MovieChat Forums > Obitaemyy ostrov (2008) Discussion > This movie is certainly not dumb and che...

This movie is certainly not dumb and cheap

posted 15 years ago by armands_skutelis
7 replies | jump to latest

Contains SPOILERS!!!

I have seen this movie two times now and I still cannot understand how one can tell that the movie is a pile of crap?
Firstly, they say CGI are bad, everything is stolen from other movies, looks cheap etc... Yes, the makers have definitely seen Mad Max, Blade Runner and Starship Troopers. So what? These all three are genre classics and it is not a shame to take some concepts and realize them in the movie if greatly done... Take for example Guards in the movie, definitely influence of ST but can you say they do not look impressive and believable... From the tiny details like the propagandistic Soviet-ish "guards that protect children" poster (painting?) in the Gaal's room to the Guard war song that for me seemed one of the most fantastic scene of the movie, especially seeing our main hero in the Guards' uniform singing too although seeing this face we understand that he actually has no idea where he has gotten himself into (or Gaal has gotten him into)and still acts like it is some fun.
About the atmosphere- yes, definitely one could well find similarities in Blade Runner or Mad Max but c'mon- the movies are all based on pretty similar situations. And to say that something is cheap in the movie??? I you do not like the artist's vision, that's your problem! Definitely seeing the movie one can even draw parallels with LOTR in the way how vivid the movie, the characters, the environment is...

I understand why some people after 35 minutes into the movie left the cinema. It is really hard to understand what is really going on in the movie for the first, say, 45 minutes. But isn't that wonderful? We see all through the eyes of Maxim, he does not understand a thing = we do not understand. Some people obviously though that the movie will start and all will be clear + add some good battle scenes, movie ends, popcorn and Cola ends and we go home satisfied and forget it.

Definitely it is not a masterpiece. As it was already mentioned, Bondarchuk kinda tried, in my opinion, to make a blockbuster with the depth of Tarkovsky's "Stalker". Of course, he did not succeed and I doubt whether that kind of thing can really be achieved. What he achieved is, in my opinion, that the fans of intelligent movies do not like it because it looks like blockbuster too much, and mindless flick fans still do not understand it.

But movie is not dumb. Some say Maxim looks like fool because he is smiling all the time... But one can see that in last 30 minutes of the movie there is less and less smile on his face. And do not forget that it is only the first part of the story. The movie's feel is generally very Eastern-European. Other people except Maxim do not smile . There are reference at "earlier people smiled more" or sth like that that can be related to the post USSR collapse syndrome when people living in the USSR could not adjust to the new reality. Maxim asks Gaal "Why do these countries hate you so much?" and he answers that "earlier we were one country and they were our provinces. And now they hate us because we have had a common history and want to turn our country into a desert like in south." Definitely one can see the same situation in modern Russia and in ex-Soviet countries... And the mentioned "search for outer enemies to mask the inner problems" too...

The Unknown Fathers, anonymous clique, oligarchy that calls each other by nicknames- does not ring a bell? I read some comment of one Russian guy about the movie. He said he had a friend of Maxim's age who went to some political party's youth organization to try to make a difference but later left saying the same words as Maxim in the movie "I'm tired of following foolish orders". Maxim is the young generation of Eastern Europeans- they may be naive and may seem foolish because they are smiling too much like Maxim, but they could make the difference if only the political elite would be interested in well being of people, not their own, when it is still not in the best traditions of the USSR. Like in the movie Maxim asks "why only the higher authorities of the rebellion are informed about the real purpose and meaning of the [mind altering] towers?" And the representatives of the seemingly people oriented rebellion answer "Because we also want to use the towers when we come to the power, only for different purposes?". Maxim answers (and he is not smiling now) "For what different purposes?"... And the opponents have nothing to answer. It can clearly be related to the political situation in ex-USSR at the moment and one must be blind not to see it.

[–] skier-9 15 years ago

+1

I also don`t understand why some of internet community leave so bad comments about this film. I like it very much!

[–] digibox-1 15 years ago

I do not wish to spoil impression of the movie to Strugatsky fans - any person should make a mind of his own.

This movie has a great story and beautiful picture, but over all it's a really weak and boring movie - no offense, it's just my opinion.

Bad special effects and cg. In first 5 minutes of the movie appears strange white smoke in space or a fog or whatever it was it looked odd. Inside the spaceship all interior looked very generic, red and blue buttons. Overall artist/supervisors who made deco., cloth, interiors, hair styles didn't do a good job.
Ok, lets not look at money related issues lets talk about characters. First of all and the worst of all Mak Sim. He's got the look, but absolutely no acting talent. In most of the scenes he looks lost, or childish stupid.
On the other hand I liked Fjodor Bondarchuk's character who reminded me of Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man.
There is too much details to discuss.

I don't understand why armands_skutelis refering to Mad Max(1979-85), Blade Runner(1982) and Starship Troopers(1997) - all this movies are previous generation movies with a very little CG. If one would like to make a comparison then The Inhabited Island should be compared with such movies like 300 low budged perfect execution.

Watch the movie and make a mind of your own.
On scale 1 to 10 , I voted 1.

[–] armands_skutelis 15 years ago

but over all it's a really weak and boring movie - no offense, it's just my opinion.
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Well, if it would be another mediocre Hollywood sci-fi blockbuster the plot would be like:

Maxim crash-lands on the Planet. They take him to the guards where he meets Gaal and he says that he is a guard and they fight against "degens". Then he himself would enlist to become a guard but would later get shot and rescued by "degens" who would tell him all about the mind altering towers already. Then Maxim would go to the city, we would see 5 minutes long sex scene with him and Rada and he would get a lot of weapons and would go alone to the palace of Unknown Fathers killing everyone in his way (like "Equilibrium"). Then we would see him in a long fight with Papa that he would win and go to set explosives to the towers control center. But suddenly Strannik would appear (with a pointless plot twist) saying that he is the real leader of Fathers. Then Maxim would have huge battle with him and Gaal would arrive and shoot Strannik, getting shot himself. Then Maxim would rise and blow up the building in front of a crowd of city's people ("V for Vendetta") saying "Open your eyes!" and citing some lines full of pathos. Then he would go out and get Rada in his arms and wounded but still alive Guy Gaal and everybody would be happy. The budget of this kind of movie would be around 100 millon dollars and 4th graders would like it very much over the world.

On the other hand if it would be, as one said "Russian made Russian movie" that would go like this:

We wouldn't see Maxim crash-landing on planet. No money for that. In stead we would see Maxim already wandering the face of the planet about 15 minutes with background voice saying what does he think about- about the philosophical problems etc. Then we would see 10 minutes of Gaal and Maxim driving to the city without speaking to each other, just some inner Russia's villages passing by. The setting would be 1970s Soviet time typical industrial city, Maxim would fight bums and the voice in the background would always entertain us with the what is good and what's bad dilemma or other stuff like that. Movie's length would be some 4.5 hours, it would receive prizes on major festivals, in Russia probably only some 20 000 people would see it and abroad- about the same number, the budget- about 1 million USD.

Now I would also like to see that second movie and the first one would be a great summer flick but Bondarchuk wanted to shoot something that hasn't been shot in Russia previously and, I think, he succeeded in making movie that looks very expensive but still is not your typical sci-fi about totalitarian regime and is unique. Maybe for someone it might seem a bit boring if one expected traditional run 'n gun stuff and the large explosion at the end. Now, there is still the 2nd movie coming but it is clear there won't be that big explosion in the movie and Rambo character although he would be much more capable of being it like "V", the guy from "Equilibrium" or Aeon Flux...

And those who bash CGI and say "every 2nd rate tv company could do better" or "it's worse than in 80's. Come on, I bet you haven't watched quality copy of the movie in a good cinema, maybe only some mediocre quality TS from internet. Cause I am from Latvia and as far as I know nobody in Baltic states complain about that (except, surprise surprise, Russians living here) and generally the movie is praised by critics and viewers as a quality stuff here. Maybe people who live there are just blind or do not know about the movies, I don't know?

[–] manrique27 15 years ago

read the book Maxim must smile fuuly all over the time it's so in the book.

and Vasiliy Stepanov was choosen perfectly he's appearance is the most beautifull I;ve ever seen is distinguish from all the people.

He is not acotr guys he was just a gym trainer and now only he graduated in theatrical school where he goes with me. He's amazing person and very very beautifull.

[–] Radalan 15 years ago

"Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful"

Are you sure you your not having some deep sexual feelings towards your friend?

[–] manrique27 15 years ago

Well I love very much beautiful people girls boys doesn't matter.
I don't know call it whatever you like.
The main thing is I love my friend very much since I know him that's from childhood.

[–] lokilammas 15 years ago

I loved the film. The only thing I thought was waaaaay ovedone was the way Strannik and Mak Sim were at the end of the second movie.

After reading the book, I could understand very well why Mak Sim was smiling all the time (and didn't the movie mention something about Earth-people being naive and optimistic?) I'm not a computer or arts-person, so the "crappy" special effects didn't bother me (I couldn't even tell they were bad :P). And most of the "cliches" are there, because the original book came out in 1969! These things were not cliches then.

Also, the film follows the book rather closely - all the references to the falling apart of the USSR are totally inappropriate. The USSR broke up in 1991.