I meant to write something down a while ago but I couldn't get myself to do it.
I'm so tired.
Luckily, I can eat and all that other stuff. I might be going to a concert in May, and that's really the most excitement I've had this year.
I found my mom's copies of Saw 1 and 2, talked about movies in a server I'm in, and I eventually remembered that one movie from 2023. I haven't rewatched it, but I fully believe that my opinion wouldn't change, because when I rewatched it before, I still didn't like it!
I am not going to summarize the entirety of it because wikipedia has that already. And I hate this movie. 5 out of 10.
I saw the trailer and thought it would be Fine and not great, but that was mostly because of very slight inaccuracies.
Remember that when a movie says it's based on a true story that it's just people who share their names
or look vaguely similar. Every time. The interviews kinda rubbed me the wrong way as well.
Really the main issue with the movie is that it likes to talk at you, and that sucks because it's information we Do Not Need. I don't know if this movie really needs a 5 minute intro about talking animals (mostly birds,) or 10 minutes from a Real Letter that I've already read, or something about a popular-guy skeptic, or whatever else. There's just so much talking and not a lot of doing stuff about it, and this is present throughout the entire thing. It wasn't really that funny either, I think the most it got out of me was air out of my nose. Really funny that the movie that was described as a dark comedy at some point is too scared to actually do something edgier. Come on. Were they trying to keep the PG-13 rating? Whatever man.
It's very obivous that the movie is supposed to be something too, but since every attempt is kinda lame, the movie is kinda lame as well. It could easily be chalked up to "let people enjoy things" and maybe "imagine there is no heaven." I'm not fucking kidding either! The main message is "let people be religious, guys!" Or, Spritual, but I remember the Director saying it's "Religion vs Cynicism." Maybe this would've been better if it was just a movie that summarized things. I'm being serious.
I won't pretend like the concept of religion is some evil bad thing because most of them are just people trying to figutre out what counts as "good" or not. It also helps with community and stuff like that. It's a very human thing to be irrational and make shit up about concepts we don't fully understand and a lot of people alive follow a religion. Believing in stuff a minority of people find "stupid" is already normalized.
You don't need to tell atheists and agnostics that they should let others believe whatever they want, because most of them already do this. Usually the people who don't tolerate religions are other religious people. The people who seriously hate all religions and needs everyone to know about it aren't as widespread or common as, I don't know, biblethumpers. I don't think that the major problem with religion to someone who is a skeptic would be that it's 'absurd' and "how could a miracle possibly happen to you," That's more of a add-on. They'll most likely mention that it's used to take advantage of people. You see it all the time. Megachurches exist. It's even more rampant with Spiritualism, which this would be better connected to. Mediums and such get paid by vulnerable and grieving people to tell them "your mother's last name starts with an S or a B." People Care So Much about a thing that makes people happy because a considerable amount of people use it to manipulate people in not-so-good situations. Of course this isn't everyone, but it would be ignorant go to "Well, I know about Sylvia Browne, and what she did is very telling of what happens when you put cold readers in such high regards, BUT..."
Also, nobody really likes people who dunk on Astrology Girls all the time because they're either more annoying or into something worse, like intelligence tests. There IS a bunch of stuff that is unknown, it's just that it *probably* isn't John Bigfeet. Maybe it's a cool ass bear.
This could be interesting to think about, but it shouldn't be in a mid ass movie with a Small Magical Talking Animal, who also likes to make jokes. He didn't even like the concept of death, If I remember correctly. Honestly I don't know why they used Gef as a weird mouthpiece for the whole spiel about death and dying. People do not treat this thing seriously. I'm not saying I don't because I fucking hate the whole "just a silly guy" angle people like taking, but I don't know if "what if there is no afterlife" needs to be or even would be said by him. It doesn't feel approriate, is what I'm trying to say.
Kind of minor nitpick, I don't like that he wasn't a no-show. If it was a bunch of weird coincidences and Less Talking it would've made a little more sense to me. That could just be another inaccuracy thing though, because I know that there were people he outright refused to talk to.
They got Neil Gaiman to do his voice, and besides it being Neil Gaiman, it was okay.
The more I think about this movie, the more I start wondering who the target audience is. Clearly it isn't me, or someone who would want a movie summarizing it. The average person does not need to be told to let people enjoy their beliefs [as long as they aren't harmful,] and people who would be told such are not watching this movie.
Maybe I'd like it more if I were a middle aged guy from the UK who forgot a good most of what they were told about the entire thing and just wants to see a small weasel-like mammal talk. Or, if I was concerningly into parapsychology. It would be cool if magic, cryptids, or ghosts really existed, but they don't and now we're stuck with whatever is going on currently.
Re: That thing about the skeptic, It's Harry Houdini. The mentioned the part about the psychic figuring out a code. I don't know if they were really trying to be truthful about what happened (I don't know if some random psychic really figured it out,) but I think it's really funny that they used him for that section instead of talking about his buddy Conan Doyle.
I watched it for free somewhere in 2023, when it was only on Prime Video. I refused to give them money for that. I don't care how indie it is because it was on Prime Video anyway, and the director is an asshole, and Neil Gaiman is in it. This sucks for me. It's on Tubi now though. I thought the cinematography and actors were good, but I think that makes it even worse. It Could've Been Something Better.
Stop trying to tell me that Talking Nondescript Long Bodied Small Mammal is a plausible thing. It isn’t Happening.
Really funny that a lot of poltergeist cases have something to do with teenage girls, also.