Submitted 1 day ago by reef@lemmy.ca to movies@lemm.ee
I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised
It’s based on a short story called “Story of You Life” by Ted Chiang. He’s published eighteen stories in his career, nothing longer than a novella and mostly short stories. Despite that they’ve won him four Hugos, four Nebulas, and six Locus Awards. He’s worth reading, is what I’m trying to say.
The short story was OK but this is one of the few cases where the movie did it better, added flavor to it that wasn’t in the book but carries the emotional hit farther.
The short stories in that book felt very “woah dude” to me, in the end I finished it but didn’t like it all that much. I’ve been downvoted for this opinion before, but oh well.
I put him up there with Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, easily.
Well that’s got me interested then
That’s exactly what I was going to say. His prose is breathtaking.
I will say I read the short story and it made me love the movie even more. It rare for me to say the movie was better than they book and the books was great as well.
Ya know I have to say I feel nearly the same about Dune. I haven’t gotten to the the later books but the first 2 have made me love the movies more. Not that I love the the books any less though. There is very little nuance lost in the movies and the changes that are made I can understand from a film making point of view. I guess what I mean to say is I appreciate the differences and it makes me like both more rather thank either any less.
If you haven’t read The Merchant and the Alchemists Gate by Ted Chiang I can’t recommend it enough. Here’s a PDF Link
It’s lesser known than his big hits like Exhalation, but I think it’s phenomenal.
Oh, I’ve read all of his stuff! It’s a red letter day for me when a new story is published. None since 2019, though.
My odd choice of his would be Seventy-Two Letters. I find him most interesting when he follows through in the consequences of an old disproven scientific theory or theological explanation of the universe, and he manages to fit two of them in here.
I read the story and found it very entertaining. I’m not sure what impact it had on me, but it made me marvel at the idea of the inevitability of fate and how often our suffering and regrets of the past are the reason we’re regarded so highly by others.
How did it strike you?
It’s also featured on a two-part episode of LeVar Burton Reads.
I couldn’t agree more. I read them quite some time ago, and still find myself having philosophical discussions about them somewhat often today. Most are really thought provoking in a non-judgmental way.
I wonder if Ted Chiang was inspired by Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five
He’s written some “Notes” on the story when it was printed in his first short story collection and said that it has the same theme but that he wasn’t inspired by it. The roots of it were Paul Linke’s play “Time Flies When You’re Alive” and the principle of least time in optics – if you treat light as a ray, it has to know its future destination in order to know the path with the shortest time it will take to get there (though not if it’s a wave). Then there’s a bunch of diagrams and discussions about the principle that will stretch your brain.
Thanks for the reading recommendation!
Could you be also recommend a few generic alien invasion movies?
you can watch skyline if you want to watch nothing new or interesting.
This movie absolutely destroyed me emotionally for like a week. I was wholly unprepared for what this movie was really about. I was expecting an alien invasion movie and got a brickload of emotions dumped on my heart.
Same. Saw it a few months before my first child was born and it opened up something in me that I didn’t know was there. I’ve never watched a movie that made me weep until this one. Full on sobbing. Watched it again a week later, wasn’t a fluke - sobbed again.
Loved the movie! Such a great concept and so elegantly made. But the tagged on love story kind of took me out of it. Could almost hear the producers pushing that love story for wider audience appeal.
The concept of linguistics changing the way we understand the world is interesting but i cannot enjoy a movie that portrays other countries as unreasonable warmongers and incompetent while portraying the US as reasonable and brilliant.
I watched it for the first time last year without knowing anything about it and, as someone who loves to nerd out about anything linguistics related (am translator, for context), I cannot describe how gleeful I was that such subjects had center focus in a big blockbuster like that. Obviously the other aspects of the movie were amazing as well and the story got me very emotional by the end, but I will never shut up about how interesting and important that translation/communication aspect of the movie was.
One of favorite movies of all time. I watch it at least once a year.
What are you talking about, it only came out last year … Uh, right?
Well according to the movie what you’re saying can make perfect sense.
Sure feels like it.
For anyone wondering, the music that just destroys you in the movie is by the amazing Max Richter. The song is On The Nature of Daylight.
PS: He recently released a piano arrangement of the song.
“When I first started drinking warm water for my prostate…”
Fuck YouTube so much…
The best sound design team. I also love the ability of the visual design team to give a true feeling of scale and weight to things.
The thing I remember about this movie was that India got mad one of the fictional aliens from this movie decided to land in Pakistan instead of India.
The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as “Punjab, Pakistan” which is even more generic because it’s a province not a city.
The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as “Punjab, Pakistan” which is even more generic because it’s a province not a city.
I could see India being upset over that because it’s disputed territory.
This was a good one. Definitely recommend
I’d like to watch this and Annihilation again. I’ve only seen each of them once, both around the same time, and my memories of them are pretty fuzzy at this stage.
Two of my absolute favorite movies. They are both amazing examinations of contact with life that functions completely differently than us, albeit in very different ways
that fucking bear 💀
Was fuzzy, indeed.
I’m pretty sure I saw it in a Dolby theater and it kept me up that night.
FYI Annihilation novel has the same premise and setup as the movie, but is quite different plot-wise. It’s more emotional, introspective, and has very vivid imagery. Much different from what I usually read, but I loved it.
Still one of my favourite movies ever
I need to give this a rewatch
Read the short story before re-watching. Definitely gives you a better perspective.
The aliens reminded me of the Tralfamadorians from Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.
That was a mouthful. Is it worth a watch?
It’s a book. Then again I don’t watch much tv, so who knows, it may have been adapted by now. The book is worth reading though, it’s very good.
The world is shocked to discover that Terry’s Chocolate Oranges are actually seed pods for intelligent extra terrestrial life.
It’s not Terry’s, it’s Extraterrestrials.
Amy Adams wrecked me with two movies back-to-back. Nocturnal Animals and Arrivals really did a number on me.
Yeah its one of my favorite movies
Definitely a top 20 in my book, one of my wife’s top 5. I also love the book, it’s very short story, you can probably read it in the time it’d take to watch the movie (I’m a slow reader and did it in a few hours), it doesn’t add too much, but it’s a bit of interesting mathematical philosophy which I found quite endearing.
Now you have to watch it again. Seriously
Watched it last week for the first time. Really enjoyed it
Alien Linguistics. Love this movie
Now you need to watch the 1996 classic “The Arrival”!
Reading this made my knees hurt.
So good. I think I listed it as my favorite movie for a while.
Don’t remember much of this movie , but what I did see wasz very beautiful
Sapier Warf always fascinated me when I first read about it in philosophy class
I read this stuff casually and I was generally familiar with the theories in both Arrival and Interstellar, but I couldn’t make heads or tails of either when I watched the movies. I completely missed what they were pointing at in Interstellar and thought they butchered the idea that Amy Adams was caught in her own frame of how she understood her experience of time.
I am sure that’s my problem, but I truly wonder how anyone was supposed to appreciate the movies without internalizing the critical theories
Genuinely one of the best movies of all time IMO
I don’t remember much about the movie, but isn’t it one of the movies where time gets wacky?
Almost
Memories are what get wacky. The main character (as well as the aliens who “arrive”) can remember the future as well as the past due to learning the alien language. It’s based on the possibly-not-linguistically-sound Sapir-Wharf hypothesis that says the language you speak influences the way you think. The aliens use a circular rather than linear writing system so they think of time in a non-linear way
I watched it because Lingthusiasm has a podcast episode about it and loved it too!
f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@sopuli.xyz 1 hour ago
Same. I’m skeptical of most newer movies given all the rehashes and sequels. The presentation of the aliens had me shaking a little bit!