The Adjustment Bureau - March 4 2011

[meta-agnostic]

For anyone who still has time for theatrical releases these days, The Adjustment Bureau is coming out where Matt Damon sees something he's not supposed to see and has his life/fate messed with by some apparently very 4D-like figures. Will be interesting to see if this one is worth the price of admission.

 

[findit]

I saw it. I liked it, and yes, the whole time I was sitting there thinking hmmmm, this is 4D manipulating humanity in a movie starring Matt Damon kind of way. It seems like I can't go to the movies anymore wondering how I'm being manipulated by Hollywood! OR are they revealing messages in a fictional setting? I still enjoyed the movie!

 

[Lilou]

I saw the preview for this a while ago and thought the same thing - 4D manipulation. I'd like to see it, but will probably wait for the DVD.

 

[pete02]

Its pretty interesting to see Matt Damon doing another movie like this being that his 'Bourne' movies were about brainwashing. I wonder if he has a reason for doing these kinds of movies or maybe he's just in it for the money?

I saw the preview for this a while ago and thought the same thing - 4D manipulation. I'd like to see it, but will probably wait for the DVD.

Me too!

 

[Kaigen]

I saw the preview for this a while ago and thought the same thing - 4D manipulation. I'd like to see it, but will probably wait for the DVD.

I had this feeling after the movie Inception with Di Caprio, I will check it out if it comes around here.

 

[knowledge_of_self]

I saw this movie tonight and didn't really like it. (I can't remember the last time I went to the movies and liked the movie)
I thought the premise was interesting and could have been a lot better than it was. The ending was horrible and had a lot of loose ends.



SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS



I didn't really understand the explanation they gave for what the Adjustment Bureau actually was. They mentioned that they were also created, by the Chairman. That they were sometimes referred to as Angels, and that they 'guided' humanity since we were Neanderthals. And the few times they decided to 'let us be' we wreaked havoc on the world and created wars and pretty much destroyed ourselves and thus were considered as too immature of a race to go on making 'big decisions' on our own.

The ending was kind of dogmatic in a lot ways because it kept talking about one 'higher person' (Chairman) that 'writes' all the decisions and the Bureau follows it without question. So I basically concluded that the Chairman was 'God'.

The way the Bureau was presented in the movie in the end was that they basically had humanity's best interest at heart, when in reality they manipulated and did all these different immoral things 'for the greater good'.

And the ending message was as most cheesy love stories are... "Love Conquers All".

Some other things made no sense at all, such as:

Why did they have to wear those hats again?

Why did water make their powers weaker?

Only thing that was pretty cool was the 'door jumping' aspect, but that's it.



This is of course my opinion, but I think I'm a very hard to please person when it comes to movies-- so perhaps others will think different. :P

 

[melatonin]

I cant wait to watch this!

 

[Woodsman]

Just finished watching this thing. Many opinions follow...


This film was the Anti-Matrix. 4D STS propaganda for itself.

The word "God" was never said directly, but we are led to believe that the men in black were angels. (Had been called that, anyway), and that the all powerful being in charge, the mysterious, "Chairman" is a kindly person who would just LOVE to give us our own free will, but shucks-darn, every time this is attempted, we silly humans screw it all up by starting wars and dark ages, etc.

So he just *has* to step in with his legion of reality-morphing bureaucrats, and when they fail, 4D truncheon-wielding shock-troopers in black, (yes, really; God apparently needs riot police.), to maintain order among the stupid people. It's all our own fault for creating this mess, you see.

Never is it suggested that the whole thing might in fact be reversed; that the MIBs are responsible for hell on Earth. That slight deviation from truth was the most aggravating; I think it's safe to say that we've all experienced the Matrix trying to mess up our plans. When I was a kid, before I'd been exposed to any esoteric writings at all, I noticed this force and dubbed it, "The Dark Gods", and I fought on through their bullying schemes with gritted teeth. I joked about it at the time, of course, (though deep inside I felt there was some truth to it all), and was not terribly surprised to discover that my "Dark Gods" were indeed far less a fantasy than I knew at the time.

This film names that force, puts a face on it, and then calls it "love".

What a load of BS!

The more I think of it, the more I wonder how the heck a film like the Matrix ever managed to get made! Maybe the PTB saw all the kung-fu, explosions and black leather, and then rubber stamped it on that basis without reading the liner notes. Evil is stupid.

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

Saw it, hated it. The whole thing is a long and stupid attempt to rationalize totalitarian control over everything. None of it made sense, nothing was explained, and it had more contradictions and holes than 9/11. Don't recommend it at all, waste of money. Also it has a cheesy and unrealistically forced "love story" that has nothing to do with love, although I haven't seen a "love" movie in a while so maybe they're all like that and I just never noticed before.

 

[jordifs]

*** SPOILER ***

Yesterday I saw the 3/4 parts and stopped. I don't like the whole thing.
I know the love issue is entrenched in the storyline. But in the end, I realized the ending doesn't matters to me.

I was interested on the agents and the intention.
All the love, good wishes, and the need to fix the mess is just pure manipulation.

I remember a very keen sentence when Matt Damon is speaking to Thompson (I believe), he asks ¿what about free will?
The paragraph about the Roman empire, the world war 1 & 2 ... all in all a very bad justification (to avoid such things).
I think now that if a guy is so unpredictable, and capable of such horrible things, the best way to neutralise is precisely with a soul-mate that takes the top priority of your live, so the intend is divided, more preoccupations, distractions, etc.
Also not promoting him to a higher political position but to demote him. It is like a psyco, better to demote to a position so he is not in command of other people.

The agency to me seems clear it is the STS world.
See the agency has a limited amount of resources, not everyone can be monitored! It is like lizzies, they cannot monitor all at once, so they need agents, greys.
They say they've been called angels. Of course I think once in a time we worshipped Sumerian gods, now can name them as just beings or entities.
The Chairman figure present not a god, but as the man-in-chief of everything. See the layered structure of the agency, floor, knowledge, lower agents don't know and don't need to know! They accept this role, this line-of-business. They obey. It is clear to me it presents a pyramid structure where STS forces dictate where the elite/slaves need to do, and when to do. It is like the reality we live in, where international events, politics, news, everything is perfectly planned and operated as in a theatre scenario, to keep the plan on the track.

This STS concepts interested me. Nonetheless the love storyline falls as I feel inconsistencies. I anticipate the end will not reveal the whole plan and neither explain in detail similar events on past lives.
If the agency present a STS model, the first I know is that they lie and manipulate. So even the end story explanation ... is not to be trusted! (another manipulation or even worse, a view with a limited knowledge of the whole picture).

My two € cents.
Jordi

 

[Beau]

Saw it, hated it.

Doesn't surprise me. I saw the trailer a few months back when I was at the movies and I knew I wasn't going to see it. Seemed like a cheap ripoff of movies like Dark City or The Matrix. The superfluous love story only makes it more of a "Hollywood-ized" version of P.K. Dick's original story, where the protagonist is married instead of single.

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

Saw it, hated it.

Doesn't surprise me. I saw the trailer a few months back when I was at the movies and I knew I wasn't going to see it. Seemed like a cheap ripoff of movies like Dark City or The Matrix. The superfluous love story only makes it more of a "Hollywood-ized" version of P.K. Dick's original story, where the protagonist is married instead of single.

I was suckered in by the concept, which as you mention, is similar to Dark City and The Matrix, both of which I really liked. It's a concept that seems hard to screw up, you need to have a great talent for screwing things up and blatant lack of vision to get it so wrong. Maybe this movie was written and produced by OPs or something? It reminds me of Bruce Almighty, another one I was suckered into watching. A guy gets all powers of "God" for a day, a concept that is so limitless and can be taken to such amazing, deep, thought-provoking and insightful extremes.. and what actually happens? He walks down the street lifting girls' skirts with his mind. It just kinda makes me angry that such an amazing concept was so horrendously brutalized, since now it's harder for someone else to take the same concept and do something great with it as it was already "done" so to speak. It's like those companies that copyright or patent great ideas and just sit on the patent and do nothing good with it, and just sue others who attempt to use those ideas for interesting things. Bah humbug!

 

[Ageeva]

Saw it, hated it.

Doesn't surprise me. I saw the trailer a few months back when I was at the movies and I knew I wasn't going to see it. Seemed like a cheap ripoff of movies like Dark City or The Matrix. The superfluous love story only makes it more of a "Hollywood-ized" version of P.K. Dick's original story, where the protagonist is married instead of single.

Funny, I was thinking about going to see this movie today but after reading your impressions I think it's not worth a cinema ticket, thanks for your feedback :)

 

[knowledge_of_self]

Saw it, hated it.

Doesn't surprise me. I saw the trailer a few months back when I was at the movies and I knew I wasn't going to see it. Seemed like a cheap ripoff of movies like Dark City or The Matrix. The superfluous love story only makes it more of a "Hollywood-ized" version of P.K. Dick's original story, where the protagonist is married instead of single.

I was suckered in by the concept, which as you mention, is similar to Dark City and The Matrix, both of which I really liked. It's a concept that seems hard to screw up, you need to have a great talent for screwing things up and blatant lack of vision to get it so wrong. Maybe this movie was written and produced by OPs or something? It reminds me of Bruce Almighty, another one I was suckered into watching. A guy gets all powers of "God" for a day, a concept that is so limitless and can be taken to such amazing, deep, thought-provoking and insightful extremes.. and what actually happens? He walks down the street lifting girls' skirts with his mind. It just kinda makes me angry that such an amazing concept was so horrendously brutalized, since now it's harder for someone else to take the same concept and do something great with it as it was already "done" so to speak. It's like those companies that copyright or patent great ideas and just sit on the patent and do nothing good with it, and just sue others who attempt to use those ideas for interesting things. Bah humbug!

For me it was the same way. I was suckered into thinking.. ooo this has a matrix theme, what if it's as good? And was deeply disappointed. I also thought the exact same thing as you about Bruce Almighty...

This world is really starved for some creativity. :(

 

[Divide by Zero]

I would have to agree with past comments.

I could not help feel like those agents were STS, pretending to be STO keeping humanity alive. It's actually the complete opposite, where humanity has been damaged every time outside influences "intervened", like the voices in Hitler's head or Bush Jr. etc. Not to mention, if they did actually stop problems from happening, that is STS too, as the C's explained "determining the needs of another".

The love story also made me gag because it was "SO HOLLYWOOD".