"Downsizing"
Xmas day. Hanukkah over. New Year's coming up in the fast lane.
Husband Shelly made me go see this movie yesterday. Normally I love scifi/spec themes but this one was just too stupid. Or poorly realized. Or just a bad movie. It starts with a good enough premise - people can opt to shrink themselves down to 5 inches or so and go live in retirement type domed villages, knowing their carbon footprint is vastly reduced and humankind will be able to forestall extinction for far longer than if they had remained human size. Ok, I'm with them so far but how could they not address:
- type of work they'd be able to do in new location;
- defenses they could use against a stray insect, or g forbid, a cat;
- defenses they could call upon in case of terrorism, world war, violent parties
- Sci fi must create a world, a reasonable facsimile of one, for the readers/audience to inhabit for the length of the story. Not done here. We see fancy houses and circus type tent and then where the poor people live.
- by the way, who's governing these small people? Who do you go to for resolving problems?
Matt Damon tries hard but he is kind of pathetic. Vietnamese costar is great but neither can make up for lackluster story. Worst thing about this movie? It runs over 2 hours.