Sci-fi Movies - Age and Expectation

Brilliant deduction and this is coming from a guy born in 1976.

I was born in 86, so I grew up watching 90's cartoons, which were smart, funny, dramatic, and even had dark humor (Animaniacs, Rocko's M L, Simpsons, The Critic, Batman TAS,... even Sailor Moon). Characters died, some cartoon made me cry, politicians and celebrities were made fun off, movies were parodied, Dot didn't want to finger "The Prince". As a result, I have high expectations for the movies I watch. Eye candy alone just can't cut it for 80's people, or 70's or probably 60's. People born during the 90's most likely watched the safe cartoons of the last decade, which had lots of eye candy, colors, and zero substance. Which is why as adults, they're easily bored or impressed. I weep for the future.

I was near theater few hours ago. People were saying madagascar was better than prometheus. I was like what? These kids look like mid 90 born and I can understand their short attention span. I can't imagine their productivity and focus on things with such short attention span.

Well cinema has changed not just the people viewing films. I was born in 1965 and epics really were epics . Before multiplex cinemas it wasn't a problem to have a long film because the cinemas and films had less competition and choice. These days its all about getting as many viewings in a 24 hour time frame as possible so i think studios put directors, and editors, under pressure to get the length of the film down to accommodate more attendance receipts. Add to that the shorter attention span of the younger audience and the frenetic editing etc it all contributes to inferior films i think . Also the pirating issue has to be considered to, the more people that can pay to see a film and in a shorter time frame before it becomes available for download has contributed to this as well.

hey sky, i really liked your post. (i'm '88 for the record). i do agree with all of your observations. I'm no sociologist, but i am a foreigner living in america, and let me just quickly run through a list of things i consider to contribute to the effects you're describing: - cheap popular low-quality mass media - materialist career-oriented lifestyle and the fall of the traditional family model where parents actually take a responsibility for instilling moral and social values in their kids (ie talk to them) -- kids derive their models, standards and priorities from ever worse media - an increasingly hedonistic viewpoint -- social interaction become centered around having fun, the quicker the better. meaningful human interactions that the generation of my parents read books about and saw in the few masterpiece movies of their time are sought for less. young members of the nowadays society are increasingly unable to deal with complex feelings. stir it all together, and you end up with people who thrive on special effects and thoughtless fun. sorry don't mean to be offensive, why am i not asleep.

i agree - i really "worry lil bit" about the latest generations / youth. The "information decade" leads to uncompared "flood of information" so you need "fast and compressed" ways to transport information, like "twitter". Our brain is not prepared for that, as these is a phanomenon which is some little years young, and before mankind had some thousands of years were NOTHING happend, no TV, just talking tales around the fire, looking for food, beeing close to nature etc. When i see developement on intellectual basis, i see that the more information is available, the DUMBER the masses become. Also, most people dont read books, maybe many even can not read properly, as they WASTE THEIR TIME with cheap tv series, game consoles and such. This may be "fast fun", but it does not satisfy or deliver what is promised by advertisement/marketing/media manipulation of the masses for political/ economic purposes. Give em bread and games, then they wont rebel is the key. But as advertismenet is so PRESENT in each media, we only have chance to avoid "infection / permanent rape of our minds" by THROUGING OUT THE TV and going more often outside with bicyle, sit under a tree and enjoy sun and conversation with other nature-friends...

I think youre generalising but in a way youre very right from what Ive seen. Of course there are exceptions and not all kids born in the 90s have a shorter attention span and stuff....but I think most of them do. I was born in 82 and LOVE long subtle movies and mostly hate explosion movies. LMFAO @ Madagascar being better than Prometheus! I havent watched Madagascar but I know that it isnt even a sci-fi movie so why compare them at all? What scares me is the kids born after the 90s and 00s...

By the way - i have 3 daughters, born 97, 2000 and 2003. We dont have TV, my children dont have internet, no iPhone, even no Smartphone. They play music on flute, violine and piano. They go out with bicicles and meet friends. I do anything i can to leave media out of family life by simple not having it in the house. Maybe this sounds rude - but my children are happy and when they get older, they anyway will decide on their own how they want to live. No its the time of "youth in the real world", not the time of "losing yourself in virtual worlds" without even undertanding the "real world".

Yes that maybe. But even nowadays there are some brilliant movies and sci-fi plots done well. Though the "last real masterpiece" is some years ago, i think matrix 1999 was that one. I also loved "The happening" from Night M. In Shallah (or how is his name..). Brilliant drama, brilliant story, brilliant score. Masterpiece - in my eyes. The last 20 sci-fi plots were more or less some ugly aliens, explosions and McDonalds Fast-Movie crap. You also see on TV (if you still watch tv, what i stopped 2 years ago) it gets more and more dumber and dumber, maybe these and the next generations are splitted into some major parties.. 1. The 1-dimensional patriotic propaganda army stuff where US soldiers safe the world from whatever. Explosions, dumb blah, girls (high box office) 2. wannabe intellectual movies (mostly flops) 3. masterpieces with original story and good workout (very very rare, good box office)

Sky you nailed it. I was born in good ol' 79 - I'm 33 yo - and I have a vivid memory of movies and tv shows from the 80's and 90's. I grew up watching Knight Rider, V, Space 1999, Battle Star Galactica and whatnot on tv while my dad would tape us 2001, Star Trek flicks, Gone with the wind and such. I remember folks discussing movies in-depth fashion like and even discussing the relevancy of what was being comercialized back then. I have to say that much for my amazement young people from the 90's were already getting sedated via mind numbing shows and it is even worst nowadays. The eye candy factor, big explosions and sterile story depth made it's way. All in all it seems that the young are tought not to think, not to search for bigger meanings, not to have in-depth discussions. And, as a result, they get served precisely that.

@nuck choris, it is really hard to put the movies in the last two categories that you mentioned. As for the directors name it was M. Knight Shyamlan. Also agree with Matrix as the last best sci-fi. I don't put inception and source code into sci-fi because they were borderline fantasy movies with sci-fi as sub-genre. @David, totally agree. In depth discussion are quite rate and mostly found on the forums or say IRC, Chat rooms where people still discuss ideas for what they are instead of popcorn discussions.

The future of mankind I agree with most of what Sky says In Prometheus you have a number of humans and a robot who are born around 2050, about 40 years from now. Just imagine what kind of world these humans almost certainly grew up in. Surely the information technology during their younger years will be streets ahead of ours today and it is therefore most likely that the material (and its slant) in the media, and in education, will be even less obvious (in the sense of what true reality is) than it is today. Maybe this is a reason the crew of Prometheus behave the way they do. Their emotional and human development was shallow compared to the past, and their curiosity, childish in a way (like it is almost a game – a growing tendency these days) leads them to treat things in the same way. When things get out of control they panic, don’t discuss, and largely just take rash decisions. The parent child theme (or lack of it in the future) seems to get subtly exposed during a number of scenes. Not sure if RS meant this to be a thread in the plot but I really fear for our children’s future. They are not encouraged to think for themselves, take individual actions (responsibility) unless their parents are aware of this missing from their growing up process. Good to see a number of posters here are well aware of this. You may argue that games can teach such things but games are virtual (don’t matter) – they are not real and undo child tendencies to want to communicate (with other humans) about important things. When I was a child we were always in the fields exploring nature, building dens, communicating with each other (no TV, no mobiles etc.) – I learnt a lot! When possible I try to explain to young children about nuclear energy and about how dangerous it is for the planet – then I discover the other day that nuclear engineers from Rolls Royce go into UK schools preaching how wonderful and safe it is. This is happening now – imagine the future with more invasive types of media and communication – and where this will all end up. This post is overlong – just to say I was born in 1945 and BR/Alien/Dune/2001/Prometheus are my favourite films.

skuaimages: "BR/Alien/Dune/2001/Prometheus are my favourite films." High Five

I found Dune to be Just awefull, no Dreadfull is a better word for that film, also I am still wondering what the heck STING was even thinking.

Spartacus: you meany

@Hadley's...TL:DR... LOL! Really though...If you don't mind...how old are you?

Media availability has changed EVERYTHING. I was born in 1967 in UK. I remember as a 12 year old "The Daily Express" running a page 3 report of members of US audiences in COMPLETE terror of "Alien", and a black & white picture of kids screaming in their red velvet theater seats!! That story & picture stuck with me for ever! I was scared stiff.. My best buddy and I read the book & the art book, had the 3" ft high model etc. etc.. That was all before I watched the movie - 7 years later when it was braodcast at 9.30 pm on ITV on a Sunday night: I knew what was going to happen but that movie absolutely terrified me like no other. IT STILL DOES. My point being is that there is no anticipation becuase it is too easy to see stuff all the time. My kids watch TV iPods in the back of my car for Pete's Sake!

Sky, that was a good post and very keen observations but I think you left out something. Everything goes in cycles, and to think that the way audiences are now will stay that way is shortsighted. Change is constant and sometimes it comes seemingly overnight and sometimes it's so slow you can't see it until it's in your face. The clock is running right now....

There is most certainly a lack of good speculative Sci Fi these days. Films like Transformers seem to rule the day. Big on special effects and action but thats about it. 2001, Blade Runner, and Alien are without a doubt Great films that are unrivalled today IMO. I have to admit though I have a lot of time for Contact. This film copped some bad criticism but I find it to be a very powerful and thought provoking film. Outland is also one of my favourites.

What about the recent 'Moon'. This did not have flash bang wallop crap visuals but plenty of philiosophical content. I thought it was a throwback film and that why it was well received.

@Hadley's hope [quote]People older than me (and I remember the 70's) who write 'lol' as if it's an argument, and who write TL:DR on anything longer than 6 sentences.[/quote] If you're posting this reply as an argument which you thought based on the reply on this post. http://www.prometheus-movie.com/community/forums/topic/8810 In that case, I would love to withdraw my opinion on your post. This is not my site and writing lol just when i feel it is and always was my personal choice. If you think I can't make argument for the sake of it, like you do as if everything related to prometheus has to be serious, then I am sorry. I can't be serious with the topics all the time. Unless specifically asked by moderators, I wish to keep things funny with lol and short sentence. I have nothing against big posts or threads. I only posted the below comment because I personally feel so - [i]"I don't think replies like "lol" and "good one " should be removed with like. I mean if all you need is like for your reply, there are social networks like facebook and twitter for that. Forums are to share even minor fun that comes out of communication. Then again this is just me, spending decades on forums, doing lol instead of like. "[/i] That said, I have removed/edited my comment from your thread. Hope you find it comfortable now. Now that this snarky stuff is out, hope discussion will be on topic.