The cinema of competence

Rating: 10/10 (9 October 2015)

Neal Stephenson once wrote that the primary gap between those who like "literature" and those who like "science fiction" is in the attitude of the readers towards competence: there are people who like to read about humans who know what they are doing and DO it, and there are people who prefer to read about humans who dither, waste time, engage in self-sabotage, and generally screw up their lives and the lives of those around them.
Generally movies, IMHO, cater far too much to the second category --- even when we have substantially competent humans (for example John Maclane of the Die-hard movies) there are always a few scenes thrown in to show what a screwup he is in some aspect or other of his life --- can't hold his marriage together, can't communicate with his kids, whatever.
So it's (again IMHO) something of a pleasure to view a movie of unalloyed competence. We do NOT see stupid (and unrealistic and totally unjustified) self-sabotage in this movie. Not only does the hero (and the rest of his support team) know what they are doing, but everyone else ALSO acts like a damn professional. We don't see the female captain of the ship abandon her earth lover to fall in love with the first officer. We see people think about their wives and kids for a few moments, yes, then get back to work --- just like real professionals do in the real world.
Mine appears to be a minority (though not minuscule) opinion --- I'm seeing lots of people here whining about the fact that we never see our hero engaged in some sort of Hamlet-style bemoaning his fate, wondering whether he should give up, or crying over pictures of his family back home. Well, they're entitled to their opinions, but I'm also entitled to mine. And I say we need a whole lot more movies about professionals acting like adults, and a whole lot fewer movies of adults acting like overgrown children and engaging in magical thinking (ie the sort of idiocy that made Interstellar a good-looking pile of c**p).