If you're dreaming of writing the All-Time Great Science Fiction Novel, first you should check out Insultingly Stupid Movie Physics. The site has been around for years (and looks very 1990s), and the author urgently needs a copy editor to clean up his English errors.
But he takes the trouble to look seriously at the physics involved in many famous and infamous SF movies, and the results are entertainingly devastating. Scroll way down to the Movie Reviews section and see his demolition of Avatar. I'll probably get around to seeing the movie one of these days, but at least I'll go forewarned of its scientific impossibility.
In this connection, you should also check out the List of Science Fiction Clichés at Resources for Science Fiction Writers, and The Grand List of Overused Science Fiction Clichés.
I thought James Cameron was making an in-joke by calling the mineral in 'Avatar' unobtainium, ohh well...
Posted by: eeleenlee | March 05, 2010 at 12:14 PM