The Future of Sci-Fi -- All Star Wars Knockoffs?

[gobler]

I thought Star Wars was "an epic story about a boy, a girl and a wookiee...":lol

 

[darth_myeek]

lol, im aware of the themes that are used in starwars from the heroes journey, kirosawa, flash gordon etc. i wanted to hear it from him to see if he knew what they were. unfortunately, i just got an "echo" statement. :unsure

Themes? Buy Flash Gordon Conquers The Universe. Princess, Emperor, desert planet, snow planet, disguising in enemy costumes, and on and on.
UPC 7 41914 01506 2 .

 

[Colin Droidmilk]

Star Wars as eclectic genre-bender isn't a knock-off. What other film made such a collage of western, samurai, screwball comedy, bible epic, Wizard of Oz, Metropolis, Laurel and Hardy, WWII, space opera, Tolkien, pirate movies, knights of the Round Table, Bogart movies, Hans Christian Anderson etc.? As cinema, this unprecedented genre-blurring is the film's most interesting and original achievement, and is so often overlooked these days.

 

[Michael Bergeron]

A few good Star Wars knock-offs would be a welcome chance IMHO... Everything now is a sequel or a prequel or a direct "re-imagining". I don't remember the last time I saw a film in the theatre!

 

[RebellionBarbie]

I dunno, just about anything can be twisted around into good Sci Fi in the right hands. Take Dune for instance. Dune is an allegory for the middle east during the cold war. Atreides = Americans, Harkonnen = Russians. The Russians and Americans were stalemated over oil in the middle east. Arakkis = Middle east (say "Arakkis" out loud, then say "Iraq"....). The fremen = the nomadic muslims. Spice = oil. The spice is what allows for travel which is so important that he who controls it is master of the universe. Hell, 9/11 was when I realized words like "jihad" didn't originate from Dune LOL.

So I think it remains to be seen what will influence future generations of science fiction and fantasy... perhaps for a little while that will be the trend, just like right now comic book movies are the best way to make money in the film industry. But I think it's impossible to predict where Sci Fi will go from here.

 

[Wes R]

I could never get into Dune for some reason. I know i haven't bought a scifi novel written by a newer author in a long time. i raid the used book stores for stuff from the golden age of the 50s-70s. Same wiht movies, if it hasn't bene animated or made before 2000 I probably haven't watched it or bought it. I went to the theatre last 2006 for a number of reasons aside from the massive cost.

 

[JOATRASH FX]

I will be bold and claim that there hasn't been a truly unique idea in any form of entertainment for a very long time and there is unlikely to be one any time soon. I don't care how special people think their ideas are- someone, somewhere has already thought of them in some form. Everything is derivative of everything that has gone before and the only thing you can do is rearrange the pieces and present them in new and interesting ways that have their own personality and at least feel different to a large audience.

That's why I don't regard the Star Wars films as "knock offs". Take a Kurosawa film and place it in space? Nice angle! Let's see if it holds up. A wagon train in space with human-lookalike robots, greek mythology and nifty dogfights with "Vipers"? Count me in...

If authors are constantly aware of these things it will help them steer clear of outright plagiarism and lazy rehashing of already chewed entertainment-stuffs.

(And yes, I realize that many will think it odd that I used Galactica as an example, seeing as it was so recently "re-imagined" but for me at least, the update brought some really interesting things to the table.)