Waaaay off topic - Iron Man,space 'sounds' etc, in movies

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Daox

This begs a slightly different question. When you read the comics, do the bams and pows also ruin the reading experience for you?

This of course assumes that I actually read comics that have bams and pows in them :-)

Also, there's a difference between using onomatopoeia to represent, however poorly, sounds in a medium that lacks audio, and faking a sound where no sound could possibly be. After all, smacking someone on the jaw does make a sound, even if it's no more like "pow" than "meow" or "moo" are like the real sounds of cats or cows.

[Frank Lee]

You want sound effects? I'll give you sound effects:

[Cd]

When I see transformers or Iron Man or whatever, and all of these pieces are magically gearing together to make something, I have to chuckle and think of what would happen if one of those gears got stuck.

[spacemanspif]

Just watch the stupid movie and enjoy it. Does it really matter that the fighter jets make banking turns in space? They are looking for entertainment value and jets making a non-banked turn in a giant vacuum of nothingness has none. People see planes make banked turns and make an association of the movement with the vehicle turning, therefor it gets added to the move so that the audience isn't sitting in a seat saying "why are we watching rocket ships in space do nothing?". Just sit down and watch the movie, your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend/friend/neighbor/dog/cat/bird will appreciate you not ruining the movie for them.

FWIW I don't get my science lessons from Star Wars...I get them from shark week

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

Just watch the stupid movie and enjoy it.

Why would I enjoy a stupid movie? (Or TV program, book, &c.) That's not limited to the anti-science stupidity of movies like "Star Wars", either. I'd rather see people using intelligence to solve their problems...

[Vman455]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Why would I enjoy a stupid movie? (Or TV program, book, &c.) That's not limited to the anti-science stupidity of movies like "Star Wars", either. I'd rather see people using intelligence to solve their problems...

Every movie is stupid in some way. Even documentaries are not a 100% reflection of reality--whoever directed it chose what footage to show and what to leave out, whoever wrote the voiceover did the same, and these reflect their perceptions and biases and agenda. Historically-based movies are often gross misrepresentations or exaggerations of the events or eras they portray. If you're looking for media that's entirely congruent with reality...well, I guess you can sit and stare at a blank wall. Even academic articles are biased, by virtue of being produced by humans. I don't think something is necessarily "stupid" just because it's fantasy or misrepresents reality--the ability to fantasize is one thing that distinguishes us from every other species on this planet, as far as we can tell.

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by Vman455

Every movie is stupid in some way.

Not true. Of course there's selection & interpretation in any art form, but it can be done stupidly or intelligently. I'm not a real fan of movies, so can't give examples there, but for books take say the Harry Potter vs Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series.

[RedDevil]

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick is the exception, I guess.

A lot of work went into getting the science behind the story right, and afaict there is nothing on the science part that looks wrong (never mind the apeman costumes).

It is breathtakingly boring at times, though.

[niky]

There is no sound in a vacuum, but if there's a nearby explosion, with a cloud of expanding gases and debris, you should be hearing some sort of percussive effect, as well as the pinging from debris impacts.

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I can't watch Transformers at all. But it's not (just) due to the bad science (and nonsensical plots), it's because they don't work hard enough to suspend my disbelief.

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I can accept Iron Man. I can accept a movie with a basically silly premise, unrealistic exo-suits and superpowered bad guys. (Even if they do call an aircraft crash an "unfortunate training exercise" ). Simply because they follow an internal set of fantasy rules pretty rigidly, and because the pacing and dialogue keep you from focusing too much on what's happening in the background.

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In Transformers, you can't suspend your disbelief, because the fantasy rules and physics they play by change at the drop of a pin. You can have a robot who's merely torn in half pronounced irrevocably dead, whereas one whose legs are blown completely off is repaired, another whose "heart" is cut out of his chest is revived, and another whose entire torso is blown open rises from the dead... and does so again after his head is cut off.

And don't get me started about missing mass... about how robots which can reconfigure themselves on a molecular level should be able to heal "injuries" instantly... or about how a China-only bank ends up in the middle of a US city...

[jamesqf]

Originally Posted by niky

...or about how a China-only bank ends up in the middle of a US city...

Maybe the same way McDonalds ended up in China?