7 replies to this topic

[kraemahz]

I just saw this trailer for Godsend and jumped to the forum immediately! Does anyone know anything about this movie?

The basic thing I got from the trailer was: it's about cloning and cloning is bad. I already don't like this premise. The story goes something like this: a boy is killed in a car accident, and a scientist approaches the parents to have their child cloned. When the new child matures, he begins to have nightmares of his "previous life." Sounds like a step in the wrong direction for public opinion.

[lightowl]

I have not seen it. May be good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0335121/

"After their young son, Adam (Bright), is killed in an accident, a couple (Kinnear, Romijn-Stamos) approach an expert (De Niro) in stem cell research about bringing him back to life through an experimental and illegal cloning and regeneration process. When Adam comes back to them, however, he's.. different..."

[Cyto]

Lets just say that the people who can't tell a prok from a euk will think that some magical things will happen where clones will become the all 'damming' army of darkness.

Thank you hollywood, you suck.

[Cyto]

Heh, saw this and had to put it somewhere. Since we are looking at hype, here is a little more.

Is genetic research hyped by the media?

The media are often accused of exaggerating and sensationalizing stories to "sell newspapers" or attract an audience. Tania Bubela and Caulfield appraised articles published on genetic research between 1995 and 2001 in 26 newspapers from Canada, the United States, Great Britain and Australia. They found that 11% of the newspaper articles contained moderately to highly exaggerated claims.
Given that most people obtain information on scientific and medical research largely from the media and that public opinion can drive policy, it is important to know whether he information the public receives is indeed accurate.

In a related commentary, Dr. Celeste Condit points out that journalists and scientists alike may contribute to exaggerated claims in newspapers: the journalist in seeking the "hot" story, and the scientist in pursuing academic promotion, grant funding or financial gain.

In other cases 11% may be little but in the case of feeding on people's fears and hopes can cause even the smallest fraction to spread fast. Agree? No?

[John Doe]

How could this possibly be a good thing?

People underestimate the influence that Hollywood has on public opinion -- and therefore legislation. Just consider the governor of California. Movies which promote an alarmist vision of future technologies as evil, such as Godsend, the Terminator, the Matrix, and iRobot, influence the way people think about these technologies. Hollywood, not high school, educates America about therapeutic cloning and autonomous robots. Political lines are increasingly drawn, not between Republic and Democrat, but between neo-Luddite and transhumanist. Just consider Bush's public addresses: stem cells are evil, steroids are evil. People pay eight dollars and two hours of their life to watch their most irrational fears about future technologies realized on the silver screen. These people vote. In the meanwhile, billions of dollars are wasted and millions of people die.

[kraemahz]

Yes, exactly. The media especially has a huge effect on the younger generation. It's been dubbed the new parents, because young people are more and more getting their political ideology from what they see and hear on the television every day. This illogical evil curtain that Hollywood or any news source decides to drape over something has far reaching effects. And the worst thing is that the future bringing a better society where suffering is being rendered extict doesn't make good entertainment. If this keeps up, people really will ban beneficial technologies, just because they've been conditioned to do so.

[chubtoad]

I saw this yesterday. If you saw the trailer you already know the whole plot. The science was ridiculous, and the plot was not interesting. The movie has a clear message, cloning is unethical. The movie didn't just show this theme, the main characters said almost these exact words throughout the story.

[rael]

watch the matrix it explains it all.