Post by Radrook Admin on Sept 4, 2019 11:40:43 GMT -5
Suspension of Disbelief in Sci Fi Reviewing
Fiction requires that the film audience or reader cooperate by going along with the suggested scenarios though they may not be 1OO% explained. So when we review a film or writing, we are expected to reduce or significantly suspend our tendency to disbelieve in order to enjoy the film. Of course we do just that. We go along for the sake of enjoying the ride.
For example, when we watched the film Alien, we didn’t require a detailed explanation of how artificial gravity was being produced without rotating the ship. We took it for granted that those details had been worked out in the futuristic scenario, and just sat back and watched.
In the latest King Kong film, where his size is exaggerated, we don’t expect a detailed explanation of how such a creature of that size can exist. We simply enjoy the film.
The same applies even more so to Superman and all other superheroes who are depicted as having ridiculous powers such as x-ray vision or super speed. We don’t ask why the Flash’s joints don’t overheat and burn out-do we? We generously cut the author a break, and watch it for its entertainment value and because it is being introduced as merely for entertainment as its primary goal, and the genre itself allows for those sorts of things. Those genres include fantasy, where the laws of nature are constantly violated.
But these are expected and even there sometimes the things that are offered as feasible, still weaken the suspension of disbelief. For example, how can midgets and dwarfs be fighting and defeating muscle-bound giants in hand to hand combat? That’s where we say, “Well, OK, nice action but Nahhhhhh!”
So the limit is exceeded whenever the author expects his viewer to accept something that is far too obviously ridiculous to be granted that suspension of disbelief. Usually, it’s something which common sense would make obvious.
For example, the Star Wars episodes where Darth Vader’s troops keep missing their target in narrow corridors. Now, you can’t fire into a narrow corridor with people in it without at least one shot striking its target by accident. It is simply statistically impossible. Yet we see the shots landing everywhere except on the targets. Furthermore, the ones aiming the weapons are supposedly trained soldiers who have practiced for accuracy. There goes suspension of disbelief right out the window!
Or how about Ripley in the film Alien pausing to fix her hair up in a bun while being stalked by the alien during the film’s conclusion? Would any woman in her right mind pause to calmly fix her hair up in a bun while being stalked by a murderous, monstrous creature? Of course not.
Or how about that guy in the film Prometheus looking in the mirror, seeing animalcules swimming in his eyeball, and calmly ignoring it until it is too late? Or that biologist picking up that wicked-looking alien thing resembling cobra about to strike, as if it had been some long-lost pet?
Or how about having victims searching closets with a flashlight in an abandoned house where Jason, the hockey-masked maniac, is on a killing spree? How exactly are we to retain our suspension of disbelief under a constant barrage of such insanities?
You see, such things are so obvious that they appear to be based on the assumption that the viewer or reader is stupid. This insulting impression automatically distracts the viewer from what happens next because the viewer is asking himself.
“Do they really think I’m THAT dumb?”
Another way that suspension of disbelief can be weakened is when a character suddenly and inexplicably behaves in a way that is totally contrary to what his personality. For example, a shy person us suddenly outgoing. A coward is suddenly brave. A skeptic is suddenly gullible. A trusting person is suddenly a totally suspicious one.
If no logical reasons are provided for this sudden, drastic personality-change, then the behavior becomes unbelievable. That applies to my previous example of Ripley. One moment she’s terrified, looking cautiously around corners, sweat-drenched with fearful tension, and the next she’s calmly doing her hair up in a bun
