I saw a review on letterboxd today which said that the last 15 minutes should have been the first 15 minutes. I think that would have been a much better and deeper movie.
A much better movie would have been the last 15 / 20 minutes of the movie at the start and the rest is the aftermath of disclosure and what happens next. They dropped the ball on this one the more I think about it
I just got back and...yes, I was disappointed. As one older lady said to her companions at my showing, "Are we disappointed?" while giving a firm thumbs down. Same.
Turns out my initial assessment after the first full trailer was closer to the mark than my, perhaps, misguided cautious optimism. I wanted to love this film and while I think it does contain some interesting ideas worth exploring, I don't think the film did a good job of tackling them. In fact, I feel like the film spent more time trying to prepare us for something truly profound thanactually saying or doing anything profound...which was one of my biggest worries after watching the first trailer.
However, I think the biggest issue with the film is that it was trying to tell too many stories, all of which don't quite fit together.
There's the evil corporation that's doing the government's bidding to keep the decades-long massive coverup under wraps and goes to all lengths to prevent their secret knowledge from becoming public. Until the plot doesn't need to stall anymore. Truly one of the most bizarre moments of the whole film.
There's the mysterious alien abilities that two abductees obtain many years after their mutual abductions...and 15 years apart from each other. With no reason given as to why their were granted those abilities when they do. The reason for those abilities are sensible but not the timing.
And then there's mysterious alien technology that's tied to both of those but with little explanation with its function and original purpose, other than to say "Look, cool alien stuff!"
All of that is wrapped in a plot that's struggling in a tug-of-war between philosophical meanderings and abrupt action pieces in case the audience gets bored.
I always try not to judge a film for what it could be and instead on what it actually is, but this is one of those times where it's really hard not to. For me, the most interesting part of the whole film is the idea of how the human race would react to learning simultaneously that we are definitively not alone in the universe. Not just the wishy-washy "it'll stop global wars because!", but actual philosophical, sociological, and, yes, religious discussions of how the human race would deal with that sudden and traumatic revelation.* Unfortunately, the film stops right when it was getting interesting. Yes, save the best for last, but in this case, I think the film should've opened with Disclosure Day.
That all said, there were two moments in the film that I thought were fantastic:
*Annnnndd I am now realizing I just described Contact. More so the novel than the film, but the film does cover some of that ground.
Turns out my initial assessment after the first full trailer was closer to the mark than my, perhaps, misguided cautious optimism. I wanted to love this film and while I think it does contain some interesting ideas worth exploring, I don't think the film did a good job of tackling them. In fact, I feel like the film spent more time trying to prepare us for something truly profound thanactually saying or doing anything profound...which was one of my biggest worries after watching the first trailer.
However, I think the biggest issue with the film is that it was trying to tell too many stories, all of which don't quite fit together.
There's the evil corporation that's doing the government's bidding to keep the decades-long massive coverup under wraps and goes to all lengths to prevent their secret knowledge from becoming public. Until the plot doesn't need to stall anymore. Truly one of the most bizarre moments of the whole film.
There's the mysterious alien abilities that two abductees obtain many years after their mutual abductions...and 15 years apart from each other. With no reason given as to why their were granted those abilities when they do. The reason for those abilities are sensible but not the timing.
And then there's mysterious alien technology that's tied to both of those but with little explanation with its function and original purpose, other than to say "Look, cool alien stuff!"
All of that is wrapped in a plot that's struggling in a tug-of-war between philosophical meanderings and abrupt action pieces in case the audience gets bored.
I always try not to judge a film for what it could be and instead on what it actually is, but this is one of those times where it's really hard not to. For me, the most interesting part of the whole film is the idea of how the human race would react to learning simultaneously that we are definitively not alone in the universe. Not just the wishy-washy "it'll stop global wars because!", but actual philosophical, sociological, and, yes, religious discussions of how the human race would deal with that sudden and traumatic revelation.* Unfortunately, the film stops right when it was getting interesting. Yes, save the best for last, but in this case, I think the film should've opened with Disclosure Day.
That all said, there were two moments in the film that I thought were fantastic:
- I loved the scene with Daniel comforting Margaret during her panic attack after the terrifying train escape. The setting with the swaying pianos and harps (teasing us of their danger), the urgency of the moment, and the tenderness Daniel offered Margaret were pitch perfect (no pun intended). I love how the film gave her that moment to react in such a visceral way and in a manner so few films would do after such an event.
- I also loved during the Disclosure Day event how got a brief but raw feel of a news control room handling such an explosive amount of information dumped on them without any warning. While I've never worked in a TV news room before, it felt real and I loved every moment of it.
*Annnnndd I am now realizing I just described Contact. More so the novel than the film, but the film does cover some of that ground.
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Andor gets away with it.
Perhaps but Andor had more grace. Watching Colin Firth just slump into a chair and his cronies storm off in disbelief was a sight to behold. And not in a good way.
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