Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

For all topics regarding speculative fiction of every stripe. Otherwise known as the Geek Cave.
User avatar
Winter
Captain
Posts: 2316
Joined: Wed Jun 07, 2017 6:01 pm

Re: Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

Post by Winter »

hammerofglass wrote: Fri Aug 26, 2022 12:17 pm Is it even supposed to be real IR in Prey? It sees a cold-blooded snake just fine.
Well remember it did that in the day and one can see a snake in IR more clearly even if they don't have any body heat. With Naru, the likely reason it didn't see her after ate the flower and it was night so she was basically invisible to the Predator's IR at that point.
User avatar
Frustration
Captain
Posts: 1607
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 8:16 pm

Re: Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

Post by Frustration »

As it happens, my local game store had Predator showing in the background a few days ago, and I managed to catch about the last third of the movie.

The complaints about the mud are quite valid: for most of the film in which Schwarzenegger had it on, it was only a thin slurry. I got the impression the script writer would have been cringing while the director didn't want a thick coating of mud to cover up the mug of his big star.

So the execution was weak at best, but the basic idea is sound. Flowers with drug effects that ought to kill a mammal are a fundamentally-flawed idea.
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. If that is granted, all else follows." -- George Orwell, 1984
User avatar
hammerofglass
Captain
Posts: 2623
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:17 pm
Location: Corning, NY

Re: Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

Post by hammerofglass »

Frustration I highly recommend watching the first half, if only so you'll know where about a dozen different memes and cliches come from. It's 80's action cheese raised to an art form.

Also one of the mercs has an M134 Minigun as a personal weapon that he fires from the hip, it's so stupid but it's great.
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
User avatar
Frustration
Captain
Posts: 1607
Joined: Wed Sep 01, 2021 8:16 pm

Re: Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

Post by Frustration »

I've seen the entire movie multiple times, hammerofglass.

The second film is far superior, although it still has plenty of Hollywood shortcuts used to convey information rapidly but aren't truly realistic. (Mass spectrometers don't have alarms that go off when encountering unknown elements, for example.)
"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two equals four. If that is granted, all else follows." -- George Orwell, 1984
User avatar
hammerofglass
Captain
Posts: 2623
Joined: Sun Aug 29, 2021 3:17 pm
Location: Corning, NY

Re: Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

Post by hammerofglass »

Ah, you made a big deal about catching the end so I assumed that was relevant.
...for space is wide, and good friends are too few.
User avatar
Riedquat
Captain
Posts: 1905
Joined: Thu Mar 09, 2017 12:02 am

Re: Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

Post by Riedquat »

Frustration wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2022 7:13 pm As it happens, my local game store had Predator showing in the background a few days ago, and I managed to catch about the last third of the movie.

The complaints about the mud are quite valid: for most of the film in which Schwarzenegger had it on, it was only a thin slurry. I got the impression the script writer would have been cringing while the director didn't want a thick coating of mud to cover up the mug of his big star.

So the execution was weak at best, but the basic idea is sound. Flowers with drug effects that ought to kill a mammal are a fundamentally-flawed idea.
Pretty much this, the mud was enough to shove suspension of disbelief out of the way in what wasn't exactly a cerebral film anyway. Flowers though sound like they go too far for that, although again with the proviso that I've not actually seen it.

I think mud has a vague impression of plausibility if you don't try to think about it. Flowers with those effects are trying to sound scientific, which just calls it out.
User avatar
McAvoy
Captain
Posts: 3906
Joined: Thu Oct 24, 2019 3:55 am
Location: East Windsor, NJ

Re: Is the "Magic Flower" in Prey Really That Bad?

Post by McAvoy »

Ehh the magic flower didn't bother me.

It's better than the threat of her covering herself up with mud. Which is what my fear was when she fell into that quicksand/mud pit thing earlier in the movie.

Oh and his vision can't see below water either. Which is an actual weakness of thermal vision.
I got nothing to say here.
Post Reply