Not only has the digital technology produced increasingly sophisticated and visual special effects, there has been also been a continuing preoccupation with human and technology. This theme in science fiction film may be of use to feminist thinker, In a film where the two sides are human and technology, or good and evil, it can be argued that this help the barriers to be broken down and the female characters in these film become identified as human before being recognized as female or "women-. Recent films such as Johnny Mnemonic, the Matrix, AI, Bicentennial Man, and the X-Men all explore the various ways the theme of cyborgs and questions surrounding the effects of combining human intelligence with the new frontiers and boundaries of virtual reality and cyberspace.
According to Kennedy in his 2001 publication, Introduction to the Matrix, both Blade Runner and the Matrix offer post-modernist view of the world where the distinction between the real and representations of the real, the virtual are blurred. Both films can perhaps also be seen to refer back to some of the original concerns od Mary Shelley's book Frankenstein, first published in 1817, in the way in which they both question the role of man in a new scientific age and the dangers of man acting as god. Part of the success of the film the Matrix may also be due to the way in which it combines elements of science fiction, martial arts and action movie genres as well as featuring a strong female lead, Carrie Ann Moss as Trinity and the way in which it draws upon cyberpunk and style. One of the most important films of modern science fiction genre is 2001: A Space Odyssey, made in 1969, which combines optimism and spiritual developments with exploration of new worlds. The film also sets the standard for the iconography of the 1980s and 1990s science fiction films with its emphasis on the new technologies of spacecraft, dangerous computers with a mind of their own and the use of music and image to create a sense of space and grandeur.
