I'm usually really bad at predicting where story is going, but this has been dull ride and unbelievalbly predictable one, not good when your plot device relies heavily on supsense and mystery.
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@vishal8492 completely agreed, the only thing that caught me unexpected was the part2 of that podcast, still this was better than the first episode, hopefully there's some stronger ones down the line
Denis Villenueve. A solid lineup. A different take on first contact. I loved Sicario but went in expecting a cerebral epic sci-fi.
That was a mistake.
Good things:
- Some really nice visual scenes
- Interesting aliens Calligraphy aliens!
- Clear theme of communication is omnipresent
- A neat score that might be awesome in a different movieBad things:
- The acting
- The lack of emotional reaction to ALIENS! The students asking to turn on the TV, all of the main characters
- Lack of useful characters Only the aliens and Louise actually did anything the entire movie.
- Supporting characters are very stupid in an attempt to foil the main character slightly
- Very clumsy exposition. Genre-typical news reports, voice-overs, dumb characters asking stupid questions.
- Very slow pacing. This worked in parts of Sicario, but didn't work in this movie because there was no tension. The main characters never seemed remotely threatened.
- Lousie showing up at school thinking everyone will be there after aliens arrive and there's a state of emergency
- Why can't you translate alien language like you can translate Farsi. This is a paraphrase but in the spirit of what Colonel Weber was saying.
- Useless love interest when the costars have no chemistry.
- Ultrasecure military base lets someone steal a ton of explosives and put it in an ALIEN SPACECRAFT without anyone noticing.
- Many unbelievable plot points
- Poor dialogue Let's make a baby - real quote
- Poor handling of the major plot points Looking through time seems to undermine the fact that the aliens need help. Why did one have to die if they could see the future? Why did only one die when they were right next to each other?
- Very heavy handed moral messaging that didn't align with the rest of the movie.
- Why couldn't Ian also see into the future as he studied the language, or any of the others?Overall extremely disappointing. I'm honestly surprised critics or general moviegoers like this. The premise was very good. It's a real shame the execution failed so miserably.
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@jared looking at your list it seems to me that you have missed or misunderstood some things but most importantly non linear time, from your comment
Poor handling of the major plot points Looking through time seems to undermine the fact that the aliens need help. Why did one have to die if they could see the future? Why did only one die when they were right next to each other?
This is what I took from it baring in mind I've only seen it once;
Giving humanity the ability to experience time non linearly is the absolute key to humans being able to help the aliens and doesn't undermine anything. It's that ability that shows us 'now' what we need to do to help them in 3000 years so that we can actually do it in the first place. They help us to help them by showing us what we do to help them. Its a paradox just like when Louise experiences talking to the Chinese General and then uses that information to get him to stand down. The aliens teach Louise the ability, or at least gives her everything she needs to learn (the information dump on the wall) which she gives in detail to the world through her book years later.
Why did Abbot (or Costello?) have to die? Because he did die. It happened. You seem to be confusing experiencing time non linearly with something analogous to time travel in that you can change the future. You can't and that conceit is pervasive through the film. He died because he did, just like Hannah. Knowing it can't change it. Why did only one die? Bad luck. How does someone survive anything from a car accident to an earthquake when the person next to them doesn't.
In terms of 'seeing the future' it doesn't make you omnipotent and all knowing. Non linear time puts in to question the notion of 'now' and our path is strewn with paradox particularly when 'now' is a moment that you are experiencing another point in time. You can't change the future but a paradox can be the cause what does happen for example the Chinese General
The alien who survived the blast was only aware of the event to come moments before it happened and knocked on the wall in an attempt to alert what was about to happen and then did a dump of knowledge before knocking them down the shaft and containing the blast. That alien didn't necessarily see the explosion as an event, he could have experienced a moment far ahead of that and it was the fact that the other alien died in the explosion is where he got the knowledge of the event. That is assuming the one that knocked is the one that survived, it could easily have been the one that died that knocked who potentially has always known that he died then. Just like Louise with Hannah. Paradox.
In terms of other things.
The 'useless love interest' was key to the understanding of everything for both Louise and the audience. They have 'no chemistry' because they aren't a love interest in the story and at no point linearly are they portrayed as one. It's not until well after the events of the aliens leaving does anything spark between them. Portraying them that way also keeps the reveal that he is the husband/father. For me the "Lets make a baby" line rings completely true, but I have children.
Why Ian couldn't view time like that? Louise is a linguist and as such grasping a more concise, though limited understanding. By the time the aliens leave she is only just wrapping her head around it. We are also shown that in Ians work he is still focusing heavily on equations. The interactions we see with Ian and the aliens, Ian is essentially Louise's prop i.e. "Ian walks"
Ok that's way more on that than I thought I was going to write and proof reading paradox discussions tends to make you go in circles so I won't and hope it makes sense. It wasn't intended as condescending so I hope it didn't come across that way.
Anyway, it's just a difference of opinion/interpretation.
I really enjoyed the film and it's sparked a lot of interesting discussions in my circles both positive and negative. One of my friends that I thought would absolutely love it fell asleep.
Maybe what I have written is exactly how you saw everything too but still didn't like it, I don't know.
Shout by Jordy
VIP8Is it just me or is there some circlejerk going on at Disney where they keep using the same group of actors over and over again for their different brands? Just stop using Taika Waititi already.
The movie itself is pretty whatever.
It reminded me a lot of Onward; you could do a lot worse, but it probably won’t be remembered within the broader Pixar catalogue.
Not a lot of depth or subtext with this one, it’s a pretty straight forward adventure (which is also fine of course).
Some good animation (lots of visual ideas are being pulled from Star Wars), decent voice acting, fine characters, story’s alright.
It’s kinda inoffensive and doesn’t really warrant some of the extreme reactions it’s gotten.
The whole ‘woke’ label is baffling to me, it just seems like a smokescreen certain people use to cover up for their own homophobia, which only emphasizes how the word ‘woke’ carries little to no meaning nowadays.
Any regular person will be fine watching this, regardless of their political leaning.
Ffs, it’s mass entertainment after all.5/10
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@jordyep Agreed on the "woke" part. The same sex relationship didn't feel forced at all, it was well done and just normalized, just like you can see a lot of couples like this in real life. The whole "kiss" discussion leading up to the release was completely overblown, if was barely a peck.
Oh and my 8 years old didn't even register the same sex marriage, for him it was just two adults in love I guess.
Hated it.
As simple as that.
Terrible way to take the series to. I mean it's not as bad as the prequels, because the acting is quite all right, but it hits so many bullshit moments where I was facepalming every other scene it's unbelievable.loading replies
@dannyland Chewie is the last character that ties the ”old” with the upcoming ”new”. And after reading some articles I agree, killing Leia's character in this one would be the easiest, albeit a poor choice.
What was awful? Let's see if I can compile a shortlist.
Useless characters: Phasma (why even bother?), Del Toro's ”hacker”, porgs (yes, I am not a fan of those).
Downplay of Rey's whole motivation in TFA (I mean seriously, even if Kylo's explanation was true, it was delivered in such a horrible way). Also first rule of movies: show, don't tell.
Snoke? The fuck happened there? Played like a child by two angsty teens. No back story, no forward story — introduced a a massive, powerful character, overshadowing Kylo and Hux just to have him killed via a cheap force trick. This just doesn't sit right with me.
Speaking of Hux — I felt like I was watching a kid from '80s sitcom, to be honest. The scene with Snoke scolding Hux while being a hologram? It was right from ”That '70s show”. I know it was to re-establish the ability to use force on long distances just to ease the disbelief later on, but why? Why?
Also Kylo's ”rise” to power was so obvious it was painful.
And while we're at it — I loved Kylo in TFA: pissed off kid with so much power to abuse, and so much conflicting thoughts. In TLJ he turns into this whiny spoiled emo brat Vader-wannabe. Even Snoke acknowledges it when he tells him to take his stupid mask off.
Also apparently you can transfer matter through space and time via force (Kylo's wet glove).
Jedi ghost can now manipulate real weather all of a sudden. And yeah, I know TFA intruduced the ability to stop laser shots midair, but this is just so ex machina thing.
Lack of comminication breeds conflict — just look at the whole Poe-Holdo situation. A simple explanation would release the tension and fix the problem, but no, we need ”conflict” between allies to... Exactly what?
The whole casino thing, such a wasted time. I know what the wanted to achieve, but it just didn't work for me. That whole story arc around the ”hacker” was such a waste of time.
And don't even get me started on the whole Star Wars School of Planning Attacks. ”We are overwhelemed, we got only buckets with skis (why?), let's attack these giant machines head on.”
This is such a weird and interesting movie. This goes from an off beat rom-com to something much darker. I enjoyed the tone change and I didn't go into this wanting to question the laws of physics but just let the story unfold. You will enjoy this much more if you suspend your beliefs in the laws of nature. Anne Hathaway was great and I enjoyed Jason Sudeikis for the most part even though his character started acting like a dick.
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@nmahoney416
>started acting like a dick
Understatement of the year
Hated it.
As simple as that.
Terrible way to take the series to. I mean it's not as bad as the prequels, because the acting is quite all right, but it hits so many bullshit moments where I was facepalming every other scene it's unbelievable.loading replies
@jokes-senpai Well, it was a lost cause after the Leia scene, so you're right.
Hated it.
As simple as that.
Terrible way to take the series to. I mean it's not as bad as the prequels, because the acting is quite all right, but it hits so many bullshit moments where I was facepalming every other scene it's unbelievable.loading replies
@bejot I feel like they missed a great opportunity to end Leia's story before the ridiculous force thing happens. Although, actually killing her in her final film might have been in poor taste. Chewie isn't going to die anytime soon. They just put another giant sized man in the wookie costume and they're good to go. Besides that Leia scene though, what else was awful exactly?