This movie was pointless. I couldn’t find any thought provoking qualities about it. People came back but they were weird. Not a single grave was exhumed. The bodies just fade away. They are different (cooler) but this was never explained. They are slower.... What’s the point? Why did the come back? What caused it? What was it a consequence of?
shareI agree the plot is pointless and there should have been more explanations (but I guess they are not that creative). However, it is not all that bad since it is not the typical zombie movie there are many new elements to it.
share"Pointless" is the best movie review this film could ever earn.
shareIf you approach the movie as a Twilight Zone type of story, then you'd get the point. But I think most people approached this movie as if it were a typical zombie movie.
The point was about how if this really happened, our apathetic nature and the government's controlling nature would fail to deal with the issue at all and result in trying to sweep the uncontrollable problem away rather than deaing with the problems of figuring it out. The other point is about our problems with mourning and how people have trouble with either moving on or tend to not take the time to mourn.
It's only pointless because you failed to see the point.
They dead return, perhaps upon the collective wishes of the living, and then are removed from the space of the living when the living no longer wish them to be present (case in point is when the mother watches her son climb over the high-rise balcony). The Twilight Zone example is apt. However, I think of this as not only a political and social statement but also as a variation of "The Monkey's Paw" short story (i.e. careful what you wish for).
sandifay62 and asortofdream:
Yesssss.....!
*SPOILERS BEL0W*
I found this to be an amazing movie and I am so glad I stumbled upon it.
I did not even know what it was when I first turned it on, so I had no preconceived notions about it being a 'zombie' movie or anything of the sort.
Nor do I think of it now as a 'zombie' movie, at least in the current sense of the term and as 'zombies' are portrayed in so many movies and TV shows these days.
I think the 'Twilight Zone' comparison is very apt :)
Many provocative themes were introduced and artfully handled in this film:
1) If dead loved ones mysteriously 'returned' as so many of us hope could happen (and, they are more aptly called 'returners' and not 'zombies'), what WOULD we expect?
That the person would be the same person we knew when s/he were alive?
And, if you find out that your 'returned' loved one is NOT as before, what then?
2) The idea of their cognitive processes merely being 'echoes' and pieces of memory was an interesting touch -- their always being in a state of consciousness as people are when they are between sleeping and waking. And then expecting these folks to return to their prior activities and jobs, to function 'as if nothing had happened'?
3) How different the dead returned ARE from the 'living' and how that is handled -- The living wanted the returners to act like THEY wanted them to. The returners did not want to sleep, yet they were forced to, or at least forced to 'act' like they were sleeping. They did not want to eat, nor did they need to. They wanted to wander, and THAT became a problem. Herein lies some of the 'monkey's paw' details alluded to in previous posts.
What *right* would the living have to force the returners to act like the living?
4) Which brings me to the 'rights' of the returners -- the more the differences between the returners and the living became known, the more their 'rights' were stripped and more severely so as time goes on. This is very interesting from a sociological and political point of view when considering group differences: the 'majority' vs the 'minority', the 'in-group' vs the 'out-group', and the 'claimed' superiority of the 'normal/typical' as opposed to what 'typicals' consider 'abnormal'.
5) Also interesting was the unexpected drain on resources that the community (including even loved ones) come to realize: the returners 'needing' jobs and the never-ending retirement income that would ensue and who would pay for all that.
6) And, as mentioned in previous posts, concepts of grieving and 'moving on' are also woven throughout this story.
In light of the points I have mentioned (and there are more that I haven't discussed, so I can hardly see how this movie can be labeled as 'pointless'), interesting also was the portrayal of how typical government bureaucrats would try to handle such an event. Form a committee and decide by committee? Yeah...right..... Then, bring in the experts and their studies. And, when all *that* doesn't work and the problems become more than these bureaucrats with their one-trick pony way of thinking and acting can effectively handle, what do they finally resort to? A stark and frightening portrait of how government bureaucracies can function.
Finally, this movie is so much metaphor that a viewer trying to figure out *why* or *how* the dead came back or trying to impinge realistic detail onto some of the fantasy portrayed (such as how they go back to their graves) is really missing the point.
FYI: If you watch after the credits are done, the returners return again.
Another great touch....
"I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than..a rude remark or a vulgar action" Blanche DuBois
Movies need to be realistic within there own universe this is not and it's ironic that you use realism to defend it your statement: "what WOULD we expect?" and the government bits. I know governments can be incompetent but not so much that they wouldn't think to maybe dig up a grave. And I know most people would probably run screaming if a dead loved one came back.
I agree that trying to apply logic to a movie is for the most part stupid but people are applying the movie's own logic to it and finding it doesn't hold up. It's gotta be some kind of fallacy to defend a movie citing it's genre for the reason it doesn't make sense to you when you use realism when it suits you.
If you like bad movies I'm not faulting you for that. Just thought I'd mention.
"POINTLESS" should've been the name of this movie.
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