6) Sci-Fi Is Ridley’s Natural Territory
There’s something about worlds foreign to him – the past, as in The Duelists, Gladiator, and Kingdom of Heaven, or the near future, as in Alien, Blade Runner, and The Martian – that brings out the best in Scott.
Science fiction in particular is a good fit for the filmmaker, perhaps because it’s a relative blank slate (relative to historical movies and pictures set in the modern day, anyway) that allows Scott to really indulge his creative side. With genre high-points Alien and Blade Runner, and now The Martian to his name, it could be said that sci-fi is the director’s natural territory.
Even Prometheus, with all its flaws, is full of ideas and spectacular imagery. Occasionally damned by a too-dumb script, the film is a mixed bag with more positives than negatives – meaning that Scott still hasn’t produced a bad or uninteresting sci-fi movie.
It’s likely no accident that he chose The Martian to stage his comeback – for all the poor movies he’s made set in a contemporary world, Scott just can’t seem to make a bad science fiction film. If nothing else, it bodes well for Paradise Lost‘s chances.