MovieChat Forums > Love, Death & Robots (2019) Discussion > Pop Squad should have been a full-length...

Pop Squad should have been a full-length film...

posted 3 years ago by cyguration (3942)
14 replies | jump to latest

Literally just as it was getting going it ended. The atmosphere, design, and world-building were the likes of which a cult-classic is made.

It reminded me of what I wanted the new Blade Runner to be like and what I hoped Cyberpunk 2077 could have been. The mixture of American enterprise art deco and futurism aesthetics are a thing of beauty. The characterizations were quite fleshed out for what little runtime it had, but man I really wish they explored the world more.

It's a shame because we get so many other trash-tier big budget films from Hollywood yet the actual good stuff is relegated to shorts and concepts.

[–] MichaelJPollock (678) 3 years ago

It was very well done indeed, but I can't help feeling we haven't had a single original or meaningful esthetic vision of the future since 'Blade Runner' (itself very heavily influenced by 'Metropolis') and the film is already 40 years olds.
The endless recycling of that artistic vision is starting to feel a bit stale.

[–] cyguration (3942) 3 years ago

It was very well done indeed, but I can't help feeling we haven't had a single original or meaningful esthetic vision of the future since 'Blade Runner' (itself very heavily influenced by 'Metropolis') and the film is already 40 years olds.

Ah, you don't count Total Recall or Minority Report?

[–] RogueDemonHunter (2656) 3 years ago

Meh. It was just Blade Runner but with children instead of replicants. It didn't make a lot of sense really.

[–] cyguration (3942) 3 years ago

It didn't make a lot of sense really.

It did -- based on the short glimpse we were given.

It was a militant proscription of breeding kids, like China's two-child policy escalated to 11 (but not by much).

I don't see why it didn't make sense when a softer version of that has already been adopted in real-life policy.

Now imagine rich elites not wanting poor people to breed and using police to execute the children? If China was forcing abortions, forcing adoptions, and forcing the ratting out of neighbors and relatives (as if it were Stalin-era Russia), I don't see why it would be so far fetched that a class-divided dystopia would see the rich using special units to execute kids in order to avoid uprising, social upheaval, or any kind of disruption to their lifestyle.

[–] RogueDemonHunter (2656) 3 years ago

I guess I didn't see it as so clear cut as a class divide issue.

To me, it came across as all children were outlawed, regardless of class hence me finding it dumb.

Like the toyshop. If the ultra wealthy elite were allowed to have children, they would still need toys. A toy shop wouldn't have to operate as a back street "collectibles" shop.

The woman at the end, she was seemingly once part of the elite and had been getting her top ups hence her massive age. If she wanted a child in that world, she clearly wasn't allowed and so chose to abandon that life and live on the outskirts.

Think about how society works. Some type of class system is needed in some respects. I can't see that changing in whatever time period is portrayed here. I mean, not everyone can be a doctor or an opera singer right? Do you think the people that provide key services in that city in low paid jobs are going to have access to whatever is allowing the elite to be x00 years old? Do you think they'd want to drag out their life living at the bottom of the food chain? The elite need people like that and their offspring to do they jobs they won't do.

[–] cyguration (3942) 3 years ago

To me, it came across as all children were outlawed, regardless of class hence me finding it dumb.

Right, children in general were outlawed. The elite had no need for kids because they no longer needed a lineage; everything they had and wanted they could keep for themselves. So kids were no longer a necessity to retain a bloodline of wealth.

The woman at the end, she was seemingly once part of the elite and had been getting her top ups hence her massive age. If she wanted a child in that world, she clearly wasn't allowed and so chose to abandon that life and live on the outskirts.

Yeah, I imagine having a kid meant abandoning the elite lifestyle, because the logic would be: why would you want a kid when you could have everything for yourself?

Based on the little we saw the people who had kids were all in slum areas. But since they mentioned that people were ratting out neighbors who had kids -- and since all those people seemed to be in the slums -- it gave the impression that only those who weren't the most elite wanted kids. Or those who wanted kids gave up the elite lifestyle to raise a child, maybe because in the upper echelon there are more checks and balances for population control, sort of like in the movie What Happened to Monday?.

The elite need people like that and their offspring to do they jobs they won't do.

Or automation. They didn't show it, but I'm guessing there was a measure of automation that helped with menial tasks? I suppose for anything else a peon would be used.

I guess that's why I wanted a full-length feature film version, to see more of how the world worked and the economics of lifestyle sustenance.

[–] RogueDemonHunter (2656) 3 years ago

Yeah. Absolutely. I would appreciate a bit more fleshing out of that world.

[–] asom (6601) 3 years ago

Indeed, i didn't see it as a class divider either.

What was weird for me was that the reason for the choice of outlawing children was overpopulation but we see no overpopulation in any of the frames ...

worse, the cities that we see are empty and long abandoned, so the premise didn't seem to be there.

But it is an interesting moral dilemma.

[–] exatera (3949) 3 years ago

The reason for outlawing children was immortality. They all lived for so long now that there was no room for more people to come in.

[–] asom (6601) 3 years ago

Did you read what I wrote???

The world presented in the animation was NOT filled with people. Most places shown are derelict, with huge, empty deserted cities and 2-3 people in each scene, empty streets, you get the idea.

You would expect that in a overpopulated world those cities would be fully populated and overflowing with people.

The world that was presented in that episode was NOT an overpopulated world ... but a world with a LOT of room ...

[–] Ace_Spade (9457) 3 years ago

I agree. That was my first reaction upon seeing that one: "I could watch a whole film of this." I wanted more exploration into this strange, horrifying world where selfish immortals won't allow breeding for fear of overpopulation or whatever they were on about. It was a great finger in the eye to the narcissism of humanity, and which spoke volumes about finding the meaning in the small moments that flicker away. Plus, the character arc was great, it was really moving - yeah, I'd have watched a full-length version of that.

[–] cyguration (3942) 3 years ago

It was a great finger in the eye to the narcissism of humanity, and which spoke volumes about finding the meaning in the small moments that flicker away

Yeah. This is what I wanted to see a lot more of. Gosh, this film above all the others just really hit all the right tones at the right pace. It ended just way too soon. The emotion, the characters, the world... I was really getting soaked into this divisively desolate yet beautiful dystopia.

Plus, the character arc was great, it was really moving - yeah, I'd have watched a full-length version of that.

I was most interested to know how long they had been doing that? Unlike Blade Runner where there was this disconnect between the job and the humanity of the job, there was a strong connection between the job and the humanity of the job with those guys (and gals). It definitely made you wonder how many of them cracked? How often did it happen? And what was the turnaround rate of such an occupation?

I think the use of the historical G-Man aesthetics for that sect with the Oldsmobile-style designs for their vehicles (and the obvious allusion to Blade Runner's PKD Blaster) just made it feel both familiar and yet foreign enough to be intriguing, if that makes sense.

[–] Ace_Spade (9457) 3 years ago

It makes total sense. It had a perfect blend of sci-fi and "old tech" that makes it feel familiar, yet alien.

I think the true horror of Pop Squad was how it felt so abominable - destroying children like that - and yet, I can absolutely see the self-obsessed people of this world doing that. "Oh, I get to be immortal? Yeah, I'll burn every shred of my humanity to get that..."

[–] TylerAArse (2722) 3 years ago

And I thought the same thing. A full-length movie would be interesting. Seeing the main protagonist struggle with his morals and how he would deal with it.