Very high budget blockbuster. It covers a long period with 3 completely separate parts (or 4 as the third part of the movie has 2 parallel stories). Each deals with a different crisis in the project. Not a fan of the constant "X days/hours till (the next incident)". They also seem very inspired by other movies.
It's mostly character driven, we follow a few characters, even when their part is not that interesting, only chinese one. It's funny because it tries to pretend the project is international (as it should as it involves the whole planet) and there are a few non chinese characters, but only the chinese ones get a huge screen announcing their name.
Of course, the whole thing is scientifically totally absurd, at every single level, so no point spending time on that (well, maybe a bit for fun). But let's just assume it's possible to install engine to propulse a planet, that there is enough energy source to make them run for centuries, that they use a technology that does not just burn the atmosphere, etc.
First part is a terrorist attack on the space elevator. It's a complete debauchery of effects, fights, explosions, jet fighters fighting drones. There's actually too much action to follow. It looks a lot like the Independance day attack scene.
One things that makes little sense. There were several solutions proposed to save mankind, and what we're seeing is the project that won, trying to move the Earth outside of the solar system. Terrorists seem to be promoters of one of the dropped solutions, where people would digitize their brain and mankind would survive as digital copies. However, where would they run ? If the Earth is destroyed, there would be no computer left running for it.
Also as we see later with Yaya, the most advanced quantum computer at the time of the beginning of the movie can only run one person for two minutes. There are better computers later, and maybe if all the focus of the project was put on creating more servers to host mankind it would have improved even more, but enough to run billions of people forever ?
And whatever their promoters think, the end result is not you, it's a copy. You would still die.
Second part is lunar engine crisis, where the engine used to move the moon away shut down.There's not much of the incident itself except it just happens. On the side we follow Tu Hengyu, obsessed with the digital copy of his dead daughter. It's unclear whether him uploading his daughter to the 550W computer is linked with the moon incident. Though they are simultaneous, the mid credits scene implies it was done by the computer anyway.. Also this computer seems to be offline.
This is the low part of the movie. After the in your face first part, it is really calm and less stressful. It is also very ambiguous morally. It's presented like he is a brave guy, who's missing his dead daughter (dead by his own inattention on the road by the way). It's sad and emotional, blabla. And the third part makes him a hero.
However, what what he's doing is corrupting what seems to be the most powerful computer on Earth, heavily involved in the project to save the Earth. The consequences are / could be (it's not clear what actually happens) beyond measure, possibly destroying the whole plan to ensure the survival of mankind. All for a selfish and petty (in these times, a LOOOOT of people are losing family members, and they just deal with it) reason. He literally is the worst selfish piece of shit criminal asshole to ever exist in the history of mankind.
Third part is basically Armageddon but super sized as we're dealing with:
- the moon instead of an asteroid
- every single nuclear warhead instead of one
- some hundreds astronauts instead of just one Bruce Willis.
Back to more high budget stuff. Not at the level of the first part, but a lot happens on the moon. However the whole plot is even more unsustainable than the rest. The main focus here is how stupid every thing is.
They send nuclear heads to the moon, but they have a hard time deciphering the keys.
=> It's not like they stole them and have to bruteforce hack them. They have the keys, what would take 1000 hours, specially given the computers they have.
Some of the nuclear heads can't be automatically activated in time and they need to synchronize all the explosions. So they will do it manually on hundreds of them.
=> How could you synchronize hundreds of people manually pushing a button ? If you're 2 milliseconds late, you'll be vaporized by the nearby bomb before you can push the button. So when we see the astronauts pushing their trigger one after the other, with the bombs starting to explode in the background...
Also, they realize they need that 2h before the limit.
=> Looks like they manage to mount a mission, pick the people, train and prepare them, and send hundreds of shuttles to the moon in under an hour (even if the moon is getting closer, that's quite fast).
The deadline is when the Moon reaches the Roche limit. The Roche limit of the Earth-Moon system is 9500km from the center of Earth, which is 3100 km outside Earth or less than twice the Moon radius.
=> The Moon should have looked so much closer when nearing the limit.
Funny (kinda) part when China is announcing that despite what is planned, they will allow all of their population (instead of half) to join underground cities. This is definitely China's style :)
In parallel they are trying to reboot the internet to handle simultaneous control of Earth engine.
=> So apparently manually starting was synchronous enough for atomic bombs , but not for starting engines.
=> Like if rebooting 3 data centers would make the whole internet work... Aren't there destroyed cables and relays all over the world that would need electricity ?
=> The launch still needs to be done at a push of a button
=> It definitely happens after the given deadline
In this part we are shown how Tu Hengyu uploading his daughter was actually a good thing. Meh.
Now about the engines, seeing how they're situated, aren't a lot of them on the oceans ? Not sure how it would work.
Also they cover about half of the Earth, are there any living space left on the side they're one ?
Aren't they quite lucky that they're facing the right way at the moment they need to start them ?
If Earth needs several thousands engines, 3 would be useless for the Moon (only 100x lighter).
Not clear either how these instantly stop the Earth (or Moon) rotation. Because propulsion would be useless otherwise.
The mid credits scene indicates that the 550W computer, renaming itself MOSS, is actually the source of all incidents. It does not seem consistent since:
1) 550W didn't exist yet at the time of the first incident. And even if it did, it would definitely not be the latest version at the time of the following ones..
2) The 550W in the interview room seems to be offline. So would MOSS be another 550W ? And how would it have synchronized the upload of Yaya with the engine failure ? It could be that MOSS predicted EVERYTHING and seems it was part of its plan to have Tu Hengyu digital copy, and it needed Yaya's copy for that. But that is several magnitude orders more powerful than what it's supposed to be able to do. However it also says it will be responsible for a crisis years later, so yeah, maybe it's able to entirely predict the future.
There's a fastly passed over sequence indicating that there are previsions of the incident dates (but I didn't get where they came from). Probably from the instigator, which also seems weird.
This is a fun show they got the comedy part and thriller is average it keeps us guessing but there is a lot of nonsensical actions by the characters that let the killer get away everytime and the police act like idiots/hare running in a wheel when villagers are getting killed every other night.
The glaring plot holes , very very timid nature of Ye-bun and he squeaky voice "Seon-woooo~ shi" make it more irritating to the point that I didn't even feel anything when he sacrificed himself for her despite her doubting him at the fag end
The nonsensical plot hole include :
1. Why doesn Seon-woo not report to cops or atleast warn Ye-bun/Min-ki on shaman
2. Shaman was always creepy but was getting substantially creepy noticeable as he killed more people but nobody including Ye-bun noticed till the demise.
3. If they are going to find Ok-Hee by using directions they should have tried first before trying to release but on hindsight that was their only change to comply and didnt expect him to trap them with the goons.
This would have been even mor enjoyable show if was cut short to 12 episodes and they stress too much on Seon-woo & Ye-bun backforth if they are not going to go all the way.
I think revenge plots are my favourite in kdramas xD But also so many unexplained things and missed opportunities for actors to shine more.
We never got a reveal for Jun Kyoung that Ari is dead and also that Ari might be alive. I wanted this so bad only for the purpose to see actors talent bc i was mesmerized about his ability to convey emotions so quickly and clearly as he did during the kiss scene. He was focused on reading Aris emotions then in a second he was shocked but then the feeling and determination changed his face i was so excited to see more for him but we didnt get that.
I would also love to see aftermath for every celebrity at the end. After some time not like during which we got. Did Angela became a full on prostitute? And what with the others? Some quickly decreasing followers numbers and maybe their occupations afterwards would be amazing.
What also bugs me the most is we never saw why/how Aris family bancrupted, we didnt get answers for her "uncle" and mothers behaviour. They just were like that without us knowing the full story. Also why Ari hated on Jun Kyoung that much at the beginning, even if its for his money and being treated like royalty we dont know WHY she hates that kind of behaviour. I was constantly thinking that it had to be bc how ppl treated her after her family's downfall. Why Jun Kyoung hated drugs so much that he was disgusted with Ari just being next to the drugs? So many questions.
I understand Aris decision at the end but I would love for her to maybe use her channel to help others, maybe to talk about honesty, loyality and anti hater stuff. Naive... but would be very hopeful.
I started watching The Time Traveller's Wife last night. I loved the book and read it so many times i dogeared the copy I had.I hated the movie that came out some years back. Eric Bana and that Adams chick just didn't capture the characters for me.
Theo James though... oh gosh, he is Henry. He's absolutely Henry. Rose Leslie is a good actress, and she's doing a good job, I am not sure I like her as Claire. I'm not sure why, but she's just not fitting the picture I made in my head about this woman with guts and long love. I can't fault her acting though, she's doing a great job. But it's Theo doing it for me.
I honestly am yet to not like him in anything. I can't tell if I think he's pretty, or if he's a good actor or a bad actor. I just like watching him... he makes me believe every character I've seen him play. And say what, for me, he has definitely captured Henry's humor, his fear, his kindness, his ruthlessness, his wily cunningness, all of it... I particularly loved the scene with him and Rose Leslie in The Stacks where Henry introduces Claire to his mother.
Gosh... he totally sold me.
I read a half and half kind of review from a big outlet a couple of weeks ago, and was very surprised someone attempted this story again, and was totally prepared for another wan attempt, but no... I am really liking this.
This is definitely doing some justice to Niffenegger's beautiful love story.
