Spiral Out said:
Just saw it today. It was beautifully done and very inspiring. I haven't read the book, so I can't comment on how close the movie was to it.
It took me a bit at the beginning to get used to the jumping between the different stories, but then it clicked and I saw the thread weaving the stories together. The acting was superb and it was interesting to see the character development and connections between everyone, visually and musically stunning as well. Towards the end it really hit me and I was crying a lot and I don't cry easily when watching movies. It didn't stop even after the movie was over. My partner and I were sitting in the theater until everyone left. It took me a while to snap back to "reality", so to speak. I was really emotionally triggered, more than any other movie I've ever watched. It felt so good to cry and release. I'm still contemplating on it and taking it in. I'd like to see it again since I'm sure I missed some parts and connections because it was a bit overwhelming at first. Some people left during the movie. It's certainly not your typical movie.
I felt like this as well!
But I also relate to what Anart said:
anart said:
I still left the theatre feeling like they had grasped for more than they could actually reach, but I did enjoy it and thought it was well done. I just think the base material itself (the book) was lacking and that the idea of soul groups and reincarnated lives together could have, perhaps, been told in a much more impactful, clear, way. So, while I enjoyed it, I still felt that there was a lot missing - then again, I shouldn't expect so much from a movie!
I think the music and photography are outstanding, as well as the acting. And the topics they go through being them the reincarnations, soul groups, even psychopaths in charge of society and destroying the world (I think it addresses the topic indirectly in this dialogue:
Meronym: Somethin' preyin' on you, Zachry?
Zachry: You really ain't feary about meetin' Old Georgie on the summit?
Meronym: I'm more scaresome 'bout the weather than any Devil.
Zachry: You cogg he's real? Who tripped the Fall, if not Old Georgie?
Meronym: True-true?
Meronym: The Old Uns.
Zachry: That's just a rope o'smoke. Old Uns got the Smart. They mastered sick and seeds, they make miracles and fly across the sky.
Meronym: True. All true. But they got somethin' else. A hunger in their hearts, a hunger that's stronger than all their Smart.
Zachry: Hunger? For what?
Meronym: A hunger for more. )
Even if it was not intentionally addressed to psychopaths, one can see the relation to it. OSIT.
I also related the worship of Somni to the part in '
The Secret History of the World' when Laura is talking about the
disjecta membra of the ancient knowledge and when she gives an example by imagining that our 'civilization' collapses now and the remaining people start telling stories about the past... and so each remaining group will create different theories, religions, all the culture depending on the biases of the ones remaining in each group.
"
Zachry: What is this place?
Meronym: Before the Fall, Old Uns built dwellings, beyond the sky, among the stars, and this place joined here with there.
Zachry: Sonmi.
Meronym: Tis she.
Zachry: The Old Uns pray to Sonmi same as Valleysmen?
Meronym: Nay, not 'zactly same."
I also really liked the allusion to soul groups and how it is all connected, pass and future. Of course, it could be addressed in another way, maybe a clearer one. Yet I truly think is a great movie to see. I never go to the cinema, but knowing that this was from the Wachowskis I really wanted to check it out. I wasn't disappointed.
My favorite quotes, besides the dialogue above where:
"
Our lives are not our own, from womb to tomb, we're bound to others, past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future."
The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds, that go on and are pushing themselves throughout all time.
"
Knowledge is a mirror."
"
These forces that often remake time and space, they can shape and alter who we imagine ourself to be, begin long before we are born, and continue after we perish. Our lives and our choices, like quantum trajectories, are understood moment to moment, at each point of intersection, each encounter, suggest a new potential direction."
"To know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other."
"If I had remained invisible, the truth would have remained hidden and I couldn’t allow that."