Forbidden Donut

It's a Halo movie.

It's apparently a well made movie.

This is absolutely shocking to me.

It's not a Halo movie. The people involved were originally going to make a Halo movie, but the studios cut it off. The director of the movie made a short video, Alive in Joburg, which was the premise of District 9.

There are rumors that a Halo movie is back in the works.

If I didn't know the story, I wouldn't have made the comment. It is absolutely impossible for somebody to be that grossly misinformed and yet still have that much of the available information.

Please recalibrate your intersensors.

Please explain how it is a Halo movie.

clearly

equals


I have not seen this movie based on the previews, but people are saying enough interesting things about it to maybe make me want to go see it.

LOL

andrew honestly sometimes i don't understand how someone so arrogant can be such a moron sometimes

They tend to go hand in hand

Yeah. I'm probably the dumbest human.

It's just a movie about an alien race which humanity absolutely refuses to understand... for some reason. Also we're huge dicks. And the only way to understand somebody who is different from you is to put their shoes on for a while. But you'll still be an ignorant human dick-bag whose only true goal is self-preservation.

Halo connection:
Halo: Humans explore the universe, meet alien race that is immediately hostile to them, proceed to try and kick its ass, a hero arises and has both species integrated into his body.

This time the aliens explore, meet us, and we're immediately hostile to them. Oh and apartheid.

But yeah, I hadn't even seen the movie yet (or played anything other than Halo 1 for that matter) when I said that this was a Halo movie. How about we all pull the sand out of our vaginas and make fun of what was a mediocre movie at best.

Apparently people love Halo and Peter Jackson here. Sorry, didn't know...

We need the Waaaaahmbulnace! Someone call Gachi!

how many people thought the movie was mediocre at best?

i haven't seen it yet but i also haven't heard or seen a single negative review of it. though i haven't looked very hard online, just going by reviews from friends and acquaintances.

I haven't seen it yet, but Melissa is the only person I know who didn't like it a lot. She's big into cinema, so I generally respect her reviews -- she gave it a 3/5. I still want to see it, though.

@Andrew: You are generally pretty big on accumulating data to make an informed decision about politics and such, so why aren't you applying the same philosophy here? You haven't seen the movie, and you mentioned that you've only played the first Halo. People that have played the series and have seen the movie are in a better position to judge the movie and draw any comparisons they can. That doesn't mean they are Halo or Peter Jackson fanbois, it just means they are better informed than you are.

If you know the history of South Africa, it adds to it. Also, pay close attention. There is a point where a woman is talking about how terrible the aliens are (ripping out the arms of humans and what not) while there is an alien right behind her picking through the garbage.

There are bad reviews. Some people hated the dialogue (most of the beginning was completely ad libbed). There are other complaints, but I can't understand how anyone would give it a poor review. Mediocre, I can understand, but it just does too many things right.

For me, the high-point was toward the middle of the movie. It then quickly turned into an action flick with explosions that would make Michael Bay proud.

At least one.
Me.

Christ on a God Damned Cracker people. I figured saying flatly: "This is a Halo movie." would get a couple Lulz, because it was so clearly not even thematically consistent if you'd seen a single trailer... That was my position initially and it remained consistent throughout. I'm fucking flabbergasted from the amount of blowback from such an absurd comment... I don't know how one could read my simple 3 sentence comment which contained NOTHING OF VALUE and take it as my honest to goodness opinion, especially given my history on the boards as noted by Court.

Now that I've seen the movie I have an actual opinion. It's fun, but mediocre. It's chock full of plot holes and completely contrived plot driving devices. It doesn't have anything really worthwhile to say about the human condition and the action consisted of turning human and alien bodies into red paste and spraying it all over other alien or human bodies. There was also a completely mind boggling "fight" involving a mech, the features of which the operator seemed to occasionally forget, only to remember 15 seconds later where he'd use them in about the most foolish way imaginable.

The motivations of the Aliens are unclear to me, as well as the entire social construct of the race. The motivations of the human characters, and humanity in general are also unclear to me.

It was visually stimulating and the main characters of both races were surprisingly engaging. I thought the ending was unfulfilling, but I suspect that was intentional.

/I'm sorry, but apartheid is neither interesting, fresh, or innovative subject material. And using aliens to provide commentary about race relations and then putting them IN south africa was... foolish, if that was the goal.
//I'm going to make a movie about the segregation of chinese in Western America during the gold rush. But instead of chinese it will be aliens. And instead of gold it will be cat food. Gimme Oscar plz.

I find myself agreeing with Andrew here. The movie looked great. Good effects, cool toys and even a decent looking setting. The problems came from the dull dialog and holes in the plot where they didn't explain anything, you just had to take it for granted. It wasn't a bad movie, but it wasn't a great movie.

As far as movies with aliens, Star Trek was this summer's winner.

I was upset that getting sprayed in the face with alien gasoline had any side-effect apart from instant death... or maybe slightly delayed death.

But Star Trek has an even bigger plot whole:
Why the fuck would Spock need that GIANT FUCKING BALL of red matter when a single drop is enough. Why even manufacture that much of the material!? It's asking for trouble and is *gasp* highly illogical.

Yeah, I went there.

/disclaimer: I did actually have a good time at both movies. I'm just airing my grievances.

i liked it alot. apparently the director said he'd love to return and do a sequel or prequel.

eh i didn't like the ending too much

andrew's still retarded

i thought the movie was awesome. i'm sure the dialogue could have been better and there were a few things i wish were explained that weren't, but that could be taken care of with a prequel or sequel. i would love it if they did both.

you are right

A second movie is likely, but I don't know how I feel about it.

+1 and they better not fuck it up.

If they planned to prequel/sequel it up from the gate, I will forgive all transgressions until seeing the next movie.

Most of my problems are with me not being able to explain away some of the weirder happenings.

It's one thing to ask me to suspend disbelief. It's another to ask me to cast it to the floor and stomp on it's nuts.

Like what?

They didn't.

Like: If I spray them with gasoline, do they turn human?

Oh boy.

*cracks knuckles*

SPOILER ALERT
First of all, there's the obvious. It can be assumed from clues given in the film that all the prawns are workers and that all the leadership was killed by some catastrophe on the ship which caused the ship to park it's ass over South Africa. Whatever. Disbelief suspended. However, if they are all just workers, how do you explain the main prawn fixing the command module? Or the little infant prawn being better at following instructions than the adult prawn? The prawns are clearly individuals, and clearly have varying amounts of intelligence. Yet they don't do what a large community of semi-intelligent individuals do of any species and organize. Why? Why can the main prawn only get help for the single most important thing the entire group has to accomplish from a baby prawn? There are prawns building mechs out of South African trash in a ghetto... why aren't they all working to gtfo?

Why did it take so long to gather the gas? We watched a single drop of gas polish off the collection early in the film, correct? So why did the spray of many drops on vandemerwe not matter? Why did he gather so much extra?

Does the alien gas turn other species of critter into ... prawns? What about a gopher? Does it turn into a prawn? What about on the prawn planet? Does it turn anything on their planet into prawns? If so, doesn't that seem like a strange kink in your fuel source to not work out?

The whole thing seemed forced to me. And I simply cannot wrap my head around wtf kind of community prawns are. Frankly, I have an easier time imagining what the Predators' society looks like than these things.

A good movie, but it didn't stand up to scrutiny IMO.

The whole social structure thing was based on ants. The director (I didn't research it myself) stated in an interview that when the ant leaders die off for some reason, a worker can become an elite and take command. That's pretty much what he was trying to get across with the lead prawn.

It's also been stated that he could be the only elite one left and would be unable to handle them all by himself.

The gas deal is a very valid complaint, but it was also what drove the plot.

Some command. He controls his own infant son/daughter and a complete imbecile who gets shot in the first 15 minutes. I don't think the director knows anything about ants and thus has no clue what he was trying to get across (is what I'm trying to get across) If they are like ants, why can they individually reproduce? They should need a queen. These things are unlike anything we have on earth, and based on what was shown in the film, I was confused as hell about how these things managed to work their way up to interstellar travel when they seem evolutionarily inferior to pretty much everything of consequence on this planet.

How would one elite survive something that killed all the other elites while being trapped on a ship with it for as long as they were (months I think?)

I think that something so central to the plot should probably be a little more solid that transmutative gasoline.

And don't even get me started on the time scale... the idea that these things would be around for 28 years is ludicrous. They were trapped there just because the MNU wanted weapons that they couldn't actually use? Oh and by the way... 28 years and earth's scientists couldn't reverse engineer a gun that was made from trash? BS. 28 years and the prawns were JUST getting a leader back? Ants do that shit in days. And when they do it's a queen... not a slightly smarter ant.

Then there's the inconsistencies in the intelligence of the critters. Sometimes they'd be capable of incredibly intelligent decision making, other times they were little more intelligent than cockroaches. WTF is their deal?

Too many things added up to make the whole story seem thin to me.

The mechs I am pretty sure werent built, as were the weapons that got looted, the movie seemed to imply that they were "artifacts" that had come from the ship.



Meh, I'd agree on this point, He sprayed most of it out yet the command ship was magically able to function 100%, so the point of collecting so much was uhhhh for what reason?



Think if we came up with some sort of biological fuel to solve our energy crisis, then happened to inadvertantly dump it on some inhabited planet of aliens...one couldnt even fathom what might take place. Look at the earth and Meteorites, scientists are freaked that we would be invaded by some biological virus from space, very unlikely, but hey it could happen.


Part of the point I guess, intended or unintended, was that we as humans cannot possibly understand everything about our Universe (much less the ocean deep), and something like the Community Behavior of Aliens would probably fall under that.

The whole movie was an indictment of human greed and emotion. As such the critique was predicated on comparisons between human society (the oppressors) and alien society (the oppressed). I was left with a big hole after finishing the movie because even after lengthy reflection and discussion, I could not figure out why the alien society permitted itself to be oppressed the way it was. Every explanation falls short.

Because they were mindless workers?

I don't think they know any better. What were things like in their world.

Do people really think this way about movies? It's not a biography on Stalin. It's purpose is to provide a temporary disillusionment for its viewers. For those of you who seriously over analyze pure, hard, entertainment does this ruin it for you? I have the ability to think critically, deconstruct a lot but also have the luxury to sit back without worrying about plot holes, misnomers, or illogical connections and enjoy something that was produced to possibly stir up conversation, but more importantly, to be entertaining and make money.

Hello Mungo. This is context speaking. You may remember me from every life experience had by every human on the planet.



I guess it's taboo to discuss a film after seeing it.

Sorry, I'll stop raining on your parade. By all means just scratch the surface and enjoy the *hurrr racism* movie of the year.

Since you're so opposed to dialogue about the subject, I motion that we lock this thread. Possibly even delete it. We wouldn't want people getting too serious now, would we?

Before that happens though, I'll add that this movie was clearly meant more to instigate discussion than it was to be entertaining.

Entertaining Summer Movie: G.I. Joe
Thought Provoking Summer Movie: The one about apartheid.

I guess you look at art and are simply blown away by every piece simply because it's art, and that is it's intention.

I'm curious about that as well. But we're completely in conjecture-land on that point. Certain behavior indicates that some, if not all, of the prawns knew they were being oppressed. Other behavior indicates that they are clueless brainless animals with no concept of the future whose only thoughts are related to their immediate survival.

I postulate that the writer/director really had no idea what the hell he wanted them to be/act like and simply wanted to use them as a symbol of the dreaded "other". The misunderstood stranger. The intruder. As a symbol they work... though I'm not impressed by the South African directors opinion on apartheid. To this end, they really really do function well. Unfortunately, they are so forced into this role that the nature of the aliens themselves, something I view as integral to the allegory (otherwise it's a very shallow view of "oppression baaaaad" "freedom difficult to attain!"), that the director painted himself into a corner. They simply DO. NOT. MAKE. SENSE.

Let's have a thought experiment. If they are a hive mind, then their hive mind died on the ship. The workers would be shiftless, performing their various duties on the ship until they died or were separated from the ship. At this point, all hive minded creatures on earth produce a new hive mind from among their ranks which actually controls the entire colony. Maybe they would do this, but if it takes 28 years, then I'm amazed that these things are still alive. Doesn't work.

If they are not a hive mind, and are individual workers who merely slaved under some kind of overlord, then when the overlord died they must have been far too stupid to operate the ship and GTFO. However there is one who is smart enough to do just that. Two in fact, and one is an infant (which confused the shit out of me). So are the more than just workers perhaps? Perhaps they have free wills, and intellects and ideas. They can clearly improvise, as they are making alien weapons out of earth materials, and the one incorporated human technology into an alien ship. So they are at least intelligent enough to examine a problem and devise a solution. In this case, they actively CHOOSE to stick around for 28 years. Doesn't work.



Except the one who was trying to get off. And all the ones who were making weapons for cat food.