Summary

• Sci-fi relies on genre conventions to build its worlds and convey messages, but overused tropes can become cliché and distract from the story.
• Technobabble, pandemic dystopias, dull planet designs, humanoid aliens, junk science, time loops, evil aliens, evil AI, and outdated attitudes towards female characters are some tropes that can be tiresome and overused in sci-fi movies.
• While some tropes can be effective when used creatively and thoughtfully, others can detract from the depth and originality of the genre.

Sci-fi leans into its tropes like any other genre, but in an infinite universe of possibilities, some of them are starting to get tiresome. Sci-fi can bend reality to create fantastical worlds, but it still relies on genre conventions to do a lot of the heavy lifting. This isn't a bad thing. Tropes are just another tool that writers can use to flesh out the worlds of their stories and convey messages to the audience about the rules and expectations of the plot. But when tropes are overused, they can become distracting and cliché. Also, if tropes aren't used correctly, they will stick out and look like lazy writing.

Some of the best sci-fi movies of all time, like the original Star Wars or 2001: A Space Odyssey, have helped to establish the tropes that are still in use today. Sci-fi deals with such big, groundbreaking ideas that it helps to have these cultural touchstones as a guide. But sci-fi as a genre is in need of constant reinvention to keep up with the latest technological advances, so it requires original thinking even more than other kinds of movies. Some tropes have become outdated and should be left in the past, while others have simply been trotted out one too many times for them to be interesting.

10 Technobabble

Examples: The Avengers, Star Trek, Ghostbusters, and more.

Technobabble is used when characters are explaining difficult scientific or technological concepts. It sounds impressive and uses several scientific buzzwords, but it's ultimately nonsensical. Technobabble can often refer to "reversing the polarity", "quantum fields", or anything else that sounds advanced enough to make the audience stop listening. Technobabble is fine when it's used to illustrate the overwhelming genius of a character, especially if the scientific concepts they're talking about aren't grounded in reality. The problem arises when technobabble is used as a convenient way to circumvent an obstacle. It's an unsatisfying way to watch a character get out of a tricky situation.

9 Pandemic Dystopias

Examples: Children of Men, World War Z, Contagion, and more.

Sci-fi has always been obsessed with dystopian societies. These can be brought about by alien invasion, climate change, or just plain human cruelty. Dystopias presage how the world might end up if people don't see the error in their ways, but pandemic dystopias often don't carry the same message. Since the causes of the societal upheaval usually aren't human, a dystopia caused by disease can fail to resonate. There are some great pandemic dystopian movies, and pretty much every zombie movie falls into this category, but they have to focus more on how humans respond to the catastrophe. By removing the human aspect from the genre, pandemic dystopian films rarely work.

8 Dull Planet Designs

Examples: Star Wars, Dune, and more.

Earth is a beautifully diverse planet with a variety of different biomes, and different plants and animals suited to each place. For some reason, most fantasy planets do not share this level of diversity. Star Wars is particularly notorious for asg one biome to an entire planet and calling it a day, but this trope is far more pervasive than that. It's easier to film distant planets if they share some Earth-like qualities, but space explorers in sci-fi movies are constantly coming across planets with breathable atmospheres and the same gravitational pull. Sci-fi offers the chance to explore a boundless universe, so not every planet has to resemble our own.

7 Humanoid Aliens

Examples: Star Trek, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more.

There are plenty of good reasons to feature aliens that look like people. Aside from the obvious advantage when it comes to filming and special effects, audiences are more likely to relate to a human-like character, even if they're from an entirely different galaxy and their skin is bright blue. However, sci-fi movies shouldn't default to humanoid aliens if there are more interesting options for world-building. Some of the best alien movies ever made focus on beings that are barely within human comprehension, like Arrival. Populating an entire galaxy with humanoids is not only uninspired, it also fails to consider the true scope of the universe.

6 Junk Science

Examples: Armageddon, Moonfall, Gravity, and more.

Sometimes, sci-fi movies require the audience to suspend their disbelief, but science that makes no sense whatsoever can easily derail a movie. If a movie is built on a nonsensical premise, then the audience might know what they're in for. Junk science really becomes an issue when the rest of the movie adds up, but something ridiculous comes along to save the day. Moonfall breaks the laws of physics with glee, and it makes it very difficult to root for a main character when the rules of the world aren't consistent. There's no solid foundation for the plot, so it almost doesn't matter what choices the characters make.

5 Time Loops

Examples: Happy Death Day, Edge of Tomorrow, Palm Springs, and more.

Groundhog Day didn't invent the time loop trope, but it did perfect it. After the success of Groundhog Day, every movie featuring a time loop device will inevitably be compared to it, and this can hang a dark cloud over a movie before it has a chance. Movies like Palm Springs and Edge of Tomorrow aren't bad by any means, but they have to work hard to even justify their existence.

The other problem with time-loop movies is that the stakes can be a little confusing. If a character can die and then wake up at the start of the day, there isn't much jeopardy, and movies have to fabricate alternative sources of peril for the main characters. Unless there's a wildly different kind of time loop, the trope can get understandably repetitive.

4 Purely Evil Aliens

Examples: Independence Day, The World's End, Predator, and more.

Some aliens just want to destroy the world for no reason, or they have very flimsy reasons that don't justify murdering billions of people. Aliens often exist outside of normal human morality, and they can provide allegorical insight into our dark hunger for power, but this nuance easily gets lost among the massive explosions and death rays. While evil aliens like those in The World's End provide a universally detestable villain to root against, they lack the depth of most great villains. Human villains rarely get away with such simplistic motivations, and aliens shouldn't be much different. Otherwise, an alien invasion movie can devolve into overly simplistic depictions of war.

3 Evil AI

Examples: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Alien, M3gan, and more.

Most artificial intelligence characters in sci-fi go one of two ways. Either they develop sentience and struggle with their roles in servitude and the overwhelming experience in life, or they try to kill everyone. One of these is inherently more layered and interesting than the other, but murderous artificial intelligence still persists.

As AI develops, sci-fi will probably focus more on the repercussions and morality of such systems, and it should require a considered approach. Lots of best sci-fi scenes ever.

2 Outdated Attitudes Towards Female Characters

Examples: Back to the Future, Blade Runner, and more.

Sci-fi has long been dominated by male creative voices, and it has an unfortunate liability to project male fantasies. There are still plenty of great sci-fi movies with strong female characters like Alien and Mad Max: Fury Road, but a lot of women in the genre are relegated to one-dimensional roles. Sci-fi is speculative fiction, so even though it can be set in the distant future on an unrecognizable planet, it reflects the attitudes of the world it was created in. Hopefully, greater representation of female voices will lead to a broader diversity of stories and more complex and realistic women in sci-fi movies.

1 The Chosen One

Examples: The Matrix, Star Wars, The Hunger Games, and more.

Usually the main character, a chosen one holds the fate of their world in their hands. Some earn this status, but most have it conferred upon them by some higher power. The trope can be used effectively if the story follows how they deal with this newfound power, but otherwise, it can act as a shortcut to establishing stakes. The trope feeds into the damaging idea that some people are inherently more special than others. Characters are also more sympathetic when they have fought and earned their place. Some of the most iconic characters in sci-fi are chosen, like Neo from The Matrix, but these are well-executed exceptions.