Which light-hearted robot romp had an awful instance of brownface? Which classic space
opera turned Arabic nomads into savage stereotypes? Stick around to learn which science fiction
movies haven't aged well at all.
Lots of 1980s films were less than enlightened in their portrayal of women. Sexy teenage
boy fantasies were a virtual industry unto themselves, and films like "Porky's" and "Revenge
of the Nerds" were so comfortable with casual sexual assault that we can't laugh at them
anymore. Science fiction didn't skip out on this trend with John Hughes' teen flick "Weird Science."
There's a lot to like about this movie, including Bill Paxton as the jerky brother Chet, but
that doesn't erase the film's creepy concept. Lisa is the ideal woman, portrayed by Kelly
LeBrock. She's an AI imprinted onto a mannequin, but she's still bound to the whims of a pair
of hormonal teens. Lisa's agency always comes down to serving their needs. It's a relief
that all these two mostly need is a jolt of confidence, but by the end of the film, Lisa
is still a servant out to help other teenage boys lift their self-esteem. She even cleans
the house before she's off to her next mission. It's a rehash of how it's a woman's job to
"fix" the men in their lives or mother their own partners.
"No, thanks. I'd rather not."
For fans, "The Terminator" is still a milestone of sci-fi horror, featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger's
unstoppable killing machine on the hunt. From the viewpoint of Sarah Connor, played by Linda
Hamilton, though, it's a two-fold nightmare of stalking. The T-800 cuts its way through
several women before it draws close to its correct target. It infiltrates Sarah's house,
kills her friends, steals her family's information, and is willing to kill her anywhere, any time
— even in public.
Meanwhile, Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn, has imprinted his fantasy idea of Sarah onto
a photograph given to him by her future son John Connor. Kyle is willing to sacrifice
himself to meet his fantasy woman, but he has to violently abduct her without explanation,
despite her terrified and flailing defense. Within two days, Sarah's just as obsessed
with her well-meaning but frightening captor, and thus the future is saved via an awkward
sex scene. "The Terminator" remains a great movie, thanks to terrific effects and Schwarzenegger's
sheer implacable presence. However, the abduction-as-romance angle remains badly executed. Please, don't
try this dating tactic at home.
"Short Circuit" is a sweet-natured movie about a robot that becomes sentient and decides
he doesn't want to hurt people. Johnny 5, as the robot names himself, runs away from
the military installation that created him and takes shelter in the home of a bookish
young woman played by Ally Sheedy. Johnny is tracked down by his creator Newton, played
by Steve Guttenberg.
It's still a cute movie today, but it's less than great that white actor Fisher Stevens
plays Ben Jabutiya, an Indian engineer. Stevens, who'd originally been hired to play a white
graduate student, involved himself in attempting a fair and nuanced portrayal of Jabutiya,
and his efforts do come through in the finished film.
Since then, Stevens has been open about his regrets in taking on a role that should have
gone to an Indian actor. The process of playing Jabutiya involved darkening Fisher's skin,
which is unavoidably an example of racist brownface. Fisher sat with Aziz Ansari in
2015 and talked about being a young actor in need of a job, and of industry injustice
that's still all too frequent. It was a necessary conversation, handled well.
"Blade Runner" will always be a classic. It's the masterpiece that helped put the visual
power of cyberpunk stories on the map, but that doesn't mean it's without critique. The
glorious but depressing near-future Los Angeles relies on borrowing the chic aesthetic of
a neon-lit Japan. However, the city itself is lacking the diversity that LA displays
in real life. It's a topic of frequent and necessary discussion, but there's also a little
more to "Blade Runner" that doesn't feel great.
The budding romance between Rachel and Rick Deckard is based, like much of the story,
on noir tropes. That means gruff, manly men pulling their desired partners into passionate
clenches that are only consented to afterward when the lady admits she actually wanted it.
That's already scary and tiring for women. But tensions on the set between Harrison Ford,
Sean Young, and Ridley Scott only added extra vehemence to the scene where Deckard shoves
Rachel against the wall in desire. It's an uncomfortable scene to watch, even without
knowing the details about the film's production.
"Very."
As a whole, "Star Wars" has finally begun the work of rehabilitating how it portrays
some of its alien cultures. While the obvious argument is always "it's fiction," there are
very few societies in fiction that don't draw from real life. Like George R. R. Martin's
Dothraki, who borrowed elements from Mongolian history, "A New Hope" also took its inspiration
from nomadic cultures. The Tuskens were designed around the Bedouins, Arabic nomads with centuries
of complex history.
In "A New Hope," the Tuskens were relegated to savage stereotypes, raiders that stole
from the villages encroaching on their territory. "Star Wars" has since worked hard to fix the
portrayal of Tatooine's indigenous culture. This has been seen in the Legends novel "Kenobi"
by John Jackson Miller, as well as both "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett."
Temuera Morrison went the extra mile to add Māori elements to the tribal culture, and
Deaf actor Troy Katsur gave the Tuskens a real language. However, with Boba Fett's family
band of Tuskens all brutally killed off for shock value, it's clear there's still a ways to go.
"I will resolve this."
Campy classic "Barbarella" brings a French comic book to life, with Jane Fonda as its
title character. As a story that leans all the way into its sexiness, we're not here
to pick on this flick for being too horny. That'd be like being mad at pizza being cheesy.
No, "Barbarella" portrays sexuality with the literal innocence of angels. It's pretty healthy,
overall, except for one scene that puts a sour taste on the whole affair.
Late in the film, Barbarella is searching for Dr. Durand, the villainous figure that
could ruin Earth's era of peace. As she gets close to her target, she falls into a trap
set by the disguised baddie, and he's prepared to kill our heroine off. The method? A machine
intended to end life via excessive pleasure. It's the only situation where Barbarella can't
reasonably consent to what's going on, meaning that Durand intends this machine to rape a
woman to death. The innocent Barbarella does survive the ordeal, of course, but it's a
pretty dark moment in an otherwise light film.
Starring James Caan and Mandy Patinkin, "Alien Nation" is Hollywood's best science fiction
homage to "In the Heat of the Night." Upfront about its themes of cultural and racial integration
and segregation, the flick uses the alien Tectonese — or Newcomers — to stand in
for real-life bigotry. Caan plays the old-fashioned Detective Sykes, a man of hard prejudices
who gradually accepts his new alien partner, Sam Francisco, as they chase down the roots
of a terrifying new criminal empire.
The film's willingness to talk about its big themes in between its hard-boiled action makes
its opening absolutely bizarre. Francisco replaces Sykes' original partner, Tuggle,
who was killed in the crossfire of a Newcomer street fight. Tuggle's death is a by-the-numbers
example of "The Black Character Dying First," an exhausting and unnecessary trope that portrays
Black men and other minority groups as disposable to empower the actions of a white lead. It's
a big mistake that leads to the movie trying to make its case about the cruelties of racism
without the presence of any major Black leads at all.
Two names ought to inspire rage in any "Transformers" fan, and we don't mean Michael and Bay. One
name is Skids, the other is Mudflap. Appearing only in "Revenge of the Fallen," these characters
are a stew of horrible stereotypes based on blackface minstrelsy. To this day, the franchise
is still marred by the way its producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, director Michael Bay,
and even the voice actors passed around this mistake like a hot potato.
Skids has a gold tooth mashed into his messed-up grill, and Mudflap speaks in a mutilated version
of AAVE — African American Vernacular English. The pair are depicted as uneducated, semi-illiterate,
and chunky. It's hard to miss what they're intended to resemble, and there's nothing
good about it. The live-action "Transformers" movies are full of immature gags that are
a staple of Bay's style of filmmaking. Still, these two robots remain the worst thing about
a franchise that's long since veered off the road of good taste.
Many "Ghostbusters" fans have grown up with the franchise since the first movie's premiere
in 1984. It's a sci-fi comedy classic, starring Bill Murray in the prime of his career, and
it's comfort food we can't ever quite recreate. The franchise is back and looking great, but
as wonderful as the original movie still is, it's not perfect.
Some movie fans were rightfully upset about 2020's "Wonder Woman 1984" and the way it
treated Steve Trevor's storyline. A similar scenario mars "Ghostbusters," only worse.
Dana, played by Sigourney Weaver, and her nerdy neighbor Louis have their bodies hijacked
by demons. To release Gozer the Gozerian, the Keymaster and Gatekeeper must mate. The
act itself isn't seen, but the implications are clear in how both of them look afterward,
along with their sexually suggestive titles. The body-swap trope may be a hallmark of '80s
comedy, but it's not a trope we need to keep promoting or protecting.
"Stop that!"
"Predator" remains one of the manliest movies in history, a chart-topper of studly do-right
action matched only by films like "The Northman" and "Gladiator." This tightly-paced jungle
cruise pits a group of military men against an alien hunter that's already wiped out a
squad of Green Berets and a whole lot more. Only Arnold Schwarzenegger is a bad enough
dude to fight this thing one-on-one and possibly survive.
The behind-the-scenes work on "Predator" was just as beefy, with the cast doing their best
to one-up each other. It shows on the screen. No one will ever take this film off the list
of coolest movies of all time, although its insistence on its own manliness goes overboard
when Jesse Ventura's character, Blaine, casually drops the f-slur when his teammates don't
want to share his tobacco chew. It's not a moment that completely ruins the movie, but
today more than ever that bigoted remark reeks of the kind of insecurity that we've long
since gotten tired of.
Denzel Washington is capable of being in some bad movies, but he always turns in a good
performance. However, in 1995 he was outclassed by an early Russell Crowe in the so-awful-it's-fun
"Virtuosity." Crowe understands the assignment perfectly, playing an AI loaded up with the
recreated minds of every serial killer his creator can cram onto a high-capacity USB.
As SID 6.7, Crowe chews up the scene once he's loose, and he's at his hammy best when
he takes a nightclub hostage.
"Virtuosity" gets out of hand early on when SID's creator convinces another scientist
that he can upload his favorite VR sex program onto a cutting-edge android body. It's another
riff on "Weird Science," in that this socially stunted figure doesn't think about his creation
as a person, just something to be used. It's a motif that "Ex Machina" later explores with
a lot more thoughtfulness, but here it's just another gross example of how some men prefer
their women to not have any thoughts of their own. This scientist does pay for his lust
when SID comes out of the vat instead of his sex bot, but it's still unnecessary objectification.
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