Movies

[ricevermicelli]

We took my elder niece to see Wall-E last night, and had a good time. Among other things, if you order a Shirley Temple at Friendly's, they give you a straw that changes color in your cold drink. Rockin'.

The movie itself was also good (although it would have to work a lot harder to live up to the color changing straw). There were a lot of scenes that reminded me forcibly of what it is like to visit my Granddad - he is not there, most of the time, and you just talk and hope that somehow, something connects. Someone at Pixar clearly understands what it is like to care for someone with dementia.



I found the movie surprisingly optimistic about humanity, but left the theater feeling that, despite the feel-good illustrations running alongside the credits, the humans were doomed. It's one plant, folks, and pizza does not grow on trees. In my head, most of these people die of heart failure in the crushing gravity, and most of the remainder starve before figuring out that willow herb is not food and pizza does not grow on trees. I am a big cynic, and I know that at least one Jamestown colony failed because the settlers were drinking saltwater. I can see why they didn't go that way. It's not the fairy-tale ending they were shooting for, and I'm pretty sure that you lose your G rating for putting images of organ failure and saltwater dehydration over the credits.

Comments

[kokotg.livejournal.com]

yeah, I suppose more suspension of disbelief is required for this type of film, but it seemed more likely me to me that all the people would pull together at the end to stage a mass revolt against the idea of racing back to earth with no planning whatsoever than what actually happened. Of course, the ship would still work when they got back, right? It was all solar powered presumably, so maybe it kept cranking out liquid food for them while they learned that pizza's not a plant?

[bagoffarts.livejournal.com]

there were many more plants outside of the city. And they must be incredibly hardy in order to survive the vacuum of space.

[robbbbbb.livejournal.com]

As we were walking out of the theater, my wife said, "The movie works much better as a cautionary tale than it does as any sort of commentary on the present."

[ricevermicelli.livejournal.com]

I don't think it is commentary on the present, really. THere are references to the present, but the trends that would (we hope) avert total ecological disaster are already highly present in our culture, and we aren't about to live in microgravity for umpteen generations, so the resulting loss of bone density and macrosomia aren't an issue... and honestly, I'm not sure it's a cautionary tale either.

It's a fable about the effects of hope, or the lack of it, on humanity.

Which is why I can forgive them for the magic weed that grows in the dark and survives interstellar vacuum.