Anatomy of a bad SF movie: Precisely what made it fail?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 01:40
VIEWED: 14308
PAGE 3 of 11
Quote:
Originally posted by Cybersnark:
I would've made the second and third movies about Neo trying to teach others how to become like him (just as Smith was doing by force). Neo and Trinity wouldn't have "died," they would've Ascended, becoming part of the Matrix itself --neither human nor machine, but both.
My interpretation of the ending was that Neo did become part of the Matrix. They just didn't spell it out.
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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Quote:Did you see I Am Legend? There was no inevitability to Neville's death. Just look at the alternate ending...
Originally posted by Storymark:
Well, setting aside that the book [I Am Legend] is decades old and has been done before.... sometimes you're supposed to see these things coming. Building inevitability is just another tool (and really, would you expect a happy ending to a movie about the extinction of the human race?)
Quote:LOL, My friends call me Murphy. You call me Robochris!
And no more needs be said. Other than.... I kinda feel sorry for ya right now.
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:MY interpretation is that a bunch of weird little respectful 'bots carried him away to be liquified even as a virtual statue of Neo got designed from scans of his body.
Originally posted by Storymark:
My interpretation of the ending was that Neo did become part of the Matrix. They just didn't spell it out.
The cat at the end was the nicest touch in the movie, though.
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:Quote:MY interpretation is that a bunch of weird little respectful 'bots carried him away to be liquified even as a virtual statue of Neo got designed from scans of his body.
Originally posted by Storymark:
My interpretation of the ending was that Neo did become part of the Matrix. They just didn't spell it out.
Well, sure, if you want to be overly pedantic.
Otherwise, you are talking about his body. Which he wasn't really inhabiting at the time he died.
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Did you see I Am Legend? There was no inevitability to Neville's death. Just look at the alternate ending...
I did. And golly, somehow I saw a movie about a desperate, lonely, nearly crazy man alone in a world filled with creatures who wanted him dead.
You're right, I should have just assumed he was gonna make it.....
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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Quote:I specialize in pedantic. Once in art school I was laconic.
Originally posted by Storymark:
Well, sure, if you want to be overly pedantic.
Quote:Yeah, I actually thought about that, but poor Trinity is forever lost.
Otherwise, you are talking about his body. Which he wasn't really inhabiting at the time he died.
Story, you are tenacious and state your case well. I really *wish* I could like MR as much as you do.
In any case, I really do respect your opinion on, well, almost everything. Even as I sometimes yank your chain.
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:Snarky monkey!
Originally posted by Storymark:
You're right, I should have just assumed he was gonna make it.....
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:I specialize in pedantic. Once in art school I was laconic.
Originally posted by chrisisall:
LOL.
Quote:
In any case, I really do respect your opinion on, well, almost everything.
On what don't you???? I need to know, so I can beat you into total submission. Muahahahahaha!
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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Quote:Yours is an evil laugh.
Originally posted by Storymark:
On what don't you???? I need to know, so I can beat you into total submission. Muahahahahaha!
Sidebar:
Richard Matheson is my favourite writer, so I Am Legend was read more than once by me. When I saw Last Man On Earth
way back, I felt it captured a good deal of the book (Matheson did the screenplay), but the casting of Vincent Price took me aback some, and the production was sort of on the cheap.
The Omega Man cast Heston
who I found to be much more like the character in the novel, but the story particulars had been radically changed.
I had such high hopes when I found out they were making a movie entitled "I Am Legend" because I thought it'd be close to the novel, but it turned out being a CGI-filled remake of Omega Man... with a few more elements from the novel (specifically the dog, NYC- sort of- whatever).
So, Last Man captured the horror, Omega Man captured the character, and I Am caught basically neither very intensely IMO. All three missed the meaning of his death.
Ah well, we still have the book.
To date, the best movies made from his novels are Legend Of Hell House, Incredible Shrinking Man, and Somewhere In Time, in that order IMO.
/sidebar
The laughing Chrisisall
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It is odd that the alternate "He Lives" ending of IAL actually captures the spirit of the book better than the one where he dies.
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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