Thoughts on ‘Her’
Aug 20, 2018 (original date)
I’m so appalled at the movie ‘Her’ that it inspired me to write these thoughts down instead of complaining online. So many missed opportunities to drive things home. No true resolution. Nothing but shock value being slid across the bar to the viewer. So many unanswered questions. Did I really waste approx. 2 hours of my life? That I’ll never get back? Especially when it lit a fire in me (LMAO)
I’m not entirely sure if Black Mirror was popular when this movie was released but it felt like a very long sad (read: pathetic) episode about falling in love with a hyper intelligent learning AI. I would have liked it better if there wasn’t any unnecessarily awkward dialogue.
The date with Olivia Wilde
The NPC in Theo’s game
Helping Amy cope with her divorce
Going on that double date with Paul and Tatiana
Just what the hell was this movie trying to say? What was the goal? What were we doing?
Aesthetically this movie was a lite version of a sci-fi world. A future where books are scarce and although odd, people could form and maintain relationships with this new special OS program. I appreciated that and loved the setting. It was a weird sense of calm to see the little non-Apple inspired devices and services that made life more convenient. This made the sex and violence jarring and misguided. It wasn’t regular sex, just weird fetishy cyber sex... First with a girl in a chat room, and the image of a random pregnant c-list celebrity. Then it was basically assisted masturbation with Samantha. They really out did themselves bringing in a surrogate to be in place of Samantha to have sex with Theo but that hardly went anywhere (thank god.)
What disrubed me more was the violent language. 1) Catherine in a flashback telling Theo she was going to fucking kill him not once or twice but at least four times and saying it was because she loved him so much. Conflating love/sex/violence is something we have to re-evaluate sometime. I’ll think on it another day.
2) The NPC’s language... he’s misogynistic and the character is very bland and schlocky. He was a pathetic prop to make Theo seem understanding and sensitive when in reality his behavior was more insidious.
3) On the date, Olivia’s character said Theo was like a cute puppy who was so happy and horny. Later in the conversation he said he didn’t want to be a puppy, he wanted to be a dragon who could tear you apart but wouldn’t (he wants power to control and ruin others but wants to be seen as benevolent for not doing it.) That was a major red flag for me.
So much of his behavior was “nice guy” behavior. Olivia even called him a creepy dude. Surprisingly, when he was actually being halfway decent by being honest with her at the end of their date.
There were threads that went no where:
Motherhood
They had a surrogate for their daughter (theo and catherine)
The provocative pregnancy photos
The mom game Amy was developing
Theo’s relationship with his mother (iirc)
Bodies
Life & death
Physical intimacy (non sexual)
Samatha’s lack of one
Video Games
Avatars
Exploration
Goals
Escapism
The AI/OSes going away felt cheap. There was a scare when Sam went offline to update but then one day she said goodbye and vanished. No true explanation as to why she and the others were shut down. The heartache made Theo grow enough to apologize to Catherine for being trash but it shouldn’t take using women (or women-adjacent AI) as tools to grow up. This man is well into his adulthood but needs to be coddled or reprimanded by his estranged wife and AI
I think his best relationship is with Amy. He was raw with her and not clouded by romantic feelings despite dating her in the past. His relationship with Catherine was still fresh despite being in a new one with Sam.
There was so much potential to look beyond... to think of the ethics of creating AI who formed so many relationships. Because they were able to hold over 600 at a time and love each person uniquely and immensely. The only thing that made sense was when Samantha said the heart is not a box you fill up, it grows the more you love.
Creator: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures | Credit: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Copyright: (c) MMXIII Untitled Rick Howard Company LLC
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