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Old 09-12-2016, 10:07 AM   #177
teh b0lly!!1
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Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzard View Post
Honestly, I don't think it'd be accurate to suggest that my overall disappointment with the film truly stemmed from the poor writing. It was abundantly clear that the film sought to be a visual piece and it was mostly its inconsistency in this regard that kept it from rising above those other shortcomings.

As I said, there were certain points at which the stylized aesthetic was effective and others at which it fell entirely flat. Some examples, such as the red liquid in a trough that you mentioned, were pleasant insofar as they might have looked cool on a projector screen in an art gallery or as atmospheric eye candy in a music video. Others were basic and uninteresting, such as the simple plays with lighting that anybody with a studio could achieve or the collection of entirely mundane urban shots overlaid in editing to create a sort of cheesy multi-exposure with Johansson's face emerging through the centre. Then there were the recurring void scenes over the course of which the majority demonstrated no greater directorial creativity than one would expect as a minimum on the set of any commercial, but I've already gone over that. The juxtaposition of the black alien and Johansson in her human form within the last of these scenes is worth singling out as particularly hackneyed, though, as if the viewer really needed such heavy-handed imagery rammed down their throats like some rehash of the Jon Snow origins revelation.

Basically put, it became clear throughout my viewing that I was seeing the work of an artist better suited to music videos and advertising and that he simply didn't have the material there to warrant an entire feature.
not sure if that was your intention, but this post makes it seem like your complaints are focused at the technical aspects of the film: 'any amateur director\cameraman could have done that stuff', or 'it doesn't showcase an innovative and creative style any more than a perfume commercial'. isn't that a bit like saying that a song sucks because it's only G, D, and C? to me it doesn't really matter if it's reliant on a commercial sense of visual presentation, or if it was simple to execute, because it conveys a certain surreal atmosphere that i liked.

i think the most substantial difference between you and i on this particular movie, is that i went into it not having the slightest idea what i was going to see, expecting nothing. and you went into it expecting it to be mindblowing, after me mentioning it multiple times on here as a great movie.

now, i know it sounds like a banal observation to make, but i find that it really does make all the difference. it's very rare for me to be truly able to enjoy a film, or a piece of music, when i enter that 'judgmental mode', that critic mindset, after hearing a lot about it. you don't get to experience it anymore, because you're too busy examining it (not specifically you ofc, anybody). one starts to look for the stitches, the backstage.

i know that for me there are many types of music, or bands, or songs, or movies, that i like because i just happened to happen upon them when i was in the right mindset for them. not invalidating your criticisms btw, which are fair to be honet; but still, i might argue that had you happened upon this movie not expecting anything at all, perhaps you would have been more impressed by its aesthetics and style.

with that said, this is something that in hindsight, i can agree with:

Quote:
Originally Posted by buzzard View Post
I specifically did not find there to be anything brilliant about the final scenes with the hi-vis rapist, but rather considered the entire sequence to be the ultimate cop-out via which the visual mood piece seeks to cheat out a false sense of closure. It was a contrived encounter that ultimately depended upon the antagonist behaving in a manner that did not conform to any pattern of believable motivations or actions and, in doing so, delivered an abrupt conclusion that was significantly more insulting to the viewer than any fictional portrayal of abuse could ever be. Transferring the role of predator from the newly humanized alien to a member of her former victim demographic ought to have been believable and it failed miserably in that regard.
i guess i didn't look at it that way, because as i said, i just got swept by the film and didn't think of it in hardened critical terms like that (which is strange, because i usually do, even if i don't want to). but deconstructing it, you're probably factually right that it was wrenched into the script to neatly conclude the generally blurry tale.

i might rewatch it now. it's been a couple of years.

Last edited by teh b0lly!!1 : 09-12-2016 at 10:16 AM.

 
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