Serenity (2019) is not worth watching, but it's worth spoiling.

link

MisterPookie
Swamp Thot Leader 460 posts
Oct. 4, 2019, 9:05 a.m. Oct. 4, 2019, 9:05 a.m.
link

This movie with half decent actors got absolutely panned by critics and audiences. Nothing in it is remotely entertaining- somehow they even make a HUGE, OUTRAGEOUS plot twist seem more like "why god why" then "HOLY SHIT."
The 'trailer premise' for the movie is essentially; the main character lives in a fishing town on an island that's probably off the coast of ~~South Africa~~ Florida but not. He's a veteran, down on his luck, his ex has his kid and an abusive husband, they all still live in the US. He is barely making ends meet by fishing, taking tourists out fishing, and having sex with an older woman. Occasionally, he is shown to have some sort... unexplainable connection to his son despite the distance. The son, who is implied to be on the spectrum but extremely good with math and computers, is only ever shown on his computer. He is too scared of his stepdad to do anything else, so he locks himself away, playing video games and programming.
One day, the ex shows up on the island with a proposition. She is filthy rich because of her new husband, but wants him dead because of how terrible he is. She tells our protagonist; my husband doesn't know who you are. He's coming to this island to for a fishing vacation. Take him out in the waters, feed him to the sharks, I will pay you $10 million. John (he's been going by a fake name) doesn't want to do it, but says he will still take the husband out fishing.
In the midst of all of this, there is a lot of peculiar shit going on. A businessman who is constantly chasing down John, confused by his ability to "get off schedule". There are random, meaningless tasks that keep coming up again and again with no real indication to their significance. Something is clearly off. I'll start spoilers here:
About 60% of the way through the movie, the businessman finally catches up to John on the eve of when he is going out to sea with the husband again and tries to sell him fishing equipment. In this drunken conversation, the businessman reveals that the island they are on... isn't real. It's part of a video game. John's compulsion to do these random stupid tasks, whether it be catch a specific fish or find a lady's cat, are basically side quests. Now, the new quest is to kill his ex wife's husband.
Lots more dumb stuff happens, so I will just focus on the big points; there's a very brief moment that implies that machine learning is so advance that consciousness can be programmed into video games. John is certain that his real life son is the person programming this game, and the movie implies this is the case as well. As such, the game represents the son sending his dad a message; save me and my mom from this abusive man. So he agrees to do it. He gets the man wasted on booze and painkillers (the man's hand get broken in a fight with some gang) to convince him to go out to sea. The wife joins, some shitty other kid joins for no reason, and they find their chance to feed the husband to the fishes. In this moment, you see that in the actual world, this was all building up to giving the son the courage to take his dad's knife and go kill his stepdad himself.
Upon returning to land, John calls his son, they have a heart to heart, and the son tells him he is going to change the game so that they can play together. In the real world, we hear a news story about the son killing the stepdad, and how John actually died in combat and the mom remarried some asshole schlub. What happens to the son in real life? No idea. But he programs himself into the game so they can fish on together, forever. Happily ever after.
NOW IF THAT SHIT AINT DUMB ENOUGH, HERE ARE SOME THINGS VERY WRONG WITH THE MOVIE:
The movie does a horrific job toeing the line between reality and video game, because neither the reality or the video game part make ANY sense. The way the kid is shown programming and hinting at interacting with this world, it seems to imply that this kid has made a game where people just... exist? He's not actually in control of anything, because of he is, he KEEPS MAKING HIS DAD FUCK PEOPLE.
The extent of potential references to the big reveal are: occasionally shitty video game camera angles. When you see these angles knowing what's going to happen, it's very much like 'oh, this is supposed to be a v i d e o g a m e reference.
Seriously, why does this kid make one of his dad's main income stream literally being a "hooker" for a lonely older woman.
There are just so many shoddily crafted side stories that I cannot think of a good reason for in either a reality sense or video game sense. They spend so much time trying to build up personality of this island in the most disorderly way.
I'll think of more complaints soon, I'm sure. What a stupid journey.

DangerOrange likes this.

favorite 1
link

boomerJuice95
Certified Good Poster™ 104 posts

Oct. 4, 2019, 9:35 a.m. Oct. 4, 2019, 9:35 a.m.
link

I was glazing over reading your description until I got to
video game
holy shit bruh. Reminds me of "Gamer," a movie that my buddy and I made fun of for the way a character, seemingly randomly, scoffs and says "Palindromes!" Maybe I'll try and dig up that clip some day
link

pooplol
Members 90 posts

Oct. 4, 2019, 3:48 p.m. Oct. 4, 2019, 3:48 p.m.
link

found some funny comments on it. it sounds very silly.
"Imagine programming a reoccurring side quest where your dead father must sweatily fuck the local MILF in order to sustain operating costs on his tuna boat.
Imagine programming a main quest event where you must render every polygon of your dead father's dripping wet ass so that he can realistically fuck your depressed mother.
Imagine programming your mother to beg your abusive step-father to choke her out while moaning "daddy" repeatedly."
link

Aether
Swamp Thot Leader 1006 posts

Oct. 4, 2019, 9:09 p.m. Oct. 4, 2019, 9:09 p.m.
link

Hoooooly shit that was absolutely not where I saw this movie going. What a wild ride. The concept itself sounds fascinating, but certainly the implementation is quite lacking, or should I say
full of dad and milf ass
Honestly, the whole setup sounds more confusing than anything. And the resolution even less satisfying. What happens to these characters? Can they just program their consciousness into video games? Why hasn't everyone done this a-la the Matrix since that'd be a much better world? The main character is dead, but do we really care? Was this all just effectively from the perspective of the son all along?
@MisterPookie has written:
The son, who is implied to be on the spectrum but extremely good with math and computers, is only ever shown on his computer. He is too scared of his stepdad to do anything else, so he locks himself away, playing video games and programming.
God at least this part was relatable.
link

MisterPookie
Swamp Thot Leader 460 posts

Oct. 5, 2019, 9:18 a.m. Oct. 5, 2019, 9:18 a.m.
link

Out of curiosity, I listened to the How Did This Get Made episode they did on this movie earlier this year. They inadvertently touched on why this movie was not a good movie for that format. It's not laughably bad, it is dazzlingly bad. Every time they thought they had figured something out, they realized that there was something else that countered it. Examples I thought of based on them trying to decipher the movie:
Can all of the faults of the weird, sexually confused, noire-esque interactions be chalked up to the fact that the game is being programmed by a teenager who doesn't have a full sense of the world yet?
Not really, because they also talk about how the characters are now sentient and the game is basically programming itself at this point. The movie wants everything to be simultaneously real-life but also in-game? He's not even playing it?? Is he GOD?
Do we care that the boy is somehow able to program himself in the game while he presumably goes to a juvenile detention center for his crime?
Not really, because he's essentially sending digitized humans to purgatory so that he can come to grips with his own terrible life. That's... kind of messed up?
link

Aether
Swamp Thot Leader 1006 posts

Oct. 5, 2019, 9:40 a.m. Oct. 5, 2019, 9:40 a.m.
link

@MisterPookie has written:
Do we care that the boy is somehow able to program himself in the game while he presumably goes to a juvenile detention center for his crime?
Not really, because he's essentially sending digitized humans to purgatory so that he can come to grips with his own terrible life. That's... kind of messed up?
It's not even the "digitized humans" per-se, but the fact that the movie implies said humans are conscious as well. God what a take.