Saturday, March 20, 2010

The Fourth Kind- the movie

We recently watched this movie- panned by critics- and I must say it stretched my ability to resist the suspension of disbelief. If you haven't seen it, I might suggest you do before you read further and draw your conclusions based on my observations. I'll run a few lines of nothing so you won't be tempted to cheat....





Nome, Alaska- October, 2000. In a nutshell, Abagail Tyler, psychologist (purportedly real) hypnotises residents and concludes they have been abducted, supposedly by aliens. Yup. Purported actual video and audio footage parallels actors' reenacting same. Things like levitation, images from the sky, Sumerian speech, murders, suicides, goings on of this nature. The alien speak even includes "I am God".
Here's what I think. Wait- here's what I have found that other people think and with that I have my thoughts on their motivations.
Critics- plays out to be reality based, like Blair Witch, Emily Rose, therefore unoriginal and uncreative. Motive: supposing it's a hoax movie, actors come out as too blatant in identifying film as real- unbelievable because they don't want to be weighted down with the possibility it is real.
Friends (not all)- don't believe in aliens (either here or anywhere) and believe this kind of thing is the work of the Devil or Demons. Motive: fear of God, His nemesis, Evil, failure to accept any concept not biblical based, belief that ancient cultures were influenced by the evil side and played with the devil. To people like this- young earthers, new testament junkies, scared rabbits- anything pre-Christ was open season for Beelzebub. Poor delusional souls. (But that's just me).
As for the "I am God" phrase, take into account these beings, either terrestrial or extra, can tap into the minds of people at will, wouldn't they want to fool their subjects into terror in the most effective way? Wouldn't this phrase do the trick?
Anyway, I might add that most of the "facts" in this story have been debunked, if not denied, so if you're really worried, I'd say the story is steroided up enough and simplified enough to give the viewers the entertainment they want, likely leaving out any circumstances that could cloudy the water or give credence to any more "earthly" explanations.
Amy found the concepts and movie frightening while I found it scary as a flick and fascinating as a possibility. My suspension of disbelief, as I said earlier, was stretched. I guess if I had a similar experience I'd be scared shitless like any other-
If aliens read blogs, or demons read blogs- in particular, this one- go ahead, abduct me! I want to see what this whooey is all about.
PS- look for a post soon to be penned (that's a laugh) giving my readers a glimpse into my mind on the subject of God, science and the other unknowns of the universe!

4 comments:

Sarah. said...

Tim and I watched it last night. We thought the "real" abductees and the "real" footage were "really" fake. Didn't buy it at all. I am normally open minded about such topics, but the parts that should have made it compelling just made me annoyed. If they hadn't hit me over the head with assertions that the footage was real, I think I would have enjoyed the movie more. Those are my two cents.

momboe said...

I liked the "What if" of the movie. It's not whether you THINK the movie is ACTUAL fact. "WHAT IF" it was!!!
Isn't that why people go to love stories and adventure hero movies? The Excorsist is STILL the scariest movie of all don't ya think? The FACT that they say it's based on fact only makes it scarier!
I thought it was clever how they had the actors and the "real" people over lapped. I've not seen a movie done like that before. I give it points for originality!
We should have watched the credits to see who "played" the DR. I'd be surprised if actors would take a part without screen credit.
Since hypnosis is all about the suspension of conscious analysis and allowing you to use your imagination....I think this movie gets an A for effort.

Sarah. said...

B- for effort. They couldn't find better actors to play the real people? Really? I could have been a more convincing abductee. I could have been a more convincing psychologist, for that matter. The concept is only successful if it is executed well. Which it wasn't. All I could think about was how unreal the footage was as opposed to thinking "what if". It could have been good, but I ended up being annoyed that they thought they had pulled one over on me. I guess I've given my 4 cents now...

momboe said...

Well Sarah, They COULDN'T get top actors cause then you would KNOW that they were actors!