China Bans Time Travel Movies
#1
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China Bans Time Travel Movies
The Chinese government has banned time travel in movies and other entertainment today, claiming that they "casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation."
I think this has potential to be the most entertaining thread we've had in a while.
I think this has potential to be the most entertaining thread we've had in a while.
#2
DVD Talk Legend
Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
Some bloggers, however, claim that the new guidelines have been lost in translation. According to one Gamma Squad writer, "The true purpose of the ruling seems to be to discourage the misrepresentation of historical figures in films and TV shows, including in time travel movies."
#3
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
Yeah, I saw that. I just wonder how it makes any more sense. I mean, did anyone watch Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure and think they were really seeing a true-to-life depiction of Socrates?
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
I don't have my finger to the pulse of the Time Travel Expert Physicist Pundit community so I can't even come close to remembering his name but I remember finding it surprising considering how uninventive the rules and ramifications of itme travel were in those movies. Maybe the uninventive nature of it is what made it somewhat plausible.
#6
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
You know, the ban would apply to Back to the Future, Part III, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III and (depending how the rule is interpreted), Star Trek Generations. Maybe this ain't all bad!
#11
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
Who is that on Keanu's shirt?
I love this part:
I've never seen any chinese time travel movies, but I've seen plenty of chinese martial arts movies and they all contained monstrous and weird plots, used absurd tactics, and promoted feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation. All without the aid of time travel. Hero anyone?
I love this part:
have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation
#13
DVD Talk Hero
Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
So does this mean our Chinese DVDtalkers wont be able to enjoy the new season of Doctor Who?
#16
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
Great, now the Chinese will have to make do with bootleg time travel. This is going to have serious consequences for the time vortex.
#20
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#21
DVD Talk Legend
Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
Bill & Ted features an immutable timeline: both past and future are unchangeable, and the time travel Bill and Ted undergo just enacts events that already happened and/or were going to happen. This results in seeming paradoxes, like Ted deciding to go back in time at a future date to get his dad's keys from the past, and leave them in the present, and then present Ted discovers the keys his future self will leave behind. To our linear way of thinking, this appears paradoxical, but it's actually consistent within an immutable timeline.
With Back to the Future, a mutable timeline is used, where travel to the past can actually change the past. This type of timeline introduces all sorts of paradoxes, like the classic grandfather paradox. BTTF actually has a variation of the grandfather paradox where he inadvertently stops his parents from hooking up the way they originally did. The movie plays this paradox as a ticking clock (Marty and his sibling's are being gradually "erased from existence" over the course of a week), but doesn't explain how, if Marty is erased from existence, he would've caused the original break in the timeline.
Physicists tend to like the idea of an immutable timeline, as it removes the possibility of paradoxes. However, films tend to like mutable timelines, as there's more room for drama as well as playing on the wish fulfillment of the audience (everyone wishes at some point or another that they could go back in time and change some aspect of the past).
More info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_tr...of_time_travel
Note that the Wikipedia article mentions a 3rd type of timeline, that of parallel universes with alternate histories. BTTF2 actually touches on this, when Doc Brown is describing how they entered into an alternate timeline.
Also, some TV shows and movies don't follow one model consistently, and may mix and match. For example, Terminator uses the Bill and Ted model, while Terminator 2 uses BTTF, while Terminator 3 splits the difference (changes to specific smaller events are possible, but not to larger events).
#23
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Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
The movie does contain the only accurate pronunciation of "Socrates" name in any American film -- when Bill and Ted first go up to him, he introduces himself as So-CRA-tees instead of the English mangling, SOC-ra-teeeeeez.
#24
DVD Talk Hero
#25
Re: China Bans Time Travel Movies
The Chinese government has banned time travel in movies and other entertainment today, claiming that they "casually make up myths, have monstrous and weird plots, use absurd tactics, and even promote feudalism, superstition, fatalism and reincarnation."
I think this has potential to be the most entertaining thread we've had in a while.
I think this has potential to be the most entertaining thread we've had in a while.