Just finished watching the movie. I had to jot these down very quickly before I forget, so this by no means is after-careful-thinking kinda of analytical/critical and definitely doesn't flow in the right way. Oh btw, it might contain spoiler. (I'm not sure yet.)
- It has a clear message, and it is a good one. But it's the one that what everyone says now - think about it like the anime/SciFi version of The Inconvenient Truth. But again, it gets cliched. So the movie has good intentions but is badly executed. This kind of apocalyptic movies have always escaped me - they lost their standpoint - does it want to be an entertaining blockbuster or an educational classic? It just got stuck in the middle.
- KR is so stereotyped - he's now getting all the Hollywood 木頭人, yet saviour type, characters. (Neo being the obvious example.) Maybe that takes a lot of skills to become so emotionless. He's way better in Constantine. At least that character has facets and depth and is way much cooler.
- What did the scientists do in those 78 minutes? They seemed to me that they have done nothing but was being transported from one place to another, non-stop. And, yeah, if the matter is so urgent, why is Helen given the mercy to go to the bathroom (to talk to her son)? (I mean you can sure hold for another 78 minutes and then there's no need to hold anymore.)
- I hate to see evacuation scenes - because it's too real.
- The mentioning of the chaos in stock markets, haha, I just couldn't help smirking.
- Klaatu is powerful, but he doesn't know how things work on Earth (Central Station incident), and actually kinda stupid + violent (crashing the police between two cars and then healing him). Couldn't he just sedate or freeze those people who got in the way?!
- I really hate Jacob though I sympathize with him. If kids from an educated (??) family could be so cynical and cannot be reasoned with, then why shouldn't the street kids be?
- At the end, the tunnel bit doesn't make sense. The metallic bug storm is getting so big and covering such a large area, and the tunnel is made out of no more special material than sand? Then how could it withhold something so erosive that could eat up trucks, military base, machine guns and the Yankee Stadium?! (OK, I guessed that was the YS so I'm not certain if it really is.) Oh, don't tell me just because Reeves, Connelly and Smith are in there.
- The part with the veteran alien Asian-looking surveillant is totally ridiculous. Hollywood, please, there are bilinguals who can speak both Chinese and English properly - please do not find someone who has Asian heritage but speaks English SO MUCH BETTER than he does Chinese to act as Chinese. Come over to HK or China or even in the US, I'm sure you can find someone who can speak both well, as if he/she were a native speaker in BOTH languages. And please, if they had to start in Chinese, please, please, please don't switch to English in the middle of the act, just because the dialogue became increasingly difficult to speak in Chinese (or that KR's tongue has got tired from speaking Mandarin). It makes the Chinese-speaking part unnecessary and retarded.
- And that I had repeatedly use please in the above point, which reminds me, I think this is a good movie to teach kids to be polite. Please has appeared so many times that I've learnt it off by heart now. (Thanks Mum! New vocab!)
- Connelly is still as beautiful as ever and she's always got the goody-goody character. But, it's so flat! It doesn't do her career any good (ok, except for being in a blockbuster).
- The CG is actually quite tacky. The last scene at the military cemetery where KR turned over to see the fleeting corrosive cloud, it's so obvious that he has stood in front of a blue backdrop and the stuff behind were keyed in. sigh.
- And I must say that Hollywood movie-makers have emphasized their dissociation with war, especially those that were started without clear knowledge. I'm not sure if that's their intention, but I kept getting this impression. They made the armies stupid, the authorities ignorant and arrogant. It's such a reversal - look at Independence Day - the U.S. president has led the soldiers to fight a war to protect the Earth - as if he's protecting his own territory. It has pride and glory, and everything in the name of patriotism is good. In here, I find it quite ironic, Klaatu has repeatedly implied that the Earth does not belong to the U.S. and the leaders of the U.S. does not speak for the people of the Earth (i.e. the rest of the World still belongs to the rest of the World, not to the U.S.A.). Does it have to take an alien to tell the president of the United States that?
- Ah, and I have forgotten, Klaatu: can you please send someone back to clean up the mess? My beloved Central Park is buried in the metallic demise and half (?) the Manhattan is gone. Thanks.
OK, I think I've whined enough. Let's end it here. I've found 3 posters on the net. Actually, I like the Earth as KR's eye, but the one with Gort beaming down at the hostile/ignorant army is definitely a lot cooler.
[Photo credit, from left to right: 1 2 3]
p.s. just now on douban, I saw somebody called KR as 面癱男 (face-paralyzed guy). hahahaha... (OK, I'm mean.)
I've just returned from the cinema (and pub afterwards, sure... as you know me)... well, no doubt to your comments...
ReplyDeleteand when I saw the name James Hong I know there's sth wrong (OK he's a great actor, anyway...). WTH they have to speak Chinese then switch back to English (don't tell me it's just an "agent code")?
I just say it's not a sci-fi movie, but just sth abt conservation ...
ac: yes, i agree. it's more like a conservation film packaged in a sci-fi, which may explain why i find it slow and not exciting. and if it wanted to explore the dark side of human in dangerous times, it hasn't done enough to prove the alien's first impression neither.
ReplyDeletesigh, instead of speaking in Chinese, why don't they speak in alien language (like what Gort did when he came out to heal Klaat) right from the beginning? then no one can criticize if the Mandarin was done properly or not.