it is a movie full of Christian mythology, so it is not so surprising that there is some sort of prophet in it.

Despite the fact that a lot of the symbolism in the movie was spoon fed to you, I really liked the film's portrayal of God. The film does a great job of answering the question, why does God create a world with so much suffering and inequality?

It is so God can exist.

11/30/2014 4:26:48 AM

Great movie. I couldn't see anything other than the reflection of my living room for the first 30 minutes, all the elites were way too over the top cartoon villains, the plot is nonsensical (why blow up a gate when you showed glass shattering 10 minutes ago?, why have the lower class at all??), tons of loose ends, Ed Harris was disappointing.

Other than that though, really good. This is the kind of action move I like.

I was thinking the whole point of the train was to keep up with the sun (there are some obvious difficulties with that, but it is sci-fi), but I guess not. Otherwise, what's the point.

11/30/2014 9:32:27 AM

So, I feel like they answered most of those questions in the main exposition scene where they run into the Kindergarden carriage that was in the middle of their lesson. They were literally dumping all of the info out like they were explaining it to children, which in this particular scene was factually true, but I felt like it was a very subtile way for the director to poke fun at how audience members these days expect everything to be handed to them on a silver platter so that they don't have to ponder it over.

Also, I really thought Harris was excellent here. I was on the edge of my seat when he told him to go into the engine for some quiet time, I thought for sure that it was either a trap or a prison. It was great acting.

11/30/2014 10:23:33 AM

I must have missed it then. The only explanation I picked up on was that the train collected snow for water. The whole goddamn planet is covered in snow, yes? Here's a whole stack exchange question where no one has given a reasonable answer: http://movies.stackexchange.com/questions/23032/why-did-the-train-need-to-keep-moving

11/30/2014 1:59:02 PM

Quote from the director regarding the chick's "supernatural" abilities...

Quote :

"There is a term “train baby” used in the film. They are the generation who were born on the train after the Ice Age and never stepped on earth. Yona is a train baby. I thought I had to differentiate them from the generation who were born on earth. They were on the constantly moving train ever since they were born; the noise of the train would be natural to them, as well as the cramped space. When your sight is hindered, your sense of smell or hearing is developed, you know. I thought the train-born generation would have this kind of ability. Actually, Yona has highly-developed hearing ability instead of clairvoyance, but the line explaining it was edited out."

tl;dr - not supernatural... just good hearing

11/30/2014 9:45:55 PM

I like that explanation, but wish they said that in the film instead of calling her clairvoyant.

11/30/2014 10:19:45 PM

I like that they left it open. Same thing with the guy that was stabbed and strangled to death but still managed to fight. You have to expect a certain level of fantasy when dealing with a movie so rich in Christian symbolism.

12/2/2014 12:35:49 PM

But they didn't leave it open. They called her clairvoyant which implies supernatural or precognitive ability. Without knowing that the train people had a different view of clairvoyance than the audience, it just felt like it was a line intended directly for the audience to imply psychic ability. I definitely agree that the train baby explanation makes sense and would have been a nice touch, though.

Also, I skimmed a few pages in the first two graphic novels for Snowpiercer and saw nothing like what was presented at the climax of the movie. Maybe I just missed the important bits, but the movie seemed completely different than the source material (a complete shocker, I'm sure).

I was hoping it would have a slightly better explanation for the ending, but the whole train derailing to get to the outside world never happened (though they did leave the train in the second one). Anyone read them and know how good they are independent of the film?

12/2/2014 2:15:55 PM

I think that the ending is not meant to have a point as much as it is meant to make you think about the role of religion and perceived power in the modern world, and how that may be affecting your life. For instance, although religion may be a functioning system like the train, it forces people to live and operate on its terms when there may indeed be other options that one may chose from.

12/2/2014 4:48:50 PM

Quote :

"I like that explanation, but wish they said that in the film instead of calling her clairvoyant."

Did they say that? I thought the line was "Are you a clairvoyant?" to which there was no response.

Quote :

"Also, I skimmed a few pages in the first two graphic novels for Snowpiercer and saw nothing like what was presented at the climax of the movie. Maybe I just missed the important bits, but the movie seemed completely different than the source material (a complete shocker, I'm sure)."

From wikipedia: "On 8 October 2013, at the Busan International Film Festival, Bong acknowledged the challenges in adapting such a story to fit the apparent constraints of cinema, to which had to omit certain scenes from the graphic novel, "[...] I had to capture that long story in a two-hour film, so rather than cut out some scenes from the comic, I just rewrote the whole story to fit this time frame.""

This is pretty smart. The Watchmen film, as much as I wanted to like it, was shitty. Mainly because they didn't really adapt anything, but instead just copied stuff off the page without context or emotion.

12/2/2014 6:32:34 PM

films are films and books are books. Obviously everything can't be the same, but I hope that the main ideas and questions are maintained and conserved in major film adaptions. Unlike the recent TMNT disaster.

[Edited on December 3, 2014 at 1:52 PM. Reason : a]

12/3/2014 1:51:47 PM