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Posted: |
Aug 23, 2011 - 6:29 AM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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Thanks, finally someone who thinks like me. The ending was garbage. And the ideology behind it is more than questionable.
Oh, I agree that the ending is ethically unsound, and wish that the movie had taken even a few seconds to consider that, but I didn't think it was so horrible to have a happy ending darkened by what is, essentially, an unacknowledged murder. So while I may have a problem with his action, it didn't translate for me to a problem with the movie. It sounded to me like people were complaining about some sort of plothole.
As for stb247's comments, I thought the parallel reality thing had been pretty fully explained already. The only ambiguity was whether Jeffrey Wright's character knew what was really happening and was lying for the sake of his program and prestige, or whether he actually thought he was basically sending someone into a recording. And I didn't think the ending was pointless at all: in one reality he did accomplish the mission and then arrange so he couldn't be (ab)used again, and in another he got to live again . . . only the happy ending was darkened a bit, as mentioned above. I am curious, however, whether the final ending was in the original script or whether it was a studio-mandated "happier ending" as sometimes happens.
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The Ghost Writer also has a 'watered down' Herrmann-eque kind of score by Desplat.
I don't think a composer OWNS a sound style... ask Horner... but Herrmann developed an interesting pizzicato & repetitive sweep of strings which generally set you on the edge of your seat or announced something creepy was going on.
I like Mr. Bacon's score and welcome new film composers as much as I admire those from the past. New things are happening today.
Yet at the same time I delighted in JNH's score Water For Elephants since it was very 'traditional'- and also very beautiful. That score as well as Kaczmarek's Hachiko remain welcome new discoveries.
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SPOILERS!!!!
... trying to explain the whole parallel reality thing and so on. I was like..."WHAT?!" I was rooting for this guy to get his wish of dying in peace (while accomplishing the mission) and they make it all to be useless, cause he can live his dream life in a new body. That's not what the film was about up till this point.
One thing I found a bit odd is that the scientist who created the machine seemed to be quite knowledgeable about what it could and could not do. With the weird tacked-on ending, he either didn't have a clue what he was talking about or he was just lying to everybody for no apparent reason.
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I've only seen the movie once, so maybe I need to watch it again, but what is this flaw you all are seeing in the ending, aside from the, um, ethical problem?
SPOILERS / SPOILERS / SPOILERS
My problems with the end was the following:
I enjoyed the explanation of the whole JUMPS being what they said, a simulation that allows for 8 minutes at a time to go back and we saw that no matter what or where Colter was, he was always yanked after that time [or when he died which was usually when the bomb went off].
I don't buy it being time travel or alternate/parallel universes because how would they always start the same and always have the exact same people on the train yet always be different [no one made a slip second mistake that made them miss the train?] but further more, this is the reason why...
Once Colter asked to be killed and the plug is pulled and you see that freeze frame everything after is Colter's brain making it up and NOT a simulation, time travel, or anything of the sort. It is Colter's last bit of life as the oxygen leaves his brain and his brain is essentially giving him a happy ending but when you see his face on the orb and he realizes that this is the image he has been constantly seeing I took from that that was always how it ALWAYS suppose to end.
That it was his fate or destiny.
Then when it keeps going and it makes it seem like all of it was for nothing and we see him still "alive" the film completely lost me as Colter being kept alive that way was just awful and considering he is a service member he deserves better.
It also ruins him making peace with his father.
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"peace"
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A couple of thoughts from seeing this movie.
- It reminded me of how strong Groundhog Day was. To just tackle the scenario as drama, with a sense of humour, unburdened by the mechanics of why. That's a great film, that makes me believe in its sweet ending.
- This film does go well past its proper ending point. Even on its own terms.
- Basically, the story is the same as MOON. A man engaged in some remote duty (afghanistan, moon patrol) discovers that his duty is darker than he thought (he is dead and plugged into a simulation; he is a clone who will be resurrected every time he dies), that his aspirations are meaningless (to send a message to his father in Source, rescue the people on the train and spend more time with the girl / send a message to his wife/child in Moon & go home), but nonetheless is enabled to achieve outside of his duty in the end (clone 1 enables clone 2 to escape to earth at end of Moon; a fellow officer enables Jake to go back into the source code and he survives his own death). For all the overlaps in the writing, it wasn't unfortunately as strong as Moon.
- It would have been nice to throw this little wrecking ball into the plot: not only does she not remember, he doesn't remember previous encounters either. Not sure I needed the backroom simulation stuff either really, it's a whole layer of the story that is interesting, but not as interesting to me as nailing the idea of reliving the same moment and trying to improve on it.
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'12:01' was a better film than Groundhog Day.
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Ok, it probably is. Many films are. I don't think SOURCE CODE is one of them though.
(Is this the short film by the way? Which I haven't seen. But it makes sense to me that the best way to treat this material is in a long-form short, and without the appearance of science to explain it. Whether it's La Jetee or Groundhog Day, to me it usually works best when the author keeps the mechanics behind the hero's spatio-temporal dilemma veiled.)
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I only saw MOON because of CLINT MANSELL's wonderful score and along with DISTRICT 9 didn't think it was a good or great movie and along with SOURCE CODE feel all three are below average.
SPOILERS / SPOILERS / SPOILERS
MOON lost me when we are suppose to believe that the company would create and store what looks like thousands of clones in a rather advance facility and that the cost of making and keeping them alive was actually less then paying a human to work the lunar rotation. Further more why couldn't they make their clones resistant to the side effects of the moon [which I believe is the reason they are dying right?]
Not to mention the fact that each clone always wakes up and is essential told that "X" occurred and somehow Sam is in a medical bay but the only other soul is a robot that can't carry a human and they show how long it takes for anyone to reach the base.
DISTRICT 9 lost me when baby prawn can control and fly technology that pre-dates him by 20 years but other such stupidity like South Africa wanting to create new weapons to sell which are clearly modeled after alien technology yet no one is suppose to notice?
Why let the Nigerian's stock pile weapons and if the world is watching I'm sure that alone would be cause to do something. If the world is watching Joberg then why is Wikus and his organization allowed to burn babies and if they do that, why not just "kill" loads of the population and blame it on the Nigerians and miss use of the weapons.
Why didn't they just look at the camera crew's footage when Wikus was changing and what good would it do to slice up Wikus to figure out how alien tech works if Wikus is clearly a HYBRID and also this would be like slice up a dog to figure out how the nose work.
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SPOILERS / SPOILERS / SPOILERS
MOON lost me when we are suppose to believe that the company would create and store what looks like thousands of clones in a rather advance facility and that the cost of making and keeping them alive was actually less then paying a human to work the lunar rotation. Further more why couldn't they make their clones resistant to the side effects of the moon [which I believe is the reason they are dying right?]
Not to mention the fact that each clone always wakes up and is essential told that "X" occurred and somehow Sam is in a medical bay but the only other soul is a robot that can't carry a human and they show how long it takes for anyone to reach the base.
This is exactly my point. Sci fi frequently doesn't know when it's better to just not go into detail. An unnecessary explanation is one that can rejected.
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