I love many things about Steampunk, including the way the genre has grown over the last year, but it can sometimes be difficult to determine exactly what falls inside and outside of the genre. While many things definitively are Steampunk, it seems like there are any number of people who are simply adding the term to a variety of objects simply in hopes that they’ll sell them to a hungry audience.
I’ve even heard the term used to describe the movie Sucker Punch, and I get the confusion. It’s definitely period, although that period seems to obviously be the 1950s/60s for the primary world. And none of the imaginary worlds appear to actaully be Victorian in intent or nature. That said, the movie seems to have struck a chord in the community. I think the obvious reason for that is that it is, like Steampunk itself, it seems to be drawing on elements of the past (including now retro ideas of the future) in order to create a pastiche of old and new. There’s no arguing that appropriation is at least part of what makes Steampunk work, and It’s likely that for many fans of the genre that love of things old and new will spill over into any period as long as it’s done well, and manages to feel thematically consistent. But it doesn’t make it Steampunk. Perhaps we need a new term…
Take a look at the trailer, and let me know what you think:
Check out the definition of steam punk on Wikipedia…. I think this movie matches… anachronism, alternate histories containing miss-timed technology…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk
I’d say yes… but i’m headed to see it right now so I’ll tell you afterwards….
yes it is. But then again at 30 i’m probably 6 years past my “able to define what is and isn’t” Gets sappy at some points but fun po-mo trash flick.
Hmm…how about Crappunk?
Yes, I believe it is. With steam powered zombie nazis and giant mechanical samurai warriors, I don’t think it gets more anachronistc than that!
I think the term steampunk has widened its definition to include pretty much any anachronistic technology present within a film set in an earlier time period…?
I use the term “ChronoPunk” for time based cross-genre.
For the most part Steampunk seems to cover the Victorian and Edwardian periods.
I see lots of steampunk-ish elements in the trailer, but for some reason I can’t get past the “power pop princess” vibe–maybe because I have two daughters and that’s the lens I see everything through nowadays. At any rate, I do think the stylized images are awesome, and there are several anachronistic elements that lend themselves to steampunk, but the genre is so broad now that the answer will depend on whichever person you ask. I’m with you, though, as far as the feeling that the Victorian and Edwardian vibe seems to be the more “accurate” definition of steampunk.
I know this post is a bit old but try a google search of “dieslpunk” images
and this wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk_derivatives