Fantasy, Superhero, and Sci Fi Films - The Early Aughts (2000 - 2002)!

The year 2000 started with Pitch Black with Vin Diesel playing the criminal, Richard B. Riddick whose modified eyes can see in the dark.  His ship crashes on a desert planet and the crew gets torn apart by alien creatures out in the dark. It was followed by a sequel four years later.  A bright spot for sci fi was the release of Mission to Mars. This is an incredible film for director Brian DePalma and Gary Sinese as an astronaut who uncovers the mystery of Mars.  In May, Battlefield Earth came out, a sci fi tale by Scientologist founder L. Ron Hubbard.  It was not a good film.  The summer brought X-Men to the screen which of course made Hugh Jackman a star as Wolverine.  He is caught between the conflict between Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) and their super powered mutants. These films did not get any Academy Award noms though I would say Mission to Mars and X-Men deserved technical noms.        

The next year, 2001, did not bring HAL or the Monolith, but it did bring us A.I. Artificial Intelligence.  It was developed by Stanley Kubrick based on the Brian Aldiss short story, “Supertoys Last All Summer Long” (1969).  Steven Spielberg directed the film that concerned the Mecha called David (Haley Joel Osment) searching for his family and place in this futuristic world.  It was nommed for Best Visual Effects and Score by John Williams. Jurassic Park III was another return to the island of dinosaurs.  Alan Grant (Sam Neill) goes back to Jurassic Park to rescue a wealthy couple’s son.  It would be fourteen years before we got a new vision of the theme park world.  Tim Burton remade another film, Planet of the Apes, it was confusing, and a new reboot was coming in ten years. Another franchise emerged, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone opened to theaters, audiences world wide were taken with the Wizarding World.  Young Wizard, Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) learns spells and makes friends at the magical school.  It was nommed for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.  The unfortunate part of the Harry Potter film releases is that they dropped during some heavy competition and never got great consideration at awards.   

The cast in point was in December the release of Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.  This was a true realization of fantasy films by Peter Jackson and his team.  Hobbit, Frodo (Elijah Wood) joins a group to destroy the Ring that is tied to the Dark Lord Sauron.  His adventures brought in nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Ian McKellan), the only acting nom for the films, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, and Best Film Editing.  It won for Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, Best Make-up, and Best Visual Effects!  Lord of the Rings brought fantasy to prominence, including Game of Thrones on tv, established the universe franchise, Star Wars had trilogies, and really became a universe with the new films, and brought in some high profile award recognition past the technical awards that the Matrix and Star Wars films collected. In 2002, there was the remake of Time Machine, it was a confusing film.  It was nommed for Best Make-up for it’s Morlocks.  Blade II, directed by Guillermo del Toro, gave us a new strain of vampire, the Reapers.  It was a fun continuation with the Bloodpack taking on vampires and the Reapers.  There was also the sci fi film, Clockstoppers, which had a teen trio using the Hypertime technology which accelerated their molecules so time seemed to stand still.  

A sword and sorcery fantasy movie appeared with Dwayne Johnson bringing his character from the Mummy films into his own movie with Scorpion King.  This was a transition of Dwayne Johnson into movies and as an action star.  He played Mathayus, the last Akkadian assassin, taking on the ruler of Gomorrah.  The superhero movie that changed everything was Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.  Superhero movies to that point had the action movie audience, the male quadrant, but Spider-Man brought in female fans, so it brought a blockbuster status.  It is in the top 20 superhero films at the box office and the top of the box office for that year.  Also, a hunger for more superhero films, it was nommed for Best Visual Effects at the Academy Awards.  Star Wars: Attack of the Clones continued the prequels.  The teen Anakin as a murderer who falls for a senator just didn’t work for me, “I don’t like sand”, and it undeservedly got a nom for Visual Effects. 

Steven Spielberg directed a sci fi film, Minority Report, based on the Philip K. Dick short story.  It had Tom Cruise playing John Anderton, an officer for PreCrime, using precogs to detect crime before it happens.  The film had a stunning vision of the future.  The sequel Men in Black II appeared in theaters in July.  It has Agent K’s replacements, a new character, Laura Vasquez played by Rosario Dawson, and the threat of the shapeshifting Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle).  The unusual sci fi movie was Reign of Fire which had a post-apocalyptic United Kingdom ravaged by dragons out of fantasy.  The survivors are led by Christian Bale’s Quinn and also by Matthew McConaughey’s Denton Van Zan.  Another sequel was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets which had Harry Potter meeting the house elf, Dobby, and facing the dangers of the Chamber of Secrets.  It was one of the top grossing films for the year and kept the franchise strong.

In November was the remake of Solaris directed by Steven Soderbergh.  The 1973 film was in turn based on the Stanislav Lem 1961 novel.  It had George Clooney’s psychologist character, Dr. Chris Kelvin, investigating the space station orbiting the planet Solaris.  There he finds phenomenon to uncover the mystery of what happened to the crew and his own past.  A brilliant sci fi film was Equilibrium written and directed by Kurt Wimmer.  It starred Christian Bale as Grammaton Cleric, John Preston, trained in gun kata. He hunts down Librian citizens who refuse to take the emotion-suppressing drug Prozium II to stop the emotions that led to the last world war.   The end of the year brought Star Trek: Nemesis to theaters. It was the last film voyage of the Next Generation crew. Captain Picard faces Shinzon (Tom Hardy), his clone and leader of the Remans. The last film was Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.  It had Frodo and Sam finding a guide in Gollum, a defining performance by Andy Serkis, while the others fight in a rain-splattered battle.  It was nommed for Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Art Direction, and Best Film Editing.  It won for Best Sound Editing and Visual Effects, the technical awards.  The Aughts shifted the balance of genre films from sci fi to fantasy with the surprise of superhero films.   

#HarryPotterandtheSorcerersStone, #LordoftheRingsFellowshipoftheRing, #MinorityReport, #Equilibrium