MovieChat Forums > The Tree of Life (2011) Discussion > Anyone who calls this film visually impr...

Anyone who calls this film visually impressive needs to study science.


Absolutely OUTRAGEOUS. A dismal, dismal film, perhaps the WORST ever I've watched in my life. Hey? What are the images from the Hubble space telescope doing here? What's the Horse-head nebula, the Cat's eye nebula, the Pillars of Creation nebula doing HERE?

Hey Mallick, that's not even your art, not even your visual imagination. Its something real scientists worked on, sent up telescopes into space to photograph with great difficulty and cost. HOW DARE do you use those images to 'beautify' your ridiculous excuse of a movie, and use them as a make-up to increase your movie's rating? What did YOU do on your own? What the hell do those images even have to do with movie? Absolutely shameful. And ROTTEN rotten tomato critics. How DARE you praise this film based on its visuals? What meat is there in this film anyways? Anyone could just take images from the Hubble and make a movie about it, would be just as beautiful? Don't you guys ever watch Discovery? The History Channel? Have you no idea what you're looking at?

Anyone, Anyone here who DARES to call this film 'visually impressive' has to attend a science class, or watch a science documentary IMMEDIATELY! This film is almost like stolen work. I can name EVERY single visual scene in this movie and tell you where it came from.

1) Some interstellar clouds, a shape that looks like a horse -> Straight from the Hubble telescope gallery, image of the "Horse Head Nebula."
2) Some interstellar clouds, something looks like an eye -> Straight from the Hubble telescope gallery, image of the "Cat's Eye Nebula."
3) Some interstellar clouds, something looks like pillars -> Straight from the Hubble telescope gallery, image of the "The Pillars of Creation, in the Eagle Nebula"
4) Images of the surface of a sun/star. -> Straight from images from the SOHO Observatory gallery, images of the surface of the sun.
5) Images of jelly fish -> BBC Planet Earth, Deep Wonders.
6) Images of hammerhead shark -> BBC Planet Earth, Shallow Seas.
7) Images of microbes, microscopic life -> BBC Life / BBC Inside the Human Body.
8) Images of the sunrise over earth -> Images from the International Space Station as it orbits the earth.
9) Images of a galaxy -> Hubble deep field, some random spiral galaxy image.

What else is there? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing else in this film. Some weird kids. Some rolling in the grass, ABSOLUTELY NO DIALOG. How dare you use images that deserve credit on their OWN merit, and came from others, in your film in order to garner credit for YOURSELF!? Unless there was some connection to it in the film? Or a need for it?

Its not fair! Anyone can just put in some bits of imagery from space, some bit of imagery from the BBC's Planet Earth, some bit of imagery from a microscopic biology textbook, some weirdo kids and call it a movie.

Absolutely pathetic, disgraceful, shameful!

PS*/FYI* Hey, Mallick, do you even know how those Nebula images are photographed? Hey? Do you even know which electromagnetic spectrum they're in? Do you even know what individual filters they used before they could color those nebula images? Bet you don't.

What's beautiful about this movie? The visuals? The interstellar space imagery? Where did those images come from to begin with? Is it Mallick's imagination and creativity you think? You think he came up with those visuals? Pathetic. They're just a bunch of images from NASA's Hubble, from the BBC's documentaries. Copied as-is and thrown there into his excuse of a film just to make it look 'awe'. And they have NOTHING to do with the story of the film themselves. Just a wastage of reel and minutes.

I could make a movie about weirdos, some kids running around in the grass, and oh yea, include images from Hubble, WISE, SOHO, Spitzer, Chandra, Kepler and whatever space telescopes I can get my hands on. That's it. Done. Movie finished. Goodbye.

THANK GOD THIS MOVIE MADE A LOSS AT THE BOX OFFICE. THANK GOD! JUSTICE SERVED.

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You do realize that you're completely focusing on about thirty minutes of a movie that's over two hours long, right?

EVERY movie this man makes has been referred to as "visually impressive," and better compliments than that. Watch The Thin Red Line or The New World. All of his films are gorgeous to look at, and this is the first one that I'm aware of using space and scientific imagery. His screen shots and scenery are eye-candy. He's really well-known for this. He's been around a long time.

The rest is a matter of taste. What you see as weird kids rolling on grass, I see as someone's childhood encapsulated in fleeting memories. And I don't think more talking is really needed to tell a story. It's not like there wasn't a story just because there was little dialog. The relationships among this family were complicated and heartbreaking. You can see how rejected the father is among them, how he knows it, but can't help who he is. You see how the son is disgusted and embarrassed by his father, and yet can't help acting like the same kind of bully to his brothers. If this is stuff you didn't care about, fine, but you're trying to dismiss a whole movie based on such a small segment.

"The guy we're meeting with can't even grow his own hair?!? COME ON!!!" -Gob

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Considering your way of emphasising things like 'outrageous', 'how dare you', 'pathetic, disgraceful, shameful' etc., I'm going to call you out as a troll. If you're actually serious, you should be screaming at every single film that uses nature's beauty to its advantage. How about you start by making a list of every film that features the sky or the sun? That could be a start. Get back to us once you're done.

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It's visually stunning not because of those scenes, but because of the actual films that were shot for the film. Therefore, your whole tirade is null. As for the actual use of the space images, why would Mallick not use actual images of space? Are you suggesting he take his own? That's not really financially feasible now is it. The same goes for the nature shots from the BBC docs. Why try to film something when the image you want has already been created.

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The OP is probably someone who thinks that, by placing a picture of the Grand Canyon on the cover of a geology book, one somehow cheapens the book.

~~Bayowolf
There's a difference between being frank... and being dick.

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I wish there was a like button.

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Are you saying if we study science it will be less visually impressive?

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If you study science, you'll have already seen the film's 15 min. His point is that someone will consider this film unique for this part, if they've never seen any documentaries or read any textbook/popular-science. If they've, those pictures would just be randomly placed there. Otherswise it is beautiful film.

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I rarely take a "tl;dr" stance on oppositional opinions but seriously, just shut up.

If you don't like it fair enough but there's no need spill such vitriol about it.

P.S You could never in a million years make a FILM (not movie; film) like this. And neither could I.

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THANK GOD THIS MOVIE MADE A LOSS AT THE BOX OFFICE. THANK GOD! JUSTICE SERVED.


It was never intended to be a blockbuster. On the other hand, it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, was an Oscar nominee for Best Picture, and was on nearly every critics top 10 of that year. You're certainly allowed to have an opinion, but don't think anyone ever thought this was going to make a lot of money - that was never the intention. It did, however, make a little over 54 million worldwide (check Boxofficemojo.com), so it did make some money.

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SecureJames missing!

nobody live forever...

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