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IF YOU think the term “Intelligent science fiction” is an oxymoron, like “Australian culture”, you probably won’t enjoy this column. If you are impatient with films that speculate on how technological change might affect human behaviour, you should transfer your eyes to the reality-based material elsewhere on this site.
But if you are the kind of person who is alarmed that Transformers: The Dark of the Moon sold 1.5 million tickets in its first week in Australian cinemas, because it attaches a bad smell to all sci-fi, encourages the making of monotonous blockbusters, and suggests filmgoers are morons, read on. You might find reason to cheer up.
Tomorrow When The War Began
When the second Transformers movie came out two years ago, many commentators declared it was the end of cinematic civilisation as we knew it. This column lamented that its makers had not even bothered to construct a narrative: “You just shake your head in sadness at how Hollywood has convinced a generation of 13 year old boys (of all ages) that a blockbuster only needs explosions to be satisfying.”
Did the dire predictions prove justified? These are the earnings and the plot premises of all the sci-fi films released between Transformers 2 and Transformers 3 (excluding vampires, werewolves, deities, ghosts, cartoons and Harry Potter, because they are fantasy):
1 Avatar ($116 million): Should one culture force its values on another culture? 2 Inception ($35.5m): What if there was a way to manipulate the content of another’s dreams?
X-Men: First Class. Photo: DFALLON@smh.com.au
3 Iron Man 2 ($26m): What are the moral obligations on the inventor of a flying suit that can be used as a weapon? 4 2012 ($20.3m): How would humanity cope with cataclysmic climate change?
5 Tron: Legacy ($14.5m): What if we could turn ourselves into computer code and enter a video game? 6 X-Men: First Class ($14m): Would humans were born with superior abilities encounter racism?
7 Tomorrow When The War Began ($13.5m): What if another nation invaded Australia? 8 District 9 ($8.5m): What if aliens set up a refugee camp next to a major city?
Transformers: Dark of the Moon Photo: Getty
9 Super 8 ($8m): What if the government was covering up the arrival of a visitor from space? 10 I Am Number Four ($7.5m): What if aliens living among us were hunted by other aliens?
11 Limitless ($7.5m): What if a new drug could enhance mental powers? 12 Battle Los Angeles ($7m): What if aliens attacked America?
13 Paul ($6.5m): Same as super 8, only funny. 14 Predators ($6.5m): What if aliens hunted us for sport?
15 Source Code ($6m): What if you could enter the brain of a dead man and see the last eight minutes of his life? 16 The Time Traveller’s Wife ($6m): How does a family cope with a father who jumps randomly in time?
17 The Book of Eli ($4m): What becomes valuable after a nuclear war destroys most of humanity? 18 Skyline ($2.5m): What if aliens attacked America?
19 Moon ($700,000): Do clones have human rights? 20 Monsters ($250,000): Is love a universal emotion?
By my count, six of those movies are stupid and 14 explore intriguing ideas and challenging issues – a win for intelligence. Moviemaking has not yet been Transformed.
And if we describe the premise of Transformers 3 ($20 million in eight days) as "What if the US moon landing program was designed to investigate an alien spacecraft that crashed on the dark side of the moon?" we might even be able include the first few minutes of it on the plus side. Nah, that would be carrying optimism too far.
You have just read The Tribal Mind column, by David Dale. It appears in printed form every Saturday in The Sydney Morning Herald, and also as a blog on this website, where it welcomes your comments.