151–160 of 388 posts
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And for the love of god, watch the directors cut of `Dark City`, not the cinema version.
I watched the cinema version and found it outstanding. What are the changes in the director's cut?
The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. Gattaca chose to focus on the story and create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.
Generally, movies that focus on set design age much better than movies that focus on effects. If you make a good set, it will look good no matter how technically advanced your setup is. It may look better when filmed using the latest cameras, but it will never look wrong when it isn't, because it is the real thing. Effects are not the real thing, and as technology improved people have gotten better at noticing and ar…
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> I mean what is the message supposed to be? For one thing the main character has a heart condition and absolutely should be weeded out of the space mission he is trying to get on. Why? Their discriminatory predictions were incorrect. Space travel is clearly quite routine in this future, so to put it in today's terms, would you forbid people with heart conditions from driving cars or trucks?
>Their discriminatory predictions were incorrect we don't know that because the movie stops before we can figure that out. I went to school with a guy who had a medical condition that put him at risk of passing out, albeit rarely. but he could legally drive. Ended up having an episode and veering into the oncoming traffic and his 19 year old girlfriend ended up dead. There's a potential less romantic ending to the mo…
We do know they were incorrect, because he was already considerably older than his predicted age of death. We also know they were incorrect because he outperformed people who were his "intellectual superiors".
> There's a potential less romantic ending to the movie where Vincent strokes out on the rocket and gets someone killed.
And that can also happen to the genetically enhanced. The whole point of the movie is that statistics are not certainties.
> The allegedly positive message of the film is that someone's self image is more important than even justified standards that exist to protect other people.
No, the positive message of the film is that genetic statistics cannot capture the full potential of a human being, and that the standards that were in place were in no way "justified".
The great thing about Gattaca is that the cinematography ages incredibly well on top of the amazing plot. A lot of great sci-fi is marred by cheap effects that look incredibly dated only a decade later. Gattaca chose to focus on the story and create a minimalist future environment that still looks beautiful 25 years later.
I totally, 100% agree. Gattaca is amazing, and my all time favorite Blade Runner also has outstanding practical effects (flawed, sure, but you stop noticing soon enough). One of my favorites that, while very cool in general, suffers from some dodgy effects is Aliens. In general I wouldn't change a bit from it, but some of the dropship scenes are terrible and were pretty bad even back then. Then again, be careful what…
On that note, I just rewatched the original Alien and there's really only one or two shots that looks kind of bad or goofy. Holds up so well for a film from 1979 with what would be a lower range budget in today's money ($44M).
Eugenism is inevitable. You can't stop parents trying to get the best life for their children, that's pretty much their top priority. We don't like to frame it that way but we are already there with pre-natal tests. Even the selection of mating partner is a form of eugenics. College graduates only marrying college graduates, repeat that for many generations and it is bound to have an effect.
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> it is basically advocating some kind of population control or eugenics policy I think this says more about the viewer than the film.
The problem it raises is: only idiots are having kids so in the future everyone is an idiot. The opening scene is literally a generic portrayal of trailer trash having 8 kids and you didn’t get that implication at all? Wow your a real saint. What did you think the implications of the film were?
If you watched it and came away with a feeling it was pro-eugenics, you are absolutely projecting your own details onto the film.
Eugenism is inevitable. You can't stop parents trying to get the best life for their children, that's pretty much their top priority. We don't like to frame it that way but we are already there with pre-natal tests. Even the selection of mating partner is a form of eugenics. College graduates only marrying college graduates, repeat that for many generations and it is bound to have an effect.
Isn't Gattaca already here? Another commenter mentioned 0 down syndrome children born in Iceland. Aren't we already doing embryo selection as prospective parents in "1st world" countries?
Iceland just has a high abortion rate. Selectively terminating births isn't quite the same thing as the genetic engineering and embryo manipulation that was going on in the Gattaca movie. There's even a quote from the movie that specifically addresses this, where that guy says, "you could conceive a million times naturally and never get such a result."
Eugenism is inevitable. You can't stop parents trying to get the best life for their children, that's pretty much their top priority. We don't like to frame it that way but we are already there with pre-natal tests. Even the selection of mating partner is a form of eugenics. College graduates only marrying college graduates, repeat that for many generations and it is bound to have an effect.