Films allow the audience to suspend disbelief and travel to other worlds,
even if those other worlds define the laws of physics. The moments may not
always be accurate, but they are intentional for the story moment. Filmmakers always
looks for ways to expand the audiences horizon to increase entertainment levels,
and one of the ways they do this is by breaking the rules. One of those rules
is the law of inertia and the action/reaction principle, which states that for
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This idea that an object
at rest remains at rest until acted on by an unbalanced force is put to
practice in many animated and special effects films, but with that it's also stretched
and intentionally left behind for the purpose of entertainment.
One such film that occasionally defies the law of inertia is Elysium. In the final fight scene
between Kruger and Max, there are a few times where the action/reaction principle
is set aside in order to add more action and drama into the scene. There's a
moment where Kruger kicks Max across the metal floor, and Max is sent flying
backwards into the side bars of the platform. In the following shot we see
Kruger getting up from the exact same position where he kicked Max. This is of
course false in the true physical world because the force of Kruger's kick
would be so powerful that if would send him shooting backwards in the opposing
direction, slamming him into the other side bars.
Another moment during that fight sequence is when Max runs at Kruger to
tackle him, but instead Kruger jumps directly back at Max, sending them both
flying back towards the direction of Max's starting point. Granted that they
are clad in metallic gear that gives them incredible strength and ability, this
still seems like a farfetched move. The force of Max's run would roughly
counterbalance Kruger's, as they are both relatively the same weight. Max could
be sent flying backwards, but being shot back that far with that amount of
force is a bit exaggerated for the realistic world it's set in. Nevertheless, moments
like this are intentionally created by the filmmakers of Elysium to indicate how powerful the villain Kruger is, and it allows
the audience to witness the strength he has and the danger that our hero Max is
in.
In the world of animation, the rules become even further bent and mind-boggling,
especially for a film like Kung Fu Panda.
In the climactic battle between Po and Tai Lung, there's a moment where Tai
Lung punches Po and Po's body arches back and wobbles for a bit in slow motion.
After a few seconds Po recoils and knocks Tai Lung back and into the air, causing
him to slam through a wall about 20 feet away. Po stands there in the same position,
fists out, with a surprised look on his face. The amount of force needed to
destroy a wall of concrete is quite large, even more so with someone made out
of flesh and bone. The energy that Po builds up during the "wobble"
is thrust back at Tai Lung, but Po would need to be sent backwards in some way,
shape, or form to compensate for that amount of power and reaction. Instead,
he's left there in the same position, which is not entirely plausible.
There's another moment here where Po is fighting Tai Lung and he grabs his
tail and uses it as a pulley to bounce Tai Lung off of his butt, sending him
tumbling down the street. This is just another moment like before where the
amount of force needed for Po to do this is extensive. And what's more, during
this hit Po actually moves forward a bit as opposed to the opposite direction
of Tai Lung. His reaction in a realistic setting would send him bouncing the
other way, not in the same direction as Tai Lung.
Of course when all this is going by and the audience sees it, no one
notices and no one cares. Kung Fu Panda
is one of those films where the exaggeration of these battles and hits makes
the film what it is. It's established very early on that the world in which these
characters exist is farfetched and fantastical. Po can bounce around left and
right and Tai Lung can be smacked around China and we buy it because that's
what kung fu allows these characters to do in this world.
The world in Final Fantasy: Advent Children
is another place where characters can accomplish more fantastical scenarios.
Numerous times during this film do you see characters jumping from one building
to another, or flying upwards in ways gravity would never allow. But in terms
of the action/reaction principle, one scene in particular showcases how it
breaks that rule. There's one moment about halfway through the film where the
protagonist Cloud falls off his motorcycle, which sends the vehicle spinning
forward in the direction of a few of the films antagonists. One jumps over the
bike with ease. The other— Lox— simply sticks out his leg and the large bike
stops dead in its tracks. Simply put, Lox should be in the hospital. The size
and weight of the bike would cause Lox to be thrown back by the motorcycle's acceleration
and powerful path of action. Even if he were able to stop it with just his leg,
he should react and slide back on the ground, then ease in to a final stop. Lox
is an object at rest and he's being acted on by an unbalanced force. He should
not remain at rest, but does so anyways.
As stated before, it's clear that films— especially animated and one's
drenched in special effects— will intentionally break the rules of the normal
physical world in order to achieve an emotional reaction out of the audience.
The rules of these worlds are pushed to a measure of disbelief, but when done
right they simply enhance the believability of the story. Elysium is a live action film that's grounded in that the
characters are gifted with super strength. Kung
Fu Panda's characters can break though walls and have kung fu powers that
allow them to move and not move whenever they please. And Final Fantasy is just that: a fantasy. This means that the
characters can muster up magic and contain strength and powers that would never
work realistically. Yet they work on the world because we as the audience
submit to them. If the action/reaction principle were followed strictly, films
would eventually become dull and boring. the fact that the limits of physics
are pushed gives cinema that extra drive it needs to keep the audience
intrigued.
No comments:
Post a Comment