Another quick holiday post.
Part-way through streaming Don’t Look Up, the satirical SF movie about astronomers who detect a comet heading toward impact with Earth in six months, and how when they try to warn everyone, they are brushed aside or disbelieved, by cynical short-term minded politicians, or relentlessly cheerful TV show hosts who book them after news of the latest celebrity divorce, and then all but make fun of them.
I want it to be more pointed, and so far — we’re about 45 minutes from the end — I’m a bit disappointed. But we haven’t seen the end yet.
Anyway, for supposedly having scientific consultants, there are several scientific boners that undermine the film’s credibility, and thus its basis for parody.
1, When the astronomers first detect the comet, the first thing they do is contact the president. No, the first thing they would do is contact *other astronomers* around the world to confirm their observations and prediction. And *then* go to the politicians.
2, Later, when the comet first becomes visible to the naked eye, the Jennifer Lawrence characters tries pointing it out to someone. “Look, there’s the Big Dipper…. and there’s Venus… ” No, Venus would never ever be in the same area of the sky as the Big Dipper.
3, A scene or two later, the Leonardo DiCaprio character — through the windshield of his car! — spots the comet too. He gets out of his car and yells at everyone to look up! There it is! No, no. The news of the comet’s naked-eye visibility would have been widely known already. And you would never first spot a faint object like a comet from the middle of a well-lit city street.
Sigh. Well, let’s see how it ends.
