Sphere

As it has been mentioned previously I am currently an advanced film seminar this semester and what we learn and see in class has greatly influenced what write about for this blog. This seminar is focusing on the idea of the spectator and the way we watch film and media. So most of the films we look at are films that focus on the introductions of new media and the way it changed cinema. Well the last film we watched was Event Horizon and the student that was doing the presentation on the film showed us a clip from the film Sphere to be a way of relating the ideas in Event Horizon. According to him Sphere and Event Horizon are practically the same film so it was an easy way of looking at the idea of the bleak future that we hold in science fiction films. Well I found that Ion was showing it this afternoon and decided to see for myself how true this statement is. After watching the film I can see his point but have to disagree with the main reason he showed the clip in the first place. There are definitely some points that are very similar; both groups encounter an unknown object/ship that turns out to be alive, they both have to figure out what is going on to try and save themselves in the end, and both films like the many horror films my teacher, the horror buff, has shown has a high body count compared to the amount characters. But both films look at the idea of the bleak future very differently. Event Horizon focuses on the idea that people shouldn't mess with things they don't understand and the dangers that science has when people have pushed it too far. Sphere focuses on people and the dangers of letting their minds cloud the situation. Sphere has its main characters realize that they can't handle large amounts of power but has an optimistic look that someday people might. Event Horizon on the other hand has the main characters get punished for their mistakes and has their decisions haunt them. So while they do have similar aspects, they look at the world of the future very differently. I think that because science fiction films have so many similar story lines and such bleak outlooks on the future that they are unfairly grouped together. I liked Sphere a lot more than I liked Event Horizon; I find the playful look at people and their character flaws much more interesting than science advancing too far for its own good.