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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Tell me to watch a movie and I'll do it.

Tell me to watch a movie and I'll do it. (Page 3)
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subego
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Apr 18, 2014, 03:56 PM
 
Wait... biology degree dude is trying to tell me an ecosystem which almost never experiences darkness could be filled with a ****ton of nocturnal, apex predators? The problem with this is I don't have a big enough imagination?

Riiiiiight...

I get happier every day I'm a dropout.


The problem is you totally could imagine a way that could happen, even a silly way, like they suck in nutrients from fungal beds they sleep in. The problem is I did imagine it, and they didn't.
     
mattyb
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Apr 18, 2014, 04:57 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
apex predators
I had to Google that. Cheers.
     
subego
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Apr 18, 2014, 06:19 PM
 
Here... steal an idea from Larry Niven (and some other dude I can't remember) in Lagacy of Heorot. Colonists start getting attacked by these vicious predators they call "grendels". At first it was just one, but it starts getting worse and worse.

The twist? The grendels are the mature form of the samlon. A native fish-like creature. They're docile in this larval form. High in protein too.

More importantly, they adapted almost immediately to animal husbandry. The Grendel attacks got worse and worse because the colonists were breeding the samlon.


There was a little nod to Flowers for Algernon in that the protagonist kept on having the sneaking suspicion the answer was right there in front of his face, but he couldn't quite make the final leap due to a "brain rot" side effect of the long term hibernation the colonists underwent for the decades long, slower-than-light trip to the planet.
     
subego
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Apr 18, 2014, 06:31 PM
 
To put this in a non-snotty way, what I'm taking issue with is the lost opportunity. Real biology is pretty darn fantastical.
     
subego
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Apr 18, 2014, 06:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by mattyb View Post
I had to Google that. Cheers.
My pleasure.
     
P
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Apr 19, 2014, 02:39 PM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
Here... steal an idea from Larry Niven (and some other dude I can't remember) in Lagacy of Heorot.
Jerry Pournelle, as usual, but also Steven Barnes and Jack Cohen, the latter for the samlon/grendel bit you reference below. Cohen has also written a number of non-fiction books together with Ian Stewart, full with ideas like that one.
The new Mac Pro has up to 30 MB of cache inside the processor itself. That's more than the HD in my first Mac. Somehow I'm still running out of space.
     
subego
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Apr 19, 2014, 03:26 PM
 
Was that with Pournelle, too?

I remember his name, but thought he didn't participate. It was Barnes I was trying to remember.
     
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Apr 20, 2014, 07:29 AM
 
Farce of the Penguins.


Funny and crude.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
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Apr 21, 2014, 09:45 AM
 
Originally Posted by subego View Post
To put this in a non-snotty way, what I'm taking issue with is the lost opportunity. Real biology is pretty darn fantastical.
Honestly, I disagree with your entire point in this particular instance. What you're proposing is that there should have been an extra 5-10 minutes of separate screen time in which the characters gather information about the baddies and come to a conclusion about why they are what they are and behave as they do.

That is completely irrelevant to Pitch Black and in my opinion would add zero to the movie. Honestly...the end result is the exact same, right? The rest of the movie turns out exactly the same, except the running time is now 5-10 minutes longer and everyone knows slightly more about the monsters and how they work?

I honestly don't think that helps the movie at all. This is a low-budget and fairly tight movie about Riddick. It's well under two hours and presents a fairly straightforward plot line with a few twists that may or may not be fairly derivative depending on your view (I say they are, but still work for the most part). That is exactly why many people think it's a good little movie - and, conversely, why the sequels are not good movies: plot bloat and extra fat is kept to a fair minimum.

The movie works well as-is. Other scenes could have been added, but then you run the risk of ruining what's already there. (I'm not sure, for example, that the movie is otherwise good enough to support 2+ hours of running time.)

I'm especially convinced of this given the two subsequent sequels, both of which suffer immensely from meandering and unsatisfying scenes.
Mankind's only chance is to harness the power of stupid.
     
subego
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Apr 21, 2014, 03:10 PM
 
Why couldn't it be a 10 second Easter egg for people who are paying attention?
     
ShortcutToMoncton
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Apr 22, 2014, 07:59 AM
 
I suppose the immediate answer to that is, then they get the opposite criticism: they open up the can of worms that is alien biology, but explain it away in an inadequate 10-second clip that would mean illogical scientific leaps.

I mean, even the simplest answer that you suggested (get nutrients from underground fungal beds) would mean adding scenes to show 1) characters deciding to go underground, 2) searching, 3) finding fungus, 4) finding monsters on fungus, 5) leaving underground, either safely or in a fight, 5) some sort of post-underground pseudo-scientific conversation between characters where they draw the conclusion that the fungus was the key. That's at least 5-10 minutes right there, if not longer.

Their actual approach was to ignore it completely, and/or make the characters have (unlikely) leaps of logic about the aliens. Short, simple, perhaps not totally satisfying but entirely in keeping with the focus of the movie, which is on Riddick himself.
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subego
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Apr 22, 2014, 02:47 PM
 
Monsters have fungus crusties.

Job's done.
     
ShortcutToMoncton
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Apr 22, 2014, 03:29 PM
 
This has possibly been the most in-depth conversation about Pitch Black, ever
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Doc HM
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Apr 29, 2014, 05:24 PM
 
So how do we feel about "Looper"
I liked it. The erasing was disturbing but fitting with the ending.

Willis is always good value (apart from Die Hard the last one which stank like a fish).
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Laminar  (op)
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Apr 29, 2014, 05:26 PM
 
I enjoyed it.
     
subego
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Apr 29, 2014, 05:39 PM
 
Is that a DocHM recommends Hudson Hawk?
     
Doc HM
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Apr 29, 2014, 05:55 PM
 
I don't actually "hate" Hudson Hawk. It has it's moments but Sandra Bernhard was annoying
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The Final Dakar
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Apr 30, 2014, 09:06 AM
 
I loved Hudson Hawk when I was a kid. And who can resist James Coburn.
     
 
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