Re-Take The Cabin
- Thread starter MovieBob
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Again with the shots to the Retake: Mass Effect group. Jeez, enough already. The metaphors in Cabin in the Woods are fine on the whole Audience/Filmakers dynamic... or at least it would be if there was a cevat that the ways they made sacrifices in the first place worked so they did it ad neaseum until the Elder Gods couldn't tolerate anything different, so they dug their own hole with the formula.
Cabin of the Woods is still good though. Just, some comparisons don't work as well as first thought out.
Cabin of the Woods is still good though. Just, some comparisons don't work as well as first thought out.
I haven't seen so many people miss the point of a movie since Moulin Rouge. But it also appeals to my inner sense of Smug to watch it play out. There are basically three groups of people here:MovieBob said:
Group A: The people who, in the process of their complaining, are inadvertently demonstrating the criticisms this movie levies at them.
Group B: The people who enjoy the movie at face value, unaware of the subtext. It's making fun of you, laughing at not with you, and you're laughing right along without realizing it.
Group C: The people who watch groups A and B with a certain sense of smug (or maybe sadistic) satisfaction, the way a young boy might watch ants roast under a magnifying lens... only superficially realizing that they're enjoying the same "guilty pleasures" they accuse the "lesser" groups of being slave to.
No one is safe, and that's what makes the whole thing great!
...again you miss the point of Retake. I like you bob i really do. I watched GOT, i read your blog, watch big picture, american bob, escape, and obviously i read this article. So i'm lost as to how you can be this ignorant. In this case Cabin's dynamic of elder god/office worker's doesn't apply here. The audience didn't demand bland formula. And the creators didn't deliver bland formula. Hell bland formula would be an improvement. no that ending has failed at basic coherence. It is entirely disconnected from the rest of the game, which everyone agrees is awesome.
It'd be like watching Cabin in The Woods and then having the last ten minutes of New Years Eve tacked on. It wouldn't be a dig at horror, audience/creator interaction, or creator/publisher interaction*. it just be weird, out of place and ruin the rest of the movie.
*which incidently is how i see cabin, instead of the genius creator's vision, the literal overlords force bland formula and it blows up in their face.
It'd be like watching Cabin in The Woods and then having the last ten minutes of New Years Eve tacked on. It wouldn't be a dig at horror, audience/creator interaction, or creator/publisher interaction*. it just be weird, out of place and ruin the rest of the movie.
*which incidently is how i see cabin, instead of the genius creator's vision, the literal overlords force bland formula and it blows up in their face.
*sigh* making these jabs once again at fanbases?
so unnecessary, especially when you act high and mightily smug up there upon your perch. not to mention you entirely missing the point of the retake movement, especially after all this time.
OT: the movie was quite a treat, i was expecting much different but i did enjoy it, on both the face value and what they were sneaking in with a deeper meaning. I couldn't care less about acting "smug" about it though, as some have mentioned, if you care that much to be "smug" about understanding a movie, then...well it's quite sad.
wouldn't recommend it for a date movie or such, but definitely if you have some free time.
so unnecessary, especially when you act high and mightily smug up there upon your perch. not to mention you entirely missing the point of the retake movement, especially after all this time.
OT: the movie was quite a treat, i was expecting much different but i did enjoy it, on both the face value and what they were sneaking in with a deeper meaning. I couldn't care less about acting "smug" about it though, as some have mentioned, if you care that much to be "smug" about understanding a movie, then...well it's quite sad.
wouldn't recommend it for a date movie or such, but definitely if you have some free time.
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Without dragging Mass Effect into the issue... Which seems, in this case, a bit like picking a fight and then demanding your big brother step in and take on the bullies for you because you've bitten off more than you can chew...
No, I really didn't find the office staff sympathetic. And honestly, I don't think the film did, either. They're a bunch of Adolf Eichmanns, hiding behind the rote and banal aspects of their job to shield themselves from how despicable the acts they're perpetuating really are. The film never exactly works the angle, and perhaps it's ridiculous to read so far outside the lines, but I had to wonder that agencies capable of capturing hundreds of supernatural abominations and possessing a level of technological power far, far in excess of the civilizations shown performing sacrifices in the credits apparently never seriously considered the idea of trying to subdue the "Elder Gods" rather than appease them. It's easier to maintain a despicable ritual than dare to consider going outside what worked before to get to something better.
Beyond the ever-popular pastime of torturing metaphors to serve our own purposes, I somewhat got the impression that someone or something might have been interfering with or sabotaging the ritual- the business with the tunnel and a mention of a power reroute alludes to this, but it never entirely gets resolved. I wonder if there was some plot thread that got dropped but never fully removed from the script.
No, I really didn't find the office staff sympathetic. And honestly, I don't think the film did, either. They're a bunch of Adolf Eichmanns, hiding behind the rote and banal aspects of their job to shield themselves from how despicable the acts they're perpetuating really are. The film never exactly works the angle, and perhaps it's ridiculous to read so far outside the lines, but I had to wonder that agencies capable of capturing hundreds of supernatural abominations and possessing a level of technological power far, far in excess of the civilizations shown performing sacrifices in the credits apparently never seriously considered the idea of trying to subdue the "Elder Gods" rather than appease them. It's easier to maintain a despicable ritual than dare to consider going outside what worked before to get to something better.
Beyond the ever-popular pastime of torturing metaphors to serve our own purposes, I somewhat got the impression that someone or something might have been interfering with or sabotaging the ritual- the business with the tunnel and a mention of a power reroute alludes to this, but it never entirely gets resolved. I wonder if there was some plot thread that got dropped but never fully removed from the script.
Thank you Bob for this article as I'm not particularly interested in seeing the film (don't like Horror and only reason I'd see it is Bradley Whitford is just awesome), but really interested in why everyone was making a fuss about it. I admit, going from your article, it probably would have gone over my head.
So the entire fanbase is insulting? How? I'm not a Mass Effect fan myself, but most of what I've seen out of the fan base is a demand to have the product they were supposed to get, something that didn't piss away all their countless hours of devotion. It's been pretty mature for the most part.Walter Byers said:
Bob hasn't even played the game and hasn't even bothered to full understand their grievenaces related to the ending of the game.
This whole article is pointless. It's based upon one instance of people not getting the point of Cabin in the Woods, an instance that I'm not quite sure even happened. Even if it did, it's one instance out of many. The public and the critics in general love this movie from everything that I've seen across the web. This just seemed like another excuse for the overly educated and smug jackass to sit on his high horse and mock people some more. Cabin in the Woods and Mass Effect 3 are nowhere close to being relatable. The endings for both of these media are not the same. One was clever and unexpected, the other was a "fuckk you" to those who paid for it. I'm sure you can guess which is which.
Okay, Bob, I get the desire to do away with narrative formula and cliche and blow the minds of the audience with something truly out of left field. I also get how some of the behavior displayed by disappointed fans could have been done in a much more cordial fashion. I get that.
Now what you seem to need to get, is that fans are bitching for a much bigger reason than 'we didn't get the ending we expected so wahh!' The ending to Mass Effect 3 is not (certainly in its current state) a work of genre redefining genius full of deep and profound symbolism. What it is is a lazy palette swap that leaves its audience asking more questions than the freaking Riddler, and that is completely devoid of any sense of accomplishment.
No, it doesn't have to be an ending we expect, but it does have to not completely shit all over 5 years of narrative consistency.
Now what you seem to need to get, is that fans are bitching for a much bigger reason than 'we didn't get the ending we expected so wahh!' The ending to Mass Effect 3 is not (certainly in its current state) a work of genre redefining genius full of deep and profound symbolism. What it is is a lazy palette swap that leaves its audience asking more questions than the freaking Riddler, and that is completely devoid of any sense of accomplishment.
No, it doesn't have to be an ending we expect, but it does have to not completely shit all over 5 years of narrative consistency.
I've tried to have meaningful conversations about Mass Effect 3 that didn't involve the ending (here and on other sites) and every single time it's been derailed by retakers. Yes, very mature. Do you just close your eyes to this behavior? Bury your head in the sand? It reminds me of a child who isn't having fun and doing their damnedest to make sure no one else does either.Fox242 said: