Qt3 Movie Podcast: Girl with All the Gifts

I haven’t listened to the podcast (and I probably won’t- I listen to very few of those). But I watched this movie last week. Basically, a modern version of “I Am Legend” (the book, not the Will Smith movie that totally crapped all over the ending). Pretty good, though, and I looked it up after. I don’t know if it came up in the podcast, but it turns out it was directed by the same guy who directed Outcast, which I think I watched on a Tom recommendation years ago. Man, I’d love him to revisit that little world. That’s all.

So I haven’t seen the movie either, just read the book, but Kelly raises the comparison to “I Am Legend” on the podcast and I gotta say I’m just not seeing it. How do you figure?

If you liked Outcast, you might enjoy A Dark Song, which I just reviewed. They have points of commonality, although very different tones.

Also, even if you don’t want to listen to the podcast, I guarantee you’ll have a good time with a Kellywand synopsis of a movie you’ve just seen. You can fast forward about five minutes into any of the podcasts and be done within, say, fifteen minutes.

-Tom

@tomchick, yeah, I’ve got A Dark Song bookmarked for when I have time. Thanks for finding this stuff for us.

@divedivedive, here we go:

the apocalypse has happened, turning the vast majority of the population into mindless monsters out for blood. The few humans left are researching a cure to save the human race. In the end, it’s realized that the virus has mutated, and a new society has emerged. The cure is not needed, really, just the realization that humanity’s time is over. It’s time for a new society to take over.

No? Again, the Will Smith movie completely, thoroughly butchered that ending, so if that’s all you’re familiar with, I don’t blame you for not following.

No, never saw that movie, just the book. Actually not totally true - I saw “Last Man on Earth” and “Omega Man”, which were derived from Matheson’s story, but his story is closest to my heart. Anyway, that makes a bit more sense. I guess I mainly think of it in terms of one man alone struggling to survive. Not by way of finding a cure, though that is on his mind, but more by putting an end to every vampire he comes across - and I couldn’t reconcile that with this story very well. Your perspective explains it, thanks.

The 3x3 can be a brutal battleground. I submitted a car doing a recognised aeronautical manouvre, a barrel roll, a staple air show display technique, and was jeered at by fellows who submitted a robot and a tank.

I’m fumin’.

I think Tom may have “lift” confused with “thrust.”

Also, I’m glad someone mentioned the DeLorean.

I lost it when Thelma & Louise got picked.

Here are my belated picks:
RC from the end of Toy Story
The bus from Speed (jumping the gap in the highway)

[quote=“drfish, post:27, topic:129603, full:true”]
I think Tom may have “lift” confused with “thrust.”[/quote]

They’re related, but they’re not the same thing. Thrust generates lift. Without it, an airplane is just a glider.

Wait, did I get get trolled…?

-Tom

Not trolling. My understand is that, without wings, lift is hard to achieve (per Bernoulli anyway). Rockets (and Transformers) don’t seem to fly because of lift so much as pure thrust.

Oh yeah, and Anakin’s pod racer from EP1 is my other favorite flying car.

But when Optimus Prime flies, don’t little stubby wings pop out of his backpack thingie? It’s my understanding that how robots fly. They have a backpack thingie that pops out little stubby wings and then rockets fire from the bottoms of their feet. Ergo, thrust and lift.

I’m pretty sure the science of what I’m saying is 100% sound.

-Tom

Does that mean Buzz Lightyear is a robot? Or does his toyness override that? Or does his sentience override his toyness? Or are his wings not stubby enough to be robot wings? But he can’t generate his own thrust when he’s a toy. He can only do that when he is playing a video game of himself in his virtual-real-life. And he only generates lift when he is falling with style… My head hurts. Best 3x3 ever.

Buzz Lightyear is the Optimus Prime of the Toy Story universe. Woody is the Mark Wahlberg.

-Tom

Maybe not those in Northern Ireland.

QT3 crew, what exactly did you mean when you were talking about whether Melanie was tricking Glenn Close? Tricking how?

I’ve watched TGWATG once now, the first of several viewings I suspect, and I’m glad this was appreciated by all the hosts. Excellent acting and direction, top script The production design and effects are amazing for Lottery-funded work; you don’t get the sense of working around a tight budget. When it moves to London I am reminded of Homo Sapiens (2016) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5450084/ - an exquisite hour and a half of weathered and abandoned built environments.

I agree with Tom’s criticism of the dominance display needing a bit more oomph - perhaps something along the lines of what Tomas Alfredson used in Let The Right One In. He used an adult voice throughout, an adult body briefly and animal audio where a feral state was reached. Perhaps the latter of those might have helped. I think generally the benign appearance of Melanie and all the children is very effective.

Just watched this movie and thought that it was a very good adaptation of the novel. Excellent cast with an extra shout out to the guy who played Sgt. Parker - great mix of professionalism and pragmatism the exemplified the character in the book. The visual of creeping through the pack of hungries was pretty great, but it also broke some of the suspension of disbelief as the hungries were pretty inconsistently triggered by sounds and movement.

One fault that I have is the lack of demonstration of Mel’s genius. Her intelligence is off the charts in the book, but the movie just pulls a few pop quizzes without making much of it. Maybe not a huge deal, but it was a part of the character that I liked a lot from the book. I guess I should be thankful that they didn’t fall into the same trap as ‘Room’ did and turn her 1st person perspective in the book into annoying exposition/narration by a child actor.

My read during the crucial moment when Melanie and Dr. Caldwell are facing off at the end of the movie is that Melanie honestly believes Dr. Caldwell’s appeal. Melanie is ready to sacrifice herself because she is moved by Caldwell’s appeal to let Miss Jusineau live out a full life. When Melanie undoes the velcro strap on her shoe, she is getting ready to climb up on the table and let Caldwell vivisect her. It’s only when Dr. Caldwell admits that, yes, Melanie is alive and sentient and not just mimicking behavior, that she changes her mind and decides, “Why should we be the ones who die for you?”

Kellywand and Dingus thought Melanie was deceiving Dr. Caldwell, presumably into admitting that she thought Melanie was alive. I’m not sure what purpose that would have served, but I do feel that Sennia Nanua couldn’t quite carry whichever was supposed to be happening in that scene.

Ooh, good call. Lena Leandersson has a great spooky look, but I’m not sure how well it would have worked if she had to actually play out the kills at the swimming pool! One reason that scene works so well is because Oskar is underwater the whole time. We get to let our imaginations turn her feral and then we have to reconcile whatever we imagined with that close up on her eyes shining brightly as she pulls Oskar out of the water. It’s a shame Girl With All The Gifts couldn’t similarly work around Sennia Nanua.

Ultimately, however, I still wish we could have gotten Dafne Keen from Logan!

That is too bad, because you’re right that there’s no hint of that in the movie. The movie Melanie seems bright, sure. But partly because she’s so eager to please, she seems more like a teacher’s pet than any sort of child prodigy.

-Tom

Really? I definitely got the sense she was off the charts intelligent. Wasn’t that a large part of the point of the opening sequence? Or the fact that this, what, 10-year old girl has already learned about symbiosis? I seem to recall there were half a dozen or so points where she showed intelligence/knowledge far beyond an ordinary human 10-year old. On top of her general sharpness/precociousness throughout the plot.

Overall, my take on/reaction to the film is much closer to Tom’s than the rest of the crew’s,and I absolutely loved it (especially the ending). Though I went in knowing it was a zombie movie so I didn’t have quite the reaction to the scene where they went outside for the first time he did. Also while I acknowledge Close was right from her and the ordinary humans’ perspective, I’m not so sure the film is portraying her as right overall. I think the film is pretty sympathetic to Melanie’s stance at the end. Though I think in part the answer to that question depends on whether the outbreak is contained to mainland UK or not. It seems unlikely, but that’s the implication of the spore release being the end of the world.

Ok yes I gues so

As I watched and, certainly as the film began to wind up, I thought, “I’m betting some of this was MUCH better in the book. I should have read that first”. The britishness didn’t bother me so much as the fact that it seemed there were great set pieces that didn’t work as well on the screen as they probably worked in the book. That could partially be a director, screenplay or actor issue or some combination. Or I could just be wrong. :) Tom mentioned one above with the grocery store scene. Chief among those I did not feel worked as well as it should have was:

The zombie stroller. While shocking to see the rats, the tension and dread that should have built up didn’t work and then there was a semi-jump scare because RATS. It worked for the movie somewhat, but it seems like it could have been better.

This also had the unfortunate problem of being the first film I watched after It Comes at Night. Any time I watch a film and find it to be near perfect, the inadequacies of the subsequent couple of movies I watch will stand out even more.

To me the book was a lot better. The movie was not bad per se… but for whatever reason it did not capture the experience very well. I attributed it to the stiff upper lip-ness but it could be something else. Sorry Britons!