Worst "science" movie

[Nuclear Platypus]

Weren't there a few volcano-disaster-themed movies a few years ago that were pretty execrable? I never saw 'em, but I can only imagine.

Which one?

Dante's Peak with Pierce Brosnan that has them crossing over a lake that is so acidic its eating thru the bottom of a (metal) canoe and the legs of some woman? Oh, don't forget that the poor guy in the crappy van gets swept away in the river yet those in the Hummers don't. Sheesh. That's up there with the horror cliche of 'the black guy dies first' or 'the virgin survives'.

Volcano with Tommy Lee Jones where the good guys corral lava in the streets of L.A. with concrete blocks while standing reasonably close by yet not succumbing to the massive heat?

I'm not a 100% sure but even the Jurassic Park cash cows were a bit off tho pushing it. Namely the bigger dinos would have a harder time breathing due to their weight since the present atmosphere isn't as oxygen rich but dinos were once believed to be cold blooded.

The American Godzilla aka GINO has that mutant iguana soaking up the radiation in the Pacific yet stomps across Central America to frollic in the Big Apple and spawn? Plus for such a fearsome creature who had been shrugging off everything in the US military's arsenal, he (she? it?) gets taken down by a handful of missiles in the last few minutes?

I wonder if Deep Blue Sea had any flaws, other than the super intelligent sharks. IMO, its more important for breaking the cliche of the 'black guy dies first' since LL Cool J survives yet the brainy female scientist bites it and ditto for the heroic speech guy (Samuel L. Jackson). However Halloween Water also broke that cliche.

 

[Nuclear Platypus]

Well, they just say that the memories are just as real as if you had experienced the events... not that the memories have to make sense in the future.

Still, I don't buy the "it was all a dream" answer out of spite. I hate stories that end that way.

I didn't like that season of Dallas either with Married... With Children copying it (HATED the character of Seven) while Family Guy had that awesome fist fight between Peter and the giant chicken (round 2 was better tho).

 

[Shadowdancer]

On Total Recall, the realty of the situation is ambiguous, but I could never fully accept the "its all a dream" explaination because the film shows scenes where arnie's character is not present and has no knowlege. If the director intended a definite dream answer, he should have avoided those scenes.

A similar thing happens in "The Usual Suspects." Verbal is telling all of the flashbacks as a story to Kujan, yet there are scenes in the flashbacks in which Verbal does not appear, and about which he should have no knowlege. That should have been Kujan's tip-off, and the audience's, that Verbal was lying.

 

[Storm Raven]

The problem I've always had with the 'it was all a dream' theory of Total Recall is that Recall's policy is that you can't tell their implanted memories from real ones.

Let's say the whole Secret Agent thing was a dream. Doug goes home from Recall, and aside from the fact that Mars doesn't have a breathable atmosphere, his wife's alive. The wife his memory says he killed. That memory is demonstrably false, now, so if Recall were going to put together a package like that, they'd avoid having images like killing relatives in there... right?

I thought the point was that Doug's mind might have somehow reacted badly to the implantation process and had spun the "implanted" memories into a combination with his own delusions, derailing the program, and lurching out of control.

 

[Rel]

I wonder if Deep Blue Sea had any flaws, other than the super intelligent sharks. IMO, its more important for breaking the cliche of the 'black guy dies first' since LL Cool J survives yet the brainy female scientist bites it and ditto for the heroic speech guy (Samuel L. Jackson). However Halloween Water also broke that cliche.

To me that movie will always be remembered as the one where (behind the scenes), Samuel L. Jackson must have said, "This film is a total crapfest and I don't care what happens to my character but I want OUT. NOW!"

CHOMP!

 

[Rackhir]

The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy...how much more far fetched can you get?

You just don't get invited to those sorts of parties do you.

 

[Umbra]

Battlefield Earth absolutely,
The Bore and Armageddon are all up there.

One of my big problems with sci fi films is when they break laws of physics outside of the movie physics of their world (eg FTL, transporter beams, etc).

I didn't like ST:Nemesis ( I think it was that one). But the stand out problem in the film (apart from the horrible makeup and lighting for Troy and Riker's wedding) was when the Enterprise having smashed nose to nose with the Romulan ship reversed out without the tangled wreckage dragging the Romulan ship with it. Did they have the parking brake on?

Something like that throws me right out a film (not that I was into that one).

The Total Recall issues noted above are the same. And how did Arnie get that golf ball sized implant out through the nasal bones!

 

[Elemental]

A common bug for me is the notion that in space, constant thrust will equal constant motion, and a spacecraft will always travel in the direction it's pointed in. Props to Babylon 5 for avoiding that cliche.

Armageddon's gotta be near the top of the list.

The miners taking a minigun with them on a mission to blow up an uninhabited rock has already been mentioned, but the one that made me laugh was the way in which the exploding asteroid could be seen on opposite sides of the world at the same time.


Or there's the aliens in Signs, which die on contact with water. So obviously, they invade a planet that's 70% covered in water, where most of the lifeforms are largely made from water and congregate near water supplies, where water is kept close to hand at all times, and where water falls from the sky regularly. Oh, and they don't bother to bring any protective gear or environment suits. Perhaps they were the most useless of the alien military and had been sent on a suicide mission to get them out of the way?


Another howler for me was the solar powered subamrine in xXx. One of the things people immediately notice in the deep sea is that it tends to be very dark. So, it's a submarine that will work so long as it stays within about 20ft of the surface at all times. The weird thing was that given the genre, they could have said it was a fictional miniaturised reactor or some such technobabble and I wouldn't have blinked.


One film that did make me blink for using good science was Pitch Black. At the start, meteorites strike the ship. Instead of a big lump of stone and a fiery explosion, we get these tiny bullet-like stones that go through the ship and out the other side before anyone even has time to register they're there.

 

[Meloncov]

A common bug for me is the notion that in space, constant thrust will equal constant motion, and a spacecraft will always travel in the direction it's pointed in. Props to Babylon 5 for avoiding that cliche.

I have a theory that this is due to the inertia dampeners required to reach near-light speeds without expending unbelievably large amounts of energy. Having no inertia would mean that an object could accelerate incredebly easily, but it would have no tendency to stay in motion. Theirfore, to maintain a constant speed, you would have to apply constant motion.

 

[Rel]

I have a theory that this is due to the inertia dampeners required to reach near-light speeds without expending unbelievably large amounts of energy. Having no inertia would mean that an object could accelerate incredebly easily, but it would have no tendency to stay in motion. Theirfore, to maintain a constant speed, you would have to apply constant motion.

That's one fine rationalization right there.