Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
Not sure I agree with that. I can think of SF films that don't seem directly related to 'Metropolis' (except in a very broad sense) - 'Incredible Shrinking Man', 'Alien', 'Solaris', 'Andromeda Strain', 'Next', 'Fantastic Voyage', 'E.T.', 'Jurassic Park' etc.
It's possible to find loose connections between any films - perhaps it could be argued that Jurassic Park has a mad scientist (or at least a scientist who does a mad thing), and Metropolis has a mad scientist too - but then so did Frankenstein which predates Metropolis. And, in purely cinematic terms, Jurassic Park and Metropolis don't seem to have much in common.
So, I'd contend the SF tropes in Metropolis were not themselves original; and the cinematic influence of Metropolis is not apparent in "every" big-budget sf movie - all imho of course  . |
I was admittedly making a broad statement. I was suggesting that Metropolis ' elements became iconic of SF movies in general, not that every movie was made "like" metropolis. In fact, I should have added "technology run amok" to that list of elements... silly me!
Of the movies you mentioned,
The Incredible Shrinking Man certainly breaks every tenet of the aforementioned template... although it could arguably be covered under "technology run amok," as that caused the crisis of the story. Many of the other "B" horror movies of that same era, like
Them, similarly use the "tech run amok" element to create their menace, and have no other connection to SF.
Others that break those tenets might include
Gattaca,
Soylent Green, and
Vanilla Sky. They are part of a separate movement in SF, represented by movies like
Solaris, where technology and futuristic elements clearly take second place to the characters and their stories/motivations.
Of the others, they are obviously not "like"
Metropolis, but they still use at least a few of the elements that were iconic to that movie. As time went by, other elements were added to the list of SF "icons," such as space travel in aircraft- or boat-like ships, ray guns, and aliens. ET borrowed from 2 of those later elements, plus the orchestral score.
Labs with incomprehensible displays, flashing lights and computers, were all prominent in
Jurassic Park,
Solaris (both versions),
Fantastic Voyage,
Alien, and
The Andromeda Strain.
Alien included a menacing robot.
Again, I'm not suggesting that these movies deliberately borrowed from
Metropolis... just that those iconic elements of SF that they used were largely created for
Metropolis originally.