TV/Movies Megathread

[Syt]

Movie is still shit though.

Can you elaborate on your opinion, please?

Yes

First off the gun fight scenes were ridiculous and over done. The whole story line was flat and uninteresting. The humor was well not funny, just over done in a blah way. Period weapons were not correct. I think he missed an opportunity here.

Fair enough. I went in expecting a modern take of 8unrealistic) Spaghetti westerns and wasn't disappointed.

[Ideologue]

Why do people live on shitty rocks in Victorian clothes and raise cattle when there are biogels that can instantly heal huge gashes in a woman's back?

...the Alliance a union of the Chinese and Americans...

Is this really that hard?

Why are robotics so primitive when space travel is so advanced?

Irrelevant.  Show's not about robots.  Also you could fuck Mr. Universe's robot.  That's advanced enough.

Why is it so hard to send a video across space when Fillion can flirt with Baccarin instantly across the galaxy?

Mr. Universe's channel is really popular.  Nobody cares about Mal's vlog.

Why are the same people who shat on Prometheus defending this?

Because while Firefly/Serenity is not without the flaws in its universe, no SFal universe is airtight.  Star Trek is so full of holes a whole industry is devoted to filling them with terrible prose.  Star Wars as well.

And let's look at a couple of self-contained films:

In Gattaca, given what actually occurs in the eugenic selection process as fully and explicitly explained in the film, there is actually no way to determine a selected baby from an unselected baby, because they're all ultimately naturally conceived, so the Valid/Invalid distinction is 100% false and impossible, even if employers would give a shit where the genes for Vincent's incredible intelligence and determination and Ethan Hawkey good looks came from, which I find unlikely since Irene's employment proves they accept people with heart conditions at Gattaca, just not in their astronaut program.

In Moon, Lunar Industries spends billions of dollars on mentally unstable clones to whom they give total control over their operations, and who could catastrophically affect their profits, not to mention the Earth's energy supply, if they discovered their true nature.  Indeed, they could even start Harsh Mistressing Earth because they gave them a mass driver, leading to a tort death sentence for the company on top of the mass casualties.

But BFD.  The characters act logically within the realities of their universe, even if you can nitpick and determine those realities to be implausible.

This is why Prometheus failed.  Almost none of the actions in Prometheus make any sense, even within that reality.  I won't go into the details on this because they're patent.

[viper37]

Why do people live on shitty rocks in Victorian clothes and raise cattle when there are biogels that can instantly heal huge gashes in a woman's back?

Why does Misissipi looks so poor and Massachussets looks so rich?
There are inequalities everywhere.

In this case, the Alliance controls the core world, wich are really developped.  The fringe worlds aren't completely terraformed, and they don't have all the services the core worlds have since they can't afford it.

Why is it so hard to send a video across space when Fillion can flirt with Baccarin instantly across the galaxy?

Censorship.  The Alliance ruling families control the media and what filters through.  You need to broadcast it in a way people will see it and it won't be jammed.

Why are the same people who shat on Prometheus defending this?

I haven't seen Prometheus, therefore haven't shat on it

[Queequeg]

Maybe when you're older, sweetie.

Are you suggesting reavers breed?  I didn't see any kind of implication of that.  The big gassing in Serenity was only-what-20 years ago?  How can they just throw themselves at enemies as depicted in the movie?  They have a 10-1 ratio-at best-and no way to replenish their numbers.  It's stupid. 

Is this really that hard?

Yeah, it actually kind of is.  You can magically generate neural tissue after a traumatic wound to the back but you have to grow cows and crops like farmers in The Searchers?  Are these people a freakish minority, or as I gathered pretty typical of outer worlds?

Irrelevant.  Show's not about robots.  Also you could fuck Mr. Universe's robot.  That's advanced enough.

The "show's not about robots" but Mr. Universe's robot is maybe...a decade and a half away from being a practical reality?  Less?

Almost none of the actions in Prometheus make any sense, even within that reality.

28 Days Later style rage zombies can't pilot starships, let alone coordinate together against a massive state of the art fleet.  It's really, really stupid.  Way stupider than single mistake in Prometheus. 

In Gattaca, given what actually occurs in the eugenic selection process as fully and explicitly explained in the film, there is actually no way to determine a selected baby from an unselected baby, because they're all ultimately naturally conceived, so the Valid/Invalid distinction is 100% false and impossible, even if employers would give a shit where the genes for Vincent's incredible intelligence and determination and Ethan Hawkey good looks came from, which I find unlikely since Irene's employment proves they accept people with heart conditions at Gattaca, just not in their astronaut program.

In Moon, Lunar Industries spends billions of dollars on mentally unstable clones to whom they give total control over their operations, and who could catastrophically affect their profits, not to mention the Earth's energy supply, if they discovered their true nature.  Indeed, they could even start Harsh Mistressing Earth because they gave them a mass driver, leading to a tort death sentence for the company on top of the mass casualties.

I think those are different.  Those are single-off, metaphor heavy light sci fi films that are more interested in saying something about humanity than creating a whole, coherent universe like Prometheus or Firefly-Serenity.  By any standard the latter fails pretty rapidly. 

[CountDeMoney]

I think those are different.  Those are single-off, metaphor heavy light sci fi films that are more interested in saying something about humanity than creating a whole, coherent universe like Prometheus or Firefly-Serenity.  By any standard the later fails pretty rapidly.

This is true;  they're sci-fi examples of films that fall into the "Apocalypse-Now-isn't-about-the-Vietnam-War" category.

[Neil]

Generally speaking, films that attempt to create a whole, coherent universe are pretty bad films.

[viper37]

Are you suggesting reavers breed?  I didn't see any kind of implication of that.  The big gassing in Serenity was only-what-20 years ago?  How can they just throw themselves at enemies as depicted in the movie?  They have a 10-1 ratio-at best-and no way to replenish their numbers.  It's stupid.

There is some form of indoctrination present, from what we saw in earlier episodes.  Someone in close contact to Reavers who happens to be spared can become one.

Yeah, it actually kind of is.  You can magically generate neural tissue after a traumatic wound to the back but you have to grow cows and crops like farmers in The Searchers?  Are these people a freakish minority, or as I gathered pretty typical of outer worlds?

Typical of outer worlds.  See it as the frontier around the time of the 7 Years Wars.  People in Albany had more wealth & resources than the simple farmer isolated in the woods near indian settlements.

28 Days Later style rage zombies can't pilot starships, let alone coordinate together against a massive state of the art fleet.  It's really, really stupid.  Way stupider than single mistake in Prometheus. 

They are not zombies.  They are über agressive humans.  They are not un-dead.  They were exposed to a toxin wich turned some of them into violent people.  Violent criminals don't always work alone.

[11B4V]

28 Days Later style rage zombies can't pilot starships, let alone coordinate together against a massive state of the art fleet.  It's really, really stupid.  Way stupider than single mistake in Prometheus. 

[/quote]

They are not zombies.  They are über agressive humans.  They are not un-dead.  They were exposed to a toxin wich turned some of them into violent people.  Violent criminals don't always work alone.

That's what I thought the storyline was about. How'd this zombie nonsense get started. Sounds like he's never watched it.

[CountDeMoney]

3rd episode of Hannibal.  This is really turning out to be a neat show.

[Josephus]

I'm liking The Americans, too. Got off to a slow start, but has picked up nicely over the last three episodes.

[fhdz]

I haven't read back through the thread. Anybody watching Bates Motel? How is it? It *looks* good but I don't know...

[Eddie Teach]

I'm liking The Americans, too. Got off to a slow start, but has picked up nicely over the last three episodes.

I don't know about slow start, but definitely my favorite new show of the season.

[Razgovory]

Why does Misissipi looks so poor and Massachussets looks so rich?
There are inequalities everywhere.

Not all inequalities are equal.

[Neil]

3rd episode of Hannibal.  This is really turning out to be a neat show.

My wife has been watching it, but I'm actually starting to be a little interested as well.  The guy playing Lecter does a great job of playing him as sort of alien, without being either goofy or overly sinister.  I'm sort of torn on Will Graham though.  The actor is doing an alright job, but the character is shown as being too much of a headcase to function.

[The Brain]

I can't stand Mads Mikkelsen since Valhalla Rising. It wasn't his fault that that movie was worse than Auschwitz, but I'll totally guilt him by association.