MovieChat Forums > Under the Skin (2014) Discussion > The MORONS Who Defend This Lousy Film

The MORONS Who Defend This Lousy Film


A very pretentious bunch who comes up with nothing but pure speculation as to why things happen in the movie and then tries to pretend its fact and claims non believers are too dumb to get it.

Douchebags.


The stupid have one thing in common.They alter the facts to fit their views not the other way

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Were there parts you didn't understand? It made sense to me, so if there's anything you need clearing up, I'd be happy to help (in a non-pretentious way..!) :-)

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Sure.
Why were the aliens harvesting people?
What happened that the deformed guy escaped?
Why did the lead female alien abandon her orders and wander off(literally) to try and eat and have sex, knowing she could do neither of those things?

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The aliens were harvesting people for food, iirc in the book humans are a delicacy.
The deformed guy got re-captured and bundled into the boot of a car.
She didn't know she couldn't do those things, the 'body' was new to her, she was trying things out and having never tried sex (as humans know) she didn't know what went where until it was too late.

Hope this helps!!

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Whoops! May have mis-read your question about the deformed guy... she let him escape as she was developing an empathy for humans. In the book a similar thing happens...

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We don't have the book to refer to when watching the movie. A movie must stand on its own.

We are given no reason that the aliens aren't buying cows at a cattle auction instead of an elaborate and dangerous human abduction plan.

Saying she let the deformed man go makes no sense. She treated him like anyone else. Then suddenly he is running away, then cooperates with the male alien to get into a car trunk. And there are people watching this who do nothing.

How did she not know what the human bio-mechanical suit she was wearing could and could not do?

Imagine you are sent to explore an alien culture on another planet. You are wearing a bio-mechanical suit to blend in with the aliens. Suddenly you just go off mission and try and eat their food and have sex with the aliens(even though the 'equipment' is totally different)? Does it make any sense? Wandering away with no plan or purpose?
Think of Edgar the Bug from Men In Black. Why didn't Edgar just lose interest in the Galaxy and decide to wander around city trying food and attempting to seduce women?

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A quick answer as I'm off out in a mo and I'll address other points later if that's okay..?

I refer to the book just to back up my answers to the faqs - yes a film should be able to stand on it's own and I think this one does - Fair enough, I watched it after reading the book so maybe that helped - but for the most part they are very different, but the essential ingredients are there.

I've never watched Men in Black.

Have a great Friday and I'll hopefully be sober enough to reply later...or not !!

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"We don't have the book to refer to when watching the movie. A movie must stand on its own."

I wasn't a huge fan of the movie myself, I thought many shots of nothing happening just went on far too long. Literally a waste of time.

But fuck off with these "laws" you think movies have to obey just to please you, or any other viewer. A movie or a book or a song or any other creative work can be precisely as vague and ambiguous as its creator chooses.

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Ok so it's a given they are harvesting humans but why not cows as there is more risk... well, she eliminates much of the risk by going after lonely people. I don't see how it was all that elaborate, maybe just how this race of aliens does things...

She let the deformed guy go as she felt empathy for him, he was an outsider too - her feelings towards him changed, same as anyone's could... now the bit where he gives up and just gets into the car is a bit baffling, but there's nothing wrong with some mystery in a film that includes a tad of symbolism such as this.

The suit. Without having the whole film spoon-fed to me, I'd have to say that she was brought in to replace the girl at the start who similarly messed up, therefore possibly new to the suit. That maybe too simplistic an answer though, maybe she was conditioned and by learning to have empathy broke her conditioning - again just speculation, but it's another possible answer that you can take or leave - I don't mind not having a definitive answer to the mind-set of a female alien as I'm generally baffled by female humans (ask my wife!).

Now, when I said the film made sense, I'd have to admit not every aspect of each characters psychology jumped out at me, same as I'd be hard pushed to understand why Ferris would kiss Sloane the way he does in front of Ed Rooney that would attract unwanted attention...

Anyway, that seems to have shifted the hangover if nothing else, cheers!

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But she is not a female alien. 'she' is an alien of unknown gender, if any. She appears to be composed of the same black goo as in the room. She may not even be an alien, but a bio mechanical construct as well.

The deformed following the interaction of the male alien is more than baffling. It forces a bunch of questions that have no logical answers.

Personally I didn't see the empathy towards the deformed man. For me, all that happened was she was forced to shift her seduction script slightly because she couldn't compliment his appearance, and he was more reluctant than the other men to come with her.
All I saw was a reenforcement of her lack of empathy for her victims. She simple shifts gears and continues with her orders.
To the point where he was waist deep in the goo... then suddenly he has escaped...and then things make even less sense.

She didn't feel empathy for the baby on the beach, or any other of her victims. She just suddenly wanders away from her job, thinking that she should try and be human?
Its a tired sci-fi trope, and it doesn't make any sense.

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Ok, well I guess we have some different views on it - you're right about her not being 'female' per se - I was just trying to inject a little human with my female/alien/human remark and yes I'll agree at the beach she showed no empathy - possibly hadn't learned to yet... but as I say, we can all have a different take on certain aspects due in part to our own take on real world situations... Not everything need be black and white especially in a film like this.

Can I ask by the way, did you like this film?

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Did I like it?
Some of it. As soon as we get to the cliche of the alien 'learning the value of human emotion' it lost me.
The slow methodical pacing worked for the first half, showing us the unrushed patience of the alien.
Then we get the minute and a half scene of her walking toward a bus stop, and other such scenes and then the pacing really annoyed me.
I understand that the reasons behind the aliens activity is purposely left vague because its all supposed to be background to the journey of the female alien. But the cliche, and unfounded nature of her 'journey' left me more interested in the reasons for human harvesting than her story.
I was also deeply distracted by how stupid all the men are. Willing to follow their penis into a situation that screamed 'murder/rape or likely both'.
I also found her strange need to suddenly try and act human to be very distracting and unbelievable. Its like putting on a scuba suit and then deciding, because you like the ocean so much, you should try and breath water and have sex with an octopus.

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Fair enough and thank god I'm having this conversation with someone who has a genuine critique! Valid points all taken!

And I did enjoy your spin on Rene's point about changing lifestyles :)

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For me it was instantly understandable that she had made empaty, but it was gradual. She didnt let the deformed guy get "processed" and let him escape, then the biker guys who seemingly act as the alien regulators recaptured the escaping target. It was not cooperative, the biker beat the poor deformed guy and put him on the trunk.

About the lack of empaty towards the baby, of course she didnt cared for him,she was full on duty at the time. And leaving your job because suddenly you just had enough sounds pretty common in the human realm, so why it wouldnt make sense for another intelligent form of life? I mean, as humans we go from one country to another and sometimes we just like it and want to stay there, and live like they do.

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Very sound post - I'd have to agree with everything you say here although I need a refresher on the scene with the deformed guy being abducted after he escaped... in fact, it might be time for a re-watch anyway!!

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I think that we don't see evidence of her empathy until immediately after she seduces the deformed man. She goes with the plan, and everything is in order, but then she states at herself in the mirror for a long time. She no longer wears the emotionless expression she's had for most of the film. She feels something. (Remember the earlier scene when biker guy examines her, perhaps to ensure that she isn't developing empathy.) Then we see a fly repeatedly bumping up against a pane of glass, as if trying to escape. When she sees this, she lets the man escape.

Although I agree that the alien wanting to be human is not original, I thought it was well done. She sees people who are kind to her (a man buys her a rose, strangers help her up after a fall) and this kindness seems foreign to her. She becomes fixated on the species and begins observing women as well as men, perhaps in an attempt to figure this species out.

After the emotional impact the deformed man had, she leaves her job, wanting to be like the humans she has observed. I think her sense of self may have been warped at this point. I've heard of cats who think they are dogs because they grow up with dogs. Perhaps a similar thing is happening here. Her desire for sex makes sense to me; of course she'd be curious about the tool she's been using to lure men to their deaths.

I hope this helps. I recognize that Under the Skin isn't perfect. (I'm with you on the pacing of the second half) but I think it is a significant step forward for filmmaking.

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I haven't read the book, but I thought the film stands on its own. I don't think the why were they capturing men matters, or what they were doing with them. Knowing that it was something horrible was enough for me.

She didn't need to know how to have sex, that was never the point of her mission. It never went that far. She is an alien. I think that's why we were showed how little empathy she had for the toddler at the beach. As for the disfigured guy, I guess she felt something about the fact that he was insecure and nice.

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Why should this alien eat cows? Why don't you go out and collect some slugs when you are hungry? Would be much simpler and cheaper than getting this elaborately processed cow meat for lunch.

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The MORONS who troll the movie are much worse.

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Don't worry. I think there's another Transformers film coming out in the near future that should be right up your alley.

I love it when people who don't understand a film call it, the filmmakers, and the people who liked it, stupid, morons, etc.


Time wounds all heels.

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If you don't like a movie, it doesn't mean that anyone who does, is a moron.

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Bump

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