My takeaway from this is...oh it's actually a sci-fi movie.
I understand the message and the point of the story, that's not why I think this was a lackluster movie. I think movies about presenting toxic masculinity, misogyny, and so on in a digestible way can be pretty helpful for those conversations.
My issue is with the pacing of the story. Within 20 minutes we are already shown the cracks of the world. There was no bridge to the issue, no stimulus, nothing. By 20 minutes pur main character was already in conflict. For the rest of the movie I was very confused at Alice's behavior. I felt that a person who was confused and paranoid about her reality would be more concerned with trying to find normalcy, but instead she made herself a big target for Frank. It was kinda confusing why that was the behavior the story writer decided to have. The twist was okay, it wasn't hard to understand what the whole movie was a metaphor for or that this was a fake world. Something that bothered me is...what does Jack do in the real world? I would've loved to know... because there's no way a doctor is making less money than him right now. Actually...why are they living rough? She's a doctor... a surgeon. She makes money and yet... they're on hard times? No explanation there. All we see is why Jack falls into this alpha male trap from Frank. While I understand the sci-fi dystopian part of the film is the "twist", this movie kinda felt flat until the end. There some rules that needed to shown like why only men? Why do men die in the game they die in real life? Who is and isn't a NPC? The kids are NPCs...are the red suits also? What is Frank irl? And especially...you're telling me that Shelly knew all along but just played along due to her power over the other wives? And...wait a minute, Jack and Alice already had a preexisting relationship before Victory but it insinuates that a man can kidnap any woman they want and induct them.
what I mean to say is, a thought provoking film leaves you questioning...a confusing and poorly written one can also. It seems this was trying to go for the first one but ended up being the second one. I liked Florence Pugh's performance, the cinematography, the world building that we did get, and the aesthetic but could not understand the "why" that progressed the story.
Review by Mani DVIP 2BlockedParentSpoilers2022-11-09T12:19:34Z
My takeaway from this is...oh it's actually a sci-fi movie.
I understand the message and the point of the story, that's not why I think this was a lackluster movie. I think movies about presenting toxic masculinity, misogyny, and so on in a digestible way can be pretty helpful for those conversations.
My issue is with the pacing of the story. Within 20 minutes we are already shown the cracks of the world. There was no bridge to the issue, no stimulus, nothing. By 20 minutes pur main character was already in conflict. For the rest of the movie I was very confused at Alice's behavior. I felt that a person who was confused and paranoid about her reality would be more concerned with trying to find normalcy, but instead she made herself a big target for Frank. It was kinda confusing why that was the behavior the story writer decided to have. The twist was okay, it wasn't hard to understand what the whole movie was a metaphor for or that this was a fake world. Something that bothered me is...what does Jack do in the real world? I would've loved to know... because there's no way a doctor is making less money than him right now. Actually...why are they living rough? She's a doctor... a surgeon. She makes money and yet... they're on hard times? No explanation there. All we see is why Jack falls into this alpha male trap from Frank. While I understand the sci-fi dystopian part of the film is the "twist", this movie kinda felt flat until the end. There some rules that needed to shown like why only men? Why do men die in the game they die in real life? Who is and isn't a NPC? The kids are NPCs...are the red suits also? What is Frank irl? And especially...you're telling me that Shelly knew all along but just played along due to her power over the other wives? And...wait a minute, Jack and Alice already had a preexisting relationship before Victory but it insinuates that a man can kidnap any woman they want and induct them.
what I mean to say is, a thought provoking film leaves you questioning...a confusing and poorly written one can also. It seems this was trying to go for the first one but ended up being the second one. I liked Florence Pugh's performance, the cinematography, the world building that we did get, and the aesthetic but could not understand the "why" that progressed the story.