Sci Fi Movies

[Lilias]

The husband was pulling out his hair at the Mac virus.

I read a lot at the time about the liberties taken with the mechanics of geostationary orbit (basically that a spaceship that size would affect gravity enough for buildings to start collapsing by themselves, and the invasion would be won without as much as a shot). Not sure if that is accurate... but the movie, among Greek movie-goers, has been forever dubbed Incoherence Day.

Good filler for late-night TV, still. Especially if Mars Attacks! follows just afterwards.

[Silverfyre]

I lost my virginity while watching "Mars Attacks".  True story.

[Oniya]

The husband was pulling out his hair at the Mac virus.

I read a lot at the time about the liberties taken with the mechanics of geostationary orbit (basically that a spaceship that size would affect gravity enough for buildings to start collapsing by themselves, and the invasion would be won without as much as a shot). Not sure if that is accurate... but the movie, among Greek movie-goers, has been forever dubbed Incoherence Day.

Good filler for late-night TV, still. Especially if Mars Attacks! follows just afterwards.

It would depend on the mass of the spaceship.  I'd be more concerned about the downward thrusters, because I don't think that the velocity to remain geostationary would be enough to be orbital at atmospheric distance

[Callie Del Noire]

I get a bit growly at the scene in Con Air when they wire the control box up to 'spoof' the transponder. It is nothing but wires, diodes and a few switches.. whereas the  5 pound transmitter is elsewhere.

[Rinzler]

I dislike it when some people are plummeting to earth, only to get saved by being teleported somewhere else...and all that bone-crushing momentum suddenly disappears. Last time I saw this was in the J J Abrams Star Trek movie - which I admit, I did like, apart from that little niggle.

[Chris Brady]

Joss Whedon's Serenity was a good film until the strapped those dead bodies to the ship.  The human body is not designed to withstand atmospheric reentry!  Unless you're willing to take days entering a planetary atmosphere, which I was assuming the trying to look like Reavers they wouldn't do.

The second point of contention was 'space battle'.  Where they brilliantly harpooned another vessel to spin it around.  Ok two things.  Most vessels would likely have inertial dampening systems (which seems common enough for fantasy antigravity) so that would be a pointless tactic.  Or two, if the didn't the Reavers just killed themselves just as thoroughly as they did the alliance, ergo, bad move.

This of course is ignoring the true science bending, but I forgive because they went with a clearly more sci-fi theme, which I'm cool with.  Although I haven't forgiven him for Space Buffy. 

[bigwad73]

I lost my virginity while watching "Mars Attacks".  True story.

Hmm. Perhaps "Venus Attacks" would have been a bit better name for a movie to have that happen during? 

[Silverfyre]

I'm pretty sure it was both of us attacking so the title still works if it was part of a duo.

[RubySlippers]

I would argue this you could be the armored knight against neanderthals with big stone axes but if there are twenty of them and one knight the knight would be in great danger, aliens could get here but we have billions of people. We as a species don't have the habit of going down without a fight especially if given no choice. And we as a race fight dirty when straight up fighting makes no sense to try. And they would be far, far from home with finite resources.

In a sustained fight over decades I would not count out the human species to win in the end.

The old V TV miniseries and series was a good example the aliens had an early win but in the end couldn't break the human race they wanted to avoid us going nuclear and we would not go nuclear so it ended up being a covert fight for the human resistance. That is how you win against a superior enemy you hit them in ways they cannot readily defend against and use terror make them want to go. You can't hurt their big ships fine then you hit what you can and work on weapons to do the job.

Movies usually need to resolve in a certain period of time so this sort of thing is not always practical the lengthy war approach.

[Healergirl]

For purposes of dramatic tension, the weapons tech gap betwee ninvdters and defenders is often underrated.  I can accept that for the sake of Willing Suspension Of Disbelief, and sit back and enjoy the show.

For me, a bigger problem is the motivation of the Invaders.

They all seem to be a collection of genocidal loons.  Nearly all of them seem to want to wipe us out.  A shining counterexample is the alien government of which Klaatu and Gort are agents in the original Day The Earth Stood Still.   They come here to deliver a message:  "We don't like the road you are headed down.  We will not allow you to become a threat to us.  And Klaatu bent over backward to avoid killing anybody while making his point about the relative balance of power.

Which is why I won't watch the remake, the aliens in that movie revert to the genocidal loon standard type.

I'd love to see something different, more complex.  My aborted Domino Theory game was to be an exploration of that, Earth is discovered by more than one  squabbling interstellar power in quick succession, the aliens get dragged into Cold War politics somewhat against their will, find that they are dancing to the tune as much as calling it,  hilarity ensues.  (Alien invasion and late 1960's political tension and social upheaval?  What could possibly go wrong?)

Or another example, it has been said that Trade Follows The Flag.  It might be more accurate to say The Flag Follows Trade.  How about a story of competing merchant explorers - whose competition could get literally cutthroat, just read a history of the Spice trade on Earth.  And then the alien government types show up. Again,  Hilarity ensues.

But this would be harder to write.

[Cecilia]

Saw this recently and thought of this discussion...My hubby and I have been watching Eureka and have COMPLETELY given up on thinking there's any "reality" to that show...

[Oniya]

I've got an issue with the idea of lasers being 'faster-than-light weapons'.  Coherent light is no faster than regular light.

[bigwad73]

I've got an issue with the idea of lasers being 'faster-than-light weapons'.  Coherent light is no faster than regular light.

Yeah, ST got around that by waving their hands at it and calling their directed energy weapons "phasers".  But from what I've read, there wasn't a lot of deep thought in it, but something more like, "We know what lasers can do.  But we want something better.  Hmmmm..."

Saw this recently and thought of this discussion...My hubby and I have been watching Eureka and have COMPLETELY given up on thinking there's any "reality" to that show...

By the way, Cecilia, I like that chart.  Is it from the Bad Astronomy guy, or someone else, or is it home grown?

[Cecilia]

By the way, Cecilia, I like that chart.  Is it from the Bad Astronomy guy, or someone else, or is it home grown?

Took me a minute to track it down...Looks like it was posted here originally:  (?)

http://io9.com/

[Rinzler]

^They should have added 'Aliens that speak colloquial English with no explanation for it' to that chart.

I'll happily accept some sort of translation gadget, telepathy, the fact that they've been observing earth people for years...but when the aliens just start torkin right proper English, mate, with no explanation as to why, it makes my suspended disbelief squirm like the Tacoma Narrows in a high wind.

[Brandon]

^They should have added 'Aliens that speak colloquial English with no explanation for it' to that chart.

I'll happily accept some sort of translation gadget, telepathy, the fact that they've been observing earth people for years...but when the aliens just start torkin right proper English, mate, with no explanation as to why, it makes my suspended disbelief squirm like the Tacoma Narrows in a high wind.

I agree with that. If they had just started with a few words in another language, then pressed a few buttons on their suit before they spoke english, it would have been much better. It reminds me of the beginning of final fantasy X where the main character winds up in a temple in the middle of nowhere then the first humans he meets start speaking a foreign tongue. It makes for a more gripping and real introduction

[Neysha]

Remind me not to watch a Sci Fi movie with any of you people. :)

[Healergirl]

Ok, I generally keep my opinions to myself during th film.  But if yu had asked me afterwards about, say, Indepenence Day, I would have said "Where do I start?"  Then I would have taken a deep breath and started.

Same with war films.  I sat at my dad's feet whil he and my uncles and their buddies swaped stories about the Real Thing in Korea and Vietman.  I have no tolerance for most warr movies.  A few, like Blackhawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, The Pacific  I like.  The others... Nope.

[Cecilia]

In theaters, I'm quiet as can be.  I HATE it when people talk around me, too.  At home I might say, "Oh, Come OOOOOOnnnnnn, You've GOT to be kidding..."  But I don't go into long discourse over what I'm annoyed with until after the movie.  That's half the fun of seeing a movie though, is talking about it afterward, and with Sci-fi, half the fun is picking it apart. 

^They should have added 'Aliens that speak colloquial English with no explanation for it' to that chart.

I'll happily accept some sort of translation gadget, telepathy, the fact that they've been observing earth people for years...but when the aliens just start torkin right proper English, mate, with no explanation as to why, it makes my suspended disbelief squirm like the Tacoma Narrows in a high wind.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

[Rinzler]

Re:

^They should have added 'Aliens that speak colloquial English with no explanation for it' to that chart.

I'll happily accept some sort of translation gadget, telepathy, the fact that they've been observing earth people for years...but when the aliens just start torkin right proper English, mate, with no explanation as to why, it makes my suspended disbelief squirm like the Tacoma Narrows in a high wind.

Zak The Alien (NTNOCN)

[Oniya]

In theaters, I'm quiet as can be.  I HATE it when people talk around me, too.  At home I might say, "Oh, Come OOOOOOnnnnnn, You've GOT to be kidding..."  But I don't go into long discourse over what I'm annoyed with until after the movie.  That's half the fun of seeing a movie though, is talking about it afterward, and with Sci-fi, half the fun is picking it apart. 

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra.

Shaka, his arms wide.

[Cecilia]

*grins*
Sokath, his eyes uncovered.

(Can't think of a better example of the struggle of communication between two races and ways of thinking...)

[Healergirl]

(nods in agreement)  that was a primo episode, the only episode I can remember where the aliens, alth0ough humanoid, had a truly unusual thought-pattern when it came to communicating.

[bigwad73]

Courtesy of XKCD: