The Movie Thread

[Joey]

But why? What would be unbelievable about the story if it were retold exactly as it was, with only tweaks made as are absolutely required, with the female characters delivering the same lines as the male ones?

And they will probably adjust it a bit, but to say the essence of the story will by necessity change... why? I don't get it.

I guess I'll have to see it, but I don't see it working as a line for line adaptation.

I always saw Lord of the Flies being almost a satire of "manliness", or lesser so, masculinity; animalistic and tribal at it's core - obsessing over hunting and killing the pig, instead of keeping the fire alive is the perfect example ...

It has basically been scientifically proven that Men and Women have different ethical cores, and when boiled down the ethical nature of a group of boys is far more "animalistic" and "savage" than it would be for a group of girls. That's my take anyway.

I welcome my being wrong on this though. Would love for them to make a great movie.

[slaw]

Oh ... What is it about then? Lol

It's central theme is the internal conflict between civilization and savagery, order and chaos. Golding associates good with civilization and evil with savagery. The clear implication from the novel is that savagery/cruely/barabarism are instinctual and far more primal than positive morals, which are imposed by societal order. It's the idea of innate human evil, symbolized, ultimately, by the Lord of the Flies (the pig's head that they worship).

There are also powerful symbols in the novel: the conch shell (political legitimacy), Piggy's glasses (the power of intellect, science and technology), the beast (fear of one's own innate evil). The characters are allegories but they represent human traits or ideas, not male ones.

Golding himself has said that he used boys because: he was a man and didn't know how to write it about women; he wanted a microcosm of society and he didn't believe you could distill a group of girls down in such a way; and he didn't want to mix girls and boys because sex would have become a factor and he didn't want the idea of sex to intrude into the novel as it was too trivial.

[Axel]

It's central theme is the internal conflict between civilization and savagery, order and chaos. Golding associates good with civilization and evil with savagery. The clear implication from the novel is that savagery/cruely/barabarism are instinctual and far more primal than positive morals, which are imposed by societal order. It's the idea of innate human evil, symbolized, ultimately, by the Lord of the Flies (the pig's head that they worship).

There are also powerful symbols in the novel: the conch shell (political legitimacy), Piggy's glasses (the power of intellect, science and technology), the beast (fear of one's own innate evil). The characters are allegories but they represent human traits or ideas, not male ones.

Golding himself has said that he used boys because: he was a man and didn't know how to write it about women; he wanted a microcosm of society and he didn't believe you could distill a group of girls down in such a way; and he didn't want to mix girls and boys because sex would have become a factor and he didn't want the idea of sex to intrude into the novel as it was too trivial.

Sounds like a hoot at parties.

[slaw]

Saw IT this weekend.

Not sure if I really like it or not. I thought the part of the movie with the kids coming together and everything that went with that was good and the acting performances were very strong. I also like the fact that they left the entire adult part of the story out of it.

I didn't find the film particularly scary though and the ending of the movie (while it made sense) departed in some meaningful ways from the book to the detriment of one of the central themes and storylines of the book.

I do think thought that most people will find it both scary and entertaining. I chuckled a few times when I realized what a massive rip-off, erm, sorry, homage, Stranger Things was if the IT story.

Will be interesting to see how the handle the adults part of the story in the sequel. And, yes, there will be a sequel.

[Maury]

I really liked IT. Great experience really. I wouldn't say it's particularly terrifying, but the theatre I was in had plenty of people screaming in absolute terror which makes horror movies way more fun. I thought the character development was excellent considering they had so many characters to work with. It seems to me they nailed the amount of time per character needed for the audience to empathize with each important character. Bill skarsgard was brilliant as pennywise. The movie was surprisingly quite funny and I found myself laughing more than I was scared, which I didn't find to be a terribly bad thing. If you are going in expecting to be scared straight then for some hardcore horror fans it will be disappointing, but if you look at the movie as just that, a movie, and forget about genre then you should really appreciate it IMO.

[Joey]

Really don't know how to feel about this ...

[DanH]

The games were really good, and this looks reminiscent of them. Good video games always translate to good movies, right? Right?

[Nilanka]

Really don't know how to feel about this ...

Some of the effects look a tad cheesy, but I'd say this looks better than any of the Anjelina Jolie versions.

Vikander was great in Ex Machina. Never saw The Danish Girl, though.

[Joey]

Some of the effects look a tad cheesy, but I'd say this looks better than any of the Anjelina Jolie versions.

Vikander was great in Ex Machina. Never saw The Danish Girl, though.

Agreed. Easily one of my favourite movies to come out in the last while.

Haven't played the new games yet, but I like the new "grittier" Tomb Raider, rather than the Angelina Jolie 90s Action feel. Lol The bow makes me think they're going for Rambo crossed with a female Indiana Jones thing... which sounds pretty awesome when I put that way. Lol

[DanH]

Agreed. Easily one of my favourite movies to come out in the last while.

Haven't played the new games yet, but I like the new "grittier" Tomb Raider, rather than the Angelina Jolie 90s Action feel. Lol The bow makes me think they're going for Rambo crossed with a female Indiana Jones thing... which sounds pretty awesome when I put that way. Lol

You should try the games. Really good, similar to the Uncharted games in terms of feel, maybe a sprinkling of The Last of Us in terms of atmosphere.

[JimiCliff]

Some of the effects look a tad cheesy, but I'd say this looks better than any of the Anjelina Jolie versions.

Vikander was great in Ex Machina. Never saw The Danish Girl, though.

So weird seeing her with hair! And, a full scalp.

[Bendit]

For Vikander fans one of her better performances imo was in "A Royal Affair". Danish Girl was superb as well (and where I thought the acting of Eddie Redmayne upstaged her).

[Apollo]

Really don't know how to feel about this ...

Ugh... I wish there was more originality in movies these days. She is a good casting for this movie though.

[Nilanka]

If life is getting you down, just think when Last Jedi comes out, you can watch 9 Star Wars movies in a row

— Darth Vader (@DepressedDarth) September 27, 2017

[Joey]

Speaking of "Ex Machina", his next movie looks pretty amazing...