Dredd (2012)

[DeFuzzed]

Karl, Jock, Greg on Masters of the Web panel -

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cQk2qa6iM1Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Durendal]

Its not even out and I have found a negative review...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCJjTsB8epI...was most impressed withthe mention of Judge Whitey

Youtube video bloggers are not even failed journalists and should not be given any attention, just like reply girl boobcams and the people who film themselves opening a variety of things. When I am president of the universe people with personality disorders will be forbidden from owning cameras and it will be illegal for under 21s to purchase microphone headsets.

I'm pleasantly surprised by the reviews so far, even the unflattering ones are positive, and have convinced me to watch this in 3D when it's released. Haven't watched a 3D movie since Krull in the 80's

[shaolin_monkey]

Krull was released in 3D?!?  Noooooo....!   I missed it! I did not know that!  I only ever saw the 2D version in the cinema.

[Pete Wells]

I LOVE the respect Karl Urban is giving John Wagner. In just about every interview I've seen he says as long as Wagner was happy, he was too. Roll on Sept 7th!

[Mudcrab]

Krull was released in 3D?!?  Noooooo....!   I missed it! I did not know that!  I only ever saw the 2D version in the cinema.

That was my reaction too! I remember seeing it at the pictures too. That was a loooong time ago.

[Mark Taylor]

I'm not sure the whole implication of you brain perceiving everything at 1/100th the normal speed... Presumably, rather than being slow to respond, they will see Dredd entering the room in slow motion and be able to respond 100 times faster than normal.

That means in such gunfights we have to believe Dredd is over 100 times faster than anyone else, or it provides a scenario where Dredd has to find creative ways to out-gun them (which would be preferable as a movie concept).

I don't see any conflict here. The drug slows down your perception, it does not speed up your thoughts, your reaction time or enhance your physical capabilities in anyway. They are two completely separate things. You're talking as if a human being is a machine, and this is a simple equation. It's far from it. There are plenty of drugs out there already that enhance perception in various ways, they do not enhance the user's ability to act on what they perceive in any way.

Just to give a personal example (not drug related as such - although I'm sure it must have involved some kind of chemical change in the brain itself) on one particular occasion I genuinely though I was going to die. I was involved in a head-on vehicle collision at high speed (I was not driving, BTW). In those 2 or 3 seconds in which I realised we were going to hit the oncoming vehicle, my perception was slows. I was quite genuinely seeing everything in slow motion for these 2-3 seconds. Did it enhance my ability to react or actually do anything about it? Did it hell. If anything I was frozen to the spot in horror and in fact it actually felt like I was thinking in slow motion too. "Oh shit - we're dead" was all the thinking I had time for.

[TordelBack]

I was involved in a head-on vehicle collision at high speed (I was not driving, BTW). In those 2 or 3 seconds in which I realised we were going to hit the oncoming vehicle, my perception was slows. I was quite genuinely seeing everything in slow motion for these 2-3 seconds. Did it enhance my ability to react or actually do anything about it? Did it hell. If anything I was frozen to the spot in horror and in fact it actually felt like I was thinking in slow motion too. "Oh shit - we're dead" was all the thinking I had time for.

I was just about to report a near-identical car-crash experience!  The whole event slowed to a crawl, and I can still recall tiny almost-frozen details from what must have been a second or two.  Needless to say I (as a passenger) certainly didn't seem to have any increased ability to react.

[DeFuzzed]

I experienced something similar to Mark Taylor. Time slowed, I felt and saw as if in slow motion, and for me sound also vanished as well as vision going black and white. And I couldn't do anything but be a passenger in my body. Bizarre thing, our brain.

[shaolin_monkey]

I was involved in a head-on vehicle collision at high speed (I was not driving, BTW). In those 2 or 3 seconds in which I realised we were going to hit the oncoming vehicle, my perception was slows. I was quite genuinely seeing everything in slow motion for these 2-3 seconds. Did it enhance my ability to react or actually do anything about it? Did it hell. If anything I was frozen to the spot in horror and in fact it actually felt like I was thinking in slow motion too. "Oh shit - we're dead" was all the thinking I had time for.

I was just about to report a near-identical car-crash experience!  The whole event slowed to a crawl, and I can still recall tiny almost-frozen details from what must have been a second or two.  Needless to say I (as a passenger) certainly didn't seem to have any increased ability to react.

Yep, same here when I was doing about 20mph on a pushbike, and a car cut across my path.  I had what felt like a massive amount of time to think 'There's no way I'm going to avoid this.  I'm going to hit it hard.  I hope I live', when in fact it was a split second.  Although I thought all that, there was no time for any physical movement or action.  I went into the side of the car, my bike flipped me up, my knees went through the passenger windows and I carried on sailing over the roof, breaking my fall with my head.  Happy days!

So yeah, I totally get the whole slo-mo thing.

[Mark Taylor]

...Some more thoughts on the above. OK I'm not a cognitive psychologist (though I know folks with expertise in the field, so I might have the opportunity to discuss it at some point) but I'd have thought that if the brain is anything like a machine then it's more like a multitasking computer system than a mechanical device. With a mechanical device if one thing goes faster, everything goes faster. So, if the brain was a simple clockwork machine then yes, in order to perceive things in slow motion the whole mechanism would have to run faster, and your reactions would also be speeded up. With a multitasking computer system, on the other hand, if one process runs faster than other processes have to slow down to compensate. The system has a limited capacity which has to be shared out between different processes. Now whilst I do think the brain is probably a bit more flexible than that, it still has to have it's limits. In order for you to perceive everything in slow motion, your brain actually has to be recording perceptions at a much faster rate than normal. Because your brain is forced (by the drug) into concentrating on this particular task, the likelyhood is in fact, that your performence in all other tasks (including reactions, etc.) will suffer as a result. My expectation would be as a result of Slo-Mo you'd actually be less able to react to something like Dredd appearing and trying to shoot your face off than if you were straight.

[DeFuzzed]

Sounds like good reasoning, that. Like after you eat, more blood goes to the tummy than the brain so you feel sluggish sleepy.

[JOE SOAP]

...Some more thoughts on the above. OK I'm not a cognitive psychologist (though I know folks with expertise in the field, so I might have the opportunity to discuss it at some point) but I'd have thought that if the brain is anything like a machine then it's more like a multitasking computer system than a mechanical device. With a mechanical device if one thing goes faster, everything goes faster. So, if the brain was a simple clockwork machine then yes, in order to perceive things in slow motion the whole mechanism would have to run faster, and your reactions would also be speeded up. With a multitasking computer system, on the other hand, if one process runs faster than other processes have to slow down to compensate. The system has a limited capacity which has to be shared out between different processes. Now whilst I do think the brain is probably a bit more flexible than that, it still has to have it's limits. In order for you to perceive everything in slow motion, your brain actually has to be recording perceptions at a much faster rate than normal. Because your brain is forced (by the drug) into concentrating on this particular task, the likelyhood is in fact, that your performence in all other tasks (including reactions, etc.) will suffer as a result. My expectation would be as a result of Slo-Mo you'd actually be less able to react to something like Dredd appearing and trying to shoot your face off than if you were straight.

The analogy of brain-processes speeding up in order for perception to slow-down would apply if brain-perception ran like a film-camera to which I don't know the answer, but, if that were the case, logically an opposite drug to Slo-Mo (Hi-Speed™) could have the extreme opposite effect of speeding up perception but  for perception to speed-up would mean brain-processes would need to slow-down, to which I also don't know the answer but I don't believe would be true.

[Mark Taylor]

The analogy of brain-processes speeding up in order for perception to slow-down would apply if brain-perception ran like a film-camera to which I don't know the answer, but, if that were the case, logically an opposite drug to Slo-Mo (Hi-Speed™) could have the extreme opposite effect of speeding up perception but  for perception to speed-up would mean brain-processes would need to slow-down, to which I also don't know the answer but I don't believe would be true.

Well as I say I'm not an expert but I have spent years around A.I. experts, psychologists an the like and had a lot of conversations about this sort of thing. I know enough about it to know that it is somewhat like a film camera insofar as the brain does record perceptions as a series of 'snapshots', although the analogy begins to break there because each 'brain snapshot' is more like a fraction of a second of 'mini movie' than an actual still frame. Being naturally curious after the incident I referred to above I did find some information about a study which had been done where they came to the conclusion that during life-threatening situations the brain can in actually record perceptions at a faster rate (no I don't have any links, this was ages ago). If this can happen naturally then presumably it could be induced by a drug if you can find the right way to unlock that kind of brain-state chemically.

Regardless of whether you think of the brain as anything like a computer system or not, the fact is that almost all drugs which enhance some brain function interfere with others. For obvious reasons a fair bit of research has gone into the effect of drugs of people's ability to drive a vehicle without disastrously cocking it up. There is no recreational drug which enhances your ability to drive - but there are a few which make you think they do. Can't see slow-mo being any different just because it enhances your perceptions. As mentioned earlier, reactions and pereptions are two completely different brain functions.

[Stan]

...My expectation would be as a result of Slo-Mo you'd actually be less able to react to something like Dredd appearing and trying to shoot your face off than if you were straight.

I think you probably nailed it. Though Tracky Guy™ did look like he had Dredd in his sights at least. Not bad for a smackhead.

[CraveNoir]

Karl Urban Video Interview, JoBlo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkFIRKydjIs

great stuff!