I'm going to start by wondering aloud why there were people who didn't like this movie. Okay, not actually aloud. I just typed it. So there was noise, I guess, from my keyboard, but it's not like I actually said it. But I don't know, maybe you read it aloud? So partially aloud?
No, aloud. Fully aloud. This is the hill I'm dying on.
Anywho, the movie. This is one of two sci-fi movies from 2016 that really interested me, but the reviews at release were mixed so I held off on seeing it. I shouldn't have. Howard Tayler said it was really good and dangit if he isn't always right. Of course, he also said that the other of the two sci-fi movies from 2016 that really interested me, Arrival, was even better. And I still haven't seen that.
Because I never learn, apparently.
But let me just sum up my feelings regarding this movie real quick for those of you who haven't seen it and want to avoid the spoilers below. It's really good. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt were fabulous together, unsurprisingly. Their on-screen chemistry (which does not automatically mean love, jeez) was totally believable. The sci-fi setting and technology was also excellent, and far more realistic than I would have thought. And the story was great, the conflict raw and realistic. The movie is really good. I highly recommend it.
NOW! Specifics. Spoilers beyond.
I want to address the most common criticism I've seen leveled at this movie. The central plot conflict is pretty easy to read as an allegory toward rape. And if that's all you're seeing, the fact that the story puts our two main characters together at the end seems awfully dismissive of the horrific crime that rape is. At best, it smacks of Stockholm Syndrome and seems to paint it in a positive light.
But remember, it's an allegory. As such, it's an imperfect comparison. Jim wakes Aurora up against her will. But he doesn't force himself on her beyond that. Yes, maybe he knew that loneliness would do that for him. It's a wide-open gray area that tries to be morally ambiguous. But I think that the movie was actually pretty self-aware in regards to that allegory. Aurora spends months, maybe almost a year (the movie isn't totally clear) avoiding Jim, at one point nearly killing him after she finds out what he did, despite him being the only other human around. And the movie doesn't try and make us feel sorry for Jim. It puts us into Aurora's shoes, instead, and helps us understand her. To me it's more like murder than rape, but in either case, Jim was pretty obviously in the wrong.
I mean, Laurence Fishburne says so. Don't argue with Morphe-Gus.
But the movie also demonstrates that Jim is repentant. Like truly, sincerely repentant. From the moment he wakes Aurora up, he knows he done screwed up. And eventually Aurora manages to forgive him, even after she is presented with the opportunity to simply leave him behind and go on with the life she had planned for herself. I think so many people missed the important bits because they thought this was a love story.
I'll let you in on a secret; it's not. It's an exploration of the human capacity to screw up, royally, in a moment of utter, shameful weakness, even if you are otherwise a good person. And then it's an exploration of the human capacity to understand, empathize, and then forgive even the most horrific wrongs. I imagine there is, somewhere, a parent who lost a child to an accident caused by a drunk driver who can relate so hard to this movie.
So the movie is about Jim committing a horrific crime, seeking forgiveness, and then eventually getting it after demonstrating his sincere regret. I don't think the movie condones any aspect of the crime. But it does suggest that people can change, and that as humans we can forgive.
Which is a great message, and I really like it.
Beyond that the movie is very polished as a package. There were some things that weren't as strong as others, but overall nothing struck me as being particularly weak. To my mind the best executed part of the entire movie was the setting. The design of the ship was unique, interesting, and crucially, believable. The system automation was maybe the most interesting part, since I work for a company that builds robots. I could tell they did their research into how automated systems on a ship like that might work, including system interconnections and heck, processor loads.
It does baffle me a little that there weren't any failsafe systems designed to wake a member of the crew if a major system like the reactor control computer failed. It may be that was the reason the whole ship was designed to be as interconnected as it was, sort of an automated failsafe by creating a distributed system. It's also possible that was intended as a stop-gap measure, and a failsafe Gus wasn't aware of was supposed to wake a crewman, but instead the interconnected system woke up the wrong pod.
The movie isn't totally clear, but considering nobody we actually see was an expert in ship's systems (Gus was just a deck chief, after all), there is actually a lot of wiggle room there for the plot. Clever writing, that. But from the design of the ship and its computers to the problem that caused all of the malfunctions, I was totally engaged by the setting of the movie, the technology driving it all, and the world it implied existed outside of what I could see.
Best part? When Jim tries to send a voicemail to Earth and the computer points out it'll take 20 years to get there at the speed of light and he can expect a response in another 50 years. What's even better is it tells him that after he's already sent the message. Because computers can't read minds.
It was super great. I loved the movie. You should see it. It's not hard sci-fi, but the sci-fi fans will be happy. It's not a romance, but the romance fans will be happy. It's not morality literature, but the lit majors will be happy. It's not a drama, but the drama fans will whine and overreact because, you know, drama. It's a great story featuring some interesting characters granted life by some talented actors set in one of the most realistic and beautifully rendered spaceships I've seen in a movie.
The highest praise I can give it? My wife wanted to watch it again almost immediately after seeing it, and so did I. That almost never happens for us both in the same movie.
No, aloud. Fully aloud. This is the hill I'm dying on.
Anywho, the movie. This is one of two sci-fi movies from 2016 that really interested me, but the reviews at release were mixed so I held off on seeing it. I shouldn't have. Howard Tayler said it was really good and dangit if he isn't always right. Of course, he also said that the other of the two sci-fi movies from 2016 that really interested me, Arrival, was even better. And I still haven't seen that.
Because I never learn, apparently.
But let me just sum up my feelings regarding this movie real quick for those of you who haven't seen it and want to avoid the spoilers below. It's really good. Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt were fabulous together, unsurprisingly. Their on-screen chemistry (which does not automatically mean love, jeez) was totally believable. The sci-fi setting and technology was also excellent, and far more realistic than I would have thought. And the story was great, the conflict raw and realistic. The movie is really good. I highly recommend it.
NOW! Specifics. Spoilers beyond.
I want to address the most common criticism I've seen leveled at this movie. The central plot conflict is pretty easy to read as an allegory toward rape. And if that's all you're seeing, the fact that the story puts our two main characters together at the end seems awfully dismissive of the horrific crime that rape is. At best, it smacks of Stockholm Syndrome and seems to paint it in a positive light.
But remember, it's an allegory. As such, it's an imperfect comparison. Jim wakes Aurora up against her will. But he doesn't force himself on her beyond that. Yes, maybe he knew that loneliness would do that for him. It's a wide-open gray area that tries to be morally ambiguous. But I think that the movie was actually pretty self-aware in regards to that allegory. Aurora spends months, maybe almost a year (the movie isn't totally clear) avoiding Jim, at one point nearly killing him after she finds out what he did, despite him being the only other human around. And the movie doesn't try and make us feel sorry for Jim. It puts us into Aurora's shoes, instead, and helps us understand her. To me it's more like murder than rape, but in either case, Jim was pretty obviously in the wrong.
I mean, Laurence Fishburne says so. Don't argue with Morphe-Gus.
 |
| ...Or take the green pill to forget you ever made that pun. |
But the movie also demonstrates that Jim is repentant. Like truly, sincerely repentant. From the moment he wakes Aurora up, he knows he done screwed up. And eventually Aurora manages to forgive him, even after she is presented with the opportunity to simply leave him behind and go on with the life she had planned for herself. I think so many people missed the important bits because they thought this was a love story.
I'll let you in on a secret; it's not. It's an exploration of the human capacity to screw up, royally, in a moment of utter, shameful weakness, even if you are otherwise a good person. And then it's an exploration of the human capacity to understand, empathize, and then forgive even the most horrific wrongs. I imagine there is, somewhere, a parent who lost a child to an accident caused by a drunk driver who can relate so hard to this movie.
So the movie is about Jim committing a horrific crime, seeking forgiveness, and then eventually getting it after demonstrating his sincere regret. I don't think the movie condones any aspect of the crime. But it does suggest that people can change, and that as humans we can forgive.
Which is a great message, and I really like it.
Beyond that the movie is very polished as a package. There were some things that weren't as strong as others, but overall nothing struck me as being particularly weak. To my mind the best executed part of the entire movie was the setting. The design of the ship was unique, interesting, and crucially, believable. The system automation was maybe the most interesting part, since I work for a company that builds robots. I could tell they did their research into how automated systems on a ship like that might work, including system interconnections and heck, processor loads.
It does baffle me a little that there weren't any failsafe systems designed to wake a member of the crew if a major system like the reactor control computer failed. It may be that was the reason the whole ship was designed to be as interconnected as it was, sort of an automated failsafe by creating a distributed system. It's also possible that was intended as a stop-gap measure, and a failsafe Gus wasn't aware of was supposed to wake a crewman, but instead the interconnected system woke up the wrong pod.
The movie isn't totally clear, but considering nobody we actually see was an expert in ship's systems (Gus was just a deck chief, after all), there is actually a lot of wiggle room there for the plot. Clever writing, that. But from the design of the ship and its computers to the problem that caused all of the malfunctions, I was totally engaged by the setting of the movie, the technology driving it all, and the world it implied existed outside of what I could see.
Best part? When Jim tries to send a voicemail to Earth and the computer points out it'll take 20 years to get there at the speed of light and he can expect a response in another 50 years. What's even better is it tells him that after he's already sent the message. Because computers can't read minds.
It was super great. I loved the movie. You should see it. It's not hard sci-fi, but the sci-fi fans will be happy. It's not a romance, but the romance fans will be happy. It's not morality literature, but the lit majors will be happy. It's not a drama, but the drama fans will whine and overreact because, you know, drama. It's a great story featuring some interesting characters granted life by some talented actors set in one of the most realistic and beautifully rendered spaceships I've seen in a movie.
The highest praise I can give it? My wife wanted to watch it again almost immediately after seeing it, and so did I. That almost never happens for us both in the same movie.
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