this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 hours ago

Yeah, genuinely one of my favourite original sci-fi movies I've watched in the last decade. I did a linguistics course in high school so just really loved that side of it. It also really felt like they did a great job building the tension and making it feel like there were high stakes to her work.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 hours ago

I had no idea what I was watching when I sat down in the theater. My friend had bought the ticket and I just showed up. I didn't know ANYTHING.

One of the best experiences of my life and it turned me into a Denis Villeneuve super fan.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 hours ago

Same. I'm skeptical of most newer movies given all the rehashes and sequels. The presentation of the aliens had me shaking a little bit!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Could you be also recommend a few generic alien invasion movies?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 hours ago

If you haven't seen it, District 9 is a good non-standard 'invasion' movie

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 hours ago

you can watch skyline if you want to watch nothing new or interesting.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Loved the movie! Such a great concept and so elegantly made. But the tagged on love story kind of took me out of it. Could almost hear the producers pushing that love story for wider audience appeal.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

It happens in the short story too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 59 minutes ago* (last edited 59 minutes ago)

The producers got to the book too!?

No okay did not know that. So maybe my problem is with the general need to put love stories into stories. Or maybe it was written better in the book? Might have to read the book now

[–] [email protected] 10 points 14 hours ago

The best sound design team. I also love the ability of the visual design team to give a true feeling of scale and weight to things.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The thing I remember about this movie was that India got mad one of the fictional aliens from this movie decided to land in Pakistan instead of India.

The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as "Punjab, Pakistan" which is even more generic because it's a province not a city.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (1 children)

The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as "Punjab, Pakistan" which is even more generic because it's a province not a city.

I could see India being upset over that because it's disputed territory. Edit: This is incorrect, Kashmir is the disputed territory.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

No that's Kashmir.

Punjab is technically a region that also happens to be the name of the province in both Pakistan and India since they both encompass the same region.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 hour ago

Thanks, that second fact is what threw me off! So they could have said either and it should not have been seen as a political statement either way (which is how I saw India being upset over it.)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago

This was a good one. Definitely recommend

[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I need to give this a rewatch

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago

Read the short story before re-watching. Definitely gives you a better perspective.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

The aliens reminded me of the Tralfamadorians from Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

That was a mouthful. Is it worth a watch?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 14 hours ago (2 children)

It's a book. Then again I don't watch much tv, so who knows, it may have been adapted by now. The book is worth reading though, it's very good.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 14 hours ago

There's a film of it, but I've only ever read the book. It is a really good book by a WWII veteran who really gets a lot of points about the war and what happened across.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Ah okay! I'll add it to my ever growing list haha.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

I too have an ever growing list. if you've never read Vonnegut before, he is really worth moving up the list.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 21 hours ago

I watched it for the first time last year without knowing anything about it and, as someone who loves to nerd out about anything linguistics related (am translator, for context), I cannot describe how gleeful I was that such subjects had center focus in a big blockbuster like that. Obviously the other aspects of the movie were amazing as well and the story got me very emotional by the end, but I will never shut up about how interesting and important that translation/communication aspect of the movie was.

[–] [email protected] 59 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This movie absolutely destroyed me emotionally for like a week. I was wholly unprepared for what this movie was really about. I was expecting an alien invasion movie and got a brickload of emotions dumped on my heart.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 21 hours ago

Same. Saw it a few months before my first child was born and it opened up something in me that I didn’t know was there. I’ve never watched a movie that made me weep until this one. Full on sobbing. Watched it again a week later, wasn’t a fluke - sobbed again.

[–] [email protected] 175 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (17 children)

It's based on a short story called "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. He's published only eighteen stories in his career (starting in 1990), nothing longer than a novella and mostly short stories. Despite that they've won him four Hugos, four Nebulas, and six Locus Awards. He's worth reading, is what I'm trying to say.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 23 hours ago

The short story was OK but this is one of the few cases where the movie did it better, added flavor to it that wasn’t in the book but carries the emotional hit farther.

The short stories in that book felt very β€œwoah dude” to me, in the end I finished it but didn’t like it all that much. I’ve been downvoted for this opinion before, but oh well.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Yeah its one of my favorite movies

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago

Definitely a top 20 in my book, one of my wife's top 5. I also love the book, it's very short story, you can probably read it in the time it'd take to watch the movie (I'm a slow reader and did it in a few hours), it doesn't add too much, but it's a bit of interesting mathematical philosophy which I found quite endearing.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago

Watched it last week for the first time. Really enjoyed it

[–] [email protected] 54 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

For anyone wondering, the music that just destroys you in the movie is by the amazing Max Richter. The song is On The Nature of Daylight.

PS: He recently released a piano arrangement of the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jPkbJWAQss

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

This song is everywhere if you look. I heard it in Shutter Island first.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago

Still one of my favourite movies ever

[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 day ago (3 children)

One of favorite movies of all time. I watch it at least once a year.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 day ago (4 children)

I'd like to watch this and Annihilation again. I've only seen each of them once, both around the same time, and my memories of them are pretty fuzzy at this stage.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 15 hours ago

Two of my absolute favorite movies. They are both amazing examinations of contact with life that functions completely differently than us, albeit in very different ways

[–] [email protected] 1 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

FYI Annihilation novel has the same premise and setup as the movie, but is quite different plot-wise. It's more emotional, introspective, and has very vivid imagery. Much different from what I usually read, but I loved it.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago

Interesting, maybe I'll read that before re-watching the film. Thanks for the recommendation!

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago

Don't remember much of this movie , but what I did see wasz very beautiful

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