MovieChat Forums > Spectral (2016) Discussion > Supernatural vs Scientific [spoilers]

Supernatural vs Scientific [spoilers]

posted 7 years ago by MultiSanity
2 replies | jump to latest

I have to say, I honestly preferred the more supernatural explanation to what was going on as to the more "scientific" explanation.

When he pulled out the conden-whatever out of thin air that's honestly when the story got the most muddied and remained such. Relying on dues ex machina to carry along the rest of the story and resolve it in the end. Maybe if what was actually going on had been presented differently I would have felt more convinced?or less set up. I know initially I thought (and suspect it was a red herring) that if you didn't have any weapons on you, the spectres ignored you?I still thought this was the case up until the boy got killed. I guess that would have made the moral of the story even more heavy-handed though, but I think having an enemy, so to speak, that conventional weapons or wisdom are unable to combat successfully would have felt more authentic and true to life. You can't always think up a killer solution in less than 24 hrs and have the arsenal to boot, it would have added an extra layer to the movie while also not making American troops some sort of god-man ultimate killing/staying alive machine as most movies are so apt to inhumanly portray them.

[–] Incarna 7 years ago

"I know initially I thought (and suspect it was a red herring) that if you didn't have any weapons on you, the spectres ignored you?"

That is Predator lol.

[–] ssj_costy 7 years ago

I was actually really satisfied when the explanation turned out to be scientific. I was really hoping it wouldn't be something supernatural, because that to me seems a bit lazy, it's "oh we don't know how to solve this problem, so we'll just say it's supernatural", it's a copout.

And I was on board with the whole thing, except they decided to push the limits of credibility when one guy can make plasma guns for an entire platoon and sweet looking armor for every soldier in ONE EVENING.

But I also liked the reveal where people's neural systems were kept alive, sort of. It gave me that feeling of dread and creepiness, whereas if it had been supernatural it just wouldn't have had the same impact, at least for me.