Compare and contrast between two movies

Compare and

Contrast Essay –

Science Fiction English 2 (ENGL 0205)

Assignment 2

FNBE Jan 2013 - ENGL 0205 English 2

Pua Kai Jing (0313995)

“A literacy genre or verbal construct whose necessary and sufficient conditions

are the presence and interaction of estrangement and cognition, and whose main

device is an imaginative framework alternative to the author’s empirical environment.”

(Suvin 1988, p.37) This would be one of the many definitions that are used to defined

science fiction. “Science fiction is that species of storytelling native to a culture

undergoing the epistemic changes implicated in the rise and supercession of technical-

industrial modes of production, distribution, consumption and disposal. It is marked by

(i) metaphoric strategies and metonymic tactics, (ii) the foregrounding of icons and

interpretative schemata from a collectively constituted generic ‘mega-text’ and the

concomitant de-emphasis of ‘fine writing’ and characterization, and (iii) certain priorities

more often found in scientific and postmodern texts than in literacy models: specifically,

attention to the object in preference to the subject.” (Broderick 1995, p.155) Science

fiction, a genre where many had tries to give it definition, yet many people roughly

knows what science fiction is. A genre where robots, aliens, time travels, anything that

seems out of this world and beyond human imagination being portrayed in pieces of

literatures or movies.

“Back to the past… to save the future” This is a tagline used for one of the

movies that I chose, “Men in Black 3”. This is the sequel to one of the most popular

movie “Men in Black”, directed by Barry Sonnenfield. In Man in Black 3, Boris the


Animal, the main villain of the sequel, managed to escape from a maximum-security

prison, which is located on the moon. He wanted revenge on Agent K, an agent from

the secret organization who fights aliens, for taking out one of his arms and putting him

behind bars for years. To achieve his revenge, he traveled back in time to assassinate

agent K and changed history during the progress. Agent J, being the only one who

realize the change in the time lapse, decides to travel back in time to stop Borus the

Animal from assassinating his partner, Agent K, and save the universe. On the other

hand, I chose to compare Men in Black 3 with Real Steel. “Champions aren’t born,

They’re made”. This would be the tag line for Real Steel, directed by Shawn Levy. In a

world set in a distant future, robots that are being controlled by humans now reign and

replaced humans in the popular sport boxing. Charlie Kenton, a former boxer champion

tried to make it big in robot boxing, but failed miserably and is on the verge of losing all

his money. This is when he learns that he had an 11 years old son, Max, which will

change his life for the better. With these movies that I chose to compare, I will discuss

about the differences between the main characters, the settings of the movies and how

each movies are perceive as science fiction.

In Men in Black 3, the main character, Agent J, works for a secret organization

called Men in Black that helps protect the earth from evil aliens of the universe. Agent J

is good at making fast decisions. This can be seen as Agent J face Borus the animal

near the epilogue. Agent J had a time machine on his hand as he face Borus the

animal. Agent J rushes towards Borus and allows him to shoot his projectiles at Agent J,

Agent J managed to tackle Borus and falls down from a considerably high location. The


momentum of him falling down the height allows the time machine to charge up,

allowing him to go back to the moment before the projectiles hit him. This allows him to

memorize the direction of the projectiles and allows him to avoid them with ease. On the

other hand, the setting of the movie is in the date of July 15, 1969. This is the year

where Borus the Animal Would travel back in time to assassinate Agent K. When Agent

J acquired the time machine, he had to climb to the top of the Empire State Building

located in New York, America to be able to use the time machine. The time machine

aside, what classify this movie as science fiction the most would be the aliens. In the

movie, there is a psychic alien named Griffin which can predict million of ways that will

affect the future. For example, at the end of the movie, he predicted that if Agent K did

not live any tips to the waiter, a meteor would smash the earth.

In Real Steel, the main character, Charlie Kenton, a former notorious boxer that

is trying to shine in the world of robot boxer. Charlie can be seen as a stubborn person.

This could be seen as Charlie bought a former world-class robot named Noisy Boy. He

brought Noisy Boy and his son, Max, to an underground boxing ring. When he was

given a lower ranked opponent to fight, he refuses and wanted the highest ranked

opponent possible. This leads to Midas, the highest ranked robot boxer possible, being

given to him as an opponent. At the end of the fight, Noisy Boy was destroyed

completely by Midas, even though his son completely objects his dad to fight Midas. For

the settings of the movie, it was in the year of 2020, when Charlie managed to buy

Noisy Boy, it was in a large garage with mechanical equipment everywhere. How this

movie is classify as science fiction is the boxing robots and how complex the robots are


operated. For example, Atom, the last robot obtained by Charlie, was operated by

mimicking the movements of Charlie. If not Atom cannot operate at all.

“The term ‘science fiction’ resists easy definition” (Adam Roberts, p.1). This

statement can be seen as true as it is very hard do define science fiction. After watching

the movies and comparing them, I noticed the difference between the main characters,

the settings and how they are perceive as science fiction.


References

Adam (2006) Science Fiction The New Critical Idiom

Broderick, Damien (1995) Reading by Starlight: Postmodern Science Fiction, London

and New York: Routledge.

IMDb.com, Inc. (1990-2003) Real Steel 2011. Retrieved from

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433035/?ref_=rvi_tt

IMDb.com, Inc. (1990-2003) Plot Summary For Real Steel. Retrieved from

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0433035/plotsummary?ref_=tt_stry_pl

IMDb.com, Inc. (1990-2003) Men in Black 3 2012. Retrieved from


IMDb.com, Inc. (1990-2003) Plot Summary For Men in Black 3. Retrieved from


Suvin (1988) Positions and Presuppositions in Science Fiction, London: Macmillan.






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