Sci-Fi Discussion in TV and Movies

I just rewatched the ending since I watched it a while ago, but yes... Were they kidnapped by aliens? And what happens to the tape reel? Seems very intriguing. They will have a sequel soon?

https://thecinemaholic.com/vast-of-night-sequel/

Kinda reminded me of some of the X Files series. haha

I thought the ending was unthoughtful. First off, their decision to escape with the baby (a baby mostly forgotten throughout the film) was too easy, heart-strings-wise. Second, the film, at least for me, was trying to be original, so having the couple/baby either killed or taken away by aliens after a silly, hopeless chase wasn't original at all. Maybe you could START the film with that, with throwaway actors, but to have such an interesting idea devolve into capture-and-kill made me feel that the director didn't know what to do with the ending, esp since there was no budget to show the aliens, etc (thank god for that )

haha, aliens with low budget tends to look like the Roswell one in most movies. I guess it can’t deviate that much from the “normal “ alien look with big eyes. I thought the 3D rendering of the spaceship was pretty good though.

Now that you say it, I see the X-filian connection, except w/o gore or grossness that X-files sometimes used. I guess my true issue w/ the ending is it went visual, rather than audio. Audio was the theme of the movie, as you aptly point out with the tape recorder example. Not to mention the radio station/telephone board

So yes, lots of baiting nostalgia... but...

I really don't like the hangovers from the nonsense in Discovery. Especially the fact that he knows his own fate.

A fair bit of wokeness going on, all be it softer than in Discovery, which also gets a :humm: from me.

Over all though, the episode seemed rushed. As if it tripped over itself to get to the end. Starting off with a Prime Directive violation and overlooking the consequences of that... assuming that everyone will be okay with aliens suddenly appearing and threatening their governments because of love... Massively misses the opportunity for some social exploration. The idea that aliens reverse engineered warp drive from looking at a space battle through a telescope... umm.... No. That would be like the ancient Egyptians getting a wide angle satellite photo of a nuclear reactor plant facility and reverse engineering fission.

The other side is going to find out that they created a "ward drive bomb" and were planning on using. That'll go down well and certainly won't start an arms race. Why is it a warp drive bomb? Surely it is an anti-matter bomb?
Seems like a problematic way to get them up and running.

Finally, they played the card that I expected Picard to do. I was waiting for Picard to correlate the US 2024 election with the collapse of civilisation and the emergence of the alternate time line. They didn't... because they saved it to use it here. This is not the place for this type of thing. We come to sci fi to escape this sort of thing, not litter TV shows with the explicit taking of sides. 80's and 90's Star Trek did this, sure. But it was subtle. Indirect. Thoughtful.

So over all, based on 101. It's getting a thumbs down. Cast were good; I like Pike, like hyperactive Ninja Nurse Chappel. The new security chief seems interesting, despite the needless name association. I do not think there was any need to put a Kirk in it - they take this nostalgia stuff too far and wind up writing it like these people are somehow destined to be intertwined together for all time *cue rainbows and unicorns and endless sunny days*