Task 5: Introduction

Through the years of science fiction, the SF genre has always sought to act as an allegory expressing the anxieties of their contemporary audience. However, in recent years this genre "has generally been quite poor (too much CGI in place of character development, too many explosions in place of ideas)”. This lack of finesse and articulation in the plots of modern science fiction cinema, questions whether they still create the same effect as they did in previous years. In the 1950's, where science fiction was considered to be at its pinnacle, Don Siegel's 'Invasion Of the Body Snatchers' was and still is a prime example of how the SF genre can act as a social commentary and raise social awareness. Although this film is classed a "black and white B-picture", it was very effective in bringing to life the fears that inhabited the public. The main reading of this film "was the alien (read 'Communist') dehumanization and take-over of an entire community" which was the prominent apprehensiveness of America in the 1950's. It is proclaimed that Siegel's 'Invasion Of The Body Snatchers' "takes pride of place in a chain of 1950s sci-fi classics of the questioning, doubting, paranoid variety". Science fiction being an allegory could even be seen in modern SF films, such as Neil Blomkamp's 'Elysium'. Blomkamp's long awaited film hit cinemas in the summer of 2013. Its international box office sales were $193,141,974 and world wide, a total of $286,192,091. The audience response were mixed with positives and negatives, positives being the spectacular use of CGI and negatives being the lack of character and setting development, but the resonating subject matter were the overhanging subliminal messages regarding the film's narrative. The