Media conventions of genre are not always conform to standards earmarked. Atimes, obvious conventions such as character, plot, setting, costumed and props, music, lighting, dialogue, and visual style do conform to standards. But looking at more technical conventions, such as themes of movies are in a state of constant adaptation. The fact is, themes in general are not static, but rather dynamic to reflect the beliefs and values of a particular generation or era of the society. Science fiction movies are great examples of movie themes are fall into this category. For instance, Star Wars, Terminator 2, and Alien have Sci-Fi themes that have strong ideological messages and representation that reflect the concerns of the society at the time of their production.
The Sci-Fi genres mostly have conventions that center around some perception of conflict between human race and the other things or forces (usually termed, 'us and 'them'). The standards set by movies like, fantastic worlds, invasion, and visitation often portray ideas that enable audience to construct more modern and futuristic views of the world. A typical example is the Terminator 2, which central theme is the battle for survival between the human race and the self-aware artificial intelligence that is Skynet. http://www.jamescamerononline.com/T2Complexity.htm
Typically, most Sci-Fi movies the like the above mentioned have disaster and wars, and often times depict the notion of science out of control, implying that taking science too far will lead to consequences that might be in some cases very bad.
But in my opinion, some of these Sci-Fi themes are too exaggerated, and therefore might not be reflective of real conventional Sci-Fi genres, although they are designed to be complex, full of suspense, and provide tricky definitions. More so, certain sub-genres like friendship, romance, comedy, and war do not conventionally conform to the genre's standards. But they are featured to give the edge and life to the films, making them seem more realistic.
Nice post! We have to think not only in terms of genre, but how genre is constructed across different media. For example, you are primarily discussing films here, and films (especially of the Hollywood blockbuster variety) are easy to critique for exaggerating genre conventions. Films are supposed to be highly entertaining right? Lots of special effects, action, etc. And yes, even sci-fi films often feature elements of other genres, as most films have some sort of romantic element. Perhaps the film medium encourages exaggeration in a way that, say, a book doesn't. I would ask then, are books more conventionally "pure" than films?
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