Science fiction is more serious than it looks

Rating: 1/10 (9 September 2009)

Some user comments on IMDb start with "I registered in just to give zero stars to this movie but unfortunately one star is the minimum I am allowed to give." I remember wondering what kind of a movie would make you say that.
Well, I was asking for it! Knowing, not only made me to register 'to give zero stars' but also made me realize that science fiction is a very serious genre.
What does it take to make science fiction? First of all you must know some basic science. Then you must know how culture and religion interact and in particular you must know that there are many different religions and cultures on this planet. You must also know history, and yes there are different nations with different histories. Besides you should know how philosophical arguments throughout the history have shaped human life. And needles to say, you must have read a lot of books.
If you have the above minimum requirements then to start science fiction you must be equipped with a genuine curiosity and willingness to learn.
Once you are in the game, whether you will be successful or not will be determined by the level of the imagination and talent you have.
Let us start to apply these criteria to the team of Knowing.
Do they know some basic science? My impression is that the closest they came to science is when they visited a nearby university campus to eye young women! The rest of the list need not be checked since it will require on my part a tremendous amount of care to write a criticism which will not be mistaken as an insult. And I don't want to go through all that trouble.
After all my only intention was to give zero stars to a masquerade of a movie.
Here are some fun points from the movie.
There is a lecture in an MIT class. The professor throws a ball, representing the Sun, to a student and asks about its temperature. The student quickly recites and throws the ball back. My daughter says this is exactly what they did in their elementary school. Well, what did I say about the team's background in science?
Nicholas Cage, as usual, walks around the movie with the same face expression and tone of voice he is using in all of his movies (not a criticism, just an observation.) The only change this time, to make you think that he is a university teacher, is that he has shaved some of his front hair. Talk about imagination!
Aliens whisper into Lucinda's mind the prophecy of future disasters and she writes them down. But this is put into a time capsule so that nobody can access this information until after they are realized. Are aliens stupid?
When the end of the world finally arrives (here you cheer a little bit because may be it also promises that the end of the movie is near) the aliens take some young Adams and Eves to other habitable planets. Why did they wait until the very end? The young Adams and Eves are around ten years old each and they are allowed to take a pair of rabbits with them. What a way to ensure that the humans will multiply. Are aliens stupid?
John (I am finished with Nicholas Cage) holds a gun to an alien and the alien opens his mouth from where a devastating light emerges together with a tremendous sound which knocks off John and renders him helpless. No, I am not entering into the technical details about where such energy comes from. Remember what I said about the team's background in science? But on their second encounter, John again holds a gun to the same alien and yells at him. Is John, an MIT professor, stupid?
When John says that they will be safe in a cave, Diana believes him without questioning. After all he is a professor at MIT, right? But later when the same John says that his most recent calculations reveal that they will not be safe even in a cave, Diana says that she does not believe him. Why, is she stupid?
I can go on and on but I realize that a serious criticism of the movie will be much longer than the script, if there ever was one.
Art, even a Hollywood movie, is received well when it reflects life through the prism of the artist. And life is many faceted with each of us walking along a different road. This movie fails miserably in creating an image of life through an artistic interpretation.
Instead, the team of the movie gives the impression that they know all. Unfortunately, what they know is such a small fraction of what there is to know.