MovieChat Forums > OXV: The Manual (2014) Discussion > Don't even know what to think!

Don't even know what to think!

posted 10 years ago by Dejay
10 replies | jump to latest

It's really a very good movie. I enjoyed it.

But I shouldn't have :D The story is highly illogical and in many ways takes a very "unscientific" perspective. As a hard sci fi fan I usually despise the whole "Intellect vs Emotion" trope where love wins over hard reality. Not sure if you know what I mean but this stuff usually eggs me on. It straight away ignores plausibility and science in the movie is more like magic.

Despite that the movie did manage to really charm me. It is more like a poetic meaning in the story. Not "deep" really but it does manage to show you new perspectives. People call this pretentious but it's really not much more than that you either like it or you don't. No need to get personal!

I'd go so far as to call it brilliant. Not sure why. It's just a really unique movie.

One of the things I love about the movie is that there are no evil villains in the movie. Often stories use evil people doing stupid, irrational or senseless things to create drama. Not here and I really like it!

[–] DreadFox 10 years ago

Didn't understand or get this movie at all. I can neither praise it or bash it, as it felt like a foreign film that wasn't translated properly or something.

It made me question my intelligence 😥

[–] Dejay 10 years ago

Haha I wouldn't do that. It certainly has a very unique style of telling the story. But each backflash revealed additional details you didn't know from the other perspectives. At first I was confused by the changing faces while they grow up and the weird "rules" too.

But on the surface it's just a boy meets girl story with unusual "rules" in the universe. You either enjoy that kind of story or you don't. And then the whole metaphorical issues are interesting (even though how it was presented normally eggs me on). I also liked the whole "we need to save the world from absolute power" where everyone worked together. There wasn't the evil lab technician who tried to sell or abuse the technology.

[–] DreadFox 10 years ago

But I was confused the entire time. Is this an alternate universe? What is frequency and how did it determine your potential? Why would 2 people with very different frequencies cause rain?

How did Theo have the future on his laptop?

Words effect the frequency and music nullifies it completely?

The entire movie my hands are up in the air in complete WTF stance.

[–] Dejay 10 years ago

But I was confused the entire time.

Well me too haha. Many things in the movie made absolutely no sense! I would call this "poetic license". The movie's world and rules are merely there to serve as a vehicle for ideas. Usually I abhor things in movies that are not plausible, when rules are bent or people do something illogical just to advance the plot.

But what I surprisingly liked about this is that you can read a million things or nothing into the movie. For example for me the idea of this "Frequency" brings up themes of determinism vs. free will, of luck over merit, of superficial values you where born with (beauty, IQ, money) versus what you do with your life. And of the "dark side of love" where everyone always tries to "do better" and it's a game of optimization instead.

And yes this is definitely an alternative universe haha!

How the rain / accidents are cause was explained by Zack with the "ironic particle" theory. When you want something, ironic particles are created that work towards it not happening. Like I said it doesn't make sense, but somehow it's plausible enough.

And Theo found "the patterns" to predict the future - some kind of world formula - an idea which I normally despise as well - and wrote a computer program to tell him what happens. Again makes no sense!

Later Theo's dad explains that the frequencies determine our life, our compatibility for relationships and can be use to control us - no free will. Because different frequencies create disharmony that cause things to happen - but music creates harmony. Beautiful, incredibly boring classical music. The frequency disharmony is again a stupid concept since different pitched frequencies can play very well together - the writer never heard of an octave? A quint? A triad? Normally I should despise this as well! It all doesn't make sense but it tells a nice story of boy meets girl and you are free to think and view all of this stuff under different perspectives.

I'm only writing so much because I still don't know what to think of this movie haha. But that fact alone I really like!

[–] DreadFox 10 years ago

I have a movie suggestion for you: Ink

It hands down does the most amazing job of having its own set of rules but it just works. Like, you get it. In my top 3 movies of all time.

Just to clarify it's Ink (2009) Director: Jamin Winans

It's very low budget, don't let that bother you. I remember the first time I tried to watch it I got thru like 20 minutes and just wasn't feeling it. Like a week later for some reason I decided to give it another go. So glad I did, it's quite simply amazing.

[–] Dejay 10 years ago

Thank's I'll keep a look out for that movie :)

[–] HarryBeavers 9 years ago

I agree. There is very little typical about this film, and that's part of what makes it special I think. I loved the fact that it made the idea of a totally predetermined reality seem just fine, that it wasn't a big deal. That's a very new idea to me. I've never really looked at it like that before, and I felt the film was quite convincing in it's argument. We all relish the idea of free will, but if it was an illusion to us, would it make that much difference really? I agree the film has poetic meaning and to this aspect of it, I believe it was saying, it doesn't matter. Just live and love, be thankful for whatever joy you can find in the world/life. I thought it was quite brilliant too.

[–] daniel-389-59760 9 years ago

It's more focused on philosophy than science. The film is brilliant because it truly convinces most of the audience that they are programmed sheep. In the end of the film, we see the technological singularity unfolding in the diner.

I'm sorry but how do you not see Theodore as a antagonist? He used Zak as a lab rat. It is truly evil what he does in this film.

He preaches about determinism as though it is truth, but at the same time, he values knowledge more than any other commodity. As such, he exploits those who care for him the most.

[–] Dejay 9 years ago

I don't quite remember what Theo actually does. I thought he more or less facilitated the liberation through music (humans basically lived as slaves to the frequencies) and pushes scientific boundaries. He manipulates but is he really antagonistic? I'll have to watch the movie again sometimes.

Not sure if you can call him simulating and predicting the world singularity. As I understand the singularity it is the creating of super human intelligence or basically us creating God (a hopefully benevolent God).

[–] daniel-389-59760 9 years ago

Indeed. Do your homework and get back to me.