Fantasy, Superhero, and Sci Fi Movies - Early 90's (1990-1992)!

It’s time to get out your Discman, put on your Doc Martens, it’s time to Macarena for the 90’s movies!  1990 started with Never-ending Story II: The Next Chapter, the fantasy sequel which an ok movie.  In March, we had The Handmaid’s Tale, based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel. It starred Natasha Richardson as Offred 27 years before the award winning Hulu series starring Elisabeth Moss. There was the first live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film with the Turtles created by the Jim Henson Creature Shop.  The Turtles, more like the Saturday morning cartoon than the comic book fight against the Shredder leading the Foot Clan.  There was the last DeLorean ride of Marty McFly in Back to the Future III. It took him to the Old West to save Doc Brown and return back to the future.  A great conclusion to the series, “The future is what you make it, so make it a good one.”

In June, Arnold went to Mars in Total Recall, a sci fi film was based on a Philip K. Dick story dealing with memory and identity.  It won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.  There was a 2012 remake, but it fizzled at the box office.  One of the interesting comic strip visions was Dick Tracy, a true vision made with primary colors and some classic gangsters with the absurdity of Chester Gould’s villains.  It had an all star cast led by Warren Beatty who also directed the film. The Academy Awards handed out three awards for the movie, best art direction, make-up, and song for “Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)” sung by Madonna. Robocop 2 was the sci fi sequel, but lacked all the cleverness of  the first film. Next was Predator 2, without Arnold, moving the Predator to L.A. streets.  At the end of the year was Captain America, where Matt Salinger slung his mighty shield 21 years before the more superior MCU version.    

1991 began in genre films with Highlander II: The Quickening, it assembled much of the same films as the first film with creator Gregory Widen providing the story with Brian Clemens, but it was a disappointing sequel.  Still, the franchise survived.  Mother sequel came out in March, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze which had Shredder returning to find the Ooze that transformed the Turtles. It was goofy especially the Vanilla Ice “rap”, “Go Ninja, Go Nina, Go!”, um, don’t pass go.  In the summer, we had The Rocketeer directed by Joe Johnston. It is the comic book film that I think most captures the tone of Dave Stevens’ comic books.  The soundtrack by James Horner is one of my favorites, I always hear it at Soarin’ in Disney’s California Adventure.  There is a potential sequel, The Rocketeers, in development at Disney.    

Then, one of the finest sequels appeared, James Cameron’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day.  The film introduced young John Connor (Edward Furlong) and also a shredded Linda Hamilton which made her an icon for female action heroes.  It also turned Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator into a hero fighting against Robert Patrick’s T-1000.  Patrick’s Terminator had a liquid metal form realized by ILM’s computer graphics.  The film was nominated for cinematography and lost. It won the Academy Awards for visual effects, best make-up, best sound, sound effects editing, four of them, impressive.  There has been decades of weak sequels, but the only one I consider semi-canon is the Universal Studios attraction, T2:3D: Battle Across Time which had the same cast and filmmakers.  There is a James Cameron produced Terminator film  directed by Tim Miller set to open on July 26, 2019.        

The year finished with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country which is technically the swan song for the original series cast.  We finally had Sulu (George Takes) as captain of the Excelsior and the rest of the crew racing to preserve the peace attempted by the Klingons, a brilliant finish to the Enterprise-A’s story. The film was nominated at the Academy Awards for best makeup and sound effects editing, but lost to Terminator 2.  Steven Spielberg wrapped up the year with the fantasy Hook. The film had Robin Williams as a grown up Peter Pan who has to return to Neverland and confront Dustin Hoffman’s Captain Hook.   It was nominated at the Oscars for art direction, costume design, make-up, and best song, “When You’re Alone”, but lost.  I love the vision of Neverland 

1992 had three genre films.  In May, there was the strange Alien3 which had Ripley taking on the Aliens in a sci fi prison planet, a disappointing sequel. It lost at the Oscars for best visual effects.  Tim Burton returned to Gotham City with Batman Returns.  Batman took on the dual threats of Danny Devito’s Penguin and Catwoman played to perfection in her latex catsuit by Michelle Pfeiffer.  The production was troubled and the writing was too weak to follow up the first movie.  It was nominated, but lost the Academy Awards for best make-up and visual effects.  Next was the sci fi film directed by Roland Emmerich, Universal Soldier.  The movie featured Jean-Claude Van Damme as a soldier cryonically frozen, mind wiped, and augmented by science.   There were several films, but let’s skip those cheap films. The early 90’s had strong sci fi movies, a little dark except Back to the Future, a few fantasy films, and the superhero movies were led by the Batman films.   

#HandmaidsTale, #BacktotheFutureIII, #Terminator2JudgmentDay, #Hook