(no subject)
Sep. 10th, 2009 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spokeAlright. I did indeed end up going to see 9! From the drive out there it looks like Dad may be right in his theory about my car overheating - meaning it isn't, it's a faulty sensor? It hardly tried to overheat at all, and since this was a night drive rather than the day drive that made it look really scary? Yeah. :P I'm still planning to take her into the shop, but it's nice not to be as worried.
Onward, to the movie! Warning: contains spoilers that may be hazardous to your squee. Do not read unless squee is already achieved!
First of all, visually, it was gorgeous. Granted I have a taste for post-apocalyptic ruins, so I was always going to like that? But it's still really lovely, the lifeless crumbling grandeur of humanity.
Second, the first thing that caught my eye was this creepy similarity between the little guys (stitchpunks? is this what they're called, I haven't looked yet, avoiding spoilers) and the thing that came after them. I thought when I saw it, "But it's like them. Different materials, worse materials, but O.o" and here we get into spoilers because.
I was right, wasn't I? I mean, given the Machine's origins, the only artistic influence it would have had is its Daddy. And they're both scrap artists! XD
But that is the underlying image and theme that has put the biggest smile on my face - the scientist as artist. That is why I will probably go see it again next weekend, and I'll be buying it as soon as the dvd is out.
The idea that a scientist is an artist, that science is an art, and like all art springs from the desires and the dreams of the human soul, and is not in itself some soulless and inhumane pursuit? Is beautifully honest. Not to mention, so often when we see a scientist who makes something like the Machine, he is a Mad Scientist. He is shown to us a lost soul, someone who turned his back on his own humanity and of course everyone else.
The nameless creator of the stitchpunks is a perfectly ordinary human, exceptional in his vision and his goals perhaps, but utterly ordinary in his emotions and his reaction to having fucked up. Even though it is a fuck-up by proxy, even though he is shown being dragged away from his creation, he doesn't try to shirk his share of the responsibility for what the militarily-influenced Machine proceeds to do.
He does what we'd all like to believe any decent, moral human being would do - he tries to fix it. Himself, not leaving it to nameless others, not devising a plan in the hopes that someone else would survive and pick it up for him. He sees the flaw in his first creation, and instead of trying to fix that one, or falling into the trap of more 'soulless science' that never works - again, as if science in itself were flawed and evil and there's nothing to be done but abandon the pursuit thereof? He goes back to the drawing board. Like any good artist, he saw where he went wrong and started over, making something new.
And what we get are the stichpunks, tiny little androids with organic coverings. Little scrap metal and cloth dreams that he puts pieces of his own soul into, to counter the soulless Machine - not because he believes it was evil, either, but because he has seen the mistake, the missing quality that makes the Machine such a threat.
And I love the complexity of them, not just as machines but as tiny people all born of one soul. 1 and his fear and the sense of age and its failings, 2 who also has a feeling of age but a rather grim determination to keep going. 3 and 4, the catalogers, the curious little souls who gather knowledge because it's there, wheee! 5 and his hesitance and his need for the company of the others. 6 the visionary, who is so clearly the distilled intuitive logic of the group.
7 - oooh, and 7, the only female and the warrior. That acknowledge meant that we all have a bit of the opposite gender in us, that we are all yin and yang - and the feel of balance in it, that a man who himself seemed a gentler soul, whose male qualities were all peaceful, would give his more violent qualities(but not negative! <3) expression as a female. 7 with her strength and determination and graceful violence, with her little bird skull headdress and earrings and feather! Just the idea that she was out there fighting while 1 tried to keep the others hiding, that the woman would not be caged.<3 I cannot wait to see fic for her, I may try to write some. Seriously. Coolness.
Gah, and 8. And I have some problems with not with 8 himself, who was really rather freaky? But I don't like clowns anyway. So. >> 8 is the heavy, the huge and somewhat slow-witted fighter - but what I really think he is, is the pleasure-seeking part of the scientist. I mean, given that he has essentially invented drugs for the stitchpunks? Oi. And I wonder about that, the implications that sensuality is a bad thing, or at least that the scientist saw it as a bad quality in himself if not generally.
I mean, it's a clown. Freaking huge and menacing by stitchpunk standards, a bully and a follower to the exclusion of his own brain, and he's the hedonist? I really do not like that. Sensuality, our ability to enjoy our senses and what they tell us about the world and each other, and how they effect us, should not be portrayed as if there were something inherently wrong with it.
I do like the scene at the end with 8 and 7, that he turns to her in saying goodbye, as if there is something they need to communicate - and she smiles at him, and whatever it was, was resolved. There's something in that which will probably take me multiple viewings to put my finger on.
And 9. 9 the leader, 9 the guy who rushes in where angels fear to tread because he saw something shiny. Oh lord. XD I mean, the real trouble starts because he didn't even ask 'what does this button do?' He just pushed it, so to speak. But the same qualities that trigged the whole mess end it, that he would not stand down, that he kept asking questions and looking for the answers.
He found out what they are by asking questions. He found the answer to how to end it because he wouldn't stop asking why.
And in the end we're left with only 4, standing in what's probably the first rain since the end of the war between mankind and the Machine, with nothing but themselves and the promise of coming life - little microbes in the rain. And I think, since they are bits of a scientists and makers in their own right, that they'll find a way to make more of their kind. And I hope they do.
The world could have worse souls trying to rebuild it.
Onward, to the movie! Warning: contains spoilers that may be hazardous to your squee. Do not read unless squee is already achieved!
First of all, visually, it was gorgeous. Granted I have a taste for post-apocalyptic ruins, so I was always going to like that? But it's still really lovely, the lifeless crumbling grandeur of humanity.
Second, the first thing that caught my eye was this creepy similarity between the little guys (stitchpunks? is this what they're called, I haven't looked yet, avoiding spoilers) and the thing that came after them. I thought when I saw it, "But it's like them. Different materials, worse materials, but O.o" and here we get into spoilers because.
I was right, wasn't I? I mean, given the Machine's origins, the only artistic influence it would have had is its Daddy. And they're both scrap artists! XD
But that is the underlying image and theme that has put the biggest smile on my face - the scientist as artist. That is why I will probably go see it again next weekend, and I'll be buying it as soon as the dvd is out.
The idea that a scientist is an artist, that science is an art, and like all art springs from the desires and the dreams of the human soul, and is not in itself some soulless and inhumane pursuit? Is beautifully honest. Not to mention, so often when we see a scientist who makes something like the Machine, he is a Mad Scientist. He is shown to us a lost soul, someone who turned his back on his own humanity and of course everyone else.
The nameless creator of the stitchpunks is a perfectly ordinary human, exceptional in his vision and his goals perhaps, but utterly ordinary in his emotions and his reaction to having fucked up. Even though it is a fuck-up by proxy, even though he is shown being dragged away from his creation, he doesn't try to shirk his share of the responsibility for what the militarily-influenced Machine proceeds to do.
He does what we'd all like to believe any decent, moral human being would do - he tries to fix it. Himself, not leaving it to nameless others, not devising a plan in the hopes that someone else would survive and pick it up for him. He sees the flaw in his first creation, and instead of trying to fix that one, or falling into the trap of more 'soulless science' that never works - again, as if science in itself were flawed and evil and there's nothing to be done but abandon the pursuit thereof? He goes back to the drawing board. Like any good artist, he saw where he went wrong and started over, making something new.
And what we get are the stichpunks, tiny little androids with organic coverings. Little scrap metal and cloth dreams that he puts pieces of his own soul into, to counter the soulless Machine - not because he believes it was evil, either, but because he has seen the mistake, the missing quality that makes the Machine such a threat.
And I love the complexity of them, not just as machines but as tiny people all born of one soul. 1 and his fear and the sense of age and its failings, 2 who also has a feeling of age but a rather grim determination to keep going. 3 and 4, the catalogers, the curious little souls who gather knowledge because it's there, wheee! 5 and his hesitance and his need for the company of the others. 6 the visionary, who is so clearly the distilled intuitive logic of the group.
7 - oooh, and 7, the only female and the warrior. That acknowledge meant that we all have a bit of the opposite gender in us, that we are all yin and yang - and the feel of balance in it, that a man who himself seemed a gentler soul, whose male qualities were all peaceful, would give his more violent qualities(but not negative! <3) expression as a female. 7 with her strength and determination and graceful violence, with her little bird skull headdress and earrings and feather! Just the idea that she was out there fighting while 1 tried to keep the others hiding, that the woman would not be caged.<3 I cannot wait to see fic for her, I may try to write some. Seriously. Coolness.
Gah, and 8. And I have some problems with not with 8 himself, who was really rather freaky? But I don't like clowns anyway. So. >> 8 is the heavy, the huge and somewhat slow-witted fighter - but what I really think he is, is the pleasure-seeking part of the scientist. I mean, given that he has essentially invented drugs for the stitchpunks? Oi. And I wonder about that, the implications that sensuality is a bad thing, or at least that the scientist saw it as a bad quality in himself if not generally.
I mean, it's a clown. Freaking huge and menacing by stitchpunk standards, a bully and a follower to the exclusion of his own brain, and he's the hedonist? I really do not like that. Sensuality, our ability to enjoy our senses and what they tell us about the world and each other, and how they effect us, should not be portrayed as if there were something inherently wrong with it.
I do like the scene at the end with 8 and 7, that he turns to her in saying goodbye, as if there is something they need to communicate - and she smiles at him, and whatever it was, was resolved. There's something in that which will probably take me multiple viewings to put my finger on.
And 9. 9 the leader, 9 the guy who rushes in where angels fear to tread because he saw something shiny. Oh lord. XD I mean, the real trouble starts because he didn't even ask 'what does this button do?' He just pushed it, so to speak. But the same qualities that trigged the whole mess end it, that he would not stand down, that he kept asking questions and looking for the answers.
He found out what they are by asking questions. He found the answer to how to end it because he wouldn't stop asking why.
And in the end we're left with only 4, standing in what's probably the first rain since the end of the war between mankind and the Machine, with nothing but themselves and the promise of coming life - little microbes in the rain. And I think, since they are bits of a scientists and makers in their own right, that they'll find a way to make more of their kind. And I hope they do.
The world could have worse souls trying to rebuild it.
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-15 03:50 pm (UTC)I was reading this with tears almost coming into my eyes because I couldn't believe how eloquently you could explain all these tiny things that were what made me love this movie. Yes, the film still had its problems, but I think everyone is so used to being told everything in a movie, and this one was so implicit that the viewers could have such varied ways of taking things.
You're analysis of the scientist was so true. He only had the one scene by the end, but h felt like any person you could see on the street, just trying to get by.
The world could have worse souls trying to rebuild it.
This line must be put into fan fiction. It has such power to it, I stared at my computer and could only breath out, "Wow!" to express my feelings to it.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-09-17 11:35 am (UTC)