Movies and disbelief (spoilers) by jolly

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Movies and disbelief (spoilers)

POSTED BY: JOLLY
UPDATED: Saturday, November 11, 2006 09:45
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Friday, November 10, 2006 10:23 PM

I watched "The Prestige" tonight, which I find myself disliking more and more with each moment of reflection.

My chief beef would be that the movie never establishes a consistent "universe", so that the developments two-thirds of the way in felt to me like a cheat. To develope this idea, let me mention a few movies, including Serenity.

For me, the one moment in Serenity that left like a cheat was

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the Operator delivering a paralyzing punch to Mal, only to discover that the nerve cluster had been moved as a result of a war wound that Mel had recieved. (I poke fun of this in the Wash is 100% Alive thread here.) Frankly, I don't feel that this was a serious abuse on Joss's part, since (i) even watching the movie alone, we are aware that Mal had been in a war, making such wounds likely and (ii) given the technology of the 'verse, such a procedure seemed entirely with the realm of the possible.

Another movie that comes to mind is Sixth Sense, as an example of movie that (at least to my mind) does not abuse its premises. The movie establishes early on that the boy sees ghosts, so when we

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discover that Bruce Willis is a ghost, both the premise is sound and there is ample forshadowing that it is a delicious turn of events.

In contrast, in the Prestige, the first two-thirds suggest that the physics and technology of the world portrayed are those of our world. So when

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Tesla builds a teleportation device for Hugh Jackman's character, it felt like a development completely out of left field, and essentially ruined the movie for me.

In "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (the comic is preferrable to the movie), the storyteller (Alan Moore) has the courtesy to let us know that his late 1800's England is at a completely different technological state than our own.

Buffy also works fine, establishing the existence of demons, vampires, and magic early in the proceedings.

*Sigh*...I'm sure I'll be flamed for being excessively critical...

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Saturday, November 11, 2006 1:50 AM

ZEPH

Have not seen the Prestige, and have no particular desire to, so I didn't feel bad reading the spoiler. Having read it, I have even less desire to see the movie.

One thing, in my ever-so-humble opinion, that any fiction must have to be good fiction, is internal self-consistency. Whatever the rules of the created world are, you just gotta stick to 'em. Jolly's examples are spot-on here.

Any long running television series will, unfortunately, probably break its' own rules somewhere along the way. X-Files did it, very large and very badly (those aliens turn out to be... oh, nevermind -- it still steams me to mention it).

It even happened in the Buffyverse -- but in a pretty reasonable way. Are vampires completely the demon that inhabits the body, with access to the memories, or is there still something there of the original person, just now evil...? Both Buffy and Angel had moments of both, but in such a way that it could be that what the Watcher's Council was wrong. Or maybe not...

See my point? Internal consistency, even if you may have to fudge it a bit now and then to keep the story going, is essential. The 'Verse (in moving picture format, at least) wasn't around long enough even to completely learn the rules, although we can make pretty good assumptions, so there have been no contradictions as of yet -- although I'm not sure I could say the same if we include the comics, but that's just my own feelings there...

http://www.myspace.com/captainzeph

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Saturday, November 11, 2006 6:09 AM

EVILDINOSAUR

Yea, I spose that was kinda weird, I still liked the movie though, I just kinda let that part slide. The thing I like about it is the chaotic flow of time, the way you're constantly jumping from one part of the timeline to another with no warning and no way of really telling where you are.

It's set up in such a way as to leave you in complete mystery as to wat the movie is even really about until the very end. But yea, the thing you mentioned was kinda weird.

"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."

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Saturday, November 11, 2006 6:16 AM

EMBERS

I loved the Presige, first of all Hugh Jackman...
which is always a good

I thought they did a great job of building up their magic trick as a movie, and magic tricks always involve making the audience believe they are bending reality, it is part of the whole business of being amazed....

And Hugh Jackman plays sexy drunken Irishman

I saw the movie on the same day I saw The Illusionist and they also seemed to bend the edges of what can really be done in the real world, but that movie was also really enthrawling with great actors

and did I mention Hugh Jackman is in it?

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Saturday, November 11, 2006 6:59 AM

CYBERSNARK

Yeah, internal consistency and foreshadowing are two of the most critical facets of storytelling. You kinda need them together --when you have just one, things still end up feeling contrived (like Mal's nerve cluster being moved: internal consistency, but no foreshadowing).

As for The Prestige, I didn't really mind the replicator (wasn't really a teleporter, was it?), since Tesla was always (allegedly) inventing sci-fi stuff (death rays, force fields, tractor beams, etc). Right up until his murder(*).

What bugged me was the fact that neither character was all that likeable. I don't have any problem with morally ambiguous characters, but I want someone at least sympathetic. By the third act I just didn't really care about either of them.

(* Yes, murder-by-taxicab. It was no accident. Tesla was waiting at a street corner for the walk signal. When it came, he started out, but men in brown suits held the rest of the crowd back. After the taxicab nailed Tesla, the "Men in Brown" just slipped out of the way and vanished into the confusion.)

-----
We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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Saturday, November 11, 2006 9:45 AM

JOLLY

In some ways, I feel I've been too hard on this movie. The foreshadowing of the secret to Borden's version of the teleporting man is simply EXCELLENT. The movie clearly didn't suck, or I wouldn't still be thinking about it.

The problem with the Tesla device is that (i) the movie doesn't do an adequate job in establishing it as a possibility. Prehaps if Tesla's sorceror equivalence had been established by a more tangible demonstration earlier in the proceedings, I would be less dissatisfied. Unfortunately, as it stands, there are in my mind a number of alternative devices that could have been used to explain Angier's version of the teleporting man including

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Having him strike a bargain with the Devil to gain the ability. Tesla (Bowie) would have made a wonderful Devil, although again there would need to be some subtle hint to his true identity.

Having Angier seek out a reputed sorceror for a teleportation potion that achieved the same effect as the machine.

Although I realize that some will say that all technology is magic until it is understood, the Tesla device is still magic in our own times.

Hell, with reference to replicators (presumably teleporters in ST are just replicators that destroy the original copy), they could have had Telsa reveal himself as a federation officer that was stranded after a time travel mishap, and I would have been no more annoyed...

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