Science fiction films and series with messages of social criticism

If there is something that defines science fiction films and series, it is that their characteristic of “foreseeing” the future has made their settings the perfect canvas to project an improvable and flawed present. That’s why different artists and filmmakers have captured in their works some of the most relevant and worrying messages of social criticism.

Though the science fiction elements are few, Adam McKay’s story in “Don’t Look Up,” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence, is about a science fiction film with social criticism of global warming, and its deniers. It’s about two astronomers who find out that a meteorite will destroy the Earth and start warning the media, but nobody believes it. Available on Netflix.

Black mirror

One of best science fiction series and social criticism is the creation of Charlie Brooker, ‘Black Mirror’. With 5 seasons behind it, the story of this dystopian drama is a conjunction of different plots, but with a common message, which warns and underlines the dangers of reaching a society controlled by entertainment and technology. Available on Netflix.

The Hunger Games

Let’s go back with the political science fiction film, with one of the sagas that surely came to mind more than one. The ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy does not hide or pretend to hide its aspirations, because within the story with Jennifer Lawrence there is an obvious critique of class struggle, the freedom of the oppressed and voracious capitalism. Available on Netflix and HBO Max.

• You may be interested in: Sci-Fi Movies Coming Out in 2023
• It may interest you: Crime thriller in the new series arrived on Netflix

sons of men

Alfonso Cuarón’s masterpiece is also an apocalyptic sci-fi drama in which Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Charlie Hunnam and others shape this decadent world. ‘Children of Men’ is set in the United Kingdom, where humanity has not seen a new child for years and society is about to collapse, but a hope reveals the worst in human beings.

Blade Runner

In addition to its contributions to the genre, in terms of aesthetics, staging and storytelling, Ridley Scott’s 1982 “Blade Runner” is a warning to a world obsessed with other things. The story starring Harrison Ford, based on the book by Phillip K. Dick, predicts what megacorporations might do when they take over the world.

metropolis

The germ of what would later perfect the genre is in “Metropolis” by Fritz Lang, published in 1927. It is a dystopian future in which the society of work has evolved to such an extent that they have become soulless machines that they obey the order and that industrialization has turned man into a tool.