the genre has always been characterized by spectacle and
the display of technical wizardry. Films from A Trip to the Moon (Méliès 1902) to Bride of
Frankenstein (Whale 1935) to The Incredible Shrinking Man (Arnold 1957) used sf’s
preoccupation with science and technology to showcase new developments in cinematic
special effects, while the genre has always been predicated upon the promise of showing
new and unimagined things, from alien spaceships to futuristic cities, from giant spiders to
cyborgs. In fact, it is precisely because of this predilection for spectacle and technology that
the sf film has become one of the primary forms of the blockbuster since Star Wars’
phenomenal success” p.468-469.

“While sf prior to the modern blockbuster period is traditionally perceived as a low-budget

genre, such films as Metropolis (Lang 1927), Things to Come (Menzies 1936), The War of
the Worlds (Haskin 1953), and Forbidden Planet (Wilcox 1956) married the genre’s
philosophical and social preoccupations with cutting-edge special effects and spectacular
set design in order to bring their futuristic visions to the screen. Similarly, Stanley Kubrick’s
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) combined its sophisticated special effects and big-budget
production values with a deeply intellectual – even religious, according to some – narrative
about human evolution” p.469.
“Furthermore, while the sf film always bears a degree of hybridity in its makeup, often
crossing lines between fantasy and horror, blockbuster sf is an inherently hybrid form” p.469.

“However, the sf film is ‘a cohering genre that is best able to articulate contemporary fears,
such as those that presently exist over genetic engineering and nuclear war; and to play out
ideological tensions around class, race, gender and sexuality’ (Redmond 2004: x), and this
is equally applicable to its less respectable contemporary form. as the exploration of climate
change in The Day after Tomorrow (Emmerich 2004) demonstrates, meaning remains within
the matrix of blockbuster sf. It is, however, often suffused beneath the action and expressed
through the mise en scène” p.469.

“So what are the conventions and preoccupations of blockbuster sf? it engages with a wide
range of sf themes and cultural preoccupations, including time travel (Terminator 2:
Judgment Day (Cameron 1991)), space travel (Star Trek: The Motion Picture), alien first
contact (Close Encounters of the Third Kind), alien invasion (Transformers (Bay 2007)),
future cities and technologies (I, Robot (Proyas 2004)), scientific developments (Jurassic
Park (Spielberg 1993)), and dystopian visions (The Matrix (Wachowski brothers 1999)), and
therefore is not easily distinguished from other forms of sf which share such traditional
generic iconography and narrative. however, elements of other genres often compete with
or diffuse the sf narrative. For instance, War of the Worlds (Spielberg 2005) reimagines the
alien invasion narrative through the lens of family melodrama as the film’s hero attempts to
escape and later destroy the marauding aliens in order to protect his children and keep his
family together. other blockbuster sf films such as Mars Attacks! (Burton 1996) or Men in
Black (Sonnenfeld 1997) introduce comedy into the genre by parodying the alien
encounter/invasion narratives, while Independence Day (Emmerich 1996) and Armageddon
(Bay 1998) combine sf with the disaster film. Blockbuster sf is heavily marked by hybridity”
p.469-470.

“The most significant characteristic that unifies blockbuster sf films is the manner in which
they put their special effects on display. They feature the most cutting-edge effects
innovations and have played an intrinsic role in fostering developments in computer-
generated effects, such as “morphing” in The Abyss (Cameron 1989) and “bullet time” in
The Matrix (see Abbott 2006). each of these effects is showcased within the film for its
spectacular value – a fundamental pleasure of the genre” p.470.

“Through this dramatic revelation, the special effects encapsulate the ‘two key dimensions
of the genre’: ‘spectacle and speculation’ (King and Krzywinska 2000: 7)” p.470.
“In addition to their function as spectacle, special effects are also intrinsically intertwined
with the film’s sf narrative. In The Matrix, the ability of effects artists to slow down and
manipulate motion through computer technology is the basis for the film’s dystopian vision
of a future in which the world around us is a construct of a computer program and where the
mind can control the program, bending it to its needs” p.470.

“Special effects are, however, not used purely to portray spectacular metamorphosis but
play an absolutely vital role in creating the visions of alternative, future, or imagined worlds
that are intrinsic to the sf film” p.471.

“This use of technology within the diegesis, however, also brings to blockbuster sf another
significant and yet paradoxical characteristic. While technology is itself glorified through its
presentation, it is often critiqued through the narrative” p.471.

“Finally, it is important to remember when discussing blockbuster sf that the film itself does
not exist in isolation but is just one element in a synergistic confluence of marketing, product
placement, and merchandizing. Sf films in particular lend themselves to the demand for
synergy, since narratives of alternative or dystopian worlds are often easily extended into
ancillary products and sequels” p.471.

“Blockbuster sf, therefore, often critiques or espouses our fears of the modern technological
world but contradictorily remains a product of the technological and economic system of
contemporary hollywood” p.472.