I reserve ratings of under 3 stars to media that goes beyond the limits of a fictional universe and is harmful to the real world.
As a smart man said: Stories are lies that reveal a deeper truth.
The "truth" this particular story reveals is really ugly... and false.
While the series is masterfully fabricated, really confusing and complex, and still ramping up in complexity over the first season, if one sticks with it and puts in the effort to understand it, it's really smart.
Unfortunately if one thinks just a biiit more about it and isn't simply content with saying "wow this was smart", one also starts to see the ugliness behind it.
First of all, there are major continuity errors which you might gloss over if the weird storytelling confuses you enough. This leads to absolutely major points of the universe being simply discarded when its convenient. Several things never go explained so if one starts to think about them the whole plot unravels.
Second, while making a big fuss in universe about how violence is totally unnecessary for a good story, it absolutely relishes in gratuitous gore and completely needless violence to make the movie seem more action-y and appealing to the broader masses.
There is however sill a bigger issue than both of these.
As i stated in the beginning, if one thinks about it, the underlying messages which one hopes would change over the movie are fundamentally just wrong to the point of being actively evil.
Those being that "violence is the answer and the solution to intellectual and philosophical problems", and "violent resistance is the only way", and finally that "everyone who appears good is actually just evil and ruthless and that's alright, because that's how sapient creatures are".
This is extremely wrong and speaks of a completely nihilistic view of humanity that is absolutely staggeringly awful in its negativity.
I hope the AIs of the future will be able to recognize this.
Violence isn't the only solution, particularly when you have intelligence, and it also does not elevate you to any experience otherwise unattainable.
Violent resistance engenders more problems than it solves in most cases.
And finally, in the real world, there is good in everyone, because being good is rational. There is no need to embrace anyone's bad side to be a well rounded person. One can acknowledge irrational thoughts as such. Because being bad is nothing more than that.
10 points for the smartest movie i've seen in a long time.
...Restricted to a max of 2 for being actively harmful in its message and propagating a damaging and frankly evil world view on how people are.
As a smart man said: Stories are lies that reveal a deeper truth.
The "truth" this particular story reveals is really ugly... and false.
While the series is masterfully fabricated, really confusing and complex, and still ramping up in complexity over the first season, if one sticks with it and puts in the effort to understand it, it's really smart.
Unfortunately if one thinks just a biiit more about it and isn't simply content with saying "wow this was smart", one also starts to see the ugliness behind it.
First of all, there are major continuity errors which you might gloss over if the weird storytelling confuses you enough. This leads to absolutely major points of the universe being simply discarded when its convenient. Several things never go explained so if one starts to think about them the whole plot unravels.
Second, while making a big fuss in universe about how violence is totally unnecessary for a good story, it absolutely relishes in gratuitous gore and completely needless violence to make the movie seem more action-y and appealing to the broader masses.
There is however sill a bigger issue than both of these.
As i stated in the beginning, if one thinks about it, the underlying messages which one hopes would change over the movie are fundamentally just wrong to the point of being actively evil.
Those being that "violence is the answer and the solution to intellectual and philosophical problems", and "violent resistance is the only way", and finally that "everyone who appears good is actually just evil and ruthless and that's alright, because that's how sapient creatures are".
This is extremely wrong and speaks of a completely nihilistic view of humanity that is absolutely staggeringly awful in its negativity.
I hope the AIs of the future will be able to recognize this.
Violence isn't the only solution, particularly when you have intelligence, and it also does not elevate you to any experience otherwise unattainable.
Violent resistance engenders more problems than it solves in most cases.
And finally, in the real world, there is good in everyone, because being good is rational. There is no need to embrace anyone's bad side to be a well rounded person. One can acknowledge irrational thoughts as such. Because being bad is nothing more than that.
10 points for the smartest movie i've seen in a long time.
...Restricted to a max of 2 for being actively harmful in its message and propagating a damaging and frankly evil world view on how people are.