tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post2393224596267858256..comments2023-09-29T05:32:04.308-07:00Comments on StrangePegs: ObliviatedAndrew Leonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-83020438937151674592013-11-25T11:58:24.464-08:002013-11-25T11:58:24.464-08:00TAS: He was good, though. I mean, normal good for ...TAS: He was good, though. I mean, normal good for him, which is better than a lot of others at their best. But the movie... I guess you can't always pick a winning script.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-28828705795315233252013-11-24T19:59:11.738-08:002013-11-24T19:59:11.738-08:00Morgan Freeman used to be so dependable, too...Morgan Freeman used to be so dependable, too...The Armchair Squidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13509001761075530940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-60550950016334020752013-11-23T10:46:46.662-08:002013-11-23T10:46:46.662-08:00Jo: Well, it's certainly not worth going out o...Jo: Well, it's certainly not worth going out of your way for.<br /><br />TAS: Sure thing!<br />Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-76380883762774728462013-11-23T07:22:24.563-08:002013-11-23T07:22:24.563-08:00I think we're unlikely to watch this one. I a...I think we're unlikely to watch this one. I appreciate the warning.The Armchair Squidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10739833215220853127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-73886156186782623532013-11-23T07:07:39.173-08:002013-11-23T07:07:39.173-08:00OK I take your warning although Alex liked it. Hmm...OK I take your warning although Alex liked it. Hmm. Hubby doesn't like Tom Cruise anyway. Don't suppose I will ever get to see it anyway.Johttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14087140585742801854noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-66313090925355276592013-11-22T23:02:10.164-08:002013-11-22T23:02:10.164-08:00Sheena: 1. I'm talking just the production bud...Sheena: 1. I'm talking just the production budget of the movie, not the marketing budget. I have no idea what that was, but they didn't even make back the production budget. The movie didn't even make $100m domestically, which is almost nothing these days.<br /><br />2. Liking something doesn't make it good or of high quality. It's quite possible to enjoy something that's poorly done, but that doesn't elevate its quality.<br /><br />3. Leaving things unanswered is not the same as not explaining things. Yes, the end of Inception ends with a question, something unanswered, but there is nothing that isn't explained. Oblivion has lapses in basic logic that are never addressed or the explanations given don't fit with the reality of the movie. Those kinds of things aren't really okay.<br /><br />G_G: I'd say that it wasn't just you.<br /><br />Rusty: On top of everything else, it was kind of Star Wars. Well, actually, Return of the Jedi. We have to get past the force field (into the ship) so that we can shoot the main reactor (use the big, giant nuke bomb).<br /><br />Jeanne: No, Oblivion did not recover from it.<br /><br />RG: You can rent it from netflix, right now, but it's not streaming.<br /><br />Lee: I gave it a 2. I didn't hate it but mostly because it had a cool look to it. If it hadn't been for the aesthetics, it would have gotten a 1.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-64580682558473645082013-11-22T21:20:31.255-08:002013-11-22T21:20:31.255-08:00I'm with you on this movie. I gave it a gener...I'm with you on this movie. I gave it a generous 3 star review on Amazon, but it didn't deserve it probably. I found myself saying lines before they were said, the writing was so predictable. There were interesting aspects, but I can't remember exactly what they were. I guess it wasn't a memorable movie for me.<br /><br />Lee<br /><a href="http://afarawayview.blogspot.com/" rel="nofollow"> A Faraway View</a><br />Arlee Birdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11663942782929929334noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-41037877518385865592013-11-22T19:47:11.551-08:002013-11-22T19:47:11.551-08:00I wonder what it says about me that I haven't ...I wonder what it says about me that I haven't even heard of this movie?<br /><br />I might watch it anyway if it ever gets on Netflix. I like big dumb ridiculous 'scifi' movies.Remembering Gracehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14760441035721518260noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-14516310367096407692013-11-22T15:50:28.609-08:002013-11-22T15:50:28.609-08:00I thought the newest Die Hard movie might be good!...I thought the newest Die Hard movie might be good! It's not my fault. The previous one made me dumb enough to believe that.<br /><br />I hate opening narration, too. It's weak, although a movie can recover from it. But it sounds like Oblivion didn't. Thanks for the warning.J E Oneilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09780097298061829471noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-2655113537126231202013-11-22T12:36:47.321-08:002013-11-22T12:36:47.321-08:00I tend to agree with you on this one. Not a well t...I tend to agree with you on this one. Not a well thought out story in my opinion. And a little to predictable of a plot as well, I might not have guessed everything that happened, but I did feel like I'd seen the movie before when I watched it. Cliches were piled on top of each other so thick that I'm not sure what parts of the story weren't lifted from somewhere else. <br /><br />I only vaguely recall the movie at all now, but it seems like I was furious that these 'aliens' couldn't launch a satellite or two so they could monitor what goes on in the world once their ship dipped below the horizon. I'm not asking for something airtight storywise here, I can live with some plot holes, but c'mon, that is beyond stupid.<br /><br />So, yes, the story had problems. I didn't hate it though, I was just bored. Like any story, I think that is the worst of all possible responses. I just didn't care. Period. So once the end got there, I was just happy it was over. Rusty Carlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09887821877521181811noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-82628787765413376972013-11-22T11:51:36.525-08:002013-11-22T11:51:36.525-08:00We rented this movie last weekend and I agree with...We rented this movie last weekend and I agree with you. I don't know if it was just me, but I couldn't stay connected to the movie line. It seemed it was all over the place but the hubby liked it. Gossip_Grlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06603645371306284338noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-84556356458790534402013-11-22T10:34:47.740-08:002013-11-22T10:34:47.740-08:00I have to disagree with you. I loved the movie and...I have to disagree with you. I loved the movie and saw it in theaters and even great movies fail to make back all of their budgets. It is very expensive to do promotion and sometimes it cost almost as much if not more than the movie. Dreamworks Turbo took months to make up it's movie budget alone and right now it's flying high after being a dud in it's summer release. Also the animated movie Guardians didn't make back all it's money and was marked as a loss despite being a very popular movie.<br /><br />Also no matter what this is one of the best movies Tom Cruise has done in years. I don't think narration is a bad thing, it speeds the story along by familiarizing us with the story line from the start and reminders during the movie help those who might have forgotten or missed something to get it even if the movie is halfway through.<br /><br />You shared your opinion on the movie and I respect that it wasn't one of your faves. But not everything has to be explained or proven to the last detail. Sometimes you have to decide if you believe or not. Like in Inception when Leornardo DiCaprio's character doesn't watch the coin to prove if he's in the real world or not. Some people can bicker about him not doing so but the movie isn't about the viewer, it's about the characters in it and how they evoke the various reactions from us the audience.Sheena-kay Grahamhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17712661419116636671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-33851251553268196912013-11-22T10:13:43.287-08:002013-11-22T10:13:43.287-08:00Briane: The issue with the memory thing is that it...Briane: The issue with the memory thing is that it was just a few remnant memories. So, yes, I agree, you could do a thing where you duplicate a human down to the brain patterns and retain ALL the memories, but these were grown clones in vats and weren't supposed to have any memories and, evidently thousands of the clones before the one in the movie didn't have any memories, but the one in the movie, that Jack, was "special."<br />>gag<<br /><br />So, on the one hand, I understand what they were trying to make the movie be about; they just didn't support any of that with actual movie.<br /><br />It definitely wasn't a "fun" sci-fi.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-35927262678337794072013-11-22T10:08:55.141-08:002013-11-22T10:08:55.141-08:00GP: Plot holes big enough to fly that big pyramid ...GP: Plot holes big enough to fly that big pyramid ship through. But it did look cool.<br /><br />Alex: I don't mind borrowed elements, but I do mind when the plot points only make sense within the context of the lie, especially when the lie doesn't make any sense.<br /><br />Elsie: With good reason. My wife barely watched it.<br /><br />Maurice: Yeah, it was more hole than cheese.<br /><br />Crystal: I think I would not watch it again. It was better than Independence Day but not by much.Andrew Leonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13964775673414653644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-39639270071002847042013-11-22T10:07:19.741-08:002013-11-22T10:07:19.741-08:00"We're going to SCIENCE this SCIENCE THIN..."We're going to SCIENCE this SCIENCE THING with SCIENCE"<br /><br />-- Every hero in every sci-fi movie, ever.<br /><br />I think you've got to divide scifi into 'fun' and 'serious.' If you are watching a fun movie or reading a fun book -- Doug Adams, for example -- you can get by with robots that have brains the size of planets and teacups powering fusion drives. "Fun" scifi can simply say "The rocket went into hyperdrive!" like Star Wars did, without us wondering how an X-Wing can have a hyperdrive or why the Death Star doesn't have a gravitational field.<br /><br />If you're trying to be serious, though -- as Lucas did in the later movies with "midichlorians," you've got to have it make some sense. Not real science, necessarly -- Larry Niven rights books that are sort of real sort of fake science -- but real in the sense that it comports with what we know or at least makes fictional, but logical, extensions of that.<br /><br />So I'd be okay with "Clones have memories of their originals" if you want to say "We found a way to do that, guys," because that's a small extension of cloning: it's not TOO hard to imagine scientists being able to, say, take a picture of your brain now the way they can map a computer, and then recreate that pattern exactly the way you duplicate a disk drive: if you can clone a memory chip, you might be able to clone a memory cell.<br /><br />But other stuff you point out is beyond the pale. I agree with you on 'trace DNA." Why not have a simple little implant on a person that is trackable?<br /><br />The ending? Movies like this, and Prometheus, sometimes fail to see that a 'big idea' doesn't equate to a 'good idea.' And so they fall apart logically, and become less enjoyable.<br /><br />Had Cruise made this simply a fun scifi movie, these might not have mattered. <br /><br />I read the whole thing. I'm not going to see it, now.Brianehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01616494058636881575noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-87819304608964165962013-11-22T08:26:56.708-08:002013-11-22T08:26:56.708-08:00And despite all that, I quite enjoyed it. I'm ...And despite all that, I quite enjoyed it. I'm not rushing out to buy it, but I would watch it again. Must have been the theme. Crystal Collierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03912469552483168148noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-83721042271197161272013-11-22T06:43:32.045-08:002013-11-22T06:43:32.045-08:00A gorgeous movie, but it definitely needs one of t...A gorgeous movie, but it definitely needs one of those "Everything Wrong" videos to point out all the plot holes. Cruise strikes again.Maurice Mitchellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15338165486757095191noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-58838845479163225272013-11-22T05:05:40.909-08:002013-11-22T05:05:40.909-08:00My hubby enjoyed the movie but not as much as he t...My hubby enjoyed the movie but not as much as he thought he would. I tried to get into it but about twenty minutes in, I opened up my laptop and tuned it out.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-73120698743508897802013-11-22T03:57:27.678-08:002013-11-22T03:57:27.678-08:00And no surprise, I thought the movie was very clev...And no surprise, I thought the movie was very clever, even though it had elements of dozens of other movies, and really enjoyed it. Purchased it on DVD even.Alex J. Cavanaughhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09770065693345181702noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7658526372996117205.post-69607718772233155702013-11-21T22:12:02.068-08:002013-11-21T22:12:02.068-08:00I thought the stuff in the movie looked cool but t...I thought the stuff in the movie looked cool but there were definitely some plot holes.PT Dillowayhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09394481476862013009noreply@blogger.com