Saw it Saturday in IMAX - really enjoyed it. Think I like this one better than Get Out. Was pretty funny at times - the audio / sound mixing was fantastic. To each their own I suppose

I mean… I guess? I still don't see how that helps or hinders the ending. And frankly, I can't think of many more less interesting themes to build a movie around. The fact that we're even having have to this discussion, and that there are so many questions around it, basically proves how ineffective it is.

That's not to say that good themes don't promote discussion. That's what the best themes often do. I'm just saying that good themes are at least CLEAR as to what the discussion should be. Whereas here, we don't even know what the hell we're supposed to be talking about.

I mean even if you take this movie at a superficial level and just as a simple alien movie, its good. So I don't know how the introduction of deeper themes, regardless if they make sense to the viewer on one go around, is bad or unclear.

This movie is not as clear as Get Out. But I think thats part of the point as one of the heavy themes in this film is misdirection.

What's it about?

I'll say this, upon second viewing I had way less of an issue with the inclusion of the Gordy scenes. If you pay especially close attention to his speech before the show scene, he says things that really give away how much that Gordy fist bump ****ed up his perception.

Whether or not thats good enough for a viewer to understand the film, well I don't know. Thats for ya'll do decide. But I definitely felt better about all the scenes on the 2nd viewing.

MBAR said:

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I mean even if you take this movie at a superficial level and just as a simple alien movie, its good. So I don't know how the introduction of deeper themes, regardless if they make sense to the viewer on one go around, is bad or unclear.

This movie is not as clear as Get Out. But I think thats part of the point as one of the heavy themes in this film is misdirection.

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Even outside of all the thematic issues, for all the reasons I've named, and are covered in the review I linked to, personally, I have to disagree with this statement. But to each his own. IMO, this movie is sloppily put together, no matter how you slice it. I give Peele points for originality and taking a big swing, but the script needed another couple of rewrites for sure.

Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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Agreed. There's nothing interesting or scary about (as another poster so perfectly put it) a giant flying butthole.

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You going to sit there and tell me that if you went outside right now and saw a giant flying butthole you wouldn't be interested or scared?

Nice try, but yet again my intent and point went right over your head.

(For those wondering, Spilner is trying - and failing - to make an ironic joke about a post I made in the Better Call Saul thread.)

Or… I saw it pop up in my watch list in real time and then responded.

If I had a time machine, I might choose to go back to yesterday to make that exact post, verbatim, just to see what your inevitable response would've been.

"this is literally one of the best-written movies in the history of film"

Hmm

Bottom line, to me at least, is this movie worth the cost to see it at the theatre, or just wait and watch it at the house?

Oh yeah.

Last movie we (wife & I) saw at the theater: Top Gun: Maverick.

And before that one....Actually, I don't recall.

I think this movie is about people making presumptions and trying to make everything about themselves. They will go to extreme lengths to try to make sense of something based on preconceived beliefs and can be completely off base. Gordy is a wild animal. The alien is an enigma.

In a way the movie is meta because people are trying too hard to connect dots when the message is more straightforward.

Now I say this completely as a hot, hot take based on reading summaries and other peoples' reactions. I didn't watch the damn thing. Not yet.

Teacher_Ag said:

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Some Junkie Cosmonaut said:

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Agreed. There's nothing interesting or scary about (as another poster so perfectly put it) a giant flying butthole.

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You going to sit there and tell me that if you went outside right now and saw a giant flying butthole you wouldn't be interested or scared?

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Of course I'd be interested and scared, especially with monkey pox going around right now.



Anyway I just saw it. Really liked it overall, but yeah - the Gordy stuff didn't make any sense and like others said, could've been a completely different movie. The scenes themselves were very creepy. I guess it just gave you more back story on Yuens character at the very least. Idk.

Otherwise I did like it a lot. Just enjoyable. Will I watch it again? Probably not

TCTTS said:

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Wow, this review - more of the script than of the movie itself - is so incredibly spot on. It expands on some of the same issues I had, while pointing out all new ones as well. I feel like I'm really starting to despise just how lazy this story is, and the fact that so many people are still somehow basically like "Peele is a cinematic genius" just makes it all the more annoying…

I take a look at the screenwriting in Jordan Peele's new movie, Nope - https://t.co/rj6RJJ438c

— Carson Reeves (@Scriptshadow) July 24, 2022

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There were bits of the movie that were vague, but that Carson guy was confused by lots of things that really weren't confusing at all.

I think there's a difference between being confused about the plot vs. being confused as to why certain choices were made. Yes, there were a couple of plot things he straight up missed, but most of the confusion in his review read to me like the latter (confusion as to why certain choices were made).

Lazy though? There are a ton of lazy screen writing examples in movies today and I just don't know how anyone could say Peele is a lazy filmmaker. That just doesn't make sense to me. Its one thing to not like it, but lazy?

Was I the only one who had massive anxiety about who has the rights to the footage and photographs?

I thought older cameraman was originally trying to run off with the footage before he decided to stupidly kill himself.

But seriously they did not plan this at all. So brother and sister obviously would split it 50/50 at first right? Well what about Fry's guy? Sure, he wasn't invited per se but he contributed and set everything up - shouldn't he get a cut? Especially once they started welcoming him in?

And of course, I'm sure whoever owns/is in charge of the amusement park now will make the argument that the photographs are actually property of the park, since Sister was trespassing and used the parks equipment to take the pictures. Not to mention she's about to get swarmed by reporters and cops.

MBAR said:

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Lazy though? There are a ton of lazy screen writing examples in movies today and I just don't know how anyone could say Peele is a lazy filmmaker. That just doesn't make sense to me. Its one thing to not like it, but lazy?

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You're conflating two things. While I *do* think that Peele should have been way more deliberate - less "lazy," if you will - with the first act/first half of the script itself, I don't at all think that Peele is a lazy filmmaker. I'm sure he worked his ass off on this thing, poured his soul into it, etc.

But far too often filmmakers in his position - guys who have had his kind of early success - don't put themselves in the kind of environment where their script can go through the necessary stress testing it needs. So many of these guys are surrounded by friends and yes men who will read a draft or two and won't tell the writer what they need to hear. Same goes for the studio, even. Universal probably just wanted that hot, new Jordan Peele movie, by any means necessary, and though they might have had their concerns with the script, may not have voiced them like they would with other filmmakers.

All I'm saying is that the first act of the script needed to be clearer in its character motivations. I got the gist of it, but it was all super muddled and even somewhat confusing at times. And even though the overall plot is random as hell, I would have been SO MUCH more on board with almost everything that played out, had Peele taken another draft or two to really clarify/better-set-up certain motivations/situations. That, and the ending *still* doesn't gel thematically for me, and I wish that whole thematic through-line would have been clearer as well.

So, yeah, it was "lazy" in the sense that for me, for so much of set-up, there was this "eh, good enough" quality about it. When I felt that Peele could have made more of an effort to properly establish the stakes, motivations, etc, instead of just blowing right by those things with a vague line of dialogue or two.

I know his post got deleted by staff, but I took his dumb little spiel as trolling sarcasm. I don't think he was at all being serious or *actually* accusing me of being racist for referring to a movie directed by a black guy as "lazy."

Peele gets credit for originality and freshness in my book. I respect him as a writer and filmmaker much more than the typical Hollywood blockbuster journeyman writer / director.

I totally give him credit for both of those things as well. I just feel like those things would land better with a more sound script.