"Percentage Of SF Films Are From Games And Comics?" Topic

Has anyone actually done any statistics on that?

I just get the feeling that, unless it's just another needless remake (or "reinvention") of a classic SF movie or show, … almost everything else SF that is produced for TV or cinema seems to be taken from a comic book or some video game (including their many "reboots").

Is that just a personal delusion of mine, or do the facts support my perception?

Whatever happened to making a film from an actual novel (a book without pictures), or from a movie script with an original SF concept?

Dan

If you have read a lot of early science fiction stories, from say the 30s, 40s and 50s, I have noticed plenty of those stories get borrowed from heavily.

I would be more interested in "What percentage of sci-fi movies actually have any science in them?"
ALL Superhero movies are fantasy. Super powers are nothing but magic.

Then there are the movies with wizards and magic swords. Excuse me. Jedi and light sabers.

The percentage of sci-fi that can be called Science Fiction is vanishingly small.

Winston

Well, humans with enhanced senses/powers is most of the comic book contribution to film, isn't it?

Would you consider the ESP and remote viewing in Dune SF or magic? How about the telekinesis in Looper?

I can suspend my disbelief a little, as long as you don't have a hundred totally different mutated abilities all sprouting at once (like X-Men and that whole genre). Then it's too distracting.

But, getting back on topic … how many of today's SF movies/shows, and magic ones masquerading as SF, do you think originated from comic books and video games?

Dan

At what point is the movie/show no longer related to the video game/comic (other than title)?
The Resident Evil film storyline for example have very little to do with their source material.
The Pacific Rim films, is this original or just a spin on the numerous kijiu themes?

I would say there certainly is a greater influx of comic book based shows and movies. But video game tie-ins have been around since the rebirth of video games in the late 80s.

At this point it is very hard to be completely original without someone being able to find parallels to some comic or game, whether intended or not.

That which is not fantasy in Dune is simply balderdash.

Guessing it is cheaper to simply buy the rights to a comic than spend a few years developing a new concept (and then jumping through legal hoops to make sure you aren't potentially plagiarising something else…)

Arrival. Passengers. The Martian. Interstellar. Gravity. Edge of Tomorrow (aka Live. Die. Repeat.)

There you go. Six very recent good to excellent Science Fiction films that actually live up to the term, none of which are based on either comic books or video games.

I would point out that Iron Man and Ant Man do have some pretense of science fiction behind them, although they have to make some big hand waves to pull it off… but then, so do most classic SF stories. (Really, if one could pull off a pocket-sized fusion reactor, the IronMan suit is quite plausible with modern tech.)

But as long as the film is well done and entertaining, I don't care what the source is. After all, most comic books and video games are themselves based on or inspired by already existing SF concepts and tropes.

Star wars
Dr who
Alien
Space 1999
Star trek
Predator
Unless i am mistaken these were all films first

Edge of Tomorrow was based on the Japanese manga 'All You Need Is Kill'

Edge of Tomorrow was based on the Japanese manga 'All You Need Is Kill'

Parzival got it right, since the original novel 'All You Need Is Kill' (2004) by Hiroshi Sakurazaka preceded the manga (2014) by 10 years.

Is that just a personal delusion of mine

I'm afraid it is a delusion Dan, or at least a misperception.

Sci-fi movies are mined from novels and short stories or original screenplays far more than comic books and video games. Outside the successful MCU or DCEU (for comics) and Resident Evil (for video games) franchises few sci-fi movies exist. Other than the ones already listed above, here are some more examples of sci-fi movies (many of which are fairly recent) not arising out of comics or video games. You just have to know where to look:

ET
Starship Troopers
Terminator
Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049
Looper
Source Code
The Astronaut's Wife
Oblivion
The Hunger Games trilogy
The Divergent trilogy
The Maze Runner trilogy
Ender's Game
Rise of the/Dawn of the/War for the Planet of the Apes
Jurassic Park and all the other Jurassic sequels
Tomorrowland
District 9, Elysium and Chappie
Ex Machina
Lucy
Inception
Cloverfield and 10 Cloverfield Lane

Not to mention the just released 'Annihilation' starring Natalie Portman, based on the first book of the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer.

But if you feel that all movies are "the same," you may have a point: link

Even "original" stories are simply variations of the same recycled and re-packaged theme(s): link