Okay, so the title of this post is misleading, but hear me out. One of the down sides of being without television or internet, and being burned out on reading, is that one can sit in one's apartment and continue to watch the exact same movie on DVD over and over again ad nauseum.Well, maybe it's just me then, but this is what has happened to my life in the past week. I get home from work, I'm tired, so I sit down in front of my computer and watch "Iron Man". Boring, right? However, the more I watch it, the more I am disappointed by how absurd it actually is. I know it's supposed to be a superhero movie, and it is, but it takes place in the obvious real world. For that reason, I have many qualms with specific events in the movie. Here they are at random:
1.) When Tony Stark is escaping from the cave in the first Iron Man suit, he flies up hundreds of (if not over a thousand) feet, and then falls straight down into the sand. The suit completely breaks apart, but he is unharmed. Bullshit. He would be dead. Sand does not act as a cushion.
2.) Jarvis is the computer that runs Stark's house and Iron Man suit. I'm sorry, but there will never be technology that can render human equivalent thought processes. In order for Jarvis to communicate with Stark, they would both have to be on the same mathematical communicative scale. That is, computers "think" (operate) according to binary code. Computer thought is limited to a sequence of 1's and 0's. Science will never be able to replicate a metaphysical being, that being the capacity of human thought. Of course, we can create rules of logic and rules of law that something (let's say a computer) could adhere to, but the computer would never be able to operate in a way that Jarvis from the movie does. Tony and Jarvis's interaction is not merely functional, but conversational. "Working on a secret project are we?" A computer would not be able to detect signs of stress and secrecy. This is a deeply philosophical matter. I think I've made my point on this.
3.) When Pepper is watching the ransom video on Tony's work computer, she merely types in a command to 'translate'. I'm assuming (and don't hold it against me) that his captors were speaking Arabic, which is not a language that flows like English. That would mean that the computer would have to hear it in Arabic first, and then render it in English. But in the movie, it is translated and read in a linear fashion.
On a final note, I will say that I did enjoy this movie. It's an action film, and it entertained me. But now that I've seen it hundreds of times (not literally), I'm more likely to note it for its shortcomings.
I think what you have to bear in mind is that the film operates in the Comic Book Universe which operates on Comic Book Physics. Going by the laws of Comic Book Physics it's perfectly reasonable that someone would be able to stick to walls after being bitten by a radioactive spider or there exists a school in upstate New York dedicated to helping mutant teenagers hone their powers. In this universe people do survive falls of 1,000 feet and use car batteries to run their hearts. Suspension of disbelief my friend, suspension of disbelief.
ReplyDeleteWatching Iron Man over and over?
ReplyDeleteCan't you reserve a new DVD from the library or something?
Okay, I'm finished with Iron Man. Now I'm repeatedly watching "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas". Note: it's not advisable to do so when you are sick.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. I liked the movie a lot, but like you I had some issues with it. I think, though, that some of your points aren't really as well thought out as they should be.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your first point; nobody would be able to survive a fall like the one depicted in the movie. Hitting anything - even snow or water - is the same as hitting concrete at high velocities. Plus the added weight of the bulky suit would add to his momentum as he was falling, which would make for a much harder impact.
Your second point, though, leaves a lot to be desired. It is debatable whether or not we will ever have computers that are on the same level as humans (or at least capable of appearing as though they are). Also there are many different ways to evaluate this, such as the Turing test, so it is a very subjective topic. I'm also not sure what you mean by "mathematical communicative scale". This just sounds like a pseudo-science term and is not relevant to computing. In any case, all computation [mechanical or electrical] can be reduced to simple positional notation - including the human brain. Binary (0's and 1's) is just a base 2 positional notation system where (in terms of computers) 1 = electrical current and 0 = no electrical current. The human brain is just a series of electrical signals - just like a computer. you can have higher base systems of course. a mechanical gear system might be described in ternary (base 3) where 0 = no movement, 1 = movement to the left, and 2 = movement to the right. Granted our brains probably use something much higher than a base 2 system, but that doesn't affect the feasibility of similar operations working in binary. It would just take up a lot more space :).
Your final point is right, but for the wrong reason. When computers analyze audio they are analyzing the electrical signals (all those ones and zeros) that are interpreted to form the audio wave which the computer then sends through the speakers. Technically, the computer can run, analyze, dissect, interpret, or reproduce an audio file without ever actually playing it through the speakers. So it actually is possible that the computer could be interpreting (translating) and playing the the translated version at the same time. But this would take an insanely powerful computer and is probably not feasible in the near future.
Good points though.
What I'm really curious about is the scene where Piper rips the electromagnet out of Stark's body. Wasn't it only the magnet that was keeping him alive anyway? The whole reason he even has the arc reactor in his chest is to power the magnet so that the metal shrapnel wont enter his heart. And if he doesn't need the magnet anymore - which we can gather from the fact that he hasn't dropped dead - then there is absolutely no reason that he should have a reactor in his chest to keep him alive.