Why are people so offended?

[deleted]

I thought it was brilliant. Realistic to an extent of a believable form of trying to communicate. I loved that it wasn't some crap independent day movie and actually made you think. I guess the people who hated it don't have the imagination to think outside of the box, therefore they struggled to grasp the concept of the film and didn't enjoy it...how sad it must be to not have the ability of imagination.

It's because "people" have reached a breaking point.

"People" don't want to be preached to about globalism and feminism but fat cat Hollywood elites anymore.

And they don't want to be lied to from corrupt leftist media critics.

"People" get angry when they're being lied to. "People" get angry when they're being manipulated.

"People" have had it with the propaganda.

Honesty, its just the state of the internet these days and people in general. Through the internet, mostly due to the anonymity of the internet, people get to air out all thier frustrations on other people. The fact that you can't even find a peaceful discussion on the films people see speaks volumes about how unhappy a lot of people really are these days. You find someone running around attacking people's opinions on the films they enjoyed and I guarantee there is a LOT more there than just a disagreement about the films. Of course, those people would never admit as much, probably even to themselves, but I guarantee thats the case.

Still Shooting With Film!

I think a lot of the hostility comes from the fact that it wasn't an all-action movie with lots of explosions and heroic Top Gun type pilots taking on the alien mothership, etc. It also depicted the military getting it wrong in terms of dealing with the aliens (who must have arrived on a mission of conquest, mustn't they?). And as for the main character being a woman... sheesh. The point was that this was a 'serious' SF movie, dealing with an issue that SF fiction in print has been handling for years, and which most SF films tend to gloss over, which is the difficulty of communicating with extraterrestrials. Generally, pulp SF films have aliens speaking in English with a variety of accents, or having some magical translator device (wonderfully parodied by the Babelfish in Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy), but this film really took on this basic problem head on.

The problem is that the reason people are really slagging off this film is that they are doing so because it doesn't fit in with their world picture and so it makes them feel uncomfortable. All aliens are evil, right? And the government knows best, OK? Anyone who questions that is unpatriotic. Films like Independence Day extol the establishment and the military - this film doesn't (I suspect that a lot of people were disappointed that the attempt to blow up the spaceship failed, for example) - soits critics don't like it because it isn't comforting and reassuring. It leaves us with the idea that there is a civilisation out there that is way more advanced than ours, which is a massive blow to the collective ego (most SF films dealing with extraterrestrial aliens show us beating them hands down).

Personally, I thought it was an excellent film, with a whole load of unanswered questions at the end. I'd love to see a sequel, but, sadly, I doubt if it will happen.

I loved this movie. It touched me on a personal level, and I think I watched it at the perfect time in my life. I have been through some major trials in life over the last year. Life changing heartache and emotional pain that has been so hard to deal with I've felt like giving up many times in recent months. I never knew until now that losing someone you love, the heartache from it, can actually be physically painful. It's like nothing I've ever experienced in my life or ever want to again. But this movie makes you think. Even though I have suffered such pain and loss, would I do it over again? Yes, I think I would. If I knew how things would end and how much pain I would deal with would I do it again? Yes, I would. There's a certain comfort in that thought. It makes me realize that the pain I have been dealing with, while horrible, is not worth losing the time I had with this person no matter how heartbreaking that loss feels now. I can't imagine not experiencing that part of my life with him, and I would never want to erase him from my life or memory just because of the pain I feel now. She knew she was going to lose her daughter before her daughter was even conceived. She knew and yet she made the choice to have her and live through it. Because the idea of never having gone through life with her daughter at all was more painful than losing her after the short time they had together. It's a powerful message in my opinion. I cried my way through half the film.

I'm not sure why others didn't like it, and I realize there is a lot more behind the story than what I discussed. But that is one message I took away from it.

People are probably offended by this movie because like most of us Americans, we have an insatiable need to find any reason under the Sun to get butthurt about something, or that requires them to think and use their brain cells, rather than watching things blow up or involve car chases. If you're offended by this movie you need to get a life. The only kind of movies that offend me those mindless "horror" movies that are never scary and merely violence porn that sickos get off on watching people suffer or being tortured or killed bizarre and in unimaginatively horrifying ways. People who find that stuff entertaining are not well and have serious issues to work through. I thought this movie was pretty good and I don't care what anyone thinks. If that offends you, go to the store and get some butt hurt cream... And a life.

Humans have come to expect that any alien that doesn't look human must be evil and out to conquer/eat us.

The only nice theriomorphic alien we ever had was ALF, and he was portrayed as a selfish jerk. ET doesn't count, he's borderline human in the way Greys are. He has no hair on his body, that's an idealized future-human. Big heads, big eyes, no hair.

If humans really were presented with aliens that don't look like humans, yes, they'd freak out. If humans can't grasp that apes can have language, they're not gonna be prepared for talking octopi.