Always find it bizarre when people enter a thread for shows / movies that have been out and are being actively discussed lol.
Film Arrival
- Thread starter mav_9me
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) talk about the proposed new stadium, season ticket prices, Sir Jim Ratcliffe and all things INEOS after the first year of their co-ownership.
They also discuss back-to-back victories vs. Real Sociedad and Leicester City - was this the best week for Amorim so far?
Thought the usual etiquette was to use them till it's done the cinema run tbh.
What do you think was being discussed in this thread?
I expect some discussion surrounding the movie, if you liked it, performance of actors, comparing it to similar movies etc , not what I imagine to be the entire plot twist (have no idea if it is, but seems important) written out without spoilers.
Finished the short story, which is excellent and goes into much greater detail about the process of decoding the language and its philosophical implications, with some interesting thoughts on the free-will/determinism stuff. Fair bit different to the film, so won't spoil anything further for those who want to read.
Oh this has it's own thread? Just put my thoughts in the Movie Review thread... but yeah, it's pretty rubbish overall. A fairly stupid movie with a terrible third act that's trying to disguise itself as something far more thought-provoking then it actually is.
So after seeing reviews/posts online, I see people are absolutely in love with this movie (one person on a podcast hailed it as one of the best Sci-Fi movies EVER... which, frankly, is absurd) and I honestly just don't get it. Like, I can see if people liked it sure... but best sci-fi movie ever? Can someone who loved this movie please explain why they loved it so much? and why it's such a smart film?
All I got was a pretty looking film with an interesting premise that decends into stupidty and gives you an incredibly selfish main character.
All I got was a pretty looking film with an interesting premise that decends into stupidty and gives you an incredibly selfish main character.
That pretty much sums up the film "Gravity" for me.
Agree, the fact that the implications about free will were more or less absent from the film was a bit weird.
Why do you think it decended into stupidity?
I thought the film was a decent watch, many if not most scientists believe that time is non linear. I'm not saying they nailed it but it's well worth a watch.
I suppose they took so many liberties with the concept in the third act that they didn't necessarily want people to focus on it as much
Their main problem was that they needed to jam an overall purpose into it beyond the relationship with the daughter, as the short story itself is very uncinematic, at least for a film of this budget and scale.
Well, the fact that the entire film hinges on one phone call to a Chinease war-hungry general for a start. A film about language, and interacting, and discovery, basically all boils down to a pretty tacked on future exchange between Amy Adams and the General (which of course she remembers just in time to make the call, and yet is a call she didn't have any recollection of at the time the General told her about it - which makes zero sense, and is pretty stupid).
Then of course you have this whole idea of non-linear time... which is really under explained. Is time non-linear as such that all moments co-exist, thus you don't have to worry about causality, because all moments exist with each other? But then, if thats the case, then why is the film putting so much emphasis on Adams' "choice" to still have a baby - despite knowing how that will end up (a completely selfish dick move from her to not even tell her husband what the concequences will be)... and so if time is such that you can see the future, human-nature is such that it's highly implausible you'd just follow along the set path... you'd try and break it to see if you can change things.
Didn't help that I also find it a bit daft that she managed to think in this language after what... a month or so? Especially as it was so complicated... and yes, I know the idea is that its the years of study that follow this that means she knows it... but then the film doesn't really explain how she only knows it once the Aliens come down, as in theory she should have been familiar with it her entire life.
Also, it would have really helped matters if the Aliens had just written in English "We come in peace, Learn our lanaguage" in their smoke as the very first thing they did.
You've made my head hurt. My main beef with the movie was the fact that the Chinese and Russians were war hungry yet the Yanks...well...they're don't do stuff like that.
I thought that plot was convoluted nonsense but I still enjoyed the movie, but of course I agree that it shouldn't be anywhere near the discussion for the best sci-fi movies.
About the bolded, wasn't the reason that (supposedly) she only managed to understand how to perceive time in a non-linear way once she understood the language. So in effect she had to 'unlock' her future knowledge, so to speak, as she slowly started to learn the lingo.
I'm still not really understanding why the aliens came at all...
This is where the short story does a far better job of explaining the idea. Essentially yes, all moments already exist, and you know the choices you'll make, but the idea goes that once you start thinking in this way, your desire to alter things diminishes and you come to feel that you have a responsibility to act things out the way they're supposed to be, as if saying lines in a play. This is why you also don't pre-empt future events by telling someone about them or acting on future knowledge, though the film does obviously violate this principle on several occasions.
The trance/vision thing has substance, and isn't a mere plot device. It's how ancient Man felt he could communicate with superior* beings; this practice has a long history, and with good reason.
*Technically and spiritually superior, that is.
*Technically and spiritually superior, that is.
I think AN is right, unless they explain why you wouldn't want to change future events it all gets a bit silly. They should've touched on free will vs determinism. Was an important component of the whole premise of the film. I may check out the short story...
What is the good reason?
Because, since ancient times, people have felt that trance states (either naturally occuring or contrived) are effective in learning useful lessons from entities which they feel are real and not fantastic.
Can someone explain what either side gained at the end of it all? What was the point of all of it?
What a load of fecking baloney this was. Ridiculously basic plot and science dressed up with pretentious camera work, lighting and a silly plot twist you could see coming from a mile away.
You could see that plot twist coming a mile away ? That's quite impressive.
Donaldo is a heptapod.
How is self-delusion a good reason?
Throw the sentence 'time as non linear' into the structure of a movie without any of its own and things fall into place. I found myself hoping there was much more than that silliness.
Either way, thought it was a pretty simple movie dressed up to be more than it actually was.
Is it possible that you failed to grasp the nuanced meaning of the plot ?
Lovely message. Don't hide it behind pretentious tripe.
This film is the definition of emperor's new clothes.It's not necessarily self-delusion, mate - a number of modern-day scientists who organised controlled experiments with DMT were so unsettled with their findings that they questioned the nature of reality itself.
Yeah, drugs can mess up your brain.
The truth is, I'm sceptical too but am desperately trying to keep an open mind about the subject.
DMT will help you with that.
Interesting read.... (probably a bit spoilerish if you haven't seen the film)
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...l&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Beautiful film. And for those of you who can't help themselves in their endless search for plotholes, there were quite a few to be found. Everyone's a winner.
What I didn't understand is the way their spaceships disappeared at the end in some David Copperfield way of transportation. Was this explained somewhere in the film?
What I didn't understand is the way their spaceships disappeared at the end in some David Copperfield way of transportation. Was this explained somewhere in the film?
No, it's just some kind of magic that's never explained.
It's the best kind of magic tbh.