As I watched 'Interstellar' I kept waiting for all the 'new ideas' everybody had been talking about to show up. They never did. Not even close. Just the same old dreck, as you describe here. I gave up hope that the movie would challenge me in any way (as, for example, space films as different as '2001' and 'Alien' — and even the absurd 'Silent Running' — did) during the montage when the interstellar space ship passes all the planets in sequence — they just happened to be perfectly aligned, imagine that! That was kindergarten stuff.
I wonder if you have any comment on two other fairly recent & much-hyped SF movies: Dune ('Rom-Com on Arakis') and the fascist & deeply stupid Blade Runner 2049. (Both were directed by Denis Villeneuve. I was surprised by how crappy they were, given how good I thought 'Arrival' and 'Sicario' were.)
"Hollywood keeps telling us this is bravery. No wonder now, when courage is so desperately needed to stand up for people who don’t look like Ryan Gosling, it is in such short supply."
This essay was so enlightening for me. Entertainment without challenging established social role/orientation assumptions = profit; not social change.
Noah -- I was also not a fan. I felt this was just a bromance, buddy movie that happens to be between a human and a cute rock creature. They happen to save their respective planets while engaging in cute conversation and antics. The science aspect is super toned down. the MacGyveresque engineering problem solving is glossed over. Also Rocky is clearly 10 K times smarter than Ryan. Definitely a feel-good movie but little or no depth. Disappointing.
The fact that Andy Weir keeps making money hand over fist just for his shitty novels makes me so fucking depressed when there is a goddamn world of diversity in modern global sci-fi. The fact that his shitty novels are the ones turned into films is disappointing but not at all surprising given where we are as a nation right now. That people are so desperate to see some kind of honorable representation that assuredly is NOT there just makes me sad. My daughter was excited to watch this movie with me and we're on vacation so of course I did it, but I resent so much that it was the best option. She's read everything by Octavia Butler. Where are THOSE films?
I disagree about Hail Mary. It was designed as a feel good movie although you do not know that from the beginning. I found it a refreshing break from all the violent Marvel etc. saving the universe from horrible monsters flics. It is after all based on a book and the protagonist does not return home.
Did we see the same movie? Grace is driven by what some would consider sappy morality. He already turned around from going home once to save Rocky. At the end he has the choice again to go home, but he does not jump at it and seems extremely happy to be teaching the young Eridians. This is not a film that deals in ambiguity. I think it clear he is happy where he is. He really has nothing to go home to.
He doesn’t jump at it, but he doesn’t rule it out; he’s on vacation. There’s even a beach.
It’s not that he has nothing to go home too so much as that the film presents alienness as sameness; home is exactly reproduced, so why bother returning?
It just seems glib and deceitful, to me, lying to the audience about what respecting or accepting difference entails.
C'mon Noah. The Eridians in the book mine Grace's mind for creating the world in which he lives on their planet. He could not adapt to the Eridian ecosystem. In the movie Ryan Gosling does not let himself age. In the book Grace has been on Eridian for 16 years and has learned that earth has been saved. So maybe all that is an incentive to go home. But the movie script does not set up Gosling with any reason to go home--they could have easily shown brief shots at the beginning of the film of family or at least a girlfriend. But he is presented as a loner and not particularly interested in being a hero. Whatever the book is intended to be, the movie is not hard core sci fi. It is a family movie, not 2001: A Space Odyssey (which I saw when it premiered in Chicago and still do not understand) or even Ad Astra. There is nothing intended to be profound here I do not think, just promoting kindness, cooperation and friendship. Those qualities can possibly cut across alienness; we have learned since I was a kid that animals can possess something like these qualities. I would rather have a kid exposed to this than the Marvel fear-mongering movies that fit so well Trump's view of the world and the Apocalyptic view of far-right Evangelicals. .
I don’t understand why the pseudoscience mechanism for giving him a creation spot matters?
The movie is pg, but it’s moral center is this weird justified kidnapping and the idea that if you say no you should be overruled for your own good. I don’t see it as especially thoughtful or as teaching anyone especially great lessons at any age.
As I watched 'Interstellar' I kept waiting for all the 'new ideas' everybody had been talking about to show up. They never did. Not even close. Just the same old dreck, as you describe here. I gave up hope that the movie would challenge me in any way (as, for example, space films as different as '2001' and 'Alien' — and even the absurd 'Silent Running' — did) during the montage when the interstellar space ship passes all the planets in sequence — they just happened to be perfectly aligned, imagine that! That was kindergarten stuff.
I wonder if you have any comment on two other fairly recent & much-hyped SF movies: Dune ('Rom-Com on Arakis') and the fascist & deeply stupid Blade Runner 2049. (Both were directed by Denis Villeneuve. I was surprised by how crappy they were, given how good I thought 'Arrival' and 'Sicario' were.)
I saw BR the sequel and didn’t like it, but never got to write about it.
I’ve written about Dune in various place…
https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/is-paul-atreides-a-mary-sue
https://www.everythingishorrible.net/p/all-praise-dune-no-not-that-one
https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/26/opinions/dune-part-two-colonialism-berlatsky
"Hollywood keeps telling us this is bravery. No wonder now, when courage is so desperately needed to stand up for people who don’t look like Ryan Gosling, it is in such short supply."
This essay was so enlightening for me. Entertainment without challenging established social role/orientation assumptions = profit; not social change.
Time for another book?
alas, no one wants to publish my books… but thank you!
If you have issues with this thing, talk to Andy Weir...
Noah -- I was also not a fan. I felt this was just a bromance, buddy movie that happens to be between a human and a cute rock creature. They happen to save their respective planets while engaging in cute conversation and antics. The science aspect is super toned down. the MacGyveresque engineering problem solving is glossed over. Also Rocky is clearly 10 K times smarter than Ryan. Definitely a feel-good movie but little or no depth. Disappointing.
The fact that Andy Weir keeps making money hand over fist just for his shitty novels makes me so fucking depressed when there is a goddamn world of diversity in modern global sci-fi. The fact that his shitty novels are the ones turned into films is disappointing but not at all surprising given where we are as a nation right now. That people are so desperate to see some kind of honorable representation that assuredly is NOT there just makes me sad. My daughter was excited to watch this movie with me and we're on vacation so of course I did it, but I resent so much that it was the best option. She's read everything by Octavia Butler. Where are THOSE films?
I disagree about Hail Mary. It was designed as a feel good movie although you do not know that from the beginning. I found it a refreshing break from all the violent Marvel etc. saving the universe from horrible monsters flics. It is after all based on a book and the protagonist does not return home.
I mean...it's pretty clear what it is from the beginning.
We don't know if the protagonist returns home; they say at the end that they can get him back if he wants!
Did we see the same movie? Grace is driven by what some would consider sappy morality. He already turned around from going home once to save Rocky. At the end he has the choice again to go home, but he does not jump at it and seems extremely happy to be teaching the young Eridians. This is not a film that deals in ambiguity. I think it clear he is happy where he is. He really has nothing to go home to.
He doesn’t jump at it, but he doesn’t rule it out; he’s on vacation. There’s even a beach.
It’s not that he has nothing to go home too so much as that the film presents alienness as sameness; home is exactly reproduced, so why bother returning?
It just seems glib and deceitful, to me, lying to the audience about what respecting or accepting difference entails.
C'mon Noah. The Eridians in the book mine Grace's mind for creating the world in which he lives on their planet. He could not adapt to the Eridian ecosystem. In the movie Ryan Gosling does not let himself age. In the book Grace has been on Eridian for 16 years and has learned that earth has been saved. So maybe all that is an incentive to go home. But the movie script does not set up Gosling with any reason to go home--they could have easily shown brief shots at the beginning of the film of family or at least a girlfriend. But he is presented as a loner and not particularly interested in being a hero. Whatever the book is intended to be, the movie is not hard core sci fi. It is a family movie, not 2001: A Space Odyssey (which I saw when it premiered in Chicago and still do not understand) or even Ad Astra. There is nothing intended to be profound here I do not think, just promoting kindness, cooperation and friendship. Those qualities can possibly cut across alienness; we have learned since I was a kid that animals can possess something like these qualities. I would rather have a kid exposed to this than the Marvel fear-mongering movies that fit so well Trump's view of the world and the Apocalyptic view of far-right Evangelicals. .
I don’t understand why the pseudoscience mechanism for giving him a creation spot matters?
The movie is pg, but it’s moral center is this weird justified kidnapping and the idea that if you say no you should be overruled for your own good. I don’t see it as especially thoughtful or as teaching anyone especially great lessons at any age.
I agree with you on the justified kidnapping, etc. That is simply Fascist as is giving him the amnesiac drug. Not a nice world to go home to.