MovieChat Forums > The Tree of Life (2011) Discussion > Anyone who calls this film visually impr...

Anyone who calls this film visually impressive needs to study science.


Absolutely OUTRAGEOUS. A dismal, dismal film, perhaps the WORST ever I've watched in my life. Hey? What are the images from the Hubble space telescope doing here? What's the Horse-head nebula, the Cat's eye nebula, the Pillars of Creation nebula doing HERE?

Hey Mallick, that's not even your art, not even your visual imagination. Its something real scientists worked on, sent up telescopes into space to photograph with great difficulty and cost. HOW DARE do you use those images to 'beautify' your ridiculous excuse of a movie, and use them as a make-up to increase your movie's rating? What did YOU do on your own? What the hell do those images even have to do with movie? Absolutely shameful. And ROTTEN rotten tomato critics. How DARE you praise this film based on its visuals? What meat is there in this film anyways? Anyone could just take images from the Hubble and make a movie about it, would be just as beautiful? Don't you guys ever watch Discovery? The History Channel? Have you no idea what you're looking at?

Anyone, Anyone here who DARES to call this film 'visually impressive' has to attend a science class, or watch a science documentary IMMEDIATELY! This film is almost like stolen work. I can name EVERY single visual scene in this movie and tell you where it came from.

1) Some interstellar clouds, a shape that looks like a horse -> Straight from the Hubble telescope gallery, image of the "Horse Head Nebula."
2) Some interstellar clouds, something looks like an eye -> Straight from the Hubble telescope gallery, image of the "Cat's Eye Nebula."
3) Some interstellar clouds, something looks like pillars -> Straight from the Hubble telescope gallery, image of the "The Pillars of Creation, in the Eagle Nebula"
4) Images of the surface of a sun/star. -> Straight from images from the SOHO Observatory gallery, images of the surface of the sun.
5) Images of jelly fish -> BBC Planet Earth, Deep Wonders.
6) Images of hammerhead shark -> BBC Planet Earth, Shallow Seas.
7) Images of microbes, microscopic life -> BBC Life / BBC Inside the Human Body.
8) Images of the sunrise over earth -> Images from the International Space Station as it orbits the earth.
9) Images of a galaxy -> Hubble deep field, some random spiral galaxy image.

What else is there? NOTHING. Absolutely nothing else in this film. Some weird kids. Some rolling in the grass, ABSOLUTELY NO DIALOG. How dare you use images that deserve credit on their OWN merit, and came from others, in your film in order to garner credit for YOURSELF!? Unless there was some connection to it in the film? Or a need for it?

Its not fair! Anyone can just put in some bits of imagery from space, some bit of imagery from the BBC's Planet Earth, some bit of imagery from a microscopic biology textbook, some weirdo kids and call it a movie.

Absolutely pathetic, disgraceful, shameful!

PS*/FYI* Hey, Mallick, do you even know how those Nebula images are photographed? Hey? Do you even know which electromagnetic spectrum they're in? Do you even know what individual filters they used before they could color those nebula images? Bet you don't.

What's beautiful about this movie? The visuals? The interstellar space imagery? Where did those images come from to begin with? Is it Mallick's imagination and creativity you think? You think he came up with those visuals? Pathetic. They're just a bunch of images from NASA's Hubble, from the BBC's documentaries. Copied as-is and thrown there into his excuse of a film just to make it look 'awe'. And they have NOTHING to do with the story of the film themselves. Just a wastage of reel and minutes.

I could make a movie about weirdos, some kids running around in the grass, and oh yea, include images from Hubble, WISE, SOHO, Spitzer, Chandra, Kepler and whatever space telescopes I can get my hands on. That's it. Done. Movie finished. Goodbye.

THANK GOD THIS MOVIE MADE A LOSS AT THE BOX OFFICE. THANK GOD! JUSTICE SERVED.

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"Anyone can just put in some bits of imagery from space, some bit of imagery from the BBC's Planet Earth, some bit of imagery from a microscopic biology textbook, some weirdo kids and call it a movie. "

You do it then. Go ahead buddy! we're waitin'!



Put your trust in God.Your ass belongs to me.

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[deleted]

[deleted]

calm down for a second and here another side to this movie.

1st of all I'm going to assume that you are very high up in the league of science, with all of your scientist friends and science books and all that
(that's cool, I'm more of a literature and history girl, but I can see how someone finds it all fascinating.)

So from the perspective of someone who doesn't know anything about the scientific side of life, but has an immense appreciation for the beauty of visuals and the emotions that film can pull just by manipulating them, I though that it was a masterpiece.

Why are you getting so upset that they used images from BBC and Hubble? It gave me a sense of wonder about this world... Is that so bad? It reminded me how diverse and truly beautiful Earth and life is.

It doesn't improve your argument that you dismiss the character/plot by simply calling them "weirdo kids".

Would it devastate you if I told you that some people actually thought that the plot was important?

Anyone here who DARES to call this film 'visually impressive' has to attend a science class, or watch a science documentary IMMEDIATELY!

Last time I checked, you don't have to have a textbook explain the evolutionary background or photosynthesis process of a flower in order for you to come to the conclusion that it smells good

Alright, I get it. You hated it and thought it was a bloody insult to the institution of science, but you have no right to call the rest of us idiots for appreciating the images (and plot, I dare say) that you scientists have spent so much money and time to bring to us.

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You, Sir, are a dick. With no imagination.

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I agree entirely. But let met try to explain otherwise why.

The imagery Malick gives us, I am told by some, is supposed to be open to interpretation. We bring our own meaning, so feel a more personal attachment to the sketched framework of a story that is otherwise presented.

Well, what anyone with any exposure to the Discovery channel sees is stock footage. Sorry, but I recognized not just what volcano, what stellar object, etc. but That Exact Shot from other sources or other shows. The sunrise from orbit was my desktop for a very long time (and is something like from the first shuttle flight), and on the other monitor was a similar one from the last sunrise seen by Columbia, before it broke up. Recovered from a tape in a field in Texas.

THAT'S the meaning I am bringing to these scenes, and is always the risk of using stock. It has a life, and is as jarring to me as if I just switched the channel away from the movie to watch a science documentary, then went back and tried to catch up with the movie.

Make any sense?

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First of all, calm down. Jesus.

What are you talking about? No one is claiming that Malick is the one who created these particular images. We know he didn't make this stuff up. He used it in his film, that's it. Why exactly does it matter if he doesn't know how such images are photographed or colored? They are related to his vision and the story that he wanted to tell. Whether you liked that story or not is up to you.

This film wasn't 138 minutes of scientific images. The creation sequence was only a small segment; your entire rant is due to something that lasts for less than 10 minutes. There's other scenes, portraying different times. When people praise the visuals, they're also referring to how magnificently photographed the Texas scenes are.

You also speak as if these images were just thrown in there for no reason. They're there because they're part of what Malick is trying to say. Just because the film is non-linear, unconventional and artsy it doesn't mean there's no point to what's on screen, or that it was done just to look pretty. This argument is old and tiring.

I respect the fact that you didn't like this film. There's just no need to get this worked up over something so irrelevant.

__________
Time just gets away from us.

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The film being visually impressive has absolutely nothing to do with being scientifically accurate.

You need to study filmmaker, dear.

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http://mulhollandcinelog.wordpress.com/

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