10th June 2012, 8:18 PM
So I just got back from this movie... Hard to say where to begin here. There was a lot I liked, but there were things I didn't like too.
First of all, this movie explains why the people are there with an incredibly boneheaded excuse. This is stated in the first 5 minutes of the movie, so I'll just out and say it because this REALLY bugged me.
On the one hand, they're going to this star system because they found it matched a bunch of cave paintings and murals from all sorts of civilizations. They think they're going to find their creators. So, I'm going to just ignore the fact that a superficial resemblance to a star system is itself a huge leap to think that's what those civilizations are drawing, and ignore that there's probably thousands of star systems that match that configuration in our galaxy alone. I'll just focus on the MASSIVE jump to the idea that the creators of humanity MUST be in that star system. The matched up star system thing? That's literally ALL they are going on to reach this conclusion. The rest of the crew at this point is just as confused as I am right now and ask what the hell they base that on, and the "scientists" literally say "faith".
Was that intended to be profound? At that point, I can't suspend disbelief. That's just plain stupid. They all gave up everything they ever knew because a couple of nut jobs convinced someone to give them billions of dollars for a mission to what amounts to a "cloud that kinda looks like a city". (I should note at this point that the movie also very quickly establishes that, yes, time dilation exists in this universe so everything they ever knew on Earth has been gone for thousands of years.)
From here, yes, they turn out to be right, but WOW that is a VERY bad way to start a movie. I'm so sick of directors tossing out lines about "having faith" like candy in these things. They never make sense and just end up making characters look stupid rather than profound. The movie DID draw me into it later, but it was making up for lost ground right from the start.
So the movie DOES get a lot better, and even in that introduction the characters are otherwise very likable and interesting.
I'll tell you right now though that you should go into this movie expecting more questions to be raised than answered. In fact the ratio is probably 10:1. This is clearly intended to be the first part of a series of movies.
I'll also add that you should expect some classic horror movie dumb choices to be made. I really wish directors would find out different ways to write these things so they don't have to rely on people making dumb choices at the worst possible times. That's kinda why I've always preferred Predator to Alien...
That said, they do raise some interesting questions, and the big reveal about "why" is actually incredibly depressing, though again it opens up about 5 more questions beyond that which leads to the rather strong push towards a sequel.
So yeah, I'd say it was a fun experience. It got me into the world and interested in the characters. It got me wanting to know more. It had tense moments and some good scares that weren't dependent on "jumps". It certainly wasn't one of the best things ever though, and that introduction was just REALLY insulting. I HATE that sort of thing. I also hated it when something similar was used as the main character's "defense" in the ending of the movie Contact.
First of all, this movie explains why the people are there with an incredibly boneheaded excuse. This is stated in the first 5 minutes of the movie, so I'll just out and say it because this REALLY bugged me.
On the one hand, they're going to this star system because they found it matched a bunch of cave paintings and murals from all sorts of civilizations. They think they're going to find their creators. So, I'm going to just ignore the fact that a superficial resemblance to a star system is itself a huge leap to think that's what those civilizations are drawing, and ignore that there's probably thousands of star systems that match that configuration in our galaxy alone. I'll just focus on the MASSIVE jump to the idea that the creators of humanity MUST be in that star system. The matched up star system thing? That's literally ALL they are going on to reach this conclusion. The rest of the crew at this point is just as confused as I am right now and ask what the hell they base that on, and the "scientists" literally say "faith".
Was that intended to be profound? At that point, I can't suspend disbelief. That's just plain stupid. They all gave up everything they ever knew because a couple of nut jobs convinced someone to give them billions of dollars for a mission to what amounts to a "cloud that kinda looks like a city". (I should note at this point that the movie also very quickly establishes that, yes, time dilation exists in this universe so everything they ever knew on Earth has been gone for thousands of years.)
From here, yes, they turn out to be right, but WOW that is a VERY bad way to start a movie. I'm so sick of directors tossing out lines about "having faith" like candy in these things. They never make sense and just end up making characters look stupid rather than profound. The movie DID draw me into it later, but it was making up for lost ground right from the start.
So the movie DOES get a lot better, and even in that introduction the characters are otherwise very likable and interesting.
I'll tell you right now though that you should go into this movie expecting more questions to be raised than answered. In fact the ratio is probably 10:1. This is clearly intended to be the first part of a series of movies.
I'll also add that you should expect some classic horror movie dumb choices to be made. I really wish directors would find out different ways to write these things so they don't have to rely on people making dumb choices at the worst possible times. That's kinda why I've always preferred Predator to Alien...
That said, they do raise some interesting questions, and the big reveal about "why" is actually incredibly depressing, though again it opens up about 5 more questions beyond that which leads to the rather strong push towards a sequel.
So yeah, I'd say it was a fun experience. It got me into the world and interested in the characters. It got me wanting to know more. It had tense moments and some good scares that weren't dependent on "jumps". It certainly wasn't one of the best things ever though, and that introduction was just REALLY insulting. I HATE that sort of thing. I also hated it when something similar was used as the main character's "defense" in the ending of the movie Contact.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)