random ass stuff I loved about PHM the movie
I've been meaning to make this post for weeks but, well, the whole homeless situation and busted laptop kinda eats all the spoons but I'm finally sitting with a loaner computer at the library because I need to write a professional article, so here it be-
the Blip-A canisters look like an Eridian leg to me. Like...you see that too, right?? Which makes sense to me, why wouldn't Rocky sculpt a canister that looks like one of his limbs, it's like natural Eridian design, but also I like to imagine it's a visual pun like here lemme go out on a limb...ey, eyyyyy, get it...
speaking of the Blip-A, the exquisitely beautiful, majestic, awe-inspiring music that Daniel Pemberton wrote for this version of humanity's first contact with sapient alien life is just so. Glorious. And I love it so for being that gorgeous and wondrous. What a lovely thing to capture the magnitude of first contact as something joyous and almost spiritual rather than fearsome or enigmatic (even though Grace IS shitting bricks lol), and to give the occasion the dignity it merits. But also, if you're old enough to IYKYK, the last note of "Petrova Line" sounds like the most beautiful tribute to the THX theater audio "deep note" ever lmaooooo. I lolsnorted the first time I heard it.
IMO, Eva Stratt being "gentler" in the film makes her betrayal of Grace that much more painful. The contrast between her subdued but no less heartfelt care for him and her eventual willingness to sacrifice him for the sake of the world is thrown into more stark relief this way, and it also reinforces how much he hurt her by refusing to cooperate and forcing her to add him to the litany of her crimes.
Rocky's rougher, chunkier, asymmetrical appearance feels more organic to me than the spindly pentagonal design from the book, the latter of which also kinda evokes mid 20th century alien designs. They're both goofy and endearing in their own ways (especially book!Rocky with his little sweater/jumpsuit thingie lol), but I do like screen!Rocky for seeming more like a real lifeform, and not just because he's a physical puppet taking up 3D space in front of the camera. (Also, fuck yeah nudist Rocky lmao, let that funky little rock crab guy be an absolute weirdo after 46 years of traumatic isolation)
Greig Fraser's rotating camera shots, my beloved. I can't get enough of them. How to say so much with no words. Also weeeeeeee
Grace's "IS IT A BOMB???!" line is apparently the most fucking relatable thing ever uttered because every. single. PHM reactor I've seen says exactly the same thing BEFORE he even says it lmfaoooo, way to go Ryan Ryland Literally Me Grace Gosling. (Kudos to Drew Goddard for the line tho lol.)
the silly little way Stratt bobs her head when watching the video diary where Rocky's saying, "I am ROOOOOCKY, I am not Rocky from movie, no no no no!" tells me this is absolutely not the first time she's seeing it, she has seen this footage a billion times and knows every moment by heart and that's why she's smiling and laughing so much and she does the Eridian arm rub at the end to say goodbye to her friend Grace and it FUCKING BREAKS ME AUGHHHHHH-
from the soundtrack, I headcanon the sing-song whistle duet in "Learning to Communicate" as Rocky and Adrian singing to each other call-&-respond style, with Adrian naturally being the lower-pitched voice. BECAUSE IT'S STINKING CUTE OK
I just want to eat the entire soundtrack. Daniel Pemberton, you mad lad (who looks like a motherfucking Ryland Grace IRL with that flock-of-seagulls thatch of hair and a studio that looks like a tornado ripped through it). I took percussion in middle school because I thought getting to play a shitload of different instruments under the same umbrella was rad as hell, and now I wanna relearn it all. I have discovered the texture and it is this soundtrack.
CARL. Never mind all the Lowe's/Home Depot shenanigans (which I love) and his expense account enabling and "we're the government...all of them." >:) and "we're fathers, Carl...............now I'm sitting down," never mind that I adore every second this guy's onscreen, Carl is just as important to the project as Grace and everyone else. All that big brain energy wasn't going anywhere until Carl dropped the Fresh Prince of Venus Air idea, initiating the Carl Hypothesis. Seriously, jokes aside, if it wasn't for his spitball idea, Grace either might've never made his discovery, or made it much later, or someone else would've figured it out eventually but also much much later, putting the entire project behind. AND GRACE CREDITS HIM. That one random scientist who says, "Who's Carl??" in the carrier conference room is such a poignant line. Carl wasn't just Grace's friend, he's a hero of the project too. The world owes him too. And he wouldn't get even a fraction of the accolades, of course. "You know who you are. You're gonna do great." CARL, MY MAN.
I asexually carnally desire James Ortiz.
The tone Grace uses to say, "I'M COMINGGGGGG" when Rocky's beating down his door at the end sounds so Kenergy, and it's because for the second time this man's job is BEACH.
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