The New Trend In SF: Evil Humans

[Aike]

Evil humans in sci-fi movies seem to be the hot trend in Hollywood this fall.

Basically every human character in District Nine was a racist, and in Avatar humanity will try to conquer a world filled with peace-loving aliens.

Why all the hatred against humanity?

I guess it´s because:

1. It´s hard to sell more earthbound movies that are critical of society because of 9/11. People born in the 80s and 90s don´t like those movies in general.

2. Producers, writers and executives born before WW2 aren´t alive any more or are too old to have a say. Therefore, instead of sci-fi grounded in awe celebrating humanity, we get Boomer and Gen-X movies. In other words, movies filled with tons of self-loathing and cynicism.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Why should humans always be good guys? Have you seen some of the shit people do? I'd rather have a mix of stories and protagonists than cookie cutter "Humans save the universe" films.

 

[RandyS]

I recommend both of you watch Battlestar Galactica. Not the good one, the Ron Moore version.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I watched the entire run (of both versions if I remember correctly), what's your point?

 

[Kegg]

This has been popular since forever, if we just want to define it as evil humans - Darth Vader, anyone?

If we want to define it as evil humans who wrong aliens, then, it goes back to just about any film that portrays aliens as peaceloving superior beings who humanity reacts poorly to - The Day The Earth Stood Still, anyone?

But District 9 and Avatar have similarities that go beyond both of those. They cast aliens, the Other, in the role of disenfranchised and powerless racial communities who are abused and exploited by powerful, influential communities that are human. So, yeah, there's definitely a strong comparison between these films.

If I wanted to go further, Moon, District 9 and Avatar all seem to be about corporations fucking people over. And slimeball corporations have been popular since Alien.

To a certain extent, a lot of stories about aliens are about the Other. Which isn't to read too deeply into them, because stories where aliens are inherently monstrous and destructive forces that must be annihilated smack of paranoiac xenophobia, but it doesn't then follow the Alien series was made by a pack of bigots (and indeed, the director of Aliens, where the only good extraterrestrial was a dead one, is rather deliberately inverting his film for Avatar).

And this is about the Other being the guys with the short end of the stick, as it were.

 

[Christopher]

Portraying humans as the bad guys is hardly a novel trend in SF. It goes back as far as Gulliver's Travels.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HumansAreBastards

For that matter, it goes back to ancient mythology, which often portrays the modern race of humans as a degenerate replacement for purer, nobler forms that existed in the past. There have been stories lamenting humanity's darker side for as long as humans have told stories.

 

[Forbin]

I miss The Old Ones.

 

[Kegg]

^
I said that making stories about monstrous aliens doesn't make you necessarily some sort of xenophobic bigot, well, Lovecraft decided to be both anyway.

 

[RandyS]

I watched the entire run (of both versions if I remember correctly), what's your point?

My point was that in the new one, there isn't one person on that show with a single redeeming quality. Maybe not necessarily evil, but a bunch of scumbags nonetheless.

The OP said that evil humans seemed to be the trend in Hollywood today. I was using Galactica as an example that I agree with that.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Why should humans always be good guys?

Maybe not *always*, but it would help if *some* humans were depicted as good. Always being evil is just as bad as the reverse.

 

[Harvey]

In that case, where has a proper example been provided where none of the human characters have been depicted as good?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Avatar? The humans in that film are, if I interpret the preview correctly, an invasion force.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Why should humans always be good guys?

Maybe not *always*, but it would help if *some* humans were depicted as good. Always being evil is just as bad as the reverse.

Eh... You should be familiar with a show called "Star Trek", right?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Why should humans always be good guys?

Maybe not *always*, but it would help if *some* humans were depicted as good. Always being evil is just as bad as the reverse.

Eh... You should be familiar with a show called "Star Trek", right?

Oh yes, it's the pickle on the giant gravel sandwich that is SF humanity.

 

[Harvey]

^ Avatar? The humans in that film are, if I interpret the preview correctly, an invasion force.

It's hard to say without having seen the film, but wouldn't the fact (based solely on the trailers) that a good portion of the humans join with the natives to fight back the invasion force contradict the point that every character in the film is depicted in a negative light?

 

[Kegg]

^ Avatar? The humans in that film are, if I interpret the preview correctly, an invasion force.

But it's obvious that the Sam Worthington character does the Right Thing and switches sides. Avatar is a movie where the hero is a human. The same is also true of District 9, even if his changing sides is most very obviously not one done by choice.

We're willing to condemn human society in these movies, but we won't dehumanise humanity in the way that we're content to do with aliens in a lot of SF. There will always be sympathetic human characters, typically in the lead role, probably because the Talaxian demographic is very small and we're used to this sort of thing by now.

 

[Hyperspace05]

Yes those poor misunderstood Talaxians.

 

[Skywalker]

^ Avatar? The humans in that film are, if I interpret the preview correctly, an invasion force.

Pfft. James Cameron totally ripped off Futurama's "War is the H-Word."

 

[Trent Roman]

1. It´s hard to sell more earthbound movies that are critical of society because of 9/11. People born in the 80s and 90s don´t like those movies in general.

I don't agree. I think the last decade has seen a lot of critical, real-world films, and I daresay moreso than the 90s, which were a lot escapist, at least from what I recall. Lord of War, Thank you for Smoking, Hotel Rwanda, pretty much every film about Afghanistan and Iraq...

There has been a serious, even grim turn in our fiction since 9/11 (and the reaction to it), but it's been reflected in genre and non-genre fare alike. And yes, after the sense of possibility offered by the end of the Cold War, we are rather more down on ourselves now (and we have good reason to be, I'd say).

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

a good portion of the humans join with the natives to fight back the invasion force

Really?

But it's obvious that the Sam Worthington character does the Right Thing and switches sides.

He doesn't just do that...

Spoiler: Avatar

he switches SPECIES. He literally becomes an alien, a Na'vi I think they're called. At that point he gives up his human birthright; he's no longer one of them. So if he is ever good, he's only good when he's an alien. It's just like in District 9, where Mikus transforms into an alien.