[nekusar]

It can be summed up as "Ken Meets Jesus", "Ken Goes to Space", "Ken is a bumbling moron", "Ken's first friend". "Ken's White Savior moment"

This appears to be the norm for US based scifi now. Glad I'm watching movies like The Wandering Earth and Alienoid instead.

It had a good premise. But it also fell apart immediately. Like, they only sent 3 people, 2 whom died on this UBER CRITICAL SAVE THE PLANET idea?

And Ryan Gosling's character is a fucking moron. You're supposed to be a molecular biologist, and you're basically a reddit-gag line?

Edit: lol -4 , like seriously, its a pretty bad show. I listed movies I compare it to. But no I get shit like "You must be fun at parties." Personal attacks, sigh.

[mr_toad]

> And Ryan Gosling's character is a fucking moron. You're supposed to be a molecular biologist, and you're basically a reddit-gag line?

The thing about very smart people is that they can still manage to miss the bus.

And if you have read any of Andy Weirs other books they have a common theme of one person who’s in over their head who basically bumbles through by the skin of their teeth.

[ge96]

> The Wandering Earth

That's a movie you watch while drinking, take a shot every time you see something absurd

[shikshake]

I agree with your sentiment but this is not the place to complain about a movie you dislike. OP is showing off a project they made, trying to make them feel bad about liking a movie is tactless and reflects poorly on you.

[Uncle_Brumpus]

Did Ken also get his catheter yanked out like in the book? I don't plan on watching the movie but that's the only thing I would even care a tiny bit if they included, because I just felt like it was such an odd highly specific bit and I want to know if they committed for the big screen.

[tantalor]

> White Savior moment

???

[rpmisms]

White people doing anything good is actually bad. Duh.

/s, but I think I'm accurately describing the viewpoint you're responding to.

[mr_toad]

There is a strain of science fiction where the human protagonist (usually a white male) (possibly a boy from backwoods moisture farm) saves the universe, (including all the other dumb luckless species). A notorious example is Battlefield Earth.

However in this example the contribution of the alien, not just to the whole saving the universe business, but to the actual story, the book, was huge.

[rpmisms]

Fantasizing about saving the universe is a good thing, actually.

[lazide]

It’s a description of a common Hollywood trope (or used to be), like the ‘magical negro’ [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_Negro].

Hard not to see once you know about them, and they are indeed common.

But what should replace it? Good Nuanced writing? Good luck with that!

[cv5005]

Chinese film having 100% chinese cast = good.

American film having a single white male lead = not good.

[acheron]

It’s a troll. Just flag and move on.

[the_af]

> But it also fell apart immediately. Like, they only sent 3 people, 2 whom died on this UBER CRITICAL SAVE THE PLANET idea?

(I didn't downvote, you have a right to dislike a popular movie or book)

They explain why only 3 people (it's a bit contrived, but there's genetics involved), and why no more ships. It's an emergency, a resource and time-constrained mission on which a few things go wrong even before they depart. The world is on full emergency mode, rushing things and getting things wrong. The crew isn't even the initial pick, but there's an accident involved. The lead director believes she'll probably end up in prison after the mission launches. I don't know, it makes sense to me.

> And Ryan Gosling's character is a fucking moron. You're supposed to be a molecular biologist, and you're basically a reddit-gag line?

I think the meme-speak, which I also found a bit jarring, is simply Andy Weir's less-than-good writing style. I think Weir isn't a particularly good writer, but he managed to write an engrossing adventure which I enjoyed.

In-universe, molecular biologists and scientists in general do have sense of humor, enjoy memes, and are generally capable of doing and saying the dumbest things. So it also kind of works!

[luke5441]

I think OP only watched the movie. The book is a bit better at showing the main character actually being competent at times. In the movie they (for obvious reasons, but they could have done perhaps once) skip him going down science rabbit holes.

[hgoel]

I think the movie also did a decent enough job of conveying that preparing enough astrophage for just one ship was only barely possible in Earth's environment. It was the entire reason for making it a one-way trip.

[hgoel]

I thought the portrayal of scientists was a lot more true to life than most media. Millennial and older Zoomers are old enough to be in these positions now, they aren't going to talk or dress like boomers.

[the_af]

Yes, I think it's a bit annoying (to me, because I dislike meme-speak) but it's not unrealistic for the character.

But, to be frank, I think it's also Andy Weir's style, because memes and pop culture references pop up even when it's not the character's PoV.

[lstodd]

As a european arthouse cinema snob I must say Gosling would have made a nice stand-in for Rocco Siffredi. Maybe.

[celsoazevedo]

> Edit: lol -4 , like seriously, its a pretty bad show. [...]

I don't think the downvotes are because you expressed the view that the film is bad.

It's mainstream science fiction using tech we don't have. It will never make a lot of sense. And then you decide to bring skin colour/race into the discussion. What do you expect?

[TwoNineA]

You must be fun at parties.