Hollywood is built on trends, and about a decade ago it experienced a streak of success with incredible Space moviesbut that trend seems to be a thing of the past for good. It makes sense for Hollywood to follow trends, and that has led to some truly exciting eras in film, with the rise of horror in the 1980s and 1990s, the age of superheroes in the 2000s and 2010s, and many others. However, it can be a real shame when trends die and a compelling genre ends up in the film graveyard.

Of course, some trends are big enough to survive the cycle and they simply become niche, like slasher movies, but that is not the case for all trends. Vampires were big for about a decade, with countless vampire movies coming out until the creatures that were once monsters became just clumsy mirror images of the originals. The The trend towards space films had an even shorter lifespan in the 2010s.

Gravity, Interstellar and The Martian were released between 2013 and 2015.

A series of award-winning space films

Within just three years three of the best space films of all time came out back to back. Gravity by Alfonso Cuarón was released in 2013 and won seven Oscars for its incredible cinematography, direction and sound. The following year, legendary director Christopher Nolan released Interstellar and literally changed the perception of certain parts of space through the incredible depiction of black holes. Then in 2015 Ridley Scott released his space film, The Martian The film received critical acclaim and was nominated for seven Oscars.

These films were an absolute smash hit and it is incredible that they all came out in such a short period of time. Since then, however, there have been incredibly few space films in generaland certainly none that managed to climb to the same heights as those big three. All were directed by high-profile directors and featured A-list stars with a wealth of experience, but that still didn’t help bring the space movie genre to the forefront and establish it as a stable genre.

What other great space movies were released in the 2010s?

As the 2010s progressed, a few more films attempted to build on this trend, but whether the trend started too strong and couldn’t keep up or simply faded away, by 2020 it was effectively dead. oblivion, Geostorm, Departure to the moonAnd Ad Astra continued to attract big stars for the leading roles in their films, but they didn’t have the same spark or innovation like the ones mentioned above. These films tried to continue the trend. Unfortunately, they didn’t succeed.

If I had to guess why the other films weren’t nearly as successful, I’d say it was because the earlier films overshadowed them so much, and it’s difficult to make a film that’s entirely or even mostly in the space genre. Most space films fall into the realm of science fictionor they introduce aliens and robots and become something else entirely. For a film to stand out as a space movie, it has to put space front and center and really showcase the spectacular vastness.

I will always be interested in space movies that are not franchise films

Franchise films have their place, but standalone films can be great too

The thing is, I really love these other movies that mix genres. star Wars has conquered the space opera genre, and now Zack Snyder is trying to conquer it with his Rebel Moon Movies. Foreigner delivered masterful space horror and sparked a whole new subgenre. And superhero films like Guardians of the Galaxy And Captain Marvel extend beyond the stars, but they exist on a completely different level than typical space films.

In a time when everything seems to be part of a franchise, sometimes it’s nice to have movies that just build a solo story. Rather than becoming something that stretches out and takes weeks to catch up, a great space movie can tell a complete story in about two hours and leave the audience in awe of the universe around them. That’s a big part of what Interstellar, Gravity And The Martian made such great films possible in the first place. But the age of Space movies seems to have come and gone, and it is unlikely to reappear in the current cinematic landscape any time soon.