Science Fiction Needs Rigid Rules

Late in the recent Andrew Niccol film In Time, criminal villain Alex Pettyfer forces protagonist Justin Timberlake to participate in a â??wrestling match.â? Itâ??s meant to be one of the movieâ??s big action climaxes, where Timberlake finally takes on the murdering, thieving bully whoâ??s tormented him throughout the film. And yet the tension is largely absent, though the stakes are high: Because the participants are â??wrestlingâ? to somehow pull time off each otherâ??s built-in arm-clocks, which determine how long people in In Time get to live, if Pettyfer wins and steals all Timberlakeâ??s clock-time, Timberlake will die. And for an extra unnecessarily crude touch of mustache-twirling villainy, Pettyfer has spelled out that once Timberlake is gone, Pettyfer will make a point of raping Timberlakeâ??s hostage/girlfriend Amanda Seyfried before killing her, too.