History Headscratchers / Paul

*** True, but that would only disprove the idea that the Biblical God created Man in his own exact image. Paul would still have trouble explaining how his species and humanity look so similar if he really believes that they are both the product if independent evolution comming from entirely different gene pools. Intelligent design doesn't have to mean the Abrahamic God created humans in his own image.

** His home world. He was just making a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' reference, which [[FridgeBrilliance he could have come up with given his influence on pop culture.]] Plus given Paul's friendly personality, it's unlikely he'd sell her teeth to some aliens or something worse.

** His home world. He was just making a ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' reference, which [[FridgeBrilliance he could of come up with given his influence on pop culture.]] Plus given Paul's friendly personality, it's unlikely he'd sell her teeth to some aliens or something worse.

* After the group is caught out in the open after falling asleep in the woods, why don't they figure out the obvious plan that Paul figures out later when Clive stops them to buy the sword? Sending one of either Graeme or Clive to the RV while the other hides out with Paul makes way more sense than trying to walk all the way back with Paul in a really paper-thin disguise.
** because the Rule of Funny applies here...

* After the group is caught out in the open after falling asleep in the woods, why don't they figure out the obvious plan that Paul figures out later when Clive stops them to buy the sword? Sending one of either Graeme or Clive to the RV while the other hides out with Paul makes way more sense than trying to walk all the way back with Paul in a really paper-thin disguise.

** It would be hard to do a trailer without some of her dialogue, and her voice is [[HeyItsThatVoice pretty recognizable]]. They probably couldn't help it.

** Lastly, the [[HealingHands healing hands]] ability is not very well explained, but seems to work by transferring the injury to someone else who is capable of surviving it. Excellent for use on humans and birds who don't have Paul's [[Franchise/{{X-Men}} wolverine healing]], but next to useless on members of his own species. If everyone on his planet heals from injuries near-instantaneously, then what's the point of transferring wounds at all? By the time something is grave enough to need it, the person you're trying to help will be dead.

** It's not hard to look up where someone currently lives.

** His home world. He was just making a Film/BackToTheFuture reference, which [[FridgeBrillance he could of come up with given his influence on pop culture.]] Plus given Paul's friendly personality, it's unlikely he'd sell her teeth to some aliens or something worse.

** Lastly, the [[HealingHands healing hands]] ability is not very well explained, but seems to work by transferring the injury to someone else who is capable of surviving it. Excellent for use on humans and birds who don't have Paul's [[XMen wolverine healing]], but next to useless on members of his own species. If everyone on his planet heals from injuries near-instantaneously, then what's the point of transferring wounds at all? By the time something is grave enough to need it, the person you're trying to help will be dead.

* Why the hell did they [[http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/universal/paul/ reveal]] that SigourneyWeaver is in the film?

** Evolution may favor traits that are beneficial or neutral, but that doesn't mean that every trait a species has is necessarily beneficial or neutral, even if they have evolved over the process of billions of years. Evolution isn't a ladder that organisms climb up to become objectively "superior". Sometimes it helps and sometimes it screws us over. Case in point: [[GroinAttack Wouldn't that agent(and men all around the world) have been better off if his testicles were located inside his body?]] Why aren't they? Because sperm cells need to be kept cool or else they die.[[DidNotDoTheResearch If evolution were as perfect and direct a system as you seem to expect it to be]], we would have evolved to the point that such a vulnerability was wiped out of our genetic code.

** His home world. He was just making a BackToTheFuture reference, which [[FridgeBrillance he could of come up with given his influence on pop culture.]] Plus given Paul's friendly personality, it's unlikely he'd sell her teeth to some aliens or something worse.

* On a similar note, Paul downright states that his existence ''disproves'' the idea of the "Traditional, Abrahamic God". This is just pure DidNotDoTheResearch. Even if you accept the tenuous "I'm not in God's image!" line, the Abrahamic God is the God of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Islam is actually fairly open to the possibility of other life in the universe; the Fatihah says "All praises be to God, Lord of all the worlds" (worlds, plural) and stuff like that. It's quite big on the wonders of the universe. Paul's existence doesn't disprove anything except Ruth's brand of strawman religion.

*** ''Any'' sci-fi film that brings up science vs. religion invents evidence and presents it against a (generally) ridiculous strawman, because almost any inverted FlatEarthAtheist is a strawman when put up against ''the premise of the story''. That's not to say that the strawman will always represent what people should think in RealLife, because in some works (such as various episodes of ''StarTrek''), they as much as go out of their way to say that the argument works specifically because of the out-of-the-ordinary stuff that makes it a sci-fi (or less commonly, fantasy) work. Granted, Ruth does present some of the less scientific things that even many orthodox and fundamentalist Christians don't believe, as well as the "earth is 4000 years old" thing which wasn't even officially stated in any Abrahamic literature (and is usually estimated to be around 6000, anyway), but she was the type of character who even in real life has been locked away from any sort of opposing argument and has trouble with her carefully-constructed world crashing down around her (Clive has the same problem, only his carefully-constructed worldview is that aliens are definitely, purely fictional, but it's so much cooler to act like they probably aren't). I found it interesting that Ruth's father actually has an easier time accepting Paul, because he places Paul within an available category in his worldview (calling him a demon) [[spoiler: and adjusts it as appropriate ("hand of God")]].

* If Paul's ExpositionBeam can shove the entire contents of his head into a recipient, then why did the MIBs need him around for 60 years to advise them?

*** Though one could take a sort of semantic approach and argue that since the species evolved the ''ability'' to genetically engineer themselves, then said genetic engineering is itself a part of their overall evolutionary history. Whether or not you'd consider that true evolution would depend largely on your definition of the term.