How Science fiction movies have evolved over the years

Piece by: DERICK OMOLO

03 September 2024

• As popular as Sci-Fi films are now, this wasn't necessarily always the case.

• With modern genre films experiencing high levels of popularity.

Science fiction film is essentially as old as film itself for it started in the early 90's.

Science fiction (or Sci-fi or SF) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, mutants, interstellar travel, time travel, or other technologies.

Science fiction was, for example, French filmmaker Georges Melies, who found in the genre a perfect opportunity for the exploration of his belief that the true potential of film lay not in the simple photographic representation of reality but in illusion and visual trickery central to the work of the pioneering art in films.

Back in the early 20th century during the silent film era, Sci-fi films were being launched in attempts. This majorly was short films of 1 to 2 minutes.

Mainly it was black and white and had a technological theme to be comical.

The first film categorized as science fiction was Le Voyage don La Lune which was produced in 1902 by George Melies, telling the story of a spacecraft being launched to the moon in a large cannon.

The special effects used in the film paved the way for future sci-fi films and became very popular after its release.

Right now sci-fi are amongst the popular movie genres to exist. They grab your attention no matter your preferences because they share a common interest in the impossible and what lies under the stars.

However, science fiction films have continued to be able to find its niche. Moreover, the increasing internationalization of science fiction films has begun to produce more variety in the genre outside the mainstream franchise.

Luckily the genre has widened, such as the growth of online streaming platforms have created new venues in which smaller science fiction films can be seen.

Netflix, for example, has been particularly active in the production of original science fiction films in recent years, leading to still more diversity in the genre with films such as The Titan, Wonderland, and The Midnight Sky.