MovieChat Forums > Melancholia (2011) Discussion > A complete waste of a fantastic concept

A complete waste of a fantastic concept

posted 9 years ago by xauresia
19 replies | jump to latest

This film should have used its concept about a colliding world to explore humanity and Earth - it should've followed multiple families around the world as they each handle the impending planet in their own way. Why was it used to simply elevate such a simpe story about some family? This would've made for an increidibly thought provoking sci-fi film, but instead it's just sime underwhelming story of a girl with depression. The script doesnt even acknowledge the planet until half way through... Forget about Justine and all that bollocks and focus on the ENTIRE world and how THEY are dealing with the impending planet. Why would you have the story follow one family?! Such a waste...

[–] patrick_bateman_90029 9 years ago

But the planet isn't the actual focal point of the story. It's about Justine and her various stages of depression culminating in her eventual acceptance of the apocalypse. von Trier is a filmmaker whose interests are in human behavior in their extremes, sometimes employing and subverting high concept ideas to do them his way.

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[–] xauresia 9 years ago

Yeah exactly that's my point. Yeah I know von Trier and his kinds of films, I just don't think this concept should have been used on this script. I don't think it should have been a film about Justine, I think it should've been a film about the entire world and the way humanity reacts to death. I respect what the film is - it's an exceptionally well made film - I just think it would've been a great, great film if it utilised its concept more heavily.

[–] bsharporflat-50959 8 years ago

But the planet isn't the actual focal point of the story. It's about Justine and her various stages of depression culminating in her eventual acceptance of the apocalypse. von Trier is a filmmaker whose interests are in human behavior in their extremes, sometimes employing and subverting high concept ideas to do them his way.

I agree with Patrick_bateman.

It is silly to wish for this movie to be about planets and global issues when it never was meant to be about that. It is called "Melancholia" for a reason (calling it "Depression" would have been too blunt). It is about the internal world of the human mind, not the external world. It is all metaphor and shouldn't be taken literally as about a "planet".

[–] I_Created_U 9 years ago

A complete waste of a fantastic concept

Couldn't have said it better.

What really frustrates me is that this kind of movies - end of the world type of movies - are usually the kind that i love because they make me go through the whole palette of human emotions; watching people/the world trying to cope with impending doom, with total annihilation is usually something that hits home, but not in this case at all.

Ok the last 5min where quite powerful and compelling, but the rest of the movie was just wasted on a girl who quite frankly only got on my nerves, instead of arousing my sympathy and understanding, which probably says a lot about how the character was written.

Even if i'm aware of her being a victim of her depression, i couldn't help but feel that Melancholia was actually doing everybody a favor by stopping this nonsense headfirst. The planet was probably orbiting some star while minding its own business for billion of years, but suddenly decided to go out of its way to crush that whiny little creature the day she threw her first tantrum. And frankly, who could blame it.

As said in another thread, this movie reminds me of Another Earth, because just like this movie, it completely wasted a very interesting concept by focusing on the irrelevant and ignoring the only reason why most people would tune in, the interesting premise.

Anyway, to each his own as they say.

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[–] xauresia 9 years ago

Thank you! My thoughts exactly... Why is the whole film about Justine and not the actual planet and the effect it's having on the entire world and the human race?

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] lfepson-457-483690 9 years ago

Other than Kirsten Dunst's lovely breasts, this movie was deadly depressing - Cormac McCarthy's
The Road depressing. (I read the book, saw the movie.) The beginning of Melancholia just confused me. Really, who names a planet Melancholia?
But I loved The Secret Life of Dogs.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Merrida 8 years ago

Actually that fact that you were annoyed by a character suffering from severe depression says a whole lot more about you than about the character.

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[–] WileyDairyGnome 8 years ago

I think him being annoyed is fine...but basically saying that she deserved death because of something beyond her control is pretty telling haha. If anyone deserved that or "summoned the planet" so to speak, it was the coward John, who didn't suffer from a mental illness as far as we know and still abandoned his family and scared the sh** out of his kid before running off to the stables to kill himself because he couldn't own up to the fact that he was wrong.

[–] carjones51 8 years ago

Oh, please! Justine was an extremely annoying character. It wasn't the 1950s where no one heard of Depression or how to treat it. She clearly needed medication. She could have been medicated. From the moment we saw her being depressed, I wondered why she wasn't medicated! It's sad she was depressed but walking around in a perpetual funk isn't going to help, esp. when she could get help for herself through meds or a therapist!

[–] Merrida 8 years ago

As someone who has anxiety and depression, believe me, we do not choose this life. And like in many situations, it's easy for someone on the outside with no intrinsic understanding of the subject matter, to offer up advice or just as swiftly dismiss the condition.

Getting help, and the right kind of help, is not always an option or available or affordable or recognized, etc., etc. This attitude is why so many people do not seek help,--an assumption that it should just be so simple to "just get help."

I wish it was that simple, I really do. But sadly, there's more complexity to this.

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[–] BarelyHere 8 years ago

Honestly, I really don't think having more families would have saved this film for me. To me this film suffers from what many films suffer from - 1. the director has too big of an ego to take any feedback and he thinks everything he shoots is superprecious and cannot be cut. And 2. there was enough there to make an excellent film short but he had to stretch it out into a feature length film.

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[–] 8 years ago

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[–] 8 years ago

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[–] xauresia 8 years ago

How? I like Lars von Trier. I just wish he had broadened his scope and not studied his characters so much. I just watched Arrival and it was fantastic. He couldn't have done something similar to that? And please don't group me in woth 13 Marvel fans because I enjoy films similar to Arrival.

[–] xauresia 8 years ago

By the way if you haven't seen Arrival you definitely should. It's a lot bette than Melancholia.

[–] Flabulous 8 years ago

Inexpensive production costs.

[–] Meldove 8 years ago

It wasn't a film about the global issues related to a planet colliding with earth. The story was specific to Justine and Claire and specifically Justine's depression. It also demonstrated while everyone grew weaker from the impending disaster, Justine actually became a source of strength. When John realized his theory was incorrect, rather than standing strong and being there for his family, he took the easy way out and committed suicide. Justine was there for them, helping Leo build his "magic" cave to help him cope with and not feel threatened by the world ending disaster.

It was interesting because John was inpatient and almost mocked Justine's issues, when in reality depression is an illness just like any other health condition. However, it showed people have a difficult time understanding and tolerating it as such. However, in the end John bailed on his family and Justine was their source of strength.

Making it a "global" movie would have turned it into a completely different movie entirely.