Mute (2018, Duncan Jones new film)

[kidsick5000]

Eh. Lots of indie filmmakers do the whole guerrilla film-making thing. Pretty cheap and easy.

If you want to make a film, there's zero excuse not to. Your average smartphone can do everything you need.
It can be pretty fun but it's never easy. It still requires huge swathes of time, wrangling and coersion.

[olliebean]

My excuse for not spending huge swathes of time wrangling and coercing people into working for free because I can't afford to pay them would be that I believe people ought to be paid for their work.

[kidsick5000]

Just finished watching.


I take absolutely zero pleasure in saying it's all over the place.
It's like a miniseries has been condensed into two hours. Are you following Alexander Skarsgård or Paul Rudd?
And nothing seems to tie together.
It also feels very "TV". I really don't know what happened here.

[Butchers Blind]

It was a mish mash of other futurist movies but without anything to say.  Didn't get what the point of it was - man with no voice searches for missing girlfriend in a murky city.  Surely that's a story that could be played out in present times if you wanted; placing the story in the future added nothing.

[Bad Ambassador]

Don't forget Blair Witch Project and Gareth Edward's Monsters. Edward went straight from little low budget thing to fucking Star Wars!

Godzilla.

[bgmnts]

Godzilla.

My mistake yes he went straight from low budget thing to massive massive franchise, THEN Star Wars. Mental.

[kidsick5000]

It was a mish mash of other futurist movies but without anything to say.  Didn't get what the point of it was - man with no voice searches for missing girlfriend in a murky city.  Surely that's a story that could be played out in present times if you wanted; .

Yeah. Lots of stuff started - like the Amish element or the captions and titles as part of the scenery - but all drop off.
The sound is weird too. In parts it's like everyone is dubbed.

placing the story in the future added nothing

I get that idea of trying to be realistic in your future tech - ie outside of gadgets, do things look that different from 30 years ago? - but... ah you get the rest.

I hope Mr Jones recoups and comes back stronger.

[Mister Six]

Watched this last night, and it's honestly the worst film I've seen in a long, long time. Worse than Suicide Squad, even.

The whole Skarsgard plot is a wash. He and his missus are such bland cyphers that it's impossible to care about either of them. Maybe that wouldn't be a problem if the plot was compelling, but it basically consists of going to a place, finding an address, going to that place, finding another address, and so on.

The cyberpunk world is totally generic and lacks depth (with the two exceptions of the Hobbit's crazy sex robots and the idea of having drones follow your phone to deliver food) so there's nothing to get your teeth into there either.

Rudd's side of the plot half-entertains thanks to him and Theroux apparently having a whale of a time, and the conflict between them is interesting, but then that goes nowhere at all either, and the whole thing ends up just a big wet fart. The 'twist' doesn't really have any impact because it's obvious Rudd is a psychopath from the beginning, and the central mystery of why bland blue-haired girl has disappeared isn't emotionally or intellectually compelling.

It's just so undercooked. There's no narrative drive - it's just people meandering from place to place until they bump into each other - no themes or resonance, no compelling characters other than Rudd and Theroux. And even they go to shit at the end, when Theroux lets Rudd's character die because he was "mean", then seems angry at Skarsgard for killing him (why?), then fixes his voice box (why?), then takes him out to throw him off a bridge (why?).

The thing is, there's enough here for three good films. The idea of an Amish guy who's so anti-tech that he won't look at a TV (but apparently is fine dropping the Amish code of non-violence) having to integrate into a super-tech-led cyberpunk city has promise. The idea of a mute-by-choice man living in a world where any body part can be replaced and men can have super-realistic removable fake boobs is interesting. And there's a lot of mileage in Rudd/Theroux's "what if your best friend is a paedophile" story. But none of it goes anywhere.

Bereft of character, plot, momentum or themes. An incredible wash-out.

[Glebe]

Watched this last night, and it's honestly the worst film I've seen in a long, long time. Worse than Suicide Squad, even.

Cripes.

[St_Eddie]

Yes, I'm not sure Jones is much of an auteur...

*snobbery engaged*

I'll say this much; I can hardly fathom Stanley Kubrick making a Warcraft flick.

*snobbery disengaged*

[Mister Six]

Actually I just remembered one good thing about this film: Paul Rudd's daughter is watching Trap Door in his car. That's it.

[ieXush2i]

Hm, so Moon was a fluke, and Duncan directed Source Code from someone else's well-written script, it seems?

[Paaaaul]

*snobbery engaged*

I'll say this much; I can hardly fathom Stanley Kubrick making a Warcraft flick.

*snobbery disengaged*

After the original director was sacked, Kubrick was brought in to direct Spartacus - a huge studio film which was basically the Warcraft of its day.

[greenman]

Hm, so Moon was a fluke, and Duncan directed Source Code from someone else's well-written script, it seems?

I'd say theres a pretty strong directors hand in Source Code personally, maybe Warcraft has just ruined him? maybe Netflicks are crap producers who pick dodgy scripts? Not being signed up to them I'm actually somewhat glad this isn't worth seeing.

[ieXush2i]

I'd say theres a pretty strong directors hand in Source Code personally, maybe Warcraft has just ruined him? maybe Netflicks are crap producers who pick dodgy scripts? Not being signed up to them I'm actually somewhat glad this isn't worth seeing.

As I understand, Jones co-wrote Warcraft and Mute. Both are passion projects, I believe.

[greenman]

As I understand, Jones co-wrote Warcraft and Mute. Both are passion projects, I believe.

Very hard to know for sure in this age of PR, nobody other than seemingly Mark Hamill is going to let the mask slip. Could be he's a dodgy writer(he didn't actually script Moon) but theres obviously directorial talent in his first couple of films,

Maybe this will make people appreciate Garth Edwards a bit more? I mean Monsters wasn't nearly as good as Moon but he seems to have kept more of an edge to his blockbusters.

[Paaaaul]

I'd say theres a pretty strong directors hand in Source Code personally, maybe Warcraft has just ruined him? maybe Netflicks are crap producers who pick dodgy scripts? Not being signed up to them I'm actually somewhat glad this isn't worth seeing.

Netflix are not really producing films.
They largely buy already made films looking for distribution.

The Cloverfield Paradox, Mute, and the upcoming Annihilation were all produced with a view for cinema release but were bought further down the line by Netflix.

[ieXush2i]

Didn't they buy the script to Bright from Lax Mandis?

[kidsick5000]

Maybe this will make people appreciate Garth Edwards a bit more? I mean Monsters wasn't nearly as good as Moon but he seems to have kept more of an edge to his blockbusters.

Gareth Edwards shows the reality of being a director of a big studio movie.
We can all moan: why not this?, why do that? but the fact is that you are an employee trying to steer a huge vessel. A difficult enough a task as it is, yet sometimes your employer may well dictate that you aim for an iceberg. Your job is to glance the iceberg in such a way that your employer is happy yet you don't sink the ship.
(What an amazing analogy. Literally just thought of it. I shall use it again, somehow).

Gareth Edwards knows which side his bread is buttered. He could have easily stormed to the press after Rogue One and cried foul. But he kept quiet and promoted a film that is only partially his work.
It would be great if Disney were open about the true story of Rogue One.
Then again, maybe they don't have an objection to being open, they're just saving it for later. gotta have more product down the line.

[amputeeporn]

Gareth Edwards shows the reality of being a director of a big studio movie.
We can all moan: why not this?, why do that? but the fact is that you are an employee trying to steer a huge vessel. A difficult enough a task as it is, yet sometimes your employer may well dictate that you aim for an iceberg. Your job is to glance the iceberg in such a way that your employer is happy yet you don't sink the ship.
(What an amazing analogy. Literally just thought of it. I shall use it again, somehow).

Gareth Edwards knows which side his bread is buttered. He could have easily stormed to the press after Rogue One and cried foul. But he kept quiet and promoted a film that is only partially his work.
It would be great if Disney were open about the true story of Rogue One.
Then again, maybe they don't have an objection to being open, they're just saving it for later. gotta have more product down the line.

Haven't followed this production very closely - what's the story? I love hearing about troubled productions/reshoots etc so this sounds up my alley...

[buzby]

Haven't followed this production very closely - what's the story? I love hearing about troubled productions/reshoots etc so this sounds up my alley...

Edwards shot his film, which Kennedy & the people at Disney weren't happy with, so they got Tony Gilroy in to write and direct reshoots that substantially changed the film (watch the early trailers for evidence  - there's loads of shots with finished effects and dialogue that don't feature in the final cut), which show at least the final act of the film was originally a lot different (some reports saying 40% of the film was reshot).

This article gives a good account of the changes between the trailers and released version, and what the likely story changes were.

Rather than asking for his name to be taken off the film (the usual route when a director has his film changed substantially by someone else post-production) or Gilroy getting a co-director credit, Edwards took one for the team and Gilroy just took a writing credit (and a hefty fee as a reward).

[phantom_power]

I think there is a fair amount of rumour and supposition about that. Are there any attributed quotes that back that up? I know there were reshoots and some of the plot was changed but I don't think the differences in the trailer and the finished film support the 40% number. I would have thought if they reshot that much of the film with a different director it would be pretty hard to hide. That is almost Solo levels of fuck-uppery

[Josef K]

The film was Not Good but there's no way it's deserving of a Rotten Tomatoes score lower than Paul Blart: Mall Cop

[Mister Six]

The film was Not Good but there's no way it's deserving of a Rotten Tomatoes score lower than Paul Blart: Mall Cop

Honestly, it's so dysfunctional on the most basic screenwriting levels that I could believe it might be. But admittedly I've never seen Paul Blart Mall Cop.

[amputeeporn]

A very bright friend of mine argues that Paul Blart is so bad it has an almost transcendental quality to it...

[greenman]

Edwards shot his film, which Kennedy & the people at Disney weren't happy with, so they got Tony Gilroy in to write and direct reshoots that substantially changed the film (watch the early trailers for evidence  - there's loads of shots with finished effects and dialogue that don't feature in the final cut), which show at least the final act of the film was originally a lot different (some reports saying 40% of the film was reshot).

This article gives a good account of the changes between the trailers and released version, and what the likely story changes were.

Rather than asking for his name to be taken off the film (the usual route when a director has his film changed substantially by someone else post-production) or Gilroy getting a co-director credit, Edwards took one for the team and Gilroy just took a writing credit (and a hefty fee as a reward).

Honestly though I tend to think that situation was rather overplayed by the press. You could put it down to hype I spose but Edwards has claimed since that the intension was always to shoot a large amount of material, construct a lot of the story in the rough edit and then shoot additional material as needed. A lot of what ended up in the trailers as well was according to him never intended to be in the final cut.

There's the choice of Gilroy as well who worked with Edwards on rewrites for Godzilla which makes me think that the whole situation was rather less fraught, less him being kicked off by Disney and more someone he'd worked with previous being brought in to do reshoot work in collaboration.

[phantom_power]

Honestly though I tend to think that situation was rather overplayed by the press. You could put it down to hype I spose but Edwards has claimed since that the intension was always to shoot a large amount of material, construct a lot of the story in the rough edit and then shoot additional material as needed. A lot of what ended up in the trailers as well was according to him never intended to be in the final cut.

Those are both certainly things that are done quite often. The former is usually on lower budget films but there is no reason that couldn't be taken into big budget film-making

[buzby]

Honestly though I tend to think that situation was rather overplayed by the press. You could put it down to hype I spose but Edwards has claimed since that the intension was always to shoot a large amount of material, construct a lot of the story in the rough edit and then shoot additional material as needed. A lot of what ended up in the trailers as well was according to him never intended to be in the final cut.

There's the choice of Gilroy as well who worked with Edwards on rewrites for Godzilla which makes me think that the whole situation was rather less fraught, less him being kicked off by Disney and more someone he'd worked with previous being brought in to do reshoot work in collaboration.

You don't do fully composited and rendered effects shots like the one of Jyn facing off against the TIE fighter on the catwalk as 'coverage' that might not be used in the final edit. It was clearly part of the original ending before it was reworked by Gilroy. There will be NDAs on both sides so I doubt we will ever get to know the full story. The only people involved who have let anything slip ares Rix Hamed, who said there were a ton of reshoots and his role was made much larger in the process. This was backed up by John Gilroy, Tony's brother, who was brought on as editor at the same time as Tony (presumably at his request) to supervise the final edit :

The story was reconceptualised to some degree, there were scenes that were added at the beginning and fleshed out. We wanted to make more of the other characters, like Cassian's character, and Bodhi's character.

The scene with Cassian's introduction with the spy, Bodhi traipsing through Jedha on his way to see Saw, these are things that were added. Also Jyn, how we set her up and her escape from the transporter, that was all done to set up the story better.

He's also been quoted as confirming the Vader fanservice scene boarding the Tantive IV was part of the reshoots too. There's also this interview he did with the Independent where he confirms a lot of changes were made to the film as part of the reshoots, and that other incarnations of the film existed before he and Tony were brought in.

Regardless of how much of the final film was Gilroy's work (although it was never officially confirmed, it's widely acknowledged that he wrote and directed the reshoots and supervised the final edit, working on the film from June to November 2016, with the reshoots taking until August), the fact Lucasfilm got him and his brother in says they were obviously unhappy with the film Edwards originally delivered and were presumably not confident in his ability to deliver the changes they wanted.

[kidsick5000]

It could also be that Edwards was involved in replotting the reshoots.

Otherwise I can't think of another example of a director happily touting a movie that is only his in name.

[phantom_power]

A slightly more forgiving view:

http://www.denofgeek.com/uk/movies/duncan-jones-mute/55551/more-than-darkness-exploring-duncan-joness-mute