Most movies are designed by committees. The higher the budget usually the larger the committee.

Here are two examples of horses designed by committees:

Link One

Link Two

Any questions?

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Oh, but you see, a camel may look silly to the untrained eye but by the Prophet's Beard, how that thing is engineered! Just as a for instance, long bony legs to lift the mass of the body out of the worst of the heat coming off the sand...and yet when it settles in for the night it folds those same legs under a nice blanket of hair and fat and conserves as much as possible of that self-same heated sand.

Which is sort of my feeling on movies...I think so many properties look fine, run okay, and the typical reply to any plaint about the science is "It's entertainment, dammit -- get a life!" But, yet, a few changes that didn't change the plot, didn't change the visuals, but made the science a little closer to reality might just hop the whole film up a notch. I wonder, sometimes, if part of the draw of National Geographic, Nova, Imax offering, etc. is that (to paraphrase Mark Twain) real life can get away with stuff no design team would dare imagine. Particularly when you are dealing with a feature film, for every location scout who points out just how amazing the real locals and their costumes and crafts are, there is some much larger producer's assistant who says "The audience will never get it. Let's just rip off Lord of the Rings again."

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Draw a fuzzy circle just off center on a piece of white paper, In the circle write the symbol for pie and color the symbol. On one edge draw an outline of your favorite image and color it your least favorite color. Now fold the paper 6 times and unfold it. Now present this to every person you ever met.
Observe their reaction. Present it to people you have never met. Observe their reaction.
Now imagine some people copied you and some imitated you and some did the same but different. What would you have?
I have a 5" diameter spiked ball colored orange near the center top of a piece of white paper that has a bunch of random folds near the bottom left corner. There's a blue scribble thing in the center of the ball that looks like a piece of pie. A drab green christmas tree is drawn on the right center of the paper.

Is it a bad drawing?
Does everyone think it's a bad drawing?
Is yours the same as mine?
Is yours a good drawing?

I guess my answer to this topic would be:

They get made because not everyone thinks they are bad. They become popular because more people think they are good that those who feel they are bad. To me, BAD movies don't exist. I just don't like some of them.

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I disagree, some films are made be people who know they are bad and know they could do better. At the end of the day they want the most profit from a film so it will be aimed at the biggest audience with the most cash to spend. Hollywood is business, it's an industry, it was founded to make short throwaways and churned them out by the thousands. At heart it's still the same.

Watch the films you think are good and avoid the bad ones.

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Yes.
Can you show me a movie that was not designed by a committee? :P

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El Mariachi. Clerks. Can't think of a Hollywood film though.

Doug Naylor was saying on the 'Dwarfing USA' feature on the Red Dwarf V DVD that when they had got the pilot going, he heard a bunch of producers celebrating, "We're going to be rich! We're going to be so so rich!" and he found it sickening. I think there are decent writers out there want to make good films, but the producers are the ones with the money.

Obviously, you've never seen Battlefield: Earth.

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My advice to you is to Burn every copy of that movie. I read the book, go read the book, burn the movie, I'd watch it again though....(I am so sick!)

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No thanks. I try to avoid all things Hubbard related. Anyway, from reviews of the book, it sounded pretty bad. I have to admit I did finally see the movie on cable though - terrible. Science, plot, acting, EVERYTHING. I put it right up (or down?) there with "Waterworld" and the "Time Machine" remake. Ugh.

They're remaking Forbidden Planet too....This will likely be a disaster-

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Ypu hire a french director who speaks no english to adapt a film in english. And remove half of the character and completly alter the ending at the same time.

That describes the 1966 adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. The Frank Darabont (Shawshank Redemption) re-adptation should be a lot better.

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Have you ever read William Goldman's take on producers? Here you have the person that finds a project. Gets the funding. Hires the writer, director, actors, ect.. Lives with the directors demands during filming (but I NEED another $100,000,000.00!). Works with the editor after principle filming. Deals with the studio, and it's demands. Works with the distributors. After all this, what does he see on the screen? A (insert directors name here) movie.

Also the director and stars usually make more money than the producer.

They have been talking about a FP remake for years. I really hope that it fails again, FP is my favorite sf movie.

David.

Alien 4: Clone of Ripley has personality and memories of her dead DNA donor. Acid blood, yeah it won't damage veins.

Star Wars: The asinine battles where the Rebels don't take out the gun turrets before sending in the bombers for the attack run on the reactor. The Imperials created a shaft straight to the reactor, couldn't they put right angle bends in it? How about building it like they did in Jedi? No one uses nukes? :roll: It's space, it doesn't hurt you years down the road if you do. The "elite" Storm Troopers and every one else in Star Wars can shoot a target about as well as a blind man. Sound in space. You say that's in every movie. Doesn't make it right. Sub light speed lasers, one might rationalise this that they aren't lasers but instead plasma bolts. If so slow though why do they use them? Jedi can block them they are so slow. Why not shoot a piece of a heavy metal like we earth humans do? I'd like to see a Jedi block a Mach 2 lead rifle slug. I could go on and on if wasting server space is the goal.

Humaniod aliens, that's pretty much it. It's a good movie other than that and the beating skepticism takes in it.

Don't get me started on the Terminator movies.

Halo and To a Lesser extent Halo 2. both have EXCELLENT science and phsyics in them.

The lasers is the Halo universe are actually go a c and most weapons are still ballistic. And the most powerful wepon is the MAC(Mageniticly Accellerated Cannon) cannon.

But the Halo universe acually takes place in one that has laws of physics.

And in the first game, there is no sound in space during the cutscenes.

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Your other criticisms are pertinent, SkepticJ, but about these:

Perhaps they have weaponry more powerful - or more precise - than nukes.

Otherwise the good guys could never win...

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If they do exist you never see them used. It's all proton torpedos and blasters. If you have the technology to create 2km long starships that travel at many times the value of c through another dimention(hyperspace) then wouldn't you also have the technology to make savant level guided weapons? A nuclear fusion warhead with thrusters all over it, or maybe if it's possible to make inertialess thrusters that impact the warhead into whatever you want to within cm.


But the Rebels drop like flies being hit also. :x

I knew it was a cool game. I didn't notice those aspects though. Is there sound in the second one or just nothing happens in space?

One thing that bothered me was the handleing of the gun truck. That steering didn't seem realistic to me. What kind of military would put up with a conveyance that slides around so much?

Well it's a scout vehicle, so I suppose speed was the prime consideration. One would think that handling would be important too, but it's fun either way. :P

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The first level in Halo 2 has a section where you fight in space. there's no 'external' sounds (enemies, gunfire, etc), and the sound of your own weapon is muffled, as if the vibration is being transmitted through your armour

Well, if you want to look at stardestroyer.net, A) they do use nuclear weapons and B) turbolasers and proton torpedoes are far more powerful. And I'd call a proton torpedo that does a 72,000 g turn to hit a man-sized target an example of some pretty incredible guidance technology.
But this is fantasy. the technology doesn't have to make sense. that said, that's not an excuse for the attack itself not making sense.
edit: oh, just checked, apparently proton torpedoes are some form of nuke.

You said it yourself; if it's slower than c, it isn't a laser. Especially since the beam emits radiation in directions other than along the beam. The Death Star 'superlaser' ignition beams meet at the focus of the emitter dish, and combine.

As for Luke deflecting blaster shots, I think that's down to Jedi prescience; he knows where the bolt will be, and places his 'saber in its path. Presumably, he can do the same thing against a rifle bullet (although the higher RoF might be a problem).

In any case, if you check out StarDestroyer.net and The Star Wars Technical Commentaries, there's evidence that the starship weapons are comfortably more destructive than nuclear explosions, anyway

Yes - Jedi don't just have good reactions, they actually see a short bit into the future and anticipate the shot. It's mentioned in Episode 1 that is how Anakin is capable of flying a race pod, when normally the reaction speeds required rule out the participation of humans.

Star Wars 'lasers' are plasma discharge devices, I think - there is a whole load of gumph somewhere about using electrical weapons rather than hot lead due to the problems shooting in space would cause with your pressure walls.

In the second one the sound is muffled as the parent poster said.

BUT there is dound in the cut-scenes that are in space on that level.

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Then why don't they shoot these at the TIEs? What is the point of plasma bolt blasters when one can shoot super smart missles? Why don't they take out the blaster turrets with proton torpedos long before they even get to the Death Star? I'm sorry but illogic like this just bugs me.

You said it yourself; if it's slower than c, it isn't a laser. Especially since the beam emits radiation in directions other than along the beam. The Death Star 'superlaser' ignition beams meet at the focus of the emitter dish, and combine.-AndrewGPaul

Except they are referred to as lasers in the movies. Laser: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation

So they are sub light beams of photons. If you wish to say "laser" doesn't mean the same thing as what laser does to Earth humans then what other words in Star Wars don't mean the same thing? Perhaps "star" doesn't mean a star.

Well, we know "parsec" in Star Wars isn't the same as our "parsec" and that people don't need pressure suits on an asteroid ...

Don't take Star Wars seriously. It is fantasy, after all, dressed up as science fiction. Magic swords, good and evil wizards, mystical forces, golums ... all dressed up with different words. Great fun if you don't look too closely.

Unfortunately, I have to admit I just can't get worked up about the new set of Star Wars movies. With CGI, Lucas has let things get completely out of hand. It just isn't enjoyable for me anymore.

Well you don't, all you'd need in an asteriod cave would be an oxygen mask. Now outside in space you'd need something that would reflect radiation from the local star to keep from being cooked. People don't blow up or freeze dry like they do in the movies. People were exposed to vacuum by the Air Force back in the Fifties. No ill effects. I must correct this error wherever I go because I had it wrong for so many years. Superman away! 8)

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Exploding is one thing. Survival is another. No, you won't explode in a vacuum, but if unprotected you can only remain conscious for 15-20 seconds. It would be extremely dangerous (and futile) to attempt to hold your breath, and an oxygen mask would be out of the question. Brain damage will begin within a minute or two. You would need some form of pressure suit. For the body this pressure could be applied mechanically using a "skinsuit" design, but breathing requires something more than that.

For example from:

http://traveller.mu.org/house/space.html

(bolding added for emphasis) Under controlled conditions, for a very short time, if the person is in good health, they probably won't suffer many ill effects.

And what about the cold?

We can only assume the asteroid was large enough to hold an atmosphere, but even that sounds unbelievable. I love ESB, but that's one of the silliest scenes in Star Wars ever, especially since it wouldn't take much to do it right: just have Han and Leia wear some spacesuits!

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You only lose heat to a vacuum by radiating it away. It would take you hours to cool off after you've died from lack of oxygen. If you had these in your blood you could stay outside a spacecraft for hours playing around.--> http://www.foresight.org/Nanomedicin...tes1.html#Sec1

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If we don't play god, who will?-James Watson
I never think of the future, it comes soon enough.-Albert Einstein
The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.-Tom Waits
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a yo-yo.-Enoch Root, The Confusion
When I was a kid, if someone brandished a shrink gun he'd get a little bit of respect!-Myron Reducto, Harvey Birdman