Yes, that element is pulling against the rest of it. It’s very clearly a result of the time the film was made, in the midst of Iraq and the post 9/11 landscape, and a comment on the reflex to lash out in response to national hurt and humiliation, but it doesn’t fit. The Martians aren’t AQ, or Saddam
And as you say, narratively it’s wonky because ‘somehow, the son returned’
Yeah. All the battle hardened soldiers and armour were wiped out, but he was ok. 🙃
Deus ex machina is always a great way to end a film. If we were given some reason why he was OK it would help, but for Spielberg, Koepp etc the whole thing is really cheap Mind you, for all Koepp is a fantastic writer, he does have a bit of a weakness for that kind of thing
I should say that my neurospicy brain always picks out stuff like that, so it's absolutely doesn't represent the general opinion. I'm one of those types who called out mistakes in the first minute of Independence Day. 😅
No you’re absolutely right. It’s one of those things that in the moment in the cinema you’re like ‘whew’ but as soon as you start questioning it, it falls apart. Like The Sixth Sense
Anything Shymalan (spelling?) really.
Totally. Can’t believe anyone ever thought he was a genius
The problem is that Ray (omg was his nickname ‘Heat’?) has to make the decision to go to Rachel and abandon Robbie, and it has to be the right decision. But actually, Rachel was going to be taken away by people who were going to look after her so the logical thing was to let her go and stop Robbie
I feel that a lot of issues with the film would have been fixed by sticking to a longer timescale like the novel. You could have easily had Robbie going off the join the army and being thought lost but actually being OK if it takes place over weeks not days.
Yeah that would work. Hell, you could even work a longer timeline that way so that he takes the role of the artilleryman.
Yes! Now I’m thinking about it, what was the point of the machines already being here? I don’t really get why that’s necessary, other than to afford the cool ‘unscrewing’ sequence
Yeah, it's hard to accept 'one day thousands of years in the future there might be a civilisation we need to conquer, let's make preparations' as a plot point lol. If they could send them here then, just take over then.
And if they had these tripods waiting here for millennia, would they not also have been analysing the environment for things like microbes?
You would think so, I mean we put Aldrin and Armstrong in quarantine for a fortnight after the moon 'just in case'.
Like Prometheus but even more dumb