Just finished my third watching of Arrival

[zil]

1 minute ago, Vort said:

Please tell us whether you found it great, not-so-great, awful, or something else.

I may watch it tomorrow - I have some (personal) work still to do tonight, and tomorrow evening I have to work (for my employer).

[Vort]

On 11/30/2018 at 3:35 PM, zil said:

I may watch it tomorrow - I have some (personal) work still to do tonight, and tomorrow evening I have to work (for my employer).

So...?

[anatess2]

37 minutes ago, Vort said:

So...?

I know, right?

How long does it take to draw a review on Rhodia with a brand new fountain pen?

[zil]

34 minutes ago, Vort said:

So...?

Sorry.  I decided to finish figuring out changes to ministering assignments instead.  That took several hours.  Then Sunday I went to my aunt's to get install media so I can set up a "new" XP box (my old one) for her (first I have to finish transferring website articles from it to my hosted server).  Maybe later today.  Maybe another night this week.  At the moment, I'm collapsed from clearing snow and don't have the energy to go put the disc in the DVD player.  Anyway, I have to work on my plans to move someplace better:

 

[dogwater]

The short story, The Story of your Life by Ted Chiang was better IMO. When I first heard it had been optioned for a movie I didn't see how they could film it and remain true to the story.

They did pretty well but opted for a Hollywood world threat menace that was not in the original.

 

 

 

 

[Vort]

3 hours ago, dogwater said:

The short story, The Story of your Life by Ted Chiang was better IMO. When I first heard it had been optioned for a movie I didn't see how they could film it and remain true to the story.

They did pretty well but opted for a Hollywood world threat menace that was not in the original.

In such cases, I prefer to judge a film not on its fidelity to the book, but on how it stands alone as a cohesive story. Using that metric, I thought Arrival was fantastic.

[anatess2]

5 hours ago, dogwater said:

The short story, The Story of your Life by Ted Chiang was better IMO. When I first heard it had been optioned for a movie I didn't see how they could film it and remain true to the story.

They did pretty well but opted for a Hollywood world threat menace that was not in the original.

Like @Vort, I don't compare books to movies in that manner because... it's impossible.  They are completely different mediums with completely different restrictions.  For example, it is impossible (and unfair) to compare the Harry Potter movies to the Harry Potter books.  There is just zero possibility that you can recreate an 800-page book into a 2-hour movie.  Impossible.  Even with our new-fangled cgi technology.  And even if you have a short story put into film, like in Arrival, you have the luxury of unlimited expositions in books that just doesn't work in movies.  Expositions kill movies and therefore, you have to be able to convey a story wherein the audience can't "see" into the character's heads which becomes 100 times more challenging in a sci-fi story where you have to rely on the average viewer to understand the science within the fiction.

[zil]

On 11/30/2018 at 4:23 PM, NeuroTypical said:

Ok Zil, here's your job - fountain pen us up a quick sketch of what happened to you when Costello tells you what happened to Abbot. 

Actually, I was more moved at the end by my own imagination (helped by the movie, of course) of what it must be like for God, knowing what's coming for each of us but carrying out his work anyway - that would be enough to make me sob like a baby if I let myself think about it for more than a few seconds.

On 11/30/2018 at 4:31 PM, Vort said:

Please tell us whether you found it great, not-so-great, awful, or something else.

It was good.  I would probably have called it great if the topic were more up my alley (or maybe I just wasn't finding a character to connect with strongly) or if it weren't a theater movie (see below).  Either way, I'd say it was well done and the time and written language bits were interesting.  Maybe I'll like it better the next time I watch it - which could be years from now - no telling, but probable.

Unfortunately, it reminded me of some reasons I don't go to movies (these problems only seem to appear in theater movies, not tv shows or made-for-tv movies (unless something has changed - I don't watch much that's new)): background noise vs dialog such that I can't understand parts of the dialog (turned on closed captions when the helicopter shows up at her house and left them on for the whole movie - no, I don't have hearing problems, except with movies where the relative volumes are just plain wrong - I don't care how realistic they want it, I just want to hear the dialog already); and dim/dark such that it's (too) hard to see (some stuff) - yes, I know, they want to set the tone / mood / whatever - again, I don't much care what they want.