Science Fiction Movies

I just read a rather bitter opinion piece about how "Star Wars" ruined the sci-fi genre. This is of course precipitated by the release of the first teaser trailer for the upcoming movie, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Here's the trailer:

Here's the piece: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/02/opinion/beale-star-wars/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

I have to disagree with Mr. Beale. One movie franchise is not going to ruin an entire genre. True, it might make some people believe that space opera is the full extent of science fiction and that's a shame, but does it RUIN the entire genre? Of course not. I'm actually encouraged that Hollywood continues to try science fiction of various types. Like every other genre, many of those movies will be forgettable mush, but there will always be that occasional gem that makes people notice and maybe even convinces them to try reading a few books in that genre.

The editorial is about movies, however, so we'll stay with that. Mr. Beale says that the Star Wars franchise has created a "template" for science fiction movies: "lots of whiz bang, plenty of quirky alien characters, CGI to the max, plenty of explosions and little thought of any kind." While I agree that these aspects are present in some science fiction movies, let's take a step back. Aren't these aspects (minus the quirky alien characters) present in the majority of movies out of Hollywood? Are all the genres ruined every time a movie with action and special effects appears? No, because they're MOVIES. Hollywood producers aren't stupid: they know there has to be action to keep people's interest. There have been exceptions, but those certainly aren't normal. I agree that there should be more than a "little thought of any kind," but again, we're talking about Hollywood. They're trying to make money, not necessarily quality.

I'd like to suggest to Mr. Beale that if he doesn't want to see the next Star Wars movie, he shouldn't see it. But he needs to be more patient: don't write off the whole genre yet. Science fiction is just like every other genre in one respect: there are going to be good movies and bad movies. It's usually pretty easy to tell if an upcoming movie has any interesting thoughts to go along with the action, so wait for the right one. (While you're waiting, try picking up a book.)