If you are looking for CGI infected, brainless fun, go see Transformers. But if you want to see a thinking person's sci-fi film, this one's for you. Sure, reviewers can take pot shots at this or that alleged failing. So what? Every movie has its detractors and yes, even, its flaws. Be your own thinker. See this movie and decide for yourself.
Oh, the posters who don't think Olivia Cooke is pretty, what planet are you from?
i agree it was awesome, great science fiction film
shareI agree with your comments in general about "thinking persons'" film but this was NOT that film. This movie made NO SENSE AT ALL, it was just a bunch of random scenes cobbled together. Most people left the theatre with WTF in their minds and I was one of them. Many of the scenes were cool to look at but there was absolutely zero logic, zero story, zero anything other than scenes cobbled together.
shareYou're missing the point of the "thinking persons" film. It's a film like that BECAUSE you have to put together the scenes and figure it out. It isn't spoonfed.
shareThis film wanted to have you think it was clever and a "mind bender" but it was anything but. If you were born before 1985, you probably have seen the dozens of better films this one heavily borrows from. Trust me, nobody will be talking about this film in 5 years. The music, "quick ADD- style jump cuts", over-usage of slow motion, hackneyed storyline, I could go on.
Now please understand, I have no problem when films are inspired, and even borrow, elements from other films conservatively but this film was 100% guilty if having not one thing original to say or express. Of course nothing can be completely original, but carbon-copying is not acceptable. And knowing how to use a computer, is not the equivalent if good filmmaking.
If you want a good "mind bender" film, that doesn't spoon feed, like many say is a quality of this film, better examples to check out would be;
1. Stay
2. Mullholland Drive
3. The Man who fell to earth
4. The Andromeda Strain
5. The Shining
6. Under the Skin
7. Oculous
8. Altered States
9. Solaris
10. Eyes Wide Shut
11. 2001: A Space Odyssey
12. The Stepford Wives
13. The Matrix
14. Inception
15. Memento
16. Jacob's Ladder
17. Blade Runner
18. Cube
19. Pie
20. invasion of the Body Snatchers
Yes, I've seen all these film, most numerous times and many clearly inspired The Signal, but the main difference, is that these films were films made by filmmakers who truly had something to say about human anxieties and paranoia. Most of these films also have hidden political underpinnings as well as signature filmmaking styles that were completely original at the time of their release. Most, but maybe not the more recent entries like "Stay" are films that are considered classics because if their originality, which is why they have such staying power. Trust me, nobody is going to be talking about, or even remember the forgettable The Signal.
I have to agree and would even toss in The Sixth Sense. It seems cliche now, but when it came out it was anything but. As for this one, I actually laughed out loud at the scene borrowed from 2001. The opening scene of 2001 as the ape is using the bone to become the first tool and thus the first weapon, it was shot as almost a perfect copy in their "escape" but the funny thing is, there was no tie in to that movie or that scene of that movie. It was just a director saying, hey wouldn't it be cool if we shot this and it looked like the opening scene of the 2001.
shareNice list, although I would replace Inception with The Prestige from the same director, as I feel Inception is a cool story, but totally spoonfed from beginning till the end. The Prestige on the other hand - a total masterpiece in my mind, and not without sci-fi elements, I might say cautiously without spoiling it.
shareI beg to differ. People still discuss if the ending was real or not when it comes to Inception ^
http://screenrant.com/inception-spoilers-discussion-kofi-68330/
Sadly the comment section is closed there, after almost 8000 replies! :D
Suicide By Star - Prometheus Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tPRPKfZwNM
That's because those people haven't heard about the wedding ring shtick.
The Prestige fits better with that list of films.
great list.
if i may ...
21. time crimes
22. moon
23. cypher
24. eternal sunshine of the spotless mind
25. brazil
26. survive style 5+
27. confessions
28. donnie darko
29. american psycho
30. hard candy
31. pi
"laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone." - Dae-su Oh
Your list is a lot like my DVD collection.
Time crimes and and survive style 5 being some of the more obscure films i have seen that not many others I know have. cluck cluck.
Might as well
add
32. The Chaser
33. Bad Boy Bubby
34. Enemy
35. Chained
36. Acid House.
37. The machinist
38. Pusher Trilogy
39. What is it?
40. Brain Candy
thanks. i guess it makes sense then, that i put the movies that i haven't seen from your list right onto my "next to watch list". :D
man, acid house was drastic, btw. still not sure if i would call it good, but definitively unique.
machinist was fantastic!
kinda dug the pusher trilogy. did you see the british remake of part 01? terrible. funny enough the have the actor that plays the gangster boss, reprise his role in the remake.
bad boy bubby was one hell of a ride as well.
edit: do you mean this "brain candy"?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116768/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
"laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone." - Dae-su Oh
Yes that brain candy. I thought it was really good, bizarre.
If you haven't seen Chained give that a look, another unique one
by David Lynch's daughter, surprisingly good.
I tried to watch the UK remake of Pusher, awful, I watched it
just to see how milo acted in it.
I went through a whole Danish film fest after Pusher.
cool, thanks.
i read the synopsis of chained and it sounds great. i think i stumbled upon it before, but never found the time to check it out.
yeah, pusher uk was really bad. ironically i absolutely love richard coyle as an actor, but the way he played the character or possibly how the director wanted him to play the character was way off. more disappointing though was the sidekick. i don't know the characters name. i mean the guy that the protagonist has around for like the first 40% of the film and then batters with a baseballbat. to me, that character was even the best part in the original. in the remake he was utterly worthless.
sweet. do you have some danish recommendations?
watched "enemy" yesterday. still not sure if i like it. kinda interesting, but considering the whole film is a metaphor, i think the cool basic idea is a bit wasted. when the car happens, i thought "hey, that opens up a whole new set of opportunities" and then it was over minutes ago. as i started to put things together i found the film to be a bit inefficient in the ratio of of message vs runtime.
"laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone." - Dae-su Oh
Awesome movie
Insert @V@T@R
I'm afraid I don't have any Danish films to add,
most were just okay or lost it in the final third.
When I generally like a foreign film I'll look for everything by that director or writer or actor etc, end up with a big pile and go through them when I have time.
Sometimes it can be weeks of bad films, sometimes you hit classic after classic.
I remember finding Ichi/oldboy/The Chaser/I saw the devil long before most of our western hipster sites posted about them. Maybe that makes me king hipster lol, I digress.
Good to speak to you.
Time Crimes was beyond stupid, IMO.
share[deleted]
No offense but younseem artisy fartsy with a kubrick broner. Personally after seeing pretty much all of those like this movie more than most u listed. Under the skin? This is the scar jo movie, right? One of the worst movies ever made, imo. So slow, boring, no real point or ah ha moments. Eyes wide chit! Seriously? I know kubrick has made loads of good films but this was just a load; that sound track though was brilliant! It almost inspired me to get into making soundtracks, having no musical background. Solaris? Didnt that get a razzi? Not 100% on that. U are a movie buff. One of the only people i know to make it through that movie. Theres one movie not listed that was more like signal than any of those.... A cabin in the woods. Hell, even hunger games is more like any of those. Just how loosely are people saying this movie is a rip off? Because the camera started rolling? In that regard, i suppose
shareSomeone who can't even spell out "you", being critical? LOL!
shareI encourage you to check out some other threads breaking down this movie. You're selling it way short
share
Yes, I've seen all these film, most numerous times and many clearly inspired The Signal, but the main difference, is that these films were films made by filmmakers who truly had something to say about human anxieties and paranoia.
Trust me, nobody is going to be talking about, or even remember the forgettable The Signal.
5. The Shining
Oh wow, you typed a list of clever films to somehow prove your legitimacy for slating The Signal. Amazing that no one will remember this film, yet you managed to retain it long enough to write this post about it.
I for one thoroughly enjoyed the film and will remember it, which completely disproves your arrogant delusional theory.
Small moves Ellie, small moves
I totally agree with what you said. Even after thinking it through, the movie made little sense. And the sense it made wasn't anything new or mindboggling. Just your average sci-fi in a fancy cover.
shareI agree with this and everything you said in your review. I kept feeling like I was watching a really long Nike commercial. Or some sort of artificially enhanced water ad! Heck, that would have explained some things. Every "artsy" scene felt like the directer pulled the treatment out of a shoebox marked "MY IDEAS" and nobody dared say "Hey, that one doesn't work in this context. Nope, not that one either. Do you think another slow motion sequence is necessary? Ya know, most of these kinda suck".
sharei liked the film, but it is indeed spoonfed. what it had to offer was told very openly. you can interpret the hell outta every aspect of it, if you want, but you could easily do the same to police academy 1.
"laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone." - Dae-su Oh
You're missing the point of the "thinking persons" film. It's a film like that BECAUSE you have to put together the scenes and figure it out. It isn't spoonfed.
why didn't it make sense? the 3 people went to look for the signal. captured by aliens. transformed. tested. they try to escape. and in the end the last guy kind of did escape. what didn't u understand. haha.
shareNothing was well considered in this film. It was made by an admittedly talented cinematographer with very little understanding of how write or direct a good story and my guess, a pretty big ego. A whole lot of random nonsense.
Gesundheit.
Speak for yourself. The only, for me, serious problem of the film was that it was too revealing. The director could have shown far less and it would still have been obvious what was happening.
shareWhat nonsense. There was a story, you just simply didn't like it or couldn't see it.
Small moves Ellie, small moves
Actually I think, it could have been something good, but it was not.
It tried to be something special, but it failed.
It has absolutely no message, no emotions no nothing, although the director tried to create the illusion of them.
Overused slow motion, unrelated scenes cut randomly together, theatrical music totally misplaced and overused, unfinished characters with their unfinished background stories which reveal nothing about the characters and add nothing to the (missing) storyline, no suspension at all, mixing up styles, like he didn't know if he wants to make a "found-camera" movie, a road trip movie, an alien abduction movie, a romantic movie, a Bonnie and Clyde kind of movie or something else. And I could go on and on.
It just doesn't add up.
It was a boring flick, that kept me watching just because I was curious how the aliens come into the story, but I didn't care for anything else in between and for sure not for the characters and their well-being.
"It was a boring flick, that kept me watching just because I was curious how the aliens come into the story, but I didn't care for anything else in between and for sure not for the characters and their well-being."
My thoughts exactly. Saw this a few days ago. Still kind of digesting it, but one thing I can say for sure is that I didn't care about the main characters at any point during the movie, and only watched it to finish due to the visual/auditory style which kept me mildly interested.
You summed up this film's (and I use the term very loosely) many flaws very well, bolstered by the fact that, despite a national advertising campaign, this movie only expanded from 120 to 240 theaters, making a total dismal $600K. Which means the initial audience ratings and word of mouth were so terrible, the studio flushed it.
But along will come the defenders of this movie, claiming "you just didn't get it" and "go watch a Transformers movie instead". Cracks me up.
what's up with everybody trying to find the meaning of life in each and every film nowadays? "her? ah, so deep", "the counselor? ah, so deep", "transcendence? ah, so deep", "the signal? ah, so deep". they aren't. i liked "the signar" very much, it was one of the best new recents releases IMHO, but nevertheless, it is just an entertaining film, no blade runner or the like.
if i weren't so thrilled and enterined, i could have easily predicted the end and some other aspects of the film.
philosophy wise it isn't that far away from transformers. what's up with transformers being everybody's punching back anyways, these days? i am not a fan of the franchise, but it is what it is: a film series for children with heavy cgi usage. that's kinda like saying "aaah, the new napalm death record is awesome and if you don't like it, go listen to the new bieber record".
i recommend this film, but if you want something at least a bit deeper, then watch "snowpiercer", which btw is still no "bladerunner".
"laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone." - Dae-su Oh
I actually rented this and at the end of the movie i was like what in the hell did i just see? what happened that they where on earth, ,,,,, i must have missed something somewhere.
This is not a good movie at all, but Lucy is even worst
I agree...I liked it...I guessed they were on a spaceship from the moment I saw Larry's face...but I still enjoyed the tale.
shareIt wasn't until Nick and Jonah meet up again that something clicked and I figured it out. Until then, I still thought it was the goverment trying to catch/isolate them for observation. After it clicked, I was very impressed with how long it took for the truth to be revealed. It was an excellent twist on the traditional alien encounter theme. I really liked this movie a lot!
shareThe way the scientists looked in their hazmat suits looked to me to be a projection of some sort...plus the line 'you've made contact'...very ambiguous.
shareIf you think this is a "thinking person's sci-fi film", you might need to a bit more thinking. It was borderline retarded.
Gesundheit.
The Signal wasn't really a thinking man's film. It borrows stock sci fi tropes and elements from lots of old movies, books and comics. There isn't really much depth to the story or the characters and the film has nothing much to say.
Minus the borderline...
share