What Makes Great Science Fiction
With all of the bubblegum for our minds that exist at every turn, the well articulated thought is always refreshing. With the cinematic monuments of Star Wars, The Matrix, Lord Of The Rings, and others behind us, I found myself struck by the below quote in a review of Serenity. It clearly explains why we loved the original Star Wars and why the newer ones didn’t have the proverbial oomph that everyone wanted and expected (The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions delivered and failed in many respects as well).
From Orson Scott Card:
Because for me, a great film — sci-fi or otherwise — comes down to relationships and moral decisions. How people are with each other, how they build communities, what they sacrifice for the sake of others, what they mean when they think of a decision as right vs. wrong.
Yeah, even comedies. Even romantic comedies — it’s those moral decisions.
Wow, that sounds so heavy. But great film is heavy — out of sight, underneath everything, where you don’t have to be slapped in the face by it. On the surface, it can be exciting, funny, cool, scary, horrifying — all those things that mean “entertainment” to us.
Underneath it all, though, it has to mean something. And the meaning that matters is invariably about moral decisions people make. Motives. Relationships. Community. If those don’t work, then you can gloss up the surface all you want, we’ll know we’ve just been fed smoke. Might smell great but we’re still hungry.
