Wall-E Deserves Its Own Thread. Best movie of the decade? Mayhaps.

[GePap]

Originally posted by FrostyBoy
How much does it cost there?

It costs about $10 here, no problems with noise from other people, etc.

Here in NYC it's between $11.75 and $12 US, which means I hardly go to the theaters anymore.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Jaguar
Just because plenty of movies have had robot love stories doesn't make them any less silly. I don't think it's the end of the world, or anything. And obviously, the exposition has to end when WALL-E starts abandoning his directive somehow.

Giving him a robot companion is fine, even. But robots holding hands and stuff is still a little bit hard to take seriously. Again, though, I don't feel like that was movie-breaking or anything. I just would have preferred to see them try something a little bit more creative when they have a robot protagonist.

I can see your complaint to a point, but--assuming the bots had a decent level of AI, which all of them clearly did--it's not unreasonable. I mean really, Wall-E spent centuries by himself with nothing more than a copy of Hello Dolly...the fact that a robot was driven to that level of loneliness is part of the depth of the story. You can reject it if you choose, but you can also look at it as discussing the inevitability of seeking companionship when you're alone, biological imperatives or not.

You interpreted it as a love story, as was intended...but nothing on-screen actually went so far as love. The holding hands bit was how companionship was expressed in Wall-E's very limited experience with the concept, so of course that's what he would want to do. Following Eve across the galaxy is a sign of not wanting to be abandoned for another 700 years. If you really want to go that direction, you could even say that the story is an exploration of what exactly love is...I think that would be adding meaning to what was intended, but if you're going to complain about it being a love story then that's a reasonable direction to go in response.

I do agree they were a bit heavy-handed in the second half of the movie, but I don't think it detracts too much...though I also think the first half was much more interesting.

[Asher]

Originally posted by GePap


Here in NYC it's between $11.75 and $12 US, which means I hardly go to the theaters anymore.

Same here

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by Theben
The robot looks too much like that damn 80s robot from the movie I don't remember- the robot that was a military unit, got zapped, and then had instant ET personality. Hard for me to want to see this film.
OTOH, I have a lot of free time now. Maybe I'll watch it.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Mr Snuggles

Originally posted by GePap
Here in NYC it's between $11.75 and $12 US, which means I hardly go to the theaters anymore.

Same here

$5.50 for me. At least there's one advantage to living in the middle of nowhere. Now if only there were more than a handful of movies worth watching...

[Darius871]

wait wait, so there are grown-ups who watch Pixar movies voluntarily? I'm still trying to wrap my head around this...

[Seedle]

Originally posted by Koyaanisqatsi
Oh, and for nitpickers: Yes, there is a fairly major plot hole. Too bad, it was a good movie anyway.

There were a ton of plot holes, but only one I'd call major. Are you referring to why was Eve sent in the first place? Or something else? Most of the holes are nit-picky though, and not something you'll noticed unless you watch multiple times or are specifically seeking to pick the movie apart.

That said, I really liked it. The animation was great, Eve and Wally were given great character without much dialogue and even with out being overly anthropomorphic, and it was paced well. I loved the space dance. Loved Eve's personality, especially her aptness to blow-to-hell first and ask questions later. Did have a problem with the cliche, manipulative segment at the end

Spoiler:

after wall-E is rebuilt and he loses his personality

and the aforementioned plot-holes, but they weren't enough to ruin the movie.

Overall, not great, but very good.

And yes, many grown-ups enjoy Pixar's movies, because many of them are good, and quite frankly better written, acted, and directed than most anything else mainstream. Obviously, there is plenty of great stuff made in other countries and independently, but as for mainstream Hollywood, Pixar is , imo , the most consistent company out there.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by Seedle

There were a ton of plot holes, but only one I'd call major. Are you referring to why was Eve sent in the first place?

Or why she even existed, given the original intent of the mission. But either works.

Spoiler:

after wall-E is rebuilt and he loses his personality

I was actually hoping they'd follow through on that, but knew it couldn't happen in a Disney/Pixar movie. Oh well.

[GePap]

I don't view EVE being sent as a significant plot hole:

Spoiler:

Judging whether the EVE probes had found vegetation had become part of the standard procedure of the ship, something the Captain was informed of and part of the daily routine. Continuing with this process gave the Captain the illusion of normality, and that things were going as planned. To stop sending the probes would be a dead giveaway that the plan had changed, which was supposed to be a secret kept from humanity by the Autopilot

[Seedle]

Originally posted by GePap
I don't view EVE being sent as a significant plot hole:

Spoiler:

Judging whether the EVE probes had found vegetation had become part of the standard procedure of the ship, something the Captain was informed of and part of the daily routine. Continuing with this process gave the Captain the illusion of normality, and that things were going as planned. To stop sending the probes would be a dead giveaway that the plan had changed, which was supposed to be a secret kept from humanity by the Autopilot

Spoiler:

This is possible, but I'd have to watch the movie again to be sure. As I recall, the captain was completely clueless as to what Eve's mission was, or even what a plant was, etc. It also seemed that only a success was reported (at least directly), and that the humans on the ship spent all there time watching TV. (although the captain did seem more anxious to deal with reality than the rest.) Thus, it seems like the Auto-pilot could have easily faked Eve missions and just reported failure, if failure was reported at all.

But wait! While, as I recall the movie, fooling the captain would be either easy or even a non-issue, fooling Eve would be both necessary and difficult. The second she wasn't allowed to attempt her directive, she'd get pissed, and we all know what happens when Eve gets pissed. So while I disagree with who the Auto-pilot needed to fool, your basic argument is sound.

[Berzerker]

The robot looks too much like that damn 80s robot from the movie I don't remember- the robot that was a military unit, got zapped, and then had instant ET personality.

input...NEED INPUT

We call it operation gotchya last

Nobody light a match


Short Circuit, funny movie

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Originally posted by GePap
I don't view EVE being sent as a significant plot hole:

Spoiler:

Judging whether the EVE probes had found vegetation had become part of the standard procedure of the ship, something the Captain was informed of and part of the daily routine. Continuing with this process gave the Captain the illusion of normality, and that things were going as planned. To stop sending the probes would be a dead giveaway that the plan had changed, which was supposed to be a secret kept from humanity by the Autopilot

Spoiler:

Even if I bought that (and it may be plausible...another explanation is that the autopilot was just continuing to follow its programming since only the 'come home' command was rescinded, not the 'send Eve' part of it) my bigger question was why were they set up to have Eve, the transport ship, etc. in the first place? I think the movie is ambiguous about whether or not the plan was to keep humans in space from the beginning or whether that was a follow up change of plans, but either way there's no reason to have the Eves on board. If they were always supposed to stay away, why give the ship the capacity to find plants on Earth and start the return procedure? The cover story was that they'd be coming back soon anyway, so the original captain and passengers wouldn't expect to be sending probes back over the course of hundreds of years. If the plan to clean up Earth failed and the return order was overridden later (which I think makes more sense given the events of the movie) the ship was only supposed to be gone a few years while the cleanup took place, then come back when the people left on Earth said it was ok. In neither case do you need the Eve probes.

[Seedle]

Originally posted by Koyaanisqatsi

Spoiler:

Even if I bought that (and it may be plausible...another explanation is that the autopilot was just continuing to follow its programming since only the 'come home' command was rescinded, not the 'send Eve' part of it) my bigger question was why were they set up to have Eve, the transport ship, etc. in the first place? I think the movie is ambiguous about whether or not the plan was to keep humans in space from the beginning or whether that was a follow up change of plans, but either way there's no reason to have the Eves on board. If they were always supposed to stay away, why give the ship the capacity to find plants on Earth and start the return procedure? The cover story was that they'd be coming back soon anyway, so the original captain and passengers wouldn't expect to be sending probes back over the course of hundreds of years. If the plan to clean up Earth failed and the return order was overridden later (which I think makes more sense given the events of the movie) the ship was only supposed to be gone a few years while the cleanup took place, then come back when the people left on Earth said it was ok. In neither case do you need the Eve probes.

Spoiler:

I suppose you could argue that the five year voyage (I believe the Axiom was advertised as five year) was just an estimate/advertising ploy/obfuscation/Star Trek homage, and that they knew the actual clean-up time would be longer. Remember, this film is anti-consumerism and anti-corporation, so painting the corporation as a lier and the consumers as gullible and unquestioning is within the ideals of the film. Since they had the Eve program, and even had an explanatory video describing the consequences of extended microgravity (although that was really about explaining CG humans after showing live-action), it appears BnL knew that the clean-up would be longer than five years, and indeed outlast a human lifetime. What they didn't know is that it would fail utterly.

However, this explanation is weakly supported by the film, so the giant plot hole explanation is a little stronger I think.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Seedle

Spoiler:

I suppose you could argue that the five year voyage (I believe the Axiom was advertised as five year) was just an estimate/advertising ploy/obfuscation/Star Trek homage, and that they knew the actual clean-up time would be longer. Remember, this film is anti-consumerism and anti-corporation, so painting the corporation as a lier and the consumers as gullible and unquestioning is within the ideals of the film. Since they had the Eve program, and even had an explanatory video describing the consequences of extended microgravity (although that was really about explaining CG humans after showing live-action), it appears BnL knew that the clean-up would be longer than five years, and indeed outlast a human lifetime. What they didn't know is that it would fail utterly.

However, this explanation is weakly supported by the film, so the giant plot hole explanation is a little stronger I think.

Spoiler:

That's what I thought while watching it (the estimate part). I thought they figured it'd be about 5 years, but no way to make sure, so the EVEs were sent to see exactly how long... 4 years, 6 years, whatever. However, soon afterwards, BnL realized that they wouldn't be able to come back at all... but the EVEs were still sent to keep a sense of normality. If they stopped, the captain would know something was wrong... and it appeared to me that the original captains were more attentive to what was going on than the current 700 years later occupant

[Wiglaf]

First of all, this movie was merely decent, not the best of the decade.

Second, the New York Times should be embarrassed and ashamed for suggesting that John McCain, who spent four years in a Vietnamese prison camp and served much of his adult life in the armed forces, could learn what it means to be a patriot from Wall-E, a ****ing animated children's movie.

Mr. McCain should be required to see "Wall-E" to learn just how far adrift he is from an America whose economic fears cannot be remedied by his flip-flop embrace of the Bush tax cuts (for the wealthy) and his sham gas-tax holiday (for everyone else). Mr. Obama should see it to be reminded of just how bold his vision of change had been before he settled into a front-runner's complacency. Americans should see it to appreciate just how much things are out of joint on an Independence Day when a cartoon robot evokes America's patriotic ideals with more conviction than either of the men who would be president.