“Using a battery like this will quite likely increase the range of a battery-driven vehicle by 100%,” said James Friend, a mechanical and aerospace engineering professor at UC San Diego. All of those qualities are valuable in a world where batteries are in everything from phones to cars. It can extend battery life and allow the battery to charge faster. to generate acoustic streaming and this acoustic streaming will help to increase the lithium-ion diffusion rate of a lithium-type of battery technology,” Huang said.Īdding the chip to a lithium battery can boost the amount of energy it holds. Ultimately, Soundwave gets so caught up in Ben’s evasion of Frank that it sacrifices the promise of its interesting sci-fi ideas and its throwback sensibility, instead devolving into a generic thriller.VIDEO: Sound Waves Could Make Batteries Better, San Diego Scientists Say This isn’t helped by the barely there reaction from Ben that does nothing to make the film's final moments resonate. However, outside of a fleeting concern about his disturbing behavior, she seems to come to the conclusion that his eavesdropping is just a convenient way to forego the time people would usually devote to getting to know one another.īy the time the movie reaches what’s supposed to be an ironic ending, it just seems silly. He also admits that he’s been using it to listen to her for an extended period of time. He tells Katie about his device almost immediately after awkwardly confronting her. Ben teams up with his crush, Katie (Katie Owsley), who works at a local convenience store and who Ben could barely speak to until Frank’s men started coming after him. While the character likes to use words to threaten and cajole, he’s more cartoonish than convincing.Īs Soundwave continues, the plot becomes increasingly nonsensical. Meanwhile, as Frank, Tassone comes across as a standard threatening movie villain. And while he's supposed to give as good as he gets in conversations with the nefarious Frank and other adults, quips that might come across as impish or clever in another actor’s hands, fall flat. Ben is supposed to be stoic but incredibly intelligent, yet he seems oblivious to the implications of his invention, especially the potential privacy violations. A great deal of the movie rests on the actor's shoulders, but his general lack of charisma make him a less than engaging lead. Part of the reason for this is Doohan’s performance. Instead, Soundwave spends a great deal of time showing Ben listening into strangers’ conversations, which just makes him seem creepy. But the movie never makes it feel that way. Ben created his device to find out what happened to his father who disappeared when he was a child (his mother is never mentioned), so his reasons for constantly tinkering with and trying to perfect it are in service of a highly personal goal. The film is so interested in the thriller aspects of its story that it never fleshes out the plot points that could give it emotional weight. The movie becomes less interesting as the plot revs into high gear. RELATED: Surreal Thriller Dreamland Is an Incoherent Mess In fact, if it weren’t for Ben texting on his smart phone, you could almost be lulled into believing the movie takes place in the past. Between the cramped shop, the boy on the bike and the movie’s lighting and soundtrack, these early scenes have a charming '80s vibe. While it seems he’s no longer in school, he still looks like a young teenager and traverses the city by bike. His kindly boss, Antonio (Mike Beaver), is also his guardian, or at least the person putting a roof over his head. Ben works at an electronics repair shop where he specializes in fixing old-timey radio equipment. While this is meant to foreshadow the action to come, things get a lot more engaging after the movie flashes back to the week prior. The first sequence shows Ben on the run from men who apparently want to steal his soundwave device and are willing to hurt him to do it.
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