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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

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Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#51
post #38

Spoilers-ish (this happens pretty early in the movie) Janelle Monae smashes open a mystery box with a hammer, which is direct commentary on JJ Abrams Mystery Box writing. This movie is very very well written. Nearly every detail is paid off.

How did JJ Abrams come into it?

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#52
We really enjoyed it, loved the twists and turns. Without spoiling it, the seen with Benoit and the iPad and crossbow was amazing on many different levels. Someone else mentioned Star Wars The Last Jedi, and that was my favorite of the sequel trilogy (although not without flaws!), so I think I just really enjoy the director. Some people don't, which is fair, whereas I find JJ Abrams to be dull and uninspired and utterly lacking in depth, the complete opposite of Rian's work.

The film missed a couple of beats for me, so it isn't perfect by any means (neither was Last Jedi!), but it was really entertaining and clever.

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#53
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why?

iirc it's extremely authoritarian. "Listen to your betters without question, for they know better than you. You do not need to understand their reasoning." We follow our heroes through an adventure and then our expectations are subverted when we learn their insubordinate adventure was bad and we're bad for rooting for them. Sorta flies in the face of everything people liked about star wars before it.

>Listen to your betters without question, for they know better than you.

The entire Jedi thread throughout all of Star Wars is like that. An over 20-year old essay by David Brin goes into this at length. https://www.davidbrin.com/nonfiction/starwars1.html

I didn't love the sequel trilogy--though it was better than the prequels. (Although truth be told, the Phantom Menace and Jar-jar in particular so poisoned the well for the prequels that I think otherwise #2 and #3 would have been looked on more favorably. See also Machete order.)

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#54
post #51
post #38

Spoilers-ish (this happens pretty early in the movie) Janelle Monae smashes open a mystery box with a hammer, which is direct commentary on JJ Abrams Mystery Box writing. This movie is very very well written. Nearly every detail is paid off.

How did JJ Abrams come into it?

Rian Johnson wrote and directed Star Wars 8, JJ worked on 7 and 9

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#55

[spoiler warning] Just watched the movie yesterday evening and I was also quite disappointed, some of the choices did seem cheap, the twin, the book stopping the bullet, the "punishment" of Miles by the destruction of the Mona Lisa. I think that the movie had some potential, but after the twin reveal everything started going south. Edit: added warning

When the twin destroyed that painting, she became the villain of the movie.

You raise two interesting questions for me: 1) how reckless with a treasure of humanity can person A be and still not be at fault if person B does the actual physical destruction (IE if I placed the magna carta on someones seat and didn't tell them when they were about to sit down, and they tore it when sitting, I would be at fault, yes?) 2) how dangerous does a person need to be before destroying a treasure of humanity is a valid way to avert disaster (I want to come up with an example involving the terra cotta army but my coffees still kicking in)

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#56
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Get Out was released 5 years ago. I think if you haven't seen it by now that's on you. Also, Darth Vader is Luke's father, Snape kills Dumbledore, and Bruce Willis is dead the whole movie.

Yep, got it, lesson learned. “Spoilers” can mean spoilers for anything. Back to my cave I go.

> “Spoilers” can mean spoilers for anything.

Honestly, if you're reading an article about movie X, then IMHO it is reasonable to assume that any spoiler warnings would be specific to movie X. If an article is going to spoil movies A, B, and C as well, then the spoiler warning text should make note of that.

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#57

[spoiler warning] Just watched the movie yesterday evening and I was also quite disappointed, some of the choices did seem cheap, the twin, the book stopping the bullet, the "punishment" of Miles by the destruction of the Mona Lisa. I think that the movie had some potential, but after the twin reveal everything started going south. Edit: added warning

When the twin destroyed that painting, she became the villain of the movie.

[spoilers] I don't know if this is intended as a feature of the film, but it's clearly not the real Mona Lisa. That showed paper burning; the Mona Lisa is painted on wooden boards.

I was sorta expecting that they would point out that Miles was himself taken in by the Louvre, and given a museum shop print. But it doesn't work with the film's final gag, so I guess it's just an error.

Ah, well. I don't take mystery movies too seriously for just that reason. It was fun and I enjoyed it.

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#58
post #38

Spoilers-ish (this happens pretty early in the movie) Janelle Monae smashes open a mystery box with a hammer, which is direct commentary on JJ Abrams Mystery Box writing. This movie is very very well written. Nearly every detail is paid off.

When you pillory a lot of dumb people's idea of a smart person, it's not unsurprising you piss off a lot of dumb people.

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#59

I’m geniunely wondering what the audience is supposed to get from all the 2020 references (Covid, Among Us, Zoom, Twitch), and the barrage of celebrity name-drops. I feel like the film was written for some specific Twitter subculture Rian Johnson is a part of, and maybe they find all the references hilarious. The mystery is dull, the dialogue obnoxious, the jokes unfunny, and the camera has that patented ugly digital…

They did a great job making the contemporary things at least work in the service of the story.

COVID allows a shortcut to describing each character. The detective is depressed and bored. Birdie ignores lockdown restrictions and throws massive parties. The scientist is alone in his lab working the whole time. Duke built a home studio and spent his life online, etc. And Miles has a cure/vaccine for COVID but only uses it for his personal benefit. He never even shares it with his "friends" until they will be around him.

Among Us is supposed to show that the detective is bad at lying and sneaking around. This is later proven false, but it builds the expectation it goes against in the future.

Zoom and similar software is a good way to have characters talk to each other. A decade ago the same scene would have happened with everyone using a cellphone and the viewer at home getting the same view.

Meanwhile Twitch as a way that someone can become a famous influencer just seems about correct. Would you rather they just had a blog?

Re: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

#60
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, got it, lesson learned. “Spoilers” can mean spoilers for anything. Back to my cave I go.

> “Spoilers” can mean spoilers for anything. Honestly, if you're reading an article about movie X , then IMHO it is reasonable to assume that any spoiler warnings would be specific to movie X . If an article is going to spoil movies A , B , and C as well, then the spoiler warning text should make note of that.

I think that it's fair to be upset that a newly released movie was spoiled for you. I think it's silly to expect that nobody will ever talk about the details of a movie that hasn't been in theaters for half a decade.
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