why there no story (movie,TV,novle..) about good Future
I was trying to think of a recent movie but can't. That last few utopian movies I can think of are Bicentennial Man (with Robin Williams), which really wasn't utopian but certainly not dystopian, and Meet The Robinsons which was an animated film.
Am I missing any? Has to be something more recent.
Am I missing any? Has to be something more recent.
Tim
Creative Writer
Just so long as the Scifi genre doesn't suddenly merge with Horror!
I suppose, in a way A.I. A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - IMDb was about healing a hole in the human psyche after loss.
Back to the Future was an unusual one. The science was seen as an opportunity to change time and produce better living circumstances and deal with bullying for someone who failed to see a fulfilling life.
The Man From The Future O Homem do Futuro (2011) - IMDb is, like Back to the Future, an attempt to fix things, that shows meddling with science is not the way to resolve things. But I couldn't figure out in the end if there was a straight message to be put across.
rjslingshot
Cadet
I believe that we should consider that the choices we make today, and how they could create unfavorable outcomes tomorrow. These action/decisions could result in the “bad” futures that we see in print and film.
Do we tell our kids to just “wing” it through their teen years? No, we tell them shocker stories about how we messed up when we were that age, hoping that they consider this possible future for themselves when making decisions. There was a time in our culture’s past where we were enchanted by future technological advancements and how they might improve our way of life in the future. Take the The Jetson’s for example. As we get closer however, we are starting to get scared at the other potential outcomes. Rosey might turn out to be like Caprica-Six? And I am not talking about her assets. I was thinking more about her loyalty to her creators.
I think most sci-fi authors are simply trying to do what our parents have done for generations. They are simply trying to warn us, so maybe we will slow down and think before we leap.
Do we tell our kids to just “wing” it through their teen years? No, we tell them shocker stories about how we messed up when we were that age, hoping that they consider this possible future for themselves when making decisions. There was a time in our culture’s past where we were enchanted by future technological advancements and how they might improve our way of life in the future. Take the The Jetson’s for example. As we get closer however, we are starting to get scared at the other potential outcomes. Rosey might turn out to be like Caprica-Six? And I am not talking about her assets. I was thinking more about her loyalty to her creators.
I think most sci-fi authors are simply trying to do what our parents have done for generations. They are simply trying to warn us, so maybe we will slow down and think before we leap.
Generally sci-fi films have these 'bad' futures because it makes for good action, or as mentioned above, the makers of these films are trying to get a message across, and the future is obviously a good setting to portray the consequences of our actions now. I think that the whole element of 'people fear what they don't understand' plays its part too. But there are some examples of 'good' (or at least 'not bad') futures out there!
Bicentennial man was mentioned before and is a great example. It's a 'good' future because of the nature of the story, I think. It's about the character development of Andrew, and it's really more of a drama type piece. It wouldn't work to have Andrew fighting for human rights of his own amid an alien invasion or something.
PlatenEs is a fair example of this too; it's an animé about garbage-men in space (basically) that is more drama and character development based than your usual giant-transforming-gizmazoid affair. For the every day plights of the characters to matter you can't really have everyone's lives at risk each episode.
Ghost In the Shell depicts a good future I think (hear me out on this one!). Although the story focuses on a counter-cyber-terrorism group or whatever you want to call it, the lives of most civilians in it are pretty good. People have been integrated with machines near-seamlessly, you wouldn't know most people have robotic brains and limbs from the look of them (though of course there are exceptions). The technology is super advanced and the world isn't at all post-apocalyptic in its presentation. Crime dramas set in the present don't exactly portray a 'bad' present, they just focus on the bad elements of society and I think when you look at it that way, GITS isn't much different.
I think the term of a 'good' and 'bad' future is a bit too black and white. If you really look at it, there's probably plenty of examples where things aren't all that bad for the everyman, but if there isn't some kind of bad thing going on for you characters to overcome then you might not have a particularly interesting story.
And killer robots and giant planetary lasers are just darn cool. Pew pew pew!
Bicentennial man was mentioned before and is a great example. It's a 'good' future because of the nature of the story, I think. It's about the character development of Andrew, and it's really more of a drama type piece. It wouldn't work to have Andrew fighting for human rights of his own amid an alien invasion or something.
PlatenEs is a fair example of this too; it's an animé about garbage-men in space (basically) that is more drama and character development based than your usual giant-transforming-gizmazoid affair. For the every day plights of the characters to matter you can't really have everyone's lives at risk each episode.
Ghost In the Shell depicts a good future I think (hear me out on this one!). Although the story focuses on a counter-cyber-terrorism group or whatever you want to call it, the lives of most civilians in it are pretty good. People have been integrated with machines near-seamlessly, you wouldn't know most people have robotic brains and limbs from the look of them (though of course there are exceptions). The technology is super advanced and the world isn't at all post-apocalyptic in its presentation. Crime dramas set in the present don't exactly portray a 'bad' present, they just focus on the bad elements of society and I think when you look at it that way, GITS isn't much different.
I think the term of a 'good' and 'bad' future is a bit too black and white. If you really look at it, there's probably plenty of examples where things aren't all that bad for the everyman, but if there isn't some kind of bad thing going on for you characters to overcome then you might not have a particularly interesting story.
And killer robots and giant planetary lasers are just darn cool. Pew pew pew!
GeoffArnold
Cadet
The films that spring to my mind do have - at least potentially - an opening to a happy endin. Isn't that the point. Humans overcome the bad times and create a better future - which is what we want to do with the mess the world is in now.
Imzadi
Imzadi
Maybe it is because stories need action and conflict to carry the story forward. Real-life "sci-faction" would probably become boring. There may be another reason, too. I recall years ago, Gene Roddenberry was asked why the Star Trek stories were always in space or on another planet. He said he was TOLD not to predict what Earth would be like in the future. (US Government??)
I can only think of 2 Star Trek shows where conditions on Earth were mentioned. One was when Kirk tried to rescue his brother and sister-in-law (Earth was wrecked by ETs taking over people's minds) and the other time was when Earth humans from the past were rescued from time capsules in space and a businessman wanted to find out about the Stock Market. Picard had to tell that there were no more financial situations on Earth.
Acclamator
Scout
IMO, many authors, who creates sci-fi novels, showing us future which is being actualy worse than present, like overpoluted air, hunger, fierce desies, or something like that, want to tell us about, what could happen if we wont owercome our drawbacks and fail to solve some problems. Like greed, passivity, hate, fear, imprudence e.t.c.
Like, to what can lead greed-to everything. Support it with foolishnes, and huge war could happen. Not war, alright. Inventions. Which could lead to disasters. Someone held button too long...and life on earth could never be live we used to see.
Gigant cities, castles of steel and concrete, growing more more and more. And less space for nature. Less trees, grass, not even talking about animals. After few generations, our descendants could ever seen nature, like we could see now freely, only on pictures. Possible? Eh, more than we can imagen.
So, may be this could be one of author's goals, that when someone read novel, or watch moovie based on his work, he would say to himself: Nope, I want better future for those, who shall live after me.
Like, to what can lead greed-to everything. Support it with foolishnes, and huge war could happen. Not war, alright. Inventions. Which could lead to disasters. Someone held button too long...and life on earth could never be live we used to see.
Gigant cities, castles of steel and concrete, growing more more and more. And less space for nature. Less trees, grass, not even talking about animals. After few generations, our descendants could ever seen nature, like we could see now freely, only on pictures. Possible? Eh, more than we can imagen.
So, may be this could be one of author's goals, that when someone read novel, or watch moovie based on his work, he would say to himself: Nope, I want better future for those, who shall live after me.
Jetshroom
Scout
My wife and I were talking about this the other day.
She's a colossal fan of The Sims games and they're doing a Time Travel expansion at the end of this year. As part of their market research, they're asking people what they'd want out of a utopian future in The Sims 3.
She commented that a lot of people are really angry that it will be utopian and not dystopian. Their argument being that a dystopian future is somehow 'more realistic.'
Myself, I LOVE utopian sci-fi. I like to be optimistic about the future. But I think that tastes have changed. People prefer to be more pessimistic. They also like the ideal of a strong individual fighting valiantly to right societal wrongs.
She's a colossal fan of The Sims games and they're doing a Time Travel expansion at the end of this year. As part of their market research, they're asking people what they'd want out of a utopian future in The Sims 3.
She commented that a lot of people are really angry that it will be utopian and not dystopian. Their argument being that a dystopian future is somehow 'more realistic.'
Myself, I LOVE utopian sci-fi. I like to be optimistic about the future. But I think that tastes have changed. People prefer to be more pessimistic. They also like the ideal of a strong individual fighting valiantly to right societal wrongs.
Viktor Kuprin
Spaced Cadet
"The genre is overwhelmingly bleak," to quote Jetse de Vries. Many reasons are discussed, like how we now lack a shared vision of the future, excessive greed and untruthfulness being fostered as acceptable in corporate culture, ineffectivness of government and, especially in the USA, the viciousness and lack of civility in politics. Sorry to say, it's why I find myself reading much less Sci-Fi than I did when I was younger.
I remember watching the original Astro Boy anime TV series from Japan when I was a kid, in (ahem) 1963. I wanted to see that amazing future Tokyo with its flying cars, spaceships, and high-tech wonders. Then came the remake a few years ago. In that version the world had become a huge junkyard of waste and pollution, with a few towering arcology cities only for the rich. That world I don't ever want to see.
I remember watching the original Astro Boy anime TV series from Japan when I was a kid, in (ahem) 1963. I wanted to see that amazing future Tokyo with its flying cars, spaceships, and high-tech wonders. Then came the remake a few years ago. In that version the world had become a huge junkyard of waste and pollution, with a few towering arcology cities only for the rich. That world I don't ever want to see.
twilight zone fan
Cadet
agree with the post about how a good future isn't interesting. Take lopper for example: what makes that movie interesting is how the man character thought he could improve someones future if, not the whole future. We like to like how to fix things and the far concision is if, we can fix something it's not interesting. If, anyone is interested in thinking about a future that feels interesting, for any reason come visit: http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1522834/patrick_r_noonan.html Read: Last Chance Yahoo | Mail, Weather, Search, Politics, News, Finance, Sports & Videos via @ycontributor Leave feed back about you're thoughts because, its all welcome.
Kaiser Soze
Cadet
Evil Antonio
Cadet
Films are based in conflict, so it only makes sense that filmmakers would lean more towards dystopian futures. Logan's Run was kind of a Utopian future though, to name a utopian film, But even in it's case it wasn't a true utopia.
Films like Demolition Man and Logan's Run I would call dystopian because their utopian societies were really small bubbles that were actually a mirage while around the bubbles were anything but utopia. In the case of Demolition Man you literally had people living in the sewers below the city while Logan's depended on a cult-like society voluntarily cutting short their lives in order to make room for others in a city that was buried deep underground with devastation above.
Evil Antonio
Cadet
Oh, Bill and Ted's excellent adventure.