Science Fiction

Movie Reviews and Essays

• See also the Index of Films Reviewed on this Site

• The ultimate antihero messiah for the post-9/11 "War on Terror" era can apparently be found in The Chronicles of Riddick, the sequel to Pitch Black. Overcoming evil with evil, unfortunately, seems to be the spirit of the times. Read "Fighting Evil with Another Kind of Evil?"

• Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 offer surprisingly profound spiritual lessons when unmasked from their comic-book disguise. No other films have so evocatively explored the downside of being a superhero. Peter Parker, the reluctant everyman messiah, must constantly choose between self-interest and self-sacrifice, choose between his own needs and those of others, choose between his own social life and social obligation, and make all these choices while being misunderstood and unappreciated. Being a superhero never seemed so difficult. Read "Unmasking the Spirituality of Spider-Man."

• In The Matrix trilogy, the Christ figure motif goes beyond superficial plot enhancements and forms the fundamental core of the three-part story. Neo’s messianic growth (in self-awareness and power) and his eventual bringing of peace and salvation to humanity form the essential plot of the trilogy. Read "He is the One: The Matrix Trilogy's Postmodern Movie Messiah." (This article is published on the Journal of Religion and Film.)

• Superman, the original superhero, is a culmination of the great mythic heroes of the past. The hero's journey, a recurring cycle of events in mythology, is described by Joseph Campbell. The three acts in Superman: The Movie portray a complex calling to the superhero's role, consisting of three distinct calls and journeys. Each of the three stages includes the death of someone close to him, different symbols of his own death and resurrection, and different experiences of atonement with a father figure. Analyzing these mythic cycles bestows the viewer with a heroic "elixir." Read "The Superhero's Mythic Journey: Death and the Heroic Cycle in Superman." (This article is published on the Journal of Religion and Film.)

• Want to know more about the relationship between science fiction, spirituality, and cinema? Want to know more about the films The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Time Machine, and The Little Prince? Read "A Prince, Machines, and Stillness: Theology, Technology, and Time in Three Science Fiction/Fantasy Stories Transformed into Film."

• It was the best of films. It was the worst of films. Read review of Jurassic Park and Super Mario Brothers.

• If you had only one day to live, would you do it with debauchery, despair, or dignity? Read review of Groundhog Day.

• Aliens, abductions, true stories, oh my! A skeptical look at a filmed "true story." Read review of Fire in the Sky.

• In 1962, monsters were popular in matinees, but the the real monster was the threat of nuclear war. Read review of Matinee, a movie within a movie.

• Heaven help the children (and adults) who are "different." Read review of Powder.

• Science fiction films often examine cultural issues through a magnifying glass of technology-tinged fantasy. How do time travel films comment on people's views of time and history? Read "History Lessons: Time-Travel Films as Postmodern Parables."

• The cybercraze comes to cinema. Computers starred in multiple films in 1995, but better computer flicks came earlier. Read "Cybercinema: Hollywood's Year of the Computer."

Short Stories

• In 2013, the Doomsday Virus loose on the Internet causes all nuclear weapons to launch. Darn those military contractors for not keeping their virus checkers up to date! Although the post-civilization job market leaves much to be desired, with a little ingenuity, writers in "The Word Warrior: A Post-Apocalyptic Parody" can still earn a buck (well, old cans of food).

• If you were Jewish physicists who had discovered time travel, would you want to see the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70? Would you want to stop it from happening? Read "Apocalypse of Amaziah."

• Is the end of the world really the end? Can there be an astronomical sequel to the book of Revelation? Read "Revelation II."

• What if you had to wrestle with your own ghost? Read "Ghostslinger."

• Suppose you invented a space-time machine with the potential to reveal many secrets of the universe--but also to transform renegade nations and terrorist groups into dangerous superpowers. What would you do? Should you concentrate on the glory and ignore the shadow side of your life's work? Or should you destroy it all to prevent an apocalypse? Go to "Time Shadows" page.

Go to the Cinema, Spirituality, and Science Fiction Home page, or to the Cinema page, or to the Spirituality page.