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Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and anti-science–an update

Aliens cockpit ©HR Giger, 1978

For some reasons, the new movie Prometheus by Ridley Scott has struck a nerve with the skeptic blogosphere. I’m pretty certain, based on what I’ve been reading, that there is a distinctive creationist or intelligent design (as if they’re different) thread within the movie. And the overt religiosity of the characters who should have solidly denounced their anti-science religion once they discovered an alien being who seeded the earth with DNA (even if it was bogus science).  Continue reading “Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and anti-science–an update”

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Review of Prometheus on “Why Evolution is True”

From Guest post: Sigmund pans the movie “Prometheus” (spoiler alert) « Why Evolution Is True.

I rarely do this (well, never), but here is another scientific review of Prometheus from “Why Evolution is True” blog. The comments are especially fun to read, because clearly some individuals don’t take kindly to critiques of this rather average movie.

 

Guest post: Sigmund pans the movie “Prometheus” (spoiler alert)

Sigmund is becoming a regular around here, and has contributed a review of the new SF (or is it “SciFi”?)  film Prometheus, which has generated a lot of buzz. He didn’t like it, largely because it’s scientifically inaccurate. As always, readers who have seen the flick should weigh in with their own opinions.

Film Review – Prometheus  (spoiler warning!)

by Sigmund

The film ’Prometheus’, the first return to science fiction for director Ridley Scott since Blade Runner, is supposedly a prequel to his famous 1979 movie ‘Alien’ and is therefore a major event for sci-fi geeks. As it opened a week earlier in Europe owing to the start of the European football championship, I’ve had a chance to see it (twice!) and can offer a personal opinion of the movie without, I hope, giving away too much of the plot. But if you intend to see the movie soon and don’t want to read any spoilers, I’d advise avoiding reading any further. Continue reading “Review of Prometheus on “Why Evolution is True””

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Prometheus and bad science-Neil deGrasse Tyson

I guess others, more notable than me obviously, observed some other science issues with the Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, a movie I just tore apart a few hours ago. Neil deGrasse Tyson, this generation’s Carl Sagan, send out that tweet just a few hours after it opened.

Charlize Theron (academy award winning and totally beautiful actress) plays the somewhat villainous Meredith Vickers, the Weyland Corporation employee who monitors the expedition. As Tyson states, a half billion miles gets you to about Jupiter. In fact, 35 light years would be around 210 trillion miles. Yes, trillion. So, the lame writers of the movie are off by 5 orders of magnitude. They should have randomly chosen a number, because it would have been better.

I guess we should ignore it because it’s A) Charlize Theron, and B) Charlize Theron.

Once again, either the writers failed basic science, or they’re ignorant, or they just don’t care. Either way, it’s bad science.

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Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and anti-science

I am a big fan of science fiction with a few caveats. Make it fun or horrifying, preferably both, and scientifically plausible. Science fiction by its very nature is fiction and should stretch the bounds of human imagination, but it should, at least, follow the basic principles of physics. For example, many science fiction movies require faster than light (FTL) travel, which is right at the edge of impossibility unless we are able to harness massive amounts of energy, suspend some of our current laws and understandings of physics, and adjustments for substantial time-effect conundrums, where someone traveling faster than light will be much younger than those who do not. But at least the writers of those shows make up terminology and gadgets that deal with it. Warp drives. Subspace communications. They try. Continue reading “Ridley Scott’s Prometheus and anti-science”