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Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing

filmcolossus.com

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

#141

Post by psychphysic »

I'm so tired of critics being sewers of hyperbolic hate.

I didn't like it, turns into THE WORSE WRITING EVAH!!

It hits a lot of tropes but in an entertaining way which is surprising. Who'd have thought the audience has time for a met mask wearing antivaxxer.

All the characters looks simple and deplorable but end up being complex and more hateworthy for it!

Who'd have thought audiences even had time for another whodunit? But it proved they did.

That makes it a great movie, and I can't think what I'd recommend anyone as an alternative.

Maybe Bodies, bodies, bodies? But then I truly suggest most should watch both!

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

#142

Post by GaryNumanVevo »

mypastself wrote: post #15

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…

Huh, sorry you had a bad time watching it at home. It looked great in theatres!

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

#143

Post by Krisjohn »

I’m sorry, but if you start your complaint by saying Looper is some brilliant thing that sets the bar, or whatever, I’m not going to be taking you very seriously. The plot for that was so full of holes they literally had to invent a gun that only works if the target is about two feet away for the movie to not end in the first 15 minutes.

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

#144

Post by sliken »

ageitgey wrote: post #10

Glass Onion takes the well-worn detective genre and creates some genuinely surprising moments by "cheating" a little with what it shows the audience. This article says it should have played it straight. I think that would have made for a more standard, boring movie. But whatever, that's just opinion. But I think it is silly to call it bad writing. Bad implies that the writer didn't have command of their craft. It is…

Dunno, I felt let down. Mysteries reward those paying close attention, everyone builds their pet theory on what happened "The butler did it!" and plays along being a detective. But instead the movie shows you what didn't happen, like grabbing a poisoned drink, and only later shows what really happened, being handed a poisoned drink.

Seems just lazy and lame.

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

#145

Post by sliken »

brookst wrote: post #45
ivan_gammel wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that this was not a steak dinner, not even close. It was a microwave pizza with ananas served in “Italian” restaurant.

No, that was my point. The movie was very good for what it was , and the article’s complaints are almost all based on the author making incorrect assumptions about the movie’s intent and then complaining that the writing did not meet their incorrect assumptions. It’s fine to dislike the movie; about 7% of critics and moviegoers do, according to rotten tomatoes. But at least have the grace to understand it.

Shouldn't a murder mystery show what really happened? Instead of faking it to hide who did it, only to be revealed at the end with the real video footage?

What's the point? Might as well just make it an action movie.

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

#146

Post by sliken »

matthewdgreen wrote: post #77
bambax wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> creates some genuinely surprising moments by "cheating" a little I haven't seen the movie yet, but I know this much: you can't cheat . If you do, and you keep some fundamental fact hidden until the last minute, or if you use some kind of magic, or if the murderer was a complete outsider, or if the victim died by accident and nobody's guilty, or, God forbid! if it turns out the victim isn't actually dead, or it was…

The movie doesn’t “cheat” as far as I can tell. What it does is withhold details from what the camera shows the audience. This could be upsetting if you felt there was some implied promise that the camera PoV was showing you the entire story, but there isn’t.

Now showing things is fair, after all it wouldn't be a who done it, if they showed everything.

But the movie showed fake video to hide what really happened. Only at the end did they show the real video.

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

#147

Post by erwinh »

csours wrote: 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.

johnson seems to be hyper self aware of what he is doing and i’m here for it! In a way its a similar debate to the one on SW VIII where he was going too meta on the nature of the force which caught a whole bunch of fans off guard.

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

#148

Post by csours »

erwinh wrote: post #147
csours wrote: 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.

johnson seems to be hyper self aware of what he is doing and i’m here for it! In a way its a similar debate to the one on SW VIII where he was going too meta on the nature of the force which caught a whole bunch of fans off guard.

I'd really really love to know what happened on the inside with this movie and the 7/8/9 trilogy. Rian Johnson is extremely detail oriented and the movie we got was mostly soup.

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

#149

Post by cantaloupe »

sliken wrote: post #144
ageitgey wrote: post #10

Glass Onion takes the well-worn detective genre and creates some genuinely surprising moments by "cheating" a little with what it shows the audience. This article says it should have played it straight. I think that would have made for a more standard, boring movie. But whatever, that's just opinion. But I think it is silly to call it bad writing. Bad implies that the writer didn't have command of their craft. It is…

Dunno, I felt let down. Mysteries reward those paying close attention, everyone builds their pet theory on what happened "The butler did it!" and plays along being a detective. But instead the movie shows you what didn't happen, like grabbing a poisoned drink, and only later shows what really happened, being handed a poisoned drink. Seems just lazy and lame.

The original scene showed what did happen: the drink being handed rather than picked up. You can see it right before the 59’ mark. The drink being picked up was only shown in the later “memory” and was immediately pointed out to be a false memory.

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

#150

Post by cantaloupe »

sliken wrote: post #146
matthewdgreen wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The movie doesn’t “cheat” as far as I can tell. What it does is withhold details from what the camera shows the audience. This could be upsetting if you felt there was some implied promise that the camera PoV was showing you the entire story, but there isn’t.

Now showing things is fair, after all it wouldn't be a who done it, if they showed everything. But the movie showed fake video to hide what really happened. Only at the end did they show the real video.

The original scene shows exactly what ended up being important. Only later false memories being recalled show the scene incorrectly.
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