i knew hats were magic
Mar. 19th, 2011 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amredthelectorI just got back from seeing The Adjustment Bureau and feel like talking about it.
This movie was, in a word, awesome. I liked almost everything about it, and the few problems I have with it are so minuscule as to, for once, not interfere with my enjoyment of it. I liked it that much.
I wanted to see it from the first time I saw the trailer - a shadowy organization is controlling the paths of people's lives? Sounds awesome, totally gonna see it. It gets a bit more complicated then that in the actual movie, though. A young, bright politician with a true rags-to-riches story is on the cusp of becoming one of the youngest and most successful senators in New York, when he meets a woman that is utterly perfect for him. But their passing is brief and she disappears from his life... until, by chance, they meet again. And he accidentally stumbles upon the titular shadowy organization as they're tinkering with his friend's brain to make his plans more successful.
The shadow organization informs him of their purpose, hinting towards the fact that they aren't just an organization... they're practically agents of some form of God. And they tell him to get back on his path, away from his dream girl, or they'll start fucking his shit up. From there, he has to choose if he's going to follow their warning, or make his own destiny.
The trailers for the movie lead me to believe that this would end in an action-y way similar to Inception, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be more about talking and trying to run from fate instead of fight. The cinematography wasn't anything spectacular, but I liked the characters and the story kept me guessing as to whether the characters could escape their fate.
I had only three problems with the story, which are tiny, but spoilers, so they continue under the cut. The first was with the beginning. It rushed to introduce the hero, and did by... telling. Not showing. Fortunately, it only lasted about 10 minutes, and once the story got underway it wasn't as bad. I was also kind of bugged by the explanation one of the agents gave of why these paths are needed. They gave examples of times that the bureau didn't get involved with human free will, and those times were... the medieval period of Europe, and the period from 1910-the end of WW2. Now, okay, yeah, some parts of the world make huge fuck ups during those periods. But, uh... the medieval period also saw a huge amount of advancement in science and art in the East. It's implied that these "plans" apply to all the people of the world, so why does the bureau only count the success of... well, white people, basically. And kind of related to that ethnocentrism, my last problem was that this movie relied preeeetty heavily on the "Magic PoC" trope. I liked the one "good" agent that helped out the hero, but it did annoy me that he was just another magic black person in a movie. Please, Hollywood, we're all tired of this trope.
Anyways, those problems were so brought up so briefly in the story (except that last one) that it was easy to overlook. As a whole, I really liked the movie. I wish that it could get a big fandom a la Inception's (since I found it a better movie that understood what it wanted to be more then Inception did) but I highly doubt it. I think it would be a great movie to discuss and play with the world and stuff.
This movie was, in a word, awesome. I liked almost everything about it, and the few problems I have with it are so minuscule as to, for once, not interfere with my enjoyment of it. I liked it that much.
I wanted to see it from the first time I saw the trailer - a shadowy organization is controlling the paths of people's lives? Sounds awesome, totally gonna see it. It gets a bit more complicated then that in the actual movie, though. A young, bright politician with a true rags-to-riches story is on the cusp of becoming one of the youngest and most successful senators in New York, when he meets a woman that is utterly perfect for him. But their passing is brief and she disappears from his life... until, by chance, they meet again. And he accidentally stumbles upon the titular shadowy organization as they're tinkering with his friend's brain to make his plans more successful.
The shadow organization informs him of their purpose, hinting towards the fact that they aren't just an organization... they're practically agents of some form of God. And they tell him to get back on his path, away from his dream girl, or they'll start fucking his shit up. From there, he has to choose if he's going to follow their warning, or make his own destiny.
The trailers for the movie lead me to believe that this would end in an action-y way similar to Inception, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be more about talking and trying to run from fate instead of fight. The cinematography wasn't anything spectacular, but I liked the characters and the story kept me guessing as to whether the characters could escape their fate.
I had only three problems with the story, which are tiny, but spoilers, so they continue under the cut. The first was with the beginning. It rushed to introduce the hero, and did by... telling. Not showing. Fortunately, it only lasted about 10 minutes, and once the story got underway it wasn't as bad. I was also kind of bugged by the explanation one of the agents gave of why these paths are needed. They gave examples of times that the bureau didn't get involved with human free will, and those times were... the medieval period of Europe, and the period from 1910-the end of WW2. Now, okay, yeah, some parts of the world make huge fuck ups during those periods. But, uh... the medieval period also saw a huge amount of advancement in science and art in the East. It's implied that these "plans" apply to all the people of the world, so why does the bureau only count the success of... well, white people, basically. And kind of related to that ethnocentrism, my last problem was that this movie relied preeeetty heavily on the "Magic PoC" trope. I liked the one "good" agent that helped out the hero, but it did annoy me that he was just another magic black person in a movie. Please, Hollywood, we're all tired of this trope.
Anyways, those problems were so brought up so briefly in the story (except that last one) that it was easy to overlook. As a whole, I really liked the movie. I wish that it could get a big fandom a la Inception's (since I found it a better movie that understood what it wanted to be more then Inception did) but I highly doubt it. I think it would be a great movie to discuss and play with the world and stuff.
