25.6.13

Resurrection...

Vaatasin hiljuti just nüüdseks värskeks klassikuks saanud filmi nimega WALL-e ja märkasin selle juures mõningaid asju, mida varem isegi ei kaalunud...

Let's get this out of the way first: I absolutley adore this movie with all my heart. It never fails to make me laugh or cry and in my mind it is at least 4.999 on the Roger Ebert scale.
However, when I sat down to watch this movie for the umpteenth time, something felt... off. And this is why.
The nonsensical energy output
The Earth is a barren, and quite literal, wasteland, abandoned for hundreds of years. Yet in the first minutes of the movie we are treated to visual ads and jingles - all which should require energy to reproduce continuously over said hundreds of years. Are you saying that Buy'N'Large (the equivalent of a world wide Walmart) had some secret power plants that were designed to be self-sufficient even if the world ended? Boy I would love their energy plan.
The Harbinger Scout

EVA is the epitome of cuteness, there' just no arguments. However, this Steve Job's masterpiece of Apple design and Android functionality can, and WILL blow you away without a second thought (process?). And apparently she has a goddamned wave motion cannon to do it with. A bit much maybe, for a peacful scouting mission? Not to mention that Earth, as established before, is a BARREN WASTELAND with no living things (cockroaches notwithstanding).
WALL-e itself is (highly) improbable
This has been touched upon before but in case you haven't read that specific article in Cracked, here's the short version: WALL-e is the single functioning machine in the face of the Earth. It is explicitly shown that he scavenges parts of his defunct models for spare parts. Assuming that every WALL-e model has the same programming, wouldn't there be a metric shit-ton of these robots whirring about, doing their business? Or is our star the lucky last survivor? It just doesn't make sense.
The laser cat dance

Ah, how hilarious, our hero finds a magic red dot that keeps running away from him. Hilarious. Except that laser targetting does not work that way. The whole point of laser spotting is that the laser (i.e. the red dot) is fixed on something, in this case the landing area. Even if it would seek the optimal point of landing it would not dance around like in the movie.
The robot asylum

Moving on from hard facts of science, the maintenance area of the ship seems to be more like an asylum. We have your annual run-of-the-mill insane robots, murderous robots and even  suicidal robots. Let's analyze that for a moment: Assume, if you will, that you are a robot. An autonomous, programmed entity that does what it's told to (much like working at an office, I know). What can go so horribly wrong that you would defy your programming and try to terminate yourself? Apparently, these droids know the answer because they have been trying the solution for a while now. And, for bonus scary factor, it's probably not the only ward on the ship...
The human copulation

I'm usually not one to pry when it comes to other people's sex lives, but this has to be addressed: The morbidly obese people confined to a hoverchair on the Axiom cannot reproduce naturally. Just try to imagine, horryfing as it is, two persons of extreme girth bumping uglies. It just isn't possible - the bits that matter can not connect. And that is assuming people of this future still retain their social skills, which the movie shows, they are in desperate need of. I mean, it takes a renegade robot to connect two persons. TWO. Out of hundreds - more likely thousands. This, unlike some other issues on this list, could be explained via artificial... Breeding? My god, I just entered a whole different level of disillusionment. The only viable option how humanity survives the last two hundred or so years is through artificial insemination.And for the added level of paranoia, what if these tube babies are all implanted with subliminal commands like "Buy More at Buy'n'Large",  "Behave" and/or "Be a useless slob and sit around on your ass FOREVER". That would certainly explain some things regarding the best, last hope of humanity.
The plot device makes no sense

This one I'm just going to chuck with the "Willing belief" pile but regardless:  One world. One plant. Can make it sustainable again. Sooooo... It's a magical plant, right? Or are the humans of that future confined to eating acorns for the rest of their life?