What genre are superhero films? Fantasy? Sci-fi? E.g. what is Superman or X-Men?
Both. Maybe leaning a little bit more on sci-fi since they try to explain many things with science like kryptonite. But definitely also fantasy for X-Men, mutants have superpowers because the DNA does … things.
I dislike the common definition of sci-fi as science-flavored fantasy. It’s just not a useful distinction to me vs plain ‘fantasy’. What I love the most about sci-fi is the exploration of what it means to be human by projecting the implications of drastically improved technology. All a matter of taste, of course.
I’m curious, though: why should a kryptonite explanation be any more sciency than mutant DNA? I see one as an entirely unexplained magic rock, and the other as an extension of the scientific triumph of understanding genetics (plus hilariously and deliberately misunderstanding evolution). X-Men is very nearly sci-fi to me; if mutants were a human creation it would be.
I wanted to say that it’s hard to define exactly what is or isn’t sci-fi. Really I’m just a sci-fi enjoyer and am not qualified to say what is or isn’t sci-fi :D
Kryptonite for me is clearly a magic rock but in the movie it is in the realm of their science. Also there was a movie where the existence of superman led to a lot of questioning on its implications in defense politics so it could fit some part of your definition I guess?
So like superman is science-based and X-Men is also you’re right and it does clearly ask what it means to be human when there are augmented humans now. So clearly more sci-fi than superman.
But films can be both sci-fi and fantasy. It feels like a sliding rule depending on the amount the universe is based on hardcore science. On the DNA subject, Gattaca is not fantasy but X-Men is.
To me it feels similar to the debate about “hard magic” universes like Eragon (where every spell has a physical toll on the user, or other book series where the magic is really detailed in-universe and only mastered by experts who have to study their whole life for even a basic spell) and “soft magic” like Harry Potter where everyone can cast crucifixion spells at the speed of an automatic rifle (I’m slightly exaggerating).
Other than being a crappy design, this graphic is almost 6 years old
This graph sucks, the y axis differs between the genres
It says so in the text there. This feels like the only way anyway, since the boundaries between genres are fuzzy and it’s not possible to decisively compare genre tags on IMDB.
Bring back westerns and musicals!
Give us Blazing Saddles: The Musical!
Nanook of the North (1922) is considered to be the first documentary ever made, so how is there a giant spike on the documentary graph at 1910, and a smaller one shortly after?
I suspect there might be some different terms grouped together under documentary.
Found this, but not sure how this works towards the larger picture (I need some coffee lol).
https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?genres=history,documentary