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When bad science ruins movies

27 Aug 2024

I've been watching a few scifi movies on YouTube recently and I have to say I'm becoming increasingly frustrated.

As someone who's had a life-long interest in the sciences and who has been educated to a reasonable degree, I find many of these movies to be utterly cringe-inducing when it comes to the details they contain.

Now I don't expect scifi writers to have multiple PhDs in physics, chemistry, biology and the like but I do expect them to either have a reasonable understanding of the basics -- or to get some help where their own knowledge falls short.

Sadly, that's clearly not happening.

Some of the movies I've started watching with high expectations, have been so bad that I simply gave up on them.

Even movies with recognisable "stars" playing the lead rolls become amateurish and unwatchable when the science becomes comedic.

Here's one of the least-bad examples of what I'm talking about:

In this movie you may recognise the actor who played Dr Elizabeth Weir on Stargate Atlantis (Torri Higginson) as well as Misha Collins who played Castiel in the long-running TV series Supernatural -- as well as several other familiar faces.

Even these seasoned professionals can't save this movie, especially with Higginson's weird inflection that alternates between a US drawl and an awfully bad attempt at a UK accent at times -- but mostly it's the god-awful science that destroys the illusions this movie attempts to create.

On the rare occasions I sit down with the old sheila to watch a scifi movie she inevitablty kicks me out for criticising the glaring flaws in the science that are so often apparent.

"Suspend your disbelief" she tells me.

Sorry but some things are just unforgivable and butchering science is one of them.

One of my favourite peeves is the way you can hear so much in the vacuum of space, at least according to most scifi movies. Explosions go "bang" and all manner of other sounds seem to magically move through that vacuum in total violation of the laws of physics. In fact, it's become so much the norm that I doubt anyone (apart from me) even questions how this is possible.

That is why I was overjoyed to see the movie Star Trek (2009 version).

The stunning visual effects were massively emphasized by the total silence associated with the destruction of a starship in the opening sequence.

I'd never seen a scene like this that was actually compliant with the science. It was breathtaking, stunning and refreshing -- so much so that I even forgave them the excessive use of anamorphic lens flares throughout the movie.

So the question I ask is "can an understanding of the science ruin the movie-going experience?".

I fear that the answer is yes, at least in my case.

Some say that you have to use noises in space to make the movie more exciting -- I argue that Star Trek (2009) proved exactly the opposite to be true.

A good scifi movie should be scientifically credible as well as a good story with good acting.

I have high hopes for the latest movie in the Alien franchise but I'm not paying theatre prices to watch it. Maybe when it comes to a streaming platform I'll take a look with my fingers crossed and my expectations (perhaps unreasonably) high.

On a sadder note, the fact that so many people watch these scifi movies without even noticing the glaring deficiencies in the science is very saddening to me.

Carpe Diem folks!

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