innocuous

This movie truly dishonors the short story on which it is based. Some reviewers have tried to excuse this on the basis that any short story must be padded out by screenwriters. I don't buy it. If a short story is not suitable for a feature-length movie, then it isn't. Just deal with it and make a short, or use it as an episode in an anthology. (This same short story has received much better treatment as just such an episode.) All the love story and social justice elements in the movie do nothing but detract from the fundamental themes of the original story. In particular, the main female character has been transformed from a sympathetic young woman to some sort of manic-depressive "anti-heroine" with whom we are unlikely to empathize. This movie is just sad, and not in a good way.

I understand that any TV show must rely upon conflict and crisis to maintain a story-line, but TLS can be a very frustrating ride for most viewers. I have to attribute this to lazy writers, an unfortunately common trait in recent shows and movies.

First, there's way too much Star Trek-itis, where the captain and XO go on every mission and patrol (since they're the "best men" for the job). They might as well be wearing red shirts. Second, every character is stupid. And I mean REALLY stupid. Well-trained crew members wonder "if the captain is keeping something from us," as if that's not SOP for military operations. Everyone makes very bad decisions. People act completely contrary to their own best interests. Third, crew members and military personnel often behave as if they have never been through any training. Professionalism is almost completely absent.

Other than that, it has a story and can be entertaining, even when it's insulting to members of the armed services.

Accepting this as being similar to Mythbusters is very difficult, and rightly so. Your best bet is to just sit back and pretend that it's a fictional show about rednecks trying to achieve some engineering feats and how they might go about it. I live in NC and so the accents are not off-putting to me, but there are a few negative aspects that I had to make allowances for. Among these are: (1) The constant statements about how useful their inventions and concepts might be to the world or to the military. In fact, virtually everything they try has either been done before (and done much better), is impractical in the real world, or just doesn't work. (2) I would also expect that they could anticipate a few of their problems by doing more math before they try something. (3) Some of the outcomes are obviously exaggerated, either by selective editing or other methods, to the point that you might call them "fake." (4) Contrary to the statements about making do with what they've got at hand, they obviously spend thousands of dollars on some of the projects, purchasing multiple high-tech motors, blu-ray players, high-tech materials, and similar supplies. On the whole, Mythbusters is a lot more scientific and reliable as to results.