I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised
this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
524 points (98.2% liked)
movies
2326 readers
685 users here now
Matrix room: https://matrix.to/#/#fediversefilms:matrix.org
Warning: If the community is empty, make sure you have "English" selected in your languages in your account settings.
A community focused on discussions on movies. Besides usual movie news, the following threads are welcome
- Discussion threads to discuss about a specific movie or show
- Weekly threads: what have you been watching lately?
- Trailers
- Posters
- Retrospectives
- Should I watch?
Related communities:
Show communities:
Discussion communities:
RULES
Spoilers are strictly forbidden in post titles.
Posts soliciting spoilers (endings, plot elements, twists, etc.) should contain [spoilers] in their title. Comments in these posts do not need to be hidden in spoiler MarkDown if they pertain to the title’s subject matter.
Otherwise, spoilers but must be contained in MarkDown.
2024 discussion threads
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
spoiler
I didn't care for it at all, I felt the memory as time travel thing to be weaksacue, and I felt ripped off at the end of watching it, plus I don't like her very much at allSpoiler
Of course its totally fine to not like a movie, but I wanted to clarify the memory as time travel thing.I can't remember where I first heard this, it wasn't this movie, but suppose humans are oddly fixated on the flow of time. To us the flow of time is immutable we exist in the present and remember the past. What if other races could "remember" things that haven't happened yet as easily as we remember things from the past.
The movie kinda proposes that learning human languages traps us into this linear / temporal mode of thinking. As in, as children we learn to parse things start to finish and that's it... we just never do it the other way future to now.
Turns out I've done a shit job at explaining this.
As I said, it's fine to hate the movie. I just thought I'd try to explain this part because I felt like I understood it, although I'm not sure anymore.
I think you explained it quite well. I just read the story and was a bit confused by the ending but this clarified it for me.
Major spoilers ahead! (struggling with the spoiler tag!)
spoiler
Yes, Gary is the father. He's ended up leaving her (in the future) because he found out she had the future knowledge of their daughter's early death but went ahead with having her anyway.As someone with differing opinions from the zeitgeist on a variety of topics, I appreciate your sincere and well-reasoned dissention
Same, tbh. I can't say I felt ripped off, but it was definitely a disappointment.
I get into Sci Fi, time travel and obscure concepts, and I have to agree with you mainly. It ended and I kinda felt like, "yeah OK". Another person here has said that it should be watched again. Like what, did I miss something ? Anyway, it's entertainment and each to their own. Maybe I should watch it again one day, but it will be a while.
It depends. What were you expecting and what was your takeaway after watching? Because to me, it didn’t have anything to do with the time travel or scifi aspects at all.
The main point of the film is summed up with the line “If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?”. It was about free will and the main character’s decision to let things play out knowing her daughter will die at an early age, because if she didn’t have her, she wouldn’t have experienced the life she had with her daughter at all. It’s a philosophical story wrapped in a scifi film.
I think the impact, if any, that it has on the viewer depends on their answer to that question. I enjoyed the movie, but thought the characters acted like emotionally rife teenagers, and that the decisions they made were wrong. I've never felt like rewatching it. I'd make a bet that all of the others in the comments who absolutely loved the movie agreed with the characters' ultimate decisions.
That part of the story was heavily hollywoodized. I highly recommend reading the original story.
I'm in the same boat. I enjoyed the short story more, but mostly because it didn't feel as over the top. The wacky alien mechanic works better in print IMO.