MovieChat Forums > Maggie (2015) Discussion > Could have been so much better

Could have been so much better

posted 10 years ago by Corraxx
3 replies | jump to latest

The idea behind the tragic father/infected daughter relationship in the backdrop of a zombie epidemic has loads of potential. But some of the decisions in the story here just seem so ridiculous it ruined the experience for me.

1. The scene where the doctor casually lets out a patient infected with the zombie virus due to a "favor" for Arnie's character just sounds mind-bogglingly implausible and badly done. It wouldn't happen like that, and it seems so forced just to move the story forward.

2. The fact infected people are out and about and the police do nothing even though they KNOW the people are infected (as in the case of Maggie) is just incredible. Imagine an outbreak of a deadly disease in the real world that causes people to becoming mad, raving cannibals and has affected vast amounts of people (and that's exactly what the premise of this movie is supposed to be). You think the authorities would treat it so lightly? That completely destroys the immersion factor.

In reality, as soon as anyone is even SUSPECTED of being infected, they would be thrown into quarantine. The police wouldn't just ask their parent "for approval", how silly is that!

3. Arnie's character allows his daughter to roam freely around his other children despite the fact she's infected with a disease that slowly turns you into a mad, raving cannibal. REALLY? And he doesn't appear to be insane. And his wife, who appears to be rather fearful of Maggie's condition (and rightly so), allows it to happen. Not believable.

4. When Maggie is close to turning, Arnie doesn't even bind her down or put her in a locked room! He allows her to keep roaming about the house, even though she may turn at any time. How dumb is that? If I was infected and I knew what was about to happen to me, and they do know because this had been happening for weeks all around them, I'd demand my family keep me bound somewhere. I wouldn't risk their lives like an *beep* This is completely unbelievable because Maggie seems to be a nice girl, it's totally out of character that she'd allow herself to be free around her loving father despite the fact she's likely going to turn into a mad, raving cannibal within days and she knows it.

5. After Maggie attacks and ravages the fox in the cage, you'd think her father would FINALLY come to his senses and put her in a locked room or bind her to a bed or something. But no, she's still allowed to roam around freely.

6. The teenage friends of Maggie appear to have no problems with the fact she and her male friend are infected with a deadly disease and slowly turning into mad, raving cannibals. They go out for a picnic together. And there's no plausible reason given for their behavior. In reality her friends would most likely avoid her like the plague, or at least be very very timid around her, but the movie appears to simply ignore that.

And we're supposed to feel sorry later for the boy because he's being taken to "quarantine", and yet he freely walks around other people with a deadly zombie virus without a care in the world for the uninfected people around him? What if he turns while he's outside or cuts himself and his blood infects someone, he's a danger to everyone around him and he takes no precautions. And we're not talking about an aids victim here, we're talking about someone with a zombie virus! Ok perhaps he's a sociopath and doesn't care about others, or just really stupid and naiive, but then develop that character in that direction or it just doesn't sound believable at all.

In essence I was sorely disappointed with this movie. So much potential, but so little effort put into making the actual people look believable. The zombies are of course fantasy, but there's no reason to make the society and the actual living people feel so badly written.

[–] SaliceMcD 10 years ago

From what we hear on the radio at the beginning, and Vern's saying that they, the medical profession, didn't know a lot about the disease, I attributed any laxity toward "the infected" to be the result of a slow-moving legal system. The doctor at the hospital probably wasn't having his actions closely scrutinized, if even monitored, in what was apparently still a fairly chaotic, undisciplined situation. (Consider Trent's description of how the infected are handled in quarantine.) He didn't appear to me to be acting casually; he was pretty nervous as he talked to Wade, stressing his discomfort with what he was doing, and only released Maggie as a favor to a friend, not just "on request." It was believable to me that, as slowly as laws are enacted and courts make rulings, people were operating under some not-so-clear guidelines. While I'm not saying that things weren't bad enough for some radical measures to be underway, I was willing to let it go for the sake of the more personal story. How can we know *how* things would be handled in such unprecedented circumstances?

The other kids are sent to live with their aunt on the same day that Maggie returns, as I recall. She isn't a danger to anyone at that point, as she's shown no signs of "turning" so isn't going to bite them, which is the only means of infection that was mentioned. We hear other people talk about this taking four to six weeks; this is probably a cautious, conservative government estimate. Others do worry that it could happen sooner, but this is paranoid, almost panicked speculation by laymen, not doctors, researchers, etc. Wade says that he and Caroline know the precautions; they have literature about it in the house. It's made pretty clear that the quarantine centers are overcrowded as it is. It could be that laws had been passed, or at least guidelines in effect, regarding how long infected people were allowed to live at home, or on their own. In addition, this takes place in a remote, sparsely populated rural community, where people are more apt to "take care of their own" and members of law enforcement are often less by-the-book, as they're dealing with people they know, longtime friends. It's doubtful that their actions, or lack of them, will be noticed by those in positions of higher authority, as their focus would be on the hardest-hit areas, the cities, as was mentioned in the radio broadcast.

The movie did enough to convince me that the Vogels had a safe window of time in which to come to terms with Maggie's condition and decide how to deal with the inevitable.

I think Wade, who still seems to be grieving the death of his first wife to an extent, is in pretty strong denial about what was likely to come - his being mortally wounded by his own daughter. He very well could have been, but instead she kissed him. However, I expected Maggie to tell him, when she started to turn, to lock his door at night, or to lock *her* up. After all, she'd run away in the first place in order to protect the family. (I assumed this from watching; it was confirmed in DVD commentary.)

I vacillated between "teenagers think they're invincible" - even when they see "their own" infected and dying, they might have held onto an "it can't happen to *me*" attitude - and finding their overly-mature, accepting attitudes hard to believe. Apparently being a doctor's daughter made Allie a saint.

Trent *did* freak out and lock himself in his room, exclaiming "I *can't* come out!" - and I believe he meant because he was afraid he'd attack his father, not because he wanted to avoid quarantine - as soon as he "smelled" his father; he specifically told Maggie this. I accepted that the characters (and writer) knew more about the disease than was revealed to the audience. The movie wasn't telling a zombie epidemic story per se, but a much more personal one with the epidemic serving only as a backdrop to it.

As I said, I was satisfied on the whole with the information we were given, which was sufficient to inform our understanding of the story's development and the actions of the characters. I loved this movie, so much so that I watched it twice, then a third time with the director's commentary. I thought that Schwarzenegger and Breslin each did an outstanding job.

[–] Corraxx 10 years ago

From what we hear on the radio at the beginning, and Vern's saying that they, the medical profession, didn't know a lot about the disease, I attributed any laxity toward "the infected" to be the result of a slow-moving legal system

They can clearly see the disease is turning people into mad, raving zombies while their body is clearly decaying. The fact they know little about the disease itself and have no cure should be even more reason for them to take it very very seriously. You can see in the beginning of the film that it has caused devastation around the city, so it has been going on for some time, they know enough to act in a far more precautionary way than they appear to do in the movie.

In the real world, the legal system didn't act like this around Ebola, people who were infected were immediately put into quarantine (when it was discovered they were infected) and it was taken very very seriously. This zombie virus takes it to another level entirely, I mean mad, raving cannibals all over the place (this wasn't BEFORE they realized what would happen, it was after they had plenty of examples) and their bodies are decaying and a doctor casually lets out an infected patient? I just can't buy it.

The other kids are sent to live with their aunt on the same day that Maggie returns, as I recall. She isn't a danger to anyone at that point, as she's shown no signs of "turning" so isn't going to bite them, which is the only means of infection that was mentioned.

How do they know she won't turn or bite them? I thought people knew "little" about the disease, but these kids are experts? People today tend to be timid around people with aids, this zombie virus takes it to another level entirely. I just don't buy that they'd be so casual around her, at least without any plausible explanation.

Others do worry that it could happen sooner, but this is paranoid, almost panicked speculation by laymen, not doctors, researchers, etc

When society is in the grips of a zombie virus epidemic, and the researchers don't know a lot about it as you mentioned earlier, you'd think people in general would be extremely nervous about being around the infected.

Wade says that he and Caroline know the precautions; they have literature about it in the house. It's made pretty clear that the quarantine centers are overcrowded as it is. It could be that laws had been passed, or at least guidelines in effect, regarding how long infected people were allowed to live at home, or on their own.

I still don't see why they'd let their children near Maggie, since as you implied there is a lot of unknowns about this disease at this point. It's a new disease and which turns people into mad, cannibal zombies, and which has a lot of unknowns still, and yet you'd let your children around someone that is infected? What if she turns faster than normal, what if accidentally infects one of the children, you'd think during a zombie epidemic people would be extremely paranoid about this. Sure they may have notes about this disease and what precautions to take, but if this type of disease popped up a few weeks ago do you honestly think people would not treat it a bit more seriously and take more precautions than that? You said the medical profession didn't know a lot about the disease, and yet people trust this literature about it enough to risk their children around someone infected with a disease that has medical professionals stumped?

I just think it's too over the top.

In addition, this takes place in a remote, sparsely populated rural community, where people are more apt to "take care of their own" and members of law enforcement are often less by-the-book, as they're dealing with people they know, longtime friends. It's doubtful that their actions, or lack of them, will be noticed by those in positions of higher authority, as their focus would be on the hardest-hit areas, the cities, as was mentioned in the radio broadcast.

Well I can see your point, but I still think by the time the movie happens any law enforcement in the country would be on high alert and doing their damndest to keep this epidemic under control. It's not like Maggie's the first infected in the town, the cops and doctors there know what's going on and they have a quarantine they can take people to, as evidenced by the fact they took Trent there, small community or not you'd think they'd take it a tad more seriously.

If this were a disease like aids, I would buy it. But not a zombie virus that has this type of effect on people.

I think Wade, who still seems to be grieving the death of his first wife to an extent, is in pretty strong denial about what was likely to come - his being mortally wounded by his own daughter. He very well could have been, but instead she kissed him. However, I expected Maggie to tell him, when she started to turn, to lock his door at night, or to lock *her* up. After all, she'd run away in the first place in order to protect the family. (I assumed this from watching; it was confirmed in DVD commentary.)

Well I can understand his refusal to let her go to quarantine, and his reluctance in admitting that she has no hope. That's perfectly understandable. But as you pointed out he has literature on this disease, he knows enough about it that he should have at least the common sense to keep her locked in her room unless she is under supervision, and away from other people while she's infected. Especially after she ravages that fox and is clearly losing control of herself.

Trent *did* freak out and lock himself in his room, exclaiming "I *can't* come out!" - and I believe he meant because he was afraid he'd attack his father, not because he wanted to avoid quarantine - as soon as he "smelled" his father; he specifically told Maggie this.

He had to be dragged out by the cops, who had to break into his room, I think that's pretty good evidence he did not want to go to quarantine. He also talks about how horrible quarantine is earlier in the movie (how they let people eat each other there etc), so obviously he wants to avoid going there. He may have also been afraid of biting his father.

I accepted that the characters (and writer) knew more about the disease than was revealed to the audience. The movie wasn't telling a zombie epidemic story per se, but a much more personal one with the epidemic serving only as a backdrop to it.

I don't mind that the zombie epidemic was simply a backdrop to the relationship story, in fact I think that's a great idea. Perhaps the writer and director had information that would have made some of the actions of the people make more sense, I just think it should have been revealed in the theatrical release if that's the case.

I thought that Schwarzenegger and Breslin each did an outstanding job.

They were decent, I didn't really have a problem with any of the acting. I just think they could have done a much better job with some parts of the story.

[–] SaliceMcD 10 years ago

You make valid points about how people should or would act in such a situation, but my focus was on the more personal aspects of the movie, that's all. : )