Yuku free message boards

opticalguy,

As I recall, Dern's friends were gleeful not about destroying anything--the point was that they didn't care about the trees--but that they were going home. Dern sure seemed to be portrayed as a nutcase--I mean, if killing the trees is so bad, why does he jettison one of the domes and blow it up so he can kill the guy or guys inside? It's not about a philosophy on property, it's that, well, killing people is bad, and if he struggled with his decision and there were some REASON behind it, it could have been dramatic and while no one would think it was a GOOD thing we could at least get the point. But that doesn't happen here--he's going along, one of the gang, though one who is more interested in the trees than the others, and then he just kills them all--AND he kills a substantial portion of the supposedly precious trees.

Simply put, this movie is stupid. Why are there no more trees on Earth, anyway? (The movie may explain this but I can't recall.) Why shoot them into space and just let them drift around so far away? If you're at the point where you can just get rid of the trees because they don't need them on Earth anymore, why are they even in space to begin with--were they taking up that much room? Why is supposed ecologist Dern, who loves these trees so much, puzzled as to why they aren't thriving when there's no flippin' sunlight??

The moviemakers may have had their hearts in the ecologically correct place, but it proves that you don't have to be some Hollywood hack to make a stupid movie. The whole thing seems to have been put together because the (seriously) great Doug Trumbull wanted to film spaceships near Saturn, which had been considered for 2001. Then the movie was worked backwards from that, from the shape of the story.

The FX are outstanding, and the robots are kinda cute, and the sappy ending is one of the most poignant in SF movie history. I also like the music--it is appropriate for the grim story. And I think both of Baez's songs are terrific--when the end happens, and the music starts, and the camera pulls away from the robot with the watering can, that's just powerful pop filmmaking.

But it's a stupid, stupid movie. With the same visuals, it could have been a great SF movie. Instead, it's just another example of the kind of movie that makes SF disreputable with some folks--cool FX, and that's about it.

P.S. Trumbull did an interview once where he described a different ending, involving aliens, and Dern being killed by Earth forces who pursue the ship. It would have been better, as the final shot is basically still there, but the robot shows the aliens (who we don't see) a photo of Dern and the robots, and then we pull away.