Weekend thoughts
Ocean’s Twelve had some really funny parts, but it wasn’t really a good caper movie. It’s so busy being cute and inscrutable that the we give up on the plot too long before the Big Twists are revealed. Still worth a ticket for the good bits, but don’t expect the coolness of the first one.
Continued musings on the plight of the superhero: if you have a Code Against Killing, but the serial-murdering super-villain you’ve just captured laughs at you and tells you he’ll be back on the street killing people in 6 months – and you know he’s right – what do you do? Break your code and make sure the villain can’t hurt anyone else ever? Or follow your code, knowing that the likelihood is that people will die for your choice?
Morning linkage: This is a keen Smithsonian webpage that allows you to sit in the cockpit of several aircraft, from a Spad to a Mercury capsule, using QuickTimeVR.
Saw the last of the Vulcan arc of Enterprise this weekend – it did not disappoint. As usual, a few quibbles – I’d have like to have gotten farther in the head of the main bad guy, and another character did something stupid for an excruciatingly long time before stopping and admitting he should have known better – but plenty of good stuff. Trip is growing up fast, and it’s great to watch; and the sehlat exchange was classic Vulcan dry humor. “You keep a pet – Porthos.” “Porthos doesn’t try to eat me if I’m late with dinner.” “Vulcan children are never late with dinner.” I’m back to being a regular watcher, I think.
I’ve had a cold or a bug or something for days. Sore throat and stomach issues all week, then weakness Friday and Saturday, and Boom! – Sunday was Drainage and Constant Sneezing Day. This morning, it’s nearly all gone away – I am thankful.
Tags: movies, philosophy, software, star trek
Enterprise
I think I may have mentioned in my own LJ that there were a bunch of the standard Star Trek idiocies, too, though. I’m back to being a regular viewer, but with reservations.
I don’t like the Vulcans acting thoroughly emotional. I really think the woman who plays T’Pol is the best Vulcan ever. She mostly does a really good job of emotional without the histrionics that the others use to emote. I don’t like the “human beating up a billion armed Vulcans with his bare hands.” There are a couple of other elements, but those two are the ones that spring to mind right away. Oh, and I really hate how they are WASTING Hoshi.
Re: Enterprise
Completely agreed that Hoshi is turning into a bridge decoration. Maywether isn’t doing much better. And yeah, the curved side of that Vullcan weapon has an edge – I saw Archer take a hit that should have lopped his arm off. I am more impressed with T’Pol lately, too.
Re: Superhero: Well, I’d never be that kind of superhero. However, if I was, say like Superman, and I had a friend, say like Batman, I might walk away and leave the guy alone with him.
Re: Enterprise
And entirely unclear why a Vulcan secret service hit squad would go in with no weapons other than long sticks. My first guess was that they knew about the ‘metal-zotting’ electrical whatchamacallits, and left behind their phasers in favor of staffs with non-metalic blades. Then one of those blades was zotted.
Was Hoshi even *in* this plot? Perhaps this is being more like “Classic” Trek, where they would forget about Uhura for several eps.
Re: Enterprise
Hoshi got to turn on a translator and open some hailing frequencies. They don’t let her work on translation anymore, even. Argh!
This is a lot like the Chill drawbacks: Don’t Kill vs Don’t Hurt. A code against killing means that you won’t voluntarily take the bastard’s life to prevent him from hurting others. This doesn’t mean, however, that you can’t take other steps to make sure that he can’t hurt anyone. (i.e., it’s not a code against maiming; it’s a code against killing.) If you’ve done that “won’t hurt anyone unless they deserve it and even then not too much damage” code, then Telf’s idea is a fine and workable solution.
I’m all for the maiming, though; it could be that I’m a bit more vicious in that respect. 😀
There was a “Justice League” episode that touched on this very well. Featured a crossover with a universe where Supes finally stamped “paid” on Lex Luthor’s account, and the Justice League became the “Justicce Lords”, with Supes doing lobotomies via heat vision to keep baddies “under control”.
Not a nice place, but source of one of my favorite Batman lines (among many). After the cops take away a man for complaining about poor service in a restaurant, our Bruce looks to his counterpart and rumbles, “Mother and faather would be so proud,” in that blood-chilling delivery that only Kevin Conroy can do.
Sort of like Data’s dilemma in “The Most Toys.”
I really liked the Warren Ellis episode from this week. Not a *lot* of plot, but it’s a short format to work with. I really enjoyed the Batman/Superman interaction.
That was a good one. Overall, I guess it would depend on the criminal and the state of the world. It’s much like “why doesn’t Batman punch the Joker’s clock once and for all?” He knows that the Joker will probably escape at some point. He knows that when he does, it’s only a matter of time before someone dies, either directly or indirectly. So why not get rid of him? My thought is that if he does kill the Joker, he will be irrevocably branded as an extremist and hunted like an animal. He would lose all credibility with the police (what bits he has) and his attempts to keep people safe from the rest of the loons and the regular criminals would be hampered by being on the run. Sadly, even maiming him wouldn’t work as the Joker’s got way too many medical friends. 😛
One of my favorite ways of dealing with a serial villain comes from a very bad film. (The Shadow — fun, but not a good film) The ending where the villian is safely locked away in a mental asylum, not with a full lobotomy, but only a tiny part removed appealed to me. 🙂
Personally, I’d go for breaking the guys legs and/or hurting him very severly so that he would at least have to get a heck of a lot more creative before he could kill anybody.
That’s the way Kenshin does it, bashing hands, breaking faces that kind of thing. He’s violent, but they don’t die ; )
Though he didn’t say or do anything in the last volume when Shishio outright said the guy he’d just defeated would be tortured and executed…hrm.
But anywho. This of course was in the era of swords where breaking somebody’s hand would really hinder their killing power. These days serial maniacs can get around almost anything, but I digress.
Reminds me of the Red Son what-if, with Superman becoming “1984” all by himself.(I mean the comic, not a JL ep)
Duh, only Magog can axe the Joker.
Bionic arm!!!