The O.D. on movies: Extinction with spoilers!!!

Rulerofowls (ROW), Highbrowl and John Dowle (JD) discuss the movie Extinction, which they all saw last night. The discussion covers plot twists and opinions on the movie, so SPOILER WARNING for anyone who has not seen the movie yet.

• ROW: You owls saw Extinction like we said, right?
• H: We saw it, and it seems we have pretty opposite opinions on it.
• JD: I liked it; mister snob over here did not!
• H: I’m not a snob, it’s not my problem you understand metaphors and can’t appreciate art, which Extinction is absolutely not!
• JD: Yeah, because it was fun and interesting! Not an “allegory” with Meta-narratives and hidden agendas! It had a couple of cool twists, it had action scenes and was fun, it told its story and it ended, so I liked it!
• ROW: Calm dowln, we are supposed to be the wise birds, so stop arguing and let’s start discussing! Highbrowl, why didn’t you like Extinction?
• H: Because, it was clearly more interested in creating “surprise” moments than telling a coherent and consistent story! The twist that people left earth and came back to reclaim it from synthetic androids? Pretty cool and unexpected, I’ll give you that! But does it make sense? Absolutely not!
• JD: Why not?! You can clearly see in the flashbacks that synthetic androids became more life-like and sentient, which caused people to freak out and androids to defend themselves causing a revolution, which the androids won, forcing the humans to flee on Mars!
• H: So, they just have the technology to get up and leave earth to go live on Mars, but cannot control their own creations with the same technological advancements?! Let me prove to you beyond doubt that they did not care about the story, they just wanted a cool twist; the humans have been gone for 50 years, but they wear alien-looking suits because they were not sure if the atmosphere can sustain them anymore! Do you understand how stupid that sounds?!
• ROW: I’m with H on this one; whichever way you look at it, it’s not that satisfying of a twist! It’s just a throwaway excuse for the humans to look like aliens, keep the twist hidden and wow us with the reveal.
• JD: But, the androids could have left the atmosphere to deteriorate because they don’t need oxygen, so in 50 years anything could have happened. It was just precautions!
• H: Okay, that still doesn’t make any sense, but I’ll give you that! If they are all androids, how come nobody malfunctioned? How come nobody noticed that it’s been 50 years, but this annoying girl is not getting any fucking older?! Do they just keep living the same year over and over, so that they have long term plans and live “normal” lives, but don’t notice the signs that they are androids?! Why do some androids have nightmares, while others don’t? Why does it makes sense that the androids think that they are human, besides the “we need to start over and not live in fear/guilt” excuse? They could have kept the knowledge and replaced the events with a fake “humanity has been wiped” excuse, which would have made defending and sustaining them a lot easier! I’m not even covering every inconsistency, because if you think about the movie more than 2 minutes, then everything is an inconsistency!

  

• ROW: Before we go on, I just want to clarify something: Fuck those annoying little girls?
• H and JD: Fuck’em!
• ROW: Howly shit, they were annoying as a mosquito on a summer camping trip! Did the humans make the kids annoying on purpose, to mess with people adopting an android kid, or do they actually think that real human kids are annoying as shit?!
• H: See, that’s the kind of inconsistency that bugs me so much!
• JD: How about you ROW, you hate this movie too?
• ROW: I like it, despite its many flaws! The twists are not that well executed, but they flow really well and tell an interesting tale that has a few of those metaphors and allegories we all love! It touches on some interesting issues like if you do create a sentient android, is it your property or its own self? How will people react to that creation? When Miles-the alien that turned out to be human- helps them and sees them for what they are, he hints at the resentment taught to him in Mars, so that can be seen as a social metaphor, but all of these questions and pondering situations are resolved within seconds, because the movie is one and half hour long!
• H: It should have been longer and the beginning is terrible! Even with the knowledge of the twists, that beginning still feels unfinished!
• JD: I think that the questions raised were given enough backstory and context that an answer isn’t required! Make up your own damn minds! As for the beginning, I was fine with it; it moved fast and got to the part it was interested in and had the most to do with.
• H: So, this movie’s just perfect according to you?!
• JD: Hell no! Those fucking annoying kids bring it several notches down, while the acting was pretty bad; I get it, they are supposed to be lifeless and expressionless androids, but I’m not an android and would like to see actors acting!
• H: That at least was the most consistent aspect of the twists, but I agree.
• ROW: It’s especially disappointing because Michael Pena and Lizzy Caplan are two great actors, but they were really bad for this one-intentional or not, it was not their best moment. I also disliked the switch of visuals; they started with the bright shots of weird architecture and futuristic city, but dissolved into dark, lame sci-fi aesthetic.
• JD: Yeah, but it meant that the action scenes were starting and those were pretty fun!
• H: Some of them were adequate, I’ll give you that, but most lacked the thrills for me. Did anyone else have a hard time understanding what the fuck the “aliens” looked like when they were first shown?
• ROW: Yes, I hate it when movies do that! I seriously thought it was someone in a Godzilla cowlstume for a minute. But, when I saw it clearly, it wasn’t half bad!
• JD: I just remembered the scene; it was after the kid went to get her freaking monkey doll and Peter struggled with him and stole his gun, which has a tracker on it, because the “alien” needs to be able to track them down for the plot to work! That is the kind of stupid I like! I laughed and still am laughing about it!
• H: Or, it’s an allegory on soldiers who are made to love their specific, uniquely identifiable weapon, so that they will care for it and not lose it in battle!
• JD: Fuck you and your allegories; they can’t ruin that stupid scene and my enjoyment of it.
• ROW: Okay, so just to summarize: JD thinks Extinction is great, H doesn’t like it and I think it’s alright but nothing special and certainly flawed.

[Everyone nods to confirm]

• ROW: Great! Let’s wrap it up there, before we go on a rant about those annoying fucking kids and derail this nice cowlversation we just had!