MovieChat Forums > Childhood's End (2015) Discussion > 3rd act was horrible

3rd act was horrible

posted 8 years ago by EinsteinRosenBridge
15 replies | jump to latest

I actually enjoyed the 1 episode. The 2nd episode started to lose me. And the 3rd act was way too much of longing stares of people, that "room", and filler (New Athens).

I still don't understand why the overlords look like the devil (they were here before? two thousand years ago and did what?)

Why was that couple the one to have Jennifer? Why was she so important as opposed to every other kid who had special powers? In less than 100 years, and apparently one generation, they "evolved" to have telekinetic powers? That is utterly ridiculous.

Why did the kids become super unemotional? Jennifer was siphoning the power from the earth that resulted in destroying it? Why? How?

Why prevent people from having kids? That is not evolution.

What a mess

[–] Badass_123 8 years ago

I still don't understand why the overlords look like the devil

It's because humans had a premonition of the future, when beings looking like the Overlords would come and end up being the end of the human race (aside from the last generation who got telekinetic powers, then merged with the OverMind).

In less than 100 years, and apparently one generation, they "evolved" to have telekinetic powers?

I don't think they "evolved". I think the Overlords tinkered with their DNA to give them their powers. That's why those ships seemed to be at every kid's house, "scanning" them. And babies in the womb I guess got extra-special powers, since they were in an early stage of development, so that's why Jennifer got super duper extra powers.

Why did the kids become super unemotional?

In science fiction, supposedly the smarter you are, the less emotional you are. Like Spock from Star Trek. Supposedly emotions belong to the less evolved parts of our brain, like the reptile part. The human part is supposedly logical and lacking in emotion.

Jennifer was siphoning the power from the earth that resulted in destroying it? Why?

The kids needed that power so they could join with the OverMind. I guess the Earth was like a huge battery.

Why prevent people from having kids? That is not evolution.

They knew they were going to have to destroy the Earth to get the energy to join up with the OverMind. Preventing people from having kids made sure that no one would be left on Earth after about 80 years, when all the sterile adults just died off from old age. This way they wouldn't be murdering 7 billion humans when the destruction of Earth happened.

[–] EinsteinRosenBridge 8 years ago

Good answers for the most part.

I don't think antiquity humans somehow had a premonition of the future and thus became the devil seems logical without a concurrent explanation with those premonitions.

Your right in the sense that every science fiction writer seems to equate unemotional with advanced intelligence and evolution but its basically a convention to show on screen they are different.

Also, I would have thought you would suck the Suns power for energy before using a planet.

[–] mpias 8 years ago

I don't think antiquity humans somehow had a premonition of the future and thus became the devil seems logical without a concurrent explanation with those premonitions.

The series completely glosses over the fact that the Overlords had an extreme interest in human psychic phenomena. Apparently we do and were at a point where we were on the verge of evolving to a point when that would become a more common trait, and that's the reason the Overmind sent the Overlords to Earth - to guide us through the process. That being the case, the potential was always there and it's not much of a stretch to imagine that the memory of the extreme trauma of the extinction of the species (and it's facilitators) would echo back through time.

Your right in the sense that every science fiction writer seems to equate unemotional with advanced intelligence and evolution but its basically a convention to show on screen they are different.

At that point the children were evolving a single hyper-intelligent group mind that could manipulate matter by thought alone and were no longer human.

Also, I would have thought you would suck the Suns power for energy before using a planet.

When E=MC2, why bother when they're standing on a huge ball of potential energy they could harness?

The book goes into far greater detail and is far better than the mini-series. Reading it (or listening to the audiobook) will answer very many questions. SyFy did a hack job on the story so I'm not surprised many people are left with lots of questions.

[–] Dejay 8 years ago

the memory of the extreme trauma of the extinction of the species (and it's facilitators) would echo back through time.

From the show I got that Milo mentioned that consciousness is shared and so was the image of demons that facilitate the destruction of other planets far away. Doesn't have to be the future.

E=MC2

You still need anti matter to convert normal matter into energy though, or use fission or fusion. A star would still be a far better source for energy. But I figure the story is just too old to blame Clarke for using some outdated scientific ideas.

[–] mpias 7 years ago

You still need anti matter to convert normal matter into energy though, or use fission or fusion. A star would still be a far better source for energy. But I figure the story is just too old to blame Clarke for using some outdated scientific ideas.

E=MC2 says it all, antimatter is not a prerequisite and is not part of the formula. Antimatter makes the conversion _easier_ but is not necessary. In fact, physicists didn't come up with the modern understanding of antimatter until decades after Einstein published his formula.

Read the novel. The end is far more coherent than Syfy's silly attempt.

[–] Dejay 7 years ago

Well I don't really want to argue about the point, it's just a pet peeve of mine. Often you'll have invaders invading earth to scavenge it's resources, or like this convert earth into energy. My problem is it's not plausible.

You could use fission or fusion, or some unknown new technology. But either choice is implausible. If they use fission or fusion, they can only gain energy using specific elements, heavy elements for fission, or hydrogen or other lighter elements for fusion. But that is still not very efficient to sift through the oceans for tritium. And in addition, you find water all over the place, far easier to harness for a big space faring civilization.

If you suppose they have some kind of advanced means to create energy from ordinary matter, then it's implausible that they would have to waste the earth doing it. If the children and the overseer are already so powerful, why not take them off earth and use solar power, or consume some other moon.

I'm not really criticising, I understand this is a philosophical or spiritual idea more than a science idea, the idea of transcendence where the old needs to be consumed to make space for something new. The earth had to die and humans stop reproducing because their new, improved offspring had surpassed them and have wither in order to not stand in the way of the new, to not hold them back.

This is just my opinion, but E=MC2 isn't really a good answer.

[–] Dolemite (79) 2 years ago

I agree, good answer. Although I do not think that the Overlords tinkered with the childrens' DNA. From what I remember from reading the novel is that the children were going to evolve anyway and the Overlords very much emphasised that it was not of their doing and that they were there to supervise this happening and keep the peace whilst it did. Those ships hovering around the childrens' houses were probably just scanning them.

[–] nineteenthly (20) 2 years ago

I agree, that's what's in the novel. The Overlords are basically midwives for the pregnant human race and the children are the next stage, just as real children actually are. They were there to manage a positive transition.

[–] srb-3 8 years ago

I actually enjoyed the 1 episode. The 2nd episode started to lose me. And the 3rd act was way too much of longing stares of people, that "room", and filler (New Athens).

The 3rd act has the pointless love triangle. Complete waste of time not from the book.

I still don't understand why the overlords look like the devil

They just do.

(they were here before?

No.

two thousand years ago and did what?)

2000 years ago people somehow looked into the future (end time) saw the Overlords and the world ending.

Why was that couple the one to have Jennifer? Why was she so important as opposed to every other kid who had special powers? In less than 100 years, and apparently one generation, they "evolved" to have telekinetic powers? That is utterly ridiculous.

From the book.

Why did the kids become super unemotional?

Because they are no longer kids. They are becoming part of the Overmind.

Jennifer was siphoning the power from the earth that resulted in destroying it? Why? How?

No. Jennifer is using her powers to transform her and the other kinds into the Overmind. They destroy the Earth because they feel like it.

Why prevent people from having kids? That is not evolution.

The people that need to have kids to become the Overmind is a form of evolution.

What a mess

Go read the book already.

[–] C.S.Wood 8 years ago

Go read the book already.

I assume the book is better and explains everything, but one of the main things a screen adaptation needs to do is be understandable without the viewer having to read the source material.

I actually struggled with watching the rest of the series after that first act because I didn't like most of the characters, so I cheated and read the wiki summary of the book and decided to watch the rest.

The Overlords come off as such jerks. They can repair the atmosphere so why not alter Mar's atmosphere so it's habitable and transport people there? I mean if they are taking/saving animals why not humans too? Why give humanity only 20 years or so of paradise only to snatch it away from them? Why does the Overmind allow the destruction of the earth when it would be doing just fine without humans? It just seems like such a waste and not an intelligent use of resources.

I wouldn't be surprised if the people who made Knowing read the book as there are a number of parallels. I'm not totally against a downer ending when it makes sense but I just needed more of reason why the Overlords couldn't have taken the children they needed while also sparing the earth/humanity.

Revenge is the most important meal of the day.

[–] jbaddock 8 years ago

but I just needed more of reason why the Overlords couldn't have taken the children they needed while also sparing the earth/humanity.

Because the Overlords were actually merely servants of the Overmind, which, apparently, couldn't care less about organic life in any shape or form - it wasn't just humans who were destroyed with the Earth, after all, but every living thing on it as well. From their perspective, humans are barely further up the evolutionary scale than insects or even the amoeba, so they don't care any more about them than we do about the effect on local wildlife when we build a new factory or housing development, for example. The bottom line is that the Overmind needed something as a power source for the transformation, so they used the Earth because it was easier.

[–] C.S.Wood 8 years ago

Because the Overlords were actually merely servants of the Overmind, which, apparently, couldn't care less about organic life in any shape or form

But didn't they export animals in hermetically sealed bags? It's been a while since I've seen this but why did they bother rescuing those animals if they didn't care about organic life?

I thought it was an interesting story and it's refreshing to see an end of the world story where the humans don't pull out a miracle win in the end, but this one just didn't quite gel with me.

Revenge is the most important meal of the day.

[–] jbaddock 8 years ago

But didn't they export animals in hermetically sealed bags? It's been a while since I've seen this but why did they bother rescuing those animals if they didn't care about organic life?

It was the Overlords doing that, not the Overmind - and it was the Overmind that seemed to have no regard for organic life. However, it does seem inconsistent to take away living animals, but not humans - perhaps they felt that they shouldn't take sentient humans and put them into the equivalent of a zoo. In the original book, they merely transport museum style models of various animals, not living creatures - one of many examples in the series of changing elements of the original and not for the better.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] ehaas-3 8 years ago

Given the way the miniseries presented the Overlord's reign, I thought New Athens was good. Some people would want independent communities and the Overlords would probably let them do it if they weren't a threat to anyone else.

But I had a problem with the idea that the Overlords wanted people to wear nothing but earth tones, ride bikes (a good idea in high density communities, but as the sole form of everyday transportation even in isolated rural areas?!)except when they were occasionally flying.

I guess the airport parking lots are flooded with thousands of white bikes and people often miss their flights because the didn't go fast enough. What about electric cars? Light rail? Different colors? This aspect of the culture was even contradicted at the lavish cocktail parties we see every once in a while.

I'd have imagined a safe, happy, fun environment; but with the eventual loss of creativity and curiosity, as opposed to a society seemingly based on clinical depression.

Make the utopia a little more Brave New World and few would care about getting out.