Why focusing on humans when you have FREAKING ALIENS in your film!!!!
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Spielburger — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 09:07 AM)
I mean why not have all the media scenes showing the whole world happy. That the divine eyeless aliens can even transform the worlds butthead fascist pigs to peaceful human beings and not let their ego ruin the world. Wasn't that the purpose why they came? Not so that two brilliant academics can feel loopy after a few drinks.
Well, they did cover this to some extent: that was the purpose of the "unification" celebration where Banks meets Shang. Shang's line "You achieved something not even my superior could: you changed my mind." pretty-much
does
illustrate that transformation, and his other lines to Banks - "I cannot claim to understand how your mind works, but I believe it was important for you to see that [his phone number]" (or WTTE) - do rather imply that Shang has at least some understanding of the nature and importance of the alien "gift", and he welcomes it.
As for Louise apparently needing a couple of drinks "to get excited" as you put it; I think the point about that scene is that she's nervous and apprehensive because she already knows what Ian is going to ask and the significance of it. I believe that her agreement there to "make a baby" is meant to be the
specific
"wrong decision" that Ian cited/will cite as his reason for leaving her. All of her "future memories" of Hannah therefore originate from that moment, so yes: she needs a couple of drinks to get through it
"So I've got bullets, but no gun. That's quite Zen." -
!!!deleted!!! (64929284) — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 05:52 PM)
Well I agree the end did not fit.
Funny. The movie is based on "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. The mother-daughter relationship is the core and the point of the story. Since it is a short story the movie added some stuff (like the militaristic part), and the one part where the movie follows the source, you say it doesn't fit.
Wow.
If anything, it's the other way around.
Go Colorado Buffaloes! The Pac-12 Football Cinderella story! -
marcbrousseau — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 08:50 AM)
That your character is your story is like screenwriting 101. Also, I feel like it focused on the Aliens. The ending was a nod to CONTACT. Which was written by Carl Sagan.
What you say about TRANSFORMERS is pretty much the reason the first film was actually ok. Those movies are almost universally considered terrible because they lack and engaging characters of concern for their characters. -
!!!deleted!!! (64929284) — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 05:55 PM)
The ending wasn't a nod to Contact. The ending is what is in "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang, the source material for the movie. Jesus!
On the other hand it is true that Contact was published 3 years before Ted Chiang wrote Story of Your Life, but I don't think he copied it. Ted Chiang is a very original writer. It's just a similar theme. Even for original writers there aren't many themes in science fiction. This is about first encounter and communication with aliens, a classic sci-fi theme. Close Encounters of the Third Kind, another member of the sub-genre, preceded both Contact and Story of Your Life.
Go Colorado Buffaloes! The Pac-12 Football Cinderella story! -
jriley555 — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 01:09 PM)
i don't take it as a trollish post at all.
for many of us, an alien species would be far more interesting to deal with than humanity.
using aliens as a device to work out 'our' problems is nothing new, nothing to get very excited about. -
sagan900 — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 02:31 PM)
My point is that how can it be more interesting to show a human drama of love, loss of a child etc etc very run of the mill emotional stuff, when you have the first contact with an alien species right in front of you, and they are peaceful and you even managed to communicate with them, there are like a million things more interesting to do there than to do another story about "the power of love"
Which is my other problem with this movie, you could exchange the aliens with a medium, a visitor from the future, a ghost, a paranormal whatever, and get kinda the same movie. -
doorclosed321 — 9 years ago(November 20, 2016 03:00 PM)
This film had nothing to do with love. In the book there's lots more love, but even the book wasn't about love. What love was in the book was removed from the movie. The only reason the daughter thing happens is to explain that she can't change what will happen. She cannot avoid that tin of paint that will fall on her in five minutes. It will fall on her and it will surprise her when it does, even though she knows about it. She doesn't see what might happen or can happen, she sees what has already happened and will continue to happen infinately.
If you think this movie was a love a story, then you sure as hell watched a different movie to me -
crc-4 — 9 years ago(November 21, 2016 08:30 PM)
Because too many films focus on the aliens and the action and not the human aspect. It was a visionary change of pace. Another near-masterpiece from Villeneuve.
the film was supposed to be about exploring what humanities reaction would be in a first contact scenario(and the trailers advertised it that way too it seems). Not staring at circles and magically becoming omniscient.
The aliens are the elephant in the room movies and books like this don't deal with directly for some reason.