We both quite liked this movie, tho we did not love it with the mad & passionate love some seemed to. Nor did we dislike it as much as you seemed to have. Tho, aye with occasional glitches that had to be looked over & hell yeah re: the sexism. It for the most part wasn't truly awful in this regard the way some films are but it had its moments, especially the one you mentioned.
Tho again, we both thought it had its moments, was interesting & engaging & were quite happy we saw it.
Plainly, I am unable to suspend my disbelief as far as you can, particularly on a movie whose publicity kept on and on about how scientifically accurate and meaningful it was.
I kept expecting a big reveal that the whole thing was taking place on an Earth colony and not 'our' earth. On the plus side, if we had paid to see this at the cinema I'd have walked out (if I hadn't fallen asleep with boredom). This way we at least get a return on our money.
I haven't seen the movie, so I may be missing a key point; but a black hole is simply a very massive and dense object. It doesn't have any special sucking-in powers on objects outside its event horizon, so a planet can orbit a black hole just as it can orbit a star.
However, I understand that the planet is supposed to be orbiting so close to the black hole that it's moving at over .99 of the speed of light, so it makes at least gut-feeling sense that tides should be a serious problem, and not just for the oceans. I came upon this article on Bad Astronomy, which says the question is complicated.
I really like Phil Plait's original review, which I agree with.
I'm no physicist but it is plain that those who are doing the math can't agree about this planet either. However, it is orbiting a rotating supermassive Black Hole, close enough for relativistic effects and all orbits eventually decay. (And Plait's comments about the heat and light that does not, apparently, come from the event horizon of said Black Hole, which is cool enough for our hero to enter, stand.) If said Black Hole is having massive effects on the tides it will also be having massive effects on the planet itself, which, if nothing else, will result in earthquakes. Then, of course, there are the meteor strikes...
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Tho again, we both thought it had its moments, was interesting & engaging & were quite happy we saw it.
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However, I understand that the planet is supposed to be orbiting so close to the black hole that it's moving at over .99 of the speed of light, so it makes at least gut-feeling sense that tides should be a serious problem, and not just for the oceans. I came upon this article on Bad Astronomy, which says the question is complicated.
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I'm no physicist but it is plain that those who are doing the math can't agree about this planet either. However, it is orbiting a rotating supermassive Black Hole, close enough for relativistic effects and all orbits eventually decay. (And Plait's comments about the heat and light that does not, apparently, come from the event horizon of said Black Hole, which is cool enough for our hero to enter, stand.) If said Black Hole is having massive effects on the tides it will also be having massive effects on the planet itself, which, if nothing else, will result in earthquakes. Then, of course, there are the meteor strikes...
Not a place I'd pick to colonise.
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