Batman Begins
 

This is a discussion thread.

That said, I really only have one thing to say in the opening post:

GO SEE IT NOW!

I agree wholeheartedly. First Sin City, now Batman Begins...*sniff* Oh, my little genre, it's all grown up now...

Gatac

Very Good. Much better than the previous ones! :D

Watched it today. Awesome movie -- I sure hope Fantastic Four is this good.

Finally saw Batman Begins. Awesome movie. Sadly, I was actually distracted by some of the bad science. Normally, I'm not.

Bad science? They actually tried to make all of the science more believable than the prior movies. Might I ask for an example of unforgivable bad science?

There was this machine in the movie that was supposed to be a huge microwave emitter, so great that all the water within a certain radius would vaporize. Now, I happen to have some concept of what microwaves do to a human body (imagine sticking a person in a microwave oven) and thus I found it very distracting when the machine was on and there would be people standing right next to it without any apparent reaction to it while all around water pipes were bursting and whatnot.

I seem to recall having another issue with the movie, but I don't remember what it was anymore.

But I try not to let bad science bother me. And the movie was great otherwise.

Good thing bad science doesn't bother you, because all sci-fi has it in one form or another.

Okay, here's a question for you. Jim Wright over at Nitpicker Central says that every story is allowed two impossible ideas per story. Is there another one?

And this is just a pondering: does the term "microwave radiation" refer to a range of frequencies beyond what is commonly used by microwave ovens? Perhaps the term was being used to refer to any waveform that has a smaller wavelength than visible light.

I know. And I have no problem with FTL travel, transporters, etc. But to some extent, my easy belief is because it's so incredible and so futuristic and assumes we've learned about some science that currently escapes us.

Microwaves near humans does not fall into that category. Like I said, I tried ignoring it as best I could, but the fact that I had to actively ignore it meant that I was aware of it on some level.

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/sc...mspectrum.html

The above link shows a simple description of the EM spectrum, and as you'll notice, microwaves actually have a longer wavelength than visible light.

Now that Derek's pointed it out, I'm embarrassed that I didn't notice it myself. Not only would something that targets water obviously harm humans, but as someone with an interest in urban legends (and an avid Straight Dope reader), I ought to have remembered that the effect of microwaves on the human body has been, ahem, experimentally determined.

It's funny how certain errors really get to certain people, even when those people are normally pretty laid-back about suspension of disbelief. Kira is okay with "Macrocosm" but can't stand "Unnatural Selection." I'll forgive ENT anything, but a wave pattern that changes only slightly when the number of sources goes from 2 to 59 ("Exile") is pretty stupid. And the solution to the overloading-reactor problem in Spider-Man 2 -- dump it in the river -- drove some people nuts, while others, like me, didn't bat an eye.

Ouchy. Look at me, trying to be all Mr. Wizard. Good thing I'm a civil engineer and not an electrical, huh?

As for Spidey dunking the fusion machine, I assume we were meant to assume that either:

A: The reaction required atmospheric oxygen, so the water smothered it.
or
B: The water cools down the reaction below a critical level.

I'm okay with either. Face facts, gents, Spidey needs to save the world. At this point in the movie everyone wants to look at MJ in a soaked sun dress, not Doc Ock in a torn trenchcoat. We need something that looks dramatic, and underwater implosions are always dramatic.

You'll forgive ENT anything? Talk about a can of worms! I thought guys like Sternbach and Okuda were around to ensure that everything was consistent. You could make just a few tweaks to the premise of Enterprise and fit PERFECTLY into established Trek canon. Did they bother? No, they did not. If you want one reason why Enterprise failed, I'll present it: the creators underestimated how much the fans have paid attention to the backstory and reference materials that have already been published as "official canon" and thought that Star Trek needs to have a ship named Enterprise to be successful. Both premises were false, but this is spinning off into another topic.

Ironicly, I'm taking a college course about Science Fiction, and Science Fiction is only an authors view on what could be the future. Therefore, one could conceive that in the future, they could create microwaves that would boil water, but wouldn't harm human flesh. Tis a possibility, though a probably very remote one. Of course, who would have dreamed up cell phones the size of credit cards when the first telephones came out. And of PDAs and computerized wrist watches when the first computer was developed. Something to think about, anyway.

*Points*

I saw a Celeste! I did, I really did!

The problem is that we have an awful lot of water inside us.

You'd need some kind of barrier to the microwaves around each person, which just doesn't work.

Oh, you never know. ;)

See! Perfect illustration of Science Fiction writers thinking way before their time! :D