Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – Bad Writing • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by HWR_14 » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 4:22 AM UTC

mypastself wrote: post #131

HWR_14 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to have anything in a movie. The question isn't "why include hip things", the question is "were those hip things just tacked in". They weren't. They served a purpose. You could replace them with some generic thing, I suppose. But how would that make the movie better? Meanwhile, if you eliminate them, the story gets worse. Unlike most product placements, which are at best removable background and at wor…

I don’t know if they were tacked on, exactly, but they seemed to be the purpose rather than a tool. If you showed the NYC skyline in 2003, you’d have to go out of your way to show the Twin Towers. Edward Norton saying how “pando” changed things, on the other hand, is going out of your way in the opposite direction. I feel like the early-00s equivalent of this movie would be the CGI dancing baby on Ally McBeal (“justi…

The majority of skyline shots are stock images. In 2003 it was a choice for which you showed.

Were they obviously added because they were recent things and not timeless, yes. But I don't see how ignoring recent events would have been good either. Instead, if you're trying to write how out of touch tech billionaires are to the current world, you have to show the current world.

How do you even have a character like Duke divorced from the current environment?

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

#152

Post by neaden » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 12:54 PM UTC

sliken wrote: post #145

brookst wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It did show what really happened, it's only in the flashback when the character lies about it that it shows something else, but if you rewatch it you'll see everything happen in the background.

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

#153

Post by lukas099 » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 4:55 PM UTC

paulryanrogers wrote: post #37

lukas099 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not the one who paid off a government to take a national treasure, then recklessly bypassed the security controls for their own amusement? Or launch an unsafe product for the general public?

I guess it would have been more precise for me to say she became "a villain". Still I think that purposeful destruction of priceless art is worse than negligence, however horrible that negligence was (and it was horrible).

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

#154

Post by marcellus23 » Tue, Dec 27, 2022, 9:07 PM UTC

brookst wrote: post #28

marcellus23 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s clickbait about it? If anything it’s anti-clickbait — it just says Knives Out has bad writing, and then the article goes on to explain why.

It’s clickbait because it asserts something surprising and extreme about a movie that is generally considered to be very good, and then the article can’t really back the title up, let alone its even more extreme yet wishy-washy claim that the movie “might be” one of the worst movies the author has ever seen (talk about bad writing — that should be either “is one of the worst” or “might be the worst”). The article maa…

> It’s clickbait because it asserts something surprising and extreme about a movie that is generally considered to be very good

"Bad writing" is not suprising or extreme, just an opinion. And "very good" is subjective — we're talking about movies here, i.e. art. This isn't a review of programming languages where there's an objective reality of pros and cons to consider.

I haven't seen Glass Onion, but I saw Knives Out and while it was a decent film, I think comparing it to the Beatles or the Internet is a bit silly. It sounds like you really enjoyed the film and are just annoyed that someone else didn't.

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

#155

Post by isaacsweeney » Wed, Dec 28, 2022, 5:30 AM UTC

Identical twins seem cheap and "cheating" in detective stories. This one does it a little differently, but still, it's kind of cheap. There's also a point where someone who's "dead" really isn't. Luckily, the movie is funny enough and interesting enough otherwise.

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

#156

Post by snickerbockers » Wed, Dec 28, 2022, 7:50 AM UTC

paulryanrogers wrote: post #32

snickerbockers wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not an overreaction to that movie.

Why?

It was a slap in the face to everyone who loved the original trilogy. Luke went from being the idealistic young man who saw the good in vader and established a new generation of Jedi to being a bitter old man who fucked it all up by trying to murder his nephew because he had a bad dream.

It honestly felt like it was made by people who had a legitimate contempt for the franchise.

Also had several plot holes, poor fight choreography, and dumb dialogue. Plus the whole tone of it was off, like when the movie seemingly ends on a positive note after the entire resistance is wiped out.

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

#157

Post by snickerbockers » Wed, Dec 28, 2022, 7:54 AM UTC

morelisp wrote: post #72

boppo1 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The Last Jedi is literally the only movie in the series to propose that a pseudo-religious order of wise men with a side obsession concerning blood lineages may not be the best way to structure a political movement.

"A side obsession concerning blood lineages"? My dude, they're not even allowed to have families. There are no blood lineages.

Also the prequel trilogy made a good case for the ineptitude of the Jedi order, they allow themselves to be manipulated into fighting a war orchestrated by a sith Lord and overlook several red flags coming from anakin.