Spielberg's 'Taken' - Classic/Dud?

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its just started in the UK, I was pessimistic based on what I'd read about it - then everyone slated it on The Newsnight Review (well, mark Kermode hates everything of course) but watched the first episode and was actually quite engrossed, ashamedly. yes its horribly cliched (the child narration was truly abysmal) and the alien CGI and effects actually looked laughably poor for some reason (not even as good as Dark Skies), the plot contrived and ham-fisted...I mean there is nothing much good about it at all yet I feel compelled to watch more...this is the real magic of Spielberg! I also quite liked AI as well, the guy has some terrible power over me I can't shake off...curse him

what did you do think? does anyone still care about aliens and UFOs? it seems like the show shouldve been on at least 5 years ago.

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 13:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn - I don't like missing Mark Kermode on Late Review.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I boycotted it because it had that cockfarming Parker in it. Plus, the creepy little girl in it is off-putting. She will probably end up in the Speilberg Child Actor Hall of Shame.

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 13:54 (twenty-two years ago)

''then everyone slated it on The Newsnight Review''

kodwo eshun (sp?) didn't slate it as i recall.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:07 (twenty-two years ago)

But he's a moron so that's not really a recommendation.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:08 (twenty-two years ago)

yeh, he tried to defend it but was stared down by Kermode and Bonnie Greer, hahaha

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

At first I thought it was a bit dud, because it was so slow moving and had this annoying kid narrating. I thought it was just some cheap version of Darker Skies. But, I got into it towards the end, that army officer who went inside the UFO, well I reckon he was taken over by the aliens when he did that, I mean, like what happened to that guy and his two sons?

I like the way they are trying to make it into a historical drama. Speilberg is just getting us ready for contact.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Great idea for a sitcom. My Two Greers. Mark Lawson has to keep Bonnie and Germaine Greer from trying to kill each other as the accidentally come in contact with plenty of modern artforms.

Co-STaring Tom Paulin as the hillarious next door neighbour who constantly gets Greer and Greer mixed up.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:00 (twenty-two years ago)

the alien mythology is so powerful yet it continues to fail to ever explain the following:

why do the aliens have faces at all if they cannot convey a range of expressions with them?

why do they all look exactly the same?

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:02 (twenty-two years ago)

''But he's a moron so that's not really a recommendation.''

yes, but everyone didn't 'slate it' like blueski said. that's the point N. you moron (heh).

I don't like any of 'em apart from Paulin and (oh yes) morley.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:04 (twenty-two years ago)

the apperance of aliens in films can be summarised by the following "make them familiar, but not too much". Chances are that aliens would not be bilaterally symmetrical, let alone bipedal. Yet you never see aliens in films that are radially symmetrical, like starfish or sea urchins. Why? Because the audience would not be able to identify with them.

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark Lawson has to keep Bonnie and Germaine Greer from trying to kill each other as the accidentally come in contact with plenty of modern artforms

Could you bring Greer Garson into it somehow?

― MarkH (MarkH), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Or even Rosie Greer.

― Nicole (Nicole), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:16 (twenty-two years ago)

What, in a sitcom called The Greers? (Or even Three Cheers, Its The Greers). Greer Garson is always getting whinging phonecalls from her daughter which Bonnie and Germaine argue about poetry until their randy next door neighbour Tom Paulin pops in asking for a cup of molasses.

― Pete (Pete), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Some possible answers, without much imagination:

why do the aliens have faces at all if they cannot convey a range of expressions with them?
For a start, they can, a bit. But I've never been able to spot many expressions on the faces of fish or hippos, but they still have faces in the same way as these aliens.

why do they all look exactly the same?
Can you tell one halibut or hippo from another? Or even adult chimps?

why do they always want to probe and experiment on humans without giving them anaesthetic? if they're intelligent enough to master space travel they should also be intelligent enough to recognise that torturing humans is needless
Because they don't care, or they like it, or they think of humans as being as far below them as we do the animals we eat or hunt.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

As for the show, I thought it rather dull, but I might try another ep. I don't know where this Spielberg magic might come from - he didn't direct it.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Why are aliens always butt-naked? Like they travel so far, but really they are just intergalatic flashers.

― jel -- (jel), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 18:37 (twenty-two years ago)

well obviously such a higher intelligence has no need for clothes...plus they dont actually possess genitalia

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 19:06 (twenty-two years ago)

of course! it all makes sense now - mastering intergalactic travel as penis compensation!

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

why do they all look exactly the same?

This is just you being racist.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

yeh you're right, i wish they'd fuck off back to their own planet, and stop stealing our women too

― stevem (blueski), Tuesday, 14 January 2003 23:03 (twenty-two years ago)

(their higher intellect == nudity) => (concern with personal appearance == triviality & idiocy) ?

Ted Polhemus once wrote that this frequent image of aliens as stripped down/minimalist was absurd - he reckoned that they'd be positively festooned with personal adornment.

(I only posted this because it gave me the chance to use one of my favourite words: 'festooned'.....)

― Snowy Mann (rdmanston), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 00:18 (twenty-two years ago)

These aliens clearly hate fun.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 00:20 (twenty-two years ago)

given that 15% of americans already claim to have suffered some kind of alien abduction my only thought was 'Stop encouraging them'.

andy

― koogs, Wednesday, 15 January 2003 10:05 (twenty-two years ago)

is the classic alien's similarity to a foetus an extension of the idea that humans are neotenous apes? Aliens are more evolved an so more neotenous?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

but that image only came to prominence with 'Close Encounters' didnt it? i mean, you could argue the Mekons are a bit like that as well but perhaps it was because Roswell documentation began to emerge only 20-30 years after the incident? or am i wrong about that? the favoured image of aliens in the 50s was as B-movies indicate - expressionless robots or even Aryanesque humans for example

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 15:57 (twenty-two years ago)

i want someone to write a book about the evolution of the alien form (also: when did they start being called aliens at all?)

aliens in b-movies take many forms: the thing is a giant carrot for example

schwa must bear some of the blame, for their design savvy — also the guy who designed the cover of communion

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 17:57 (twenty-two years ago)

This article from Saturday's Guardian Guide may be the answer to your prayers, Mark (the author says he is working on a book on the subject).

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 18:04 (twenty-two years ago)

The Nordics (tall and blond) and the Greys (short and naked, kinda gollum-esque don't you think?) have been popular descriptions of visitors since the 50's. I once asked Man or Astro-man? if they knew where the greys came from, but I think they were a bit taken back by my geekyness.

I shall have a read of the Complete Book of UFOs, and see if I can shed anymore light on the origin of aliens.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

i miss roswell high

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 18:26 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, the main girl was cute.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

hmm the writer of that Guardian article seems to have overlooked the idea that its these popular Grey types that have become synonomous with painful and seemingly pointless examinations of humans thanks to the X-Files, Communion, Dark Skies and many other films and TV programmes. he makes a valid point that its funny how Greys are so bland looking thus easy to model and animate (they just didnt look 'real' in Taken though...but how could they i suppose unless they were kids in suits?) when technology permits a much more ambitious level of alien design these days. how did they get so popular when they're so disappointing visually...unless its all true of course.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 19:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark Kermode doesn't hate everything - just everything to do with Spielberg. Even 'A.I' and 'Minority Report' both of which are completely fantastic, of course.
But, yeah, 'Taken' was directed by Tobe 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' Hooper, not Spielberg. I only half-watched it, it was quite dull - bloody Roswell again!! ARRGH! Enough! - but I'll keep watching it, I know I will (though ten (I think) 2 hour episodes is a bit much if it stays like this. It's gotta improve).

― DavidM (DavidM), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Ai had many detractors...Minority Report was generally well-received but there are lots of obvious flaws...

at this rate Spielberg's good/bad ratio will end more like 50/50

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 15 January 2003 20:48 (twenty-two years ago)

two weeks pass...

This series is now pretty damn good.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 3 February 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

the last one was weird - it was more like a bog-standard X-Files episode and seemed really out of step with the rest of the series, perhaps that was partly down to the visual change i.e. from sunny cornfields to the gloomy woods of Alaska i.e. typical X-Files location

the shift/tangent was unexpected and quite compelling as a result. yes the series is improving but the little girl narrator still must die...i'm quite gutted that Owen Crawford is now out of it as he had a cool Cancer Man-esque appeal (doing whatever it takes to save and maintain the project) tho...likewise the Nazi scientist guy - these were the villains but they're much more 'likeable' than anyone else - wtf?!

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 3 February 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

Classic.

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 16 May 2006 17:06 (nineteen years ago)

three years pass...

Still!

― StanM, Friday, 26 March 2010 17:34 (fifteen years ago)

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