our existence. According to RichardWright, such films found their inspiration
in ‘a media critique which sees the new information societies as having
created and imposed on their populations a form of organization structured
by mediated forms of experience’ (Wright, 2000: 1).
SF makes clear the unconscious, hidden and imperceptible elements of
our society and also makes credible and acceptable ‘the supernatural’ and a
variety of strange elements, finding its justification in the progress of
science. The verisimilitude that arises from the association with the
attitudes, methods and terminology of science is one of the aspects that
distinguishes SF from fantasy films. In other words, SF implies the transition
from magic to science while the magical characteristics of fantasy clash with
the scientific approach of SF. According to Robert A. Heinlein, this is
precisely the definition of SF:
realistic speculation of future events, a speculation based on
a suitable event of the past or present world and that is
constituted through the understanding of the nature or the
signified of the scientific method (Heinlein, 1964: 22).
Thus the principal difference of fantasy films and SF films is that fantasy is
simply elaborated with elements of reality but has no connection with
reality. Fantasy does not intend to project our society into the future with its
present problems, but is presented as an escape or an alternative to our
current issues. Fantasy cinema is defined by James Donald as:
Films which show worlds, whether ours or not, that depart
from the rules of everyday reality, often using cinema’s
spectacular capacity for illusion and trickery to conjure up
before our eyes weird creatures and strange happenings in
impossible narratives (Donald, 1989: 10).
In this way, the huge economic success of fantasy sagas such as Lord of the
Rings (Jackson, 2001-2003), Star Wars (Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
(Lucas, 1977); Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (Kershner,
1980); Star Wars Episode VI: The Return of the Jedi (Marquand, 1983); Star
Wars Episode I: Phantom Menace (Lucas, 1999); Star Wars Episode II: Attack
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