I Liked This Movie–What don't you get? **Spoilers**
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silas_33 — 17 years ago(October 22, 2008 07:20 AM)
Scientology is as manufactured as many other religions. I feel that if you look at the beginnings of Scientology and those of other religions the people of that time may have felt that Christianity, Buddhism and all the rest were just as 'manufactured' as we feel Scientology is now. I feel it sticks out more to us since it is based on information we generally consider to be science fiction.
I am not a Scientologist, I am just saying, why do people consider walking on water, virgin births, resurrections and such to be so much more plausible than aliens. They have faith, you have faith. May be funnier faith but not less plausible.
on a side note i really want one of these 3 wheeled bikes -
DaliParton — 16 years ago(April 13, 2009 10:29 PM)
Scientology is as manufactured as many other religions.
Scientology charges money for access to their "revelations" - that's pretty much the definition of a cult and disqualifies it as a legitimate religion. -
DaliParton — 16 years ago(April 18, 2009 04:04 AM)
Um, tithing, anyone?
Tithes are essentially a tax from when the church was effectively the government. Furthermore, paying a tithe does not entitle you to access to any secret chapters of the bible or any other scripture that is hidden from those who do not pay. -
silas_33 — 14 years ago(October 23, 2011 06:11 AM)
I was saying at the beginnings of many of these religions.
There is a long documented history of issues the major religions have had, such as crusades, siding with mass murderers, inquisitions, burning of books etc etc. one can very easily have these universal beliefs without subscribing to any religious structure.
I really do not see what religion does not practice forms of brainwashing. Even if it is not a harmful intent. Begin to take a child to a place once a week, make them know it is special, with special clothes, set times and that everyone does it. Tell him how great this god is, how the only way to salvation is through him. He sees majority of the people around him do the same, be it to his building or others that this god is in all at the same time. When something negative happens you tell him to pray to that god for help. Chances are this kid will grow into that religion. Then once they are of age to actually look into other belief systems they would most likely have other 'real world' concerns that reduce the chance of them actually having the time to look into whether they are right or wrong.
As for the money thing, I am pretty sure the Vatican is one of the richest countries per square mile in the world. If the wealth aspect is not enough a religion has a country, a country (although some may argue this was given to them as a result for their peity and therefore more proof that the religion is the right one but) So scientology still has some way to go. -
sic_one11 — 17 years ago(September 05, 2008 04:06 PM)
Thank you!
Someone else who actually has a bit of understanding in this movie.
In the defense of the movie, I can sum it up with:
A) The movie was cut by 11 minutes, for whatever reason, in the USA and Canada (which I assume is where the main audience lies anyways). I'm not quite sure what was cut, but it could've been pretty important plot items, and for whatever reason, some Hollywood nutjob thought they should cut the movie to make it 90 minutes.
B) The director has stated that Fox basically took control over the project somewhere near the end after the movie went over-budget. Hence the seemingly rushed scenes, ending, and a couple of plot holes.
C) Vin Diesel might not be the best actor, but besides that, Michelle Yeoh did a fantastic job acting-wise and performing her own stunts.
Perhaps if Fox didn't rush the ending, it would've turned out 100x better. And also, where did the 11 minutes go? If a Director's Cut comes out, it's a must-see. This will probably greatly expand on the ending, and perhaps shut out those critics who hate the whole movie simply because the last 15 minutes aren't the best.
The beginning and the middle were very enjoyable, and I can't stand to see people giving this movie 3 or 4 out of 10 because they can't stand the ending. It deserves a lot more than that. -
juviejay — 17 years ago(September 06, 2008 12:52 AM)
I like science fiction, especially good science fiction. Actually, that's not true. I like only good science fiction. Bad science fiction I don't like. It seemed like this movie had the potential to be good, but lost it somewhere along the way. I don't mind Vin Diesel. I think he makes a good, gruff hero. The Aurora character was beautiful and intriguing. Maybe it was guardian, a middle aged asian woman strutting around kicking everyone's ass. Maybe it was when Diesel destroyed two drone planes, one with a gun, the other with a snowmobile. Maybe it was the fact that Aurora's father's henchmen just gave up so easily. Maybe it was the fact that three people could walk through a narrow corridor of parked cars and somehow not get shot by the twenty or so gun wielding assailants on both sides of them (though I guess I should be used to that in movies by now). Maybe it was that so much wasn't explained (like why Aurora had super abilities, how did she get pregnant, who was the father, why did she have twins and why did she die). Maybe it was that fact that the high priestess sent only a few guys to retrieve the most important person in the entire world, and once they failed, she was gone. Or maybe it was the cheesy way in which Diesel dispatched them. I don't know, I was just disappointed.
I think people who talk in metaphors oughta shampoo my crotch. -
sarastro7 — 17 years ago(September 06, 2008 07:32 PM)
"What about this movie doesn't make sense?"
Almost everything! Much of the technology is completely inconsistent with such a future (the bad guys driving old Range Rovers?!), and the story was awful and without real meaning. It was told without detail and explanation, probably to give the reader some sense that it was all very mysterious. And the end didn't deliver at all. I only give "1" ratings to movies I find incredibly trashy and offensively bad, and this one qualifies! If the whole Neolite messiah thing was averted, then what the hell is the storm that was coming, and what significance does it have for the twins? It is an attempt at some symbolical parable; it's not just a sci-fi story. They mentioned something that seemed to have been prophecied, like Toorop being Aurora's protector. The story would have been a little bit easier to swallow if some of these things (esp. the unborn twins' hefty powers, protecting Aurora from the missile blast) had actually been properly explained in the movie, but they weren't, and most audiences are just left scratching their heads. It was an incredibly disappointing product, and it really deserves a "1" rating. Almost the whole movie played itself out with no apparent plot, and when it was finally revealed it was just complete cr!p.
This movie is so bad and meaningless that I'm not going to waste anymore of my life on it, nor on any other version that may come out later. -
Sugar_Angel1687 — 17 years ago(September 06, 2008 10:44 PM)
I completely agree with you sarastro7. Unless the director's cut is about an hour longer I won't watch it either..this movie could of been so much better (I'm glad I didn't spend any money to watch it; I only do that for good movies)
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empathy44 — 17 years ago(September 12, 2008 10:00 PM)
I liked how the technology is used to tell us stuff about the world Toorop lives in. The Russia we are shown is very much like the wild, wild westexcept instead of building stuff, they are living off the carcass of a collapsed state. Law and order are non-existant. There are things like nuclear subs from the pastbut they are being used by private individuals/criminals not the government. They are scavanging and reusing stuff.
You can contrast that with how the US looksprosperous, but scared (hence the super tight borders) and vulnerable to manipulation.
The week after I saw this I was in Times Square in NY, and there are huge video/LED commercial displays all over the placeit was a lot like Blade Runner lite.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." Anais Nin -
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Sugar_Angel1687 — 17 years ago(September 06, 2008 10:29 PM)
Ok lets stop lying to ourselves here. This movie was not well made for its storyline and we all know it. The movie felt incomplete to me. If you went to go open your box of candy and missed the five lines throughout the movie when they did explain what was going on you would be kind of annoyed. I mean yes they made super human babies for the "inlights?" to become the top religion blah blahokay and then what? We still don't know what Auora and her weird two raced children were fully capable of at the end of the movie because they never explained it. So she is a test tube baby with a computer brain, has a mental force field to protect herself like Alice from Resident Evil, can predict the future, and is a Virgin Mary. I feel like there is so much more to her character that is being kept from us. Plus the ending was crap. Throughout the entire movie we're expecting something to happen and it never does. There needed to be something more at the end than "there's a storm coming". Maybe a little hint of the twins powers? There needs to be more than just context clues and speculation. And besides I hear the storyline was completely butchered by FOX anyway. The director said, "The movie is supposed to teach us that the education of our children will mean the future of our planet. All the action scenes had a goal: They were supposed to be driven by either a metaphysical point of view or experience for the characters instead parts of the movie are like a bad episode of 24." Personally I didn't get the whole knowledge is power and children are our future from this filmit was more of a 'nice action scenes and ohh Vin I loved you from Pitch Black, when the next one?' for me. But hey maybe it's just me. We're all allowed to voice our own opinions.thats what makes reading theses things fun.
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empathy44 — 17 years ago(September 12, 2008 10:27 PM)
I think the difference between me and you is that although I know it could have been better, I just really like what I did see. I LIKE that they implied ideas rather than spelled them out. I do hope for an extended version. I wonder if I will like or dislike what was cut out
Speaking just for myself, I think I am way more comfortable not knowing every detail than I am with movies that either explain WAY too much or have goofy "magic technology" that merely underscores the fact that the writers have no idea how computers work or may work in the future. I think this might be a repeat viewing kind of movie that will age well.
They didn't explain why the woman and her religion were scary, they SHOWED her being scary. They showed her talk about creating a false miracle and planning to pawn it off as a genuine spontaneous occurranceas if she was discussing a way to increase her religion's "market share." Showed her killing someone she might have been married to (I think his lackies called her his wife) and seeming to enjoy it (or at least being satisfied that it was finally done). They showed her advertising her religion as if it were a commoditythe same way that lipstick (or whatever those lips were advertising) was being marketed. The "priest" of her religion that came to test Aurora gave her a pill that made her ill (and possibly pregnant) and then played on the fears of her foster mother to get her to America. Plus, she doesn't hesitate to do business with a mobster and then nuke any innocent people loitering near his convoy in order to destroy him in revenge. I mean, do we need to see her detailed schematics to know what she wants is probably a bad thing for all concernedexcept herself?
I did want more of the after story between Aurora and Toorop and more about what was going on at the end, but, I think it conveyed that, at least for now, he and the babies are safe and that Aurora is probably dead. By having him come out to get them we see he's looking after them and by having them walk towards the beautiful home in the middle of nowhere we see why it could be possible that he had elluded the bad guys by hiding in the hills.
"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." Anais Nin -
roell29 — 17 years ago(September 18, 2008 07:36 PM)
Maybe the mixed race children are meant to symbolize two forces - one child resulting from the injection (representing soulless science/elites) and one spawned by Vin Deisel (a "love child", representing "the people"). If they are able to create a symbiotic relationship, they can conceivably bring about a utopia, and if not, perhaps armageddon. Only the child that appears to be of mixed race calls Deisel "Dad".
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kbraeden — 17 years ago(September 21, 2008 10:04 PM)
I enjoyed the movie, I actually liked how they some parts open, and didn't spoon feed you. Though it was a bit choppy in the beginning and suffered some pacing problems. But one thing just bugs me. What was up with the line "Let's go girls, there's a storm coming"?
