Young Simon: So... how'd the Independents cut us off? Young River: They were using dinosaurs.

'Safe'


Buffista Movies 7: Brides for 7 Samurai  

A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.


§ ita § - Apr 12, 2013 5:12:24 am PDT #24036 of 30000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

So you think that the lead character is going to destroy the technology he says he needs? What is telling you that? Technology is the prize here. I don't understand your conviction of its vilification.


chrismg - Apr 12, 2013 6:49:52 am PDT #24037 of 30000
"...and then Legolas and the Hulk destroy the entire Greek army." - Penny Arcade

Not the specific tech he needs, no. But I'm assuming there's a revolution coming at the end of the movie( Which I may be wrong about, but this doesn't seem like the sort of story where the status stays quo at the end) and the easiest and most visually dramatic way is to destroy the habitat and force the Elysites back down to Earth. It's not " I actually see this in the trailer", it's "I can project this happning in the movie".

But again, what's triggering me is not the plot specifics, but the way the imagery associates high-tech with the villainous side. Not the actual story being told about an oppressed person getting the opportunity to strike against the oppressors and better his people, but the way that story is framed in terms of the moral associations of advanced tech. Not the text, but the subtext. If you don't see that subtext in the trailer, then maybe it's all in my head. We'll see when the movie comes out.


§ ita § - Apr 12, 2013 7:08:53 am PDT #24038 of 30000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Since the movie appears to me to be a technology-enhanced quest for technology, no, I don't see the villainous subtext that got you so upset. I'm sure there will be more press on it as time passes.

I know trailers are supposed to be decision-influencers, but don't we also spend a lot of time complaining how misleading they are? That's why I don't often get negatively emotional about what's in them--even if I could see your subtext, I'd have too much experience telling me it's unclear how it is related to the movie itself, and so I only let the good stuff hit home, inasmuch as I can.


Sean K - Apr 12, 2013 8:04:40 am PDT #24039 of 30000
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

I understand your problem is with the visuals, and not the plot of the movie itself (although your last post now greatly confuses even that issue, as you're upset about a *possible* ending.... that's part of the plot of the film, not just the visuals). But the vehemence with which you're attacking something that I'm not seeing there (and neither are many other people) is quite baffling.


§ ita § - Apr 12, 2013 8:14:41 am PDT #24040 of 30000
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

I have seen one poster for this movie so far, and it's Matt Damon all wrapped up in technology. Then I found an IO9 article, where the director explains how the technology is vital to the character's mission, and I'm now drifting further from "I don't see that criticism" and towards "wow, they sure like their tech, don't they?"


Sean K - Apr 12, 2013 8:20:03 am PDT #24041 of 30000
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

Yeah, I've been *trying* to see the neo-Luddite vibe that has chrismg so upset, and I'm with you ita. Not only don't I see it, I see the opposite. Or, more accurately, I see visuals (to play the confusing semantics game) that are about class warfare, with tech on both sides, making tech just a tool, with no political aspirations at all.


Steph L. - Apr 12, 2013 8:22:29 am PDT #24042 of 30000
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine

Yeah, I've been *trying* to see the neo-Luddite vibe that has chrismg so upset, and I'm with you ita. Not only don't I see it, I see the opposite. Or, more accurately, I see visuals (to play the confusing semantics game) that are about class warfare, with tech on both sides, making tech just a tool, with no political aspirations at all.

Pretty much this on my part, too. I also don't see how the 1% are the "bad" guys. I suppose there's an implicit structure where the rich get richer and the poor get children, but it doesn't follow that ALL of the 1%, despite having machines that zap their cancer, are "bad."


Sean K - Apr 12, 2013 8:31:23 am PDT #24043 of 30000
You can't leave me to my own devices; my devices are Nap and Eat. -Zenkitty

Also? Even if there is some massive neo-Luddite message there, and all over the place elsewhere, I think ita's other point also stands: Very few people are buying that message today, from where I'm sitting.

I really do not see a society on the verge of flinging their wooden shoes into the machines and casting technology down in the muck.


Connie Neil - Apr 12, 2013 9:25:37 am PDT #24044 of 30000
brillig

And the Luddites were hating on the machinery because the machinery was taking their jobs, not because of an ideal about social purity or something. (The shows I was watching about Edwardian farm and Victorian farm did a lot on how improving farming technology put unskilled people out of work.)


erikaj - Apr 12, 2013 11:51:06 am PDT #24045 of 30000
Always Anti-fascist!

Sometimes I wish. But that's just because I feel left behind(in a non- Kirk Cameron way) by a lot of it and feel like I need time to catch up. Rationally, I know technology makes me life possible.