Red Mosquito

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I wasn’t a fan

Without taking up too much of your time, could you elaborate a little? I always value your opinions on these types of movies...

lol my time is not precious.

It’s like a mash-up of Aliens and The Thing that replaces the masterful genre craft of those two movies with needlessly ambiguous arthouse preening. It has its moments; I liked bits and pieces. But mostly it just made me wish I were watching Aliens or The Thing.

What. I can maybe see a Thing inspiration in the book series if I squint.

Spoiler: show

Though I think there's something to be said for this being the side story of one of the HP Lovecraft books where someone is trying to bring an ancient eldritch horror to Earth. Yeah, I'd say it's an Old Gods type of thing with mutation and cosmic energies.

I read the first book. I found the protagonist somewhat unlikable. I'm not sure if I'll read the others. Maybe.

The protagonist changes to someone else for the majority of the second book.

if I may spoil the first book a bit:

Spoiler: show

The person you meet at the beginning of the book isn't the same person you meet at the end of the book, and this has import going forward in book 2 and especially 3.

bune wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I wasn’t a fan

Without taking up too much of your time, could you elaborate a little? I always value your opinions on these types of movies...

lol my time is not precious.

It’s like a mash-up of Aliens and The Thing that replaces the masterful genre craft of those two movies with needlessly ambiguous arthouse preening. It has its moments; I liked bits and pieces. But mostly it just made me wish I were watching Aliens or The Thing.

What. I can maybe see a Thing inspiration in the book series if I squint.

Spoiler: show

Though I think there's something to be said for this being the side story of one of the HP Lovecraft books where someone is trying to bring an ancient eldritch horror to Earth. Yeah, I'd say it's an Old Gods type of thing with mutation and cosmic energies.

Spoiler: show

Can’t speak for the book, but the paranoid mental breakdowns and grotesque alien body horror of The Thing are plastered all over this movie.

I don’t see much Lovecraft here, to be honest. The events are too concerned with the specificity of the human characters. Lovecraft is all about cosmicism and how the universe is utterly unconcerned with humanity; we can be suddenly crushed by inexplicable forces that don’t even have a conception of why we think our lives matter. Because this movie is dealing in metaphor and defamiliarization, the forces at play are directly concerned with human life, and are ended because of it.

Huh.

Spoiler: show

You just explained the crux of the story reveal in book 3, hence why I said Lovecraft. The 'alien' is a cosmic entity that creates Area X and it causes an increase of inexplicable forces that mutate and change the life on the land it encompasses. We are like a mote in their eye, "they" being an alien entity that is probably even extinct by the events of the book.

The more that I think about what happens within the limits of the first book, the more I agree with you about The Thing. I was limited by thinking about the story across the three books instead of focusing on the first one. I mean, she thinks a dolphin she sees is her husband and the crocodile/thing has a face on it so yeah, I'm back on board with the Thing side of it.

I really had other plans for the coming month but apparently I'm reading this again.

Loved it. Kinda reminded me of Silent Hill or something like that at times, but with that sickeningly sweet color palette.

Kinda hit me with some things I've been thinking about lately. Maybe it was timely for me.

Spoiler: show

Fucking cool "bear", too.

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

bune wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:

E.H. Ruddock wrote:

LoathedVermin72 wrote:I wasn’t a fan

Without taking up too much of your time, could you elaborate a little? I always value your opinions on these types of movies...

lol my time is not precious.

It’s like a mash-up of Aliens and The Thing that replaces the masterful genre craft of those two movies with needlessly ambiguous arthouse preening. It has its moments; I liked bits and pieces. But mostly it just made me wish I were watching Aliens or The Thing.

What. I can maybe see a Thing inspiration in the book series if I squint.

Spoiler: show

Though I think there's something to be said for this being the side story of one of the HP Lovecraft books where someone is trying to bring an ancient eldritch horror to Earth. Yeah, I'd say it's an Old Gods type of thing with mutation and cosmic energies.

Spoiler: show

Can’t speak for the book, but the paranoid mental breakdowns and grotesque alien body horror of The Thing are plastered all over this movie.

I don’t see much Lovecraft here, to be honest. The events are too concerned with the specificity of the human characters. Lovecraft is all about cosmicism and how the universe is utterly unconcerned with humanity; we can be suddenly crushed by inexplicable forces that don’t even have a conception of why we think our lives matter. Because this movie is dealing in metaphor and defamiliarization, the forces at play are directly concerned with human life, and are ended because of it.

It's very lovecraft. It doesn't have to be that precisely similar to qualify as Lovecraftian. I don't think The Thing has any copyright on body horror, and this has a lot of great ideas in that regard.

The end is certainly arthouse I guess (though I'm starting to think that is the point), but for the most part it was pretty traditional. It didn't seem very preening.

A few nitpick here and there, but all in all I liked it.

Just found out that netflix bought this one to premiere it outside the US.

FUCK.

Lol

I haven't seen this, but it looks more along the lines of Arthur Machen or Lord Dunsany than Lovecraft.

Just watched it.

Yeah, not a fan at all. I might have some moments, the bear scene being the coolest one. But it suffers from ¨im an art film¨ too much. It doesnt enjoy being a scifi movie and that makes it boring.

When was the last time Portman did something good? i cant even remember.

Those rap videos on SNL are pretty good

Guys, no one has said Stalker and Solaris yet? Come on! Stalker and Solaris

It’s like Stalker in the least interesting possible way

I liked it. It's also similar to 2001

WELL ITS CERTAINLY NO REAL ART FILM LIKE JUSTICE LEAUGE RIGHT GUYS

Annihilation is Justice league 2

E.H. Ruddock wrote:Annihilation is Justice league 2

don't even joke about the possibility of a Justice League 2.

The Argonaut wrote:Guys, no one has said Stalker and Solaris yet? Come on! Stalker and Solaris

Stalker? Hmm, interesting you pick that and not Roadside Picnic so you must mean the movies. I can see it, definitely.

And for the record: When I talk about this and mention Lovecraft, I mean the book and it's idea of unknowable outside entities, how humans have no idea how to grasp even the smallest bit of understanding or meaning behind the actions of the forces in play.