Another Earth (2011)

Film #346


Another Earth (2011)

When I first saw the words "Another Earth" on my Youtube suggestions, my interest was automatically sparked, as I am quite fascinated by any sort of news that is what you could say.."out of this world". So I click the video, with the idea that I am about to either watch a spam video or something truly amazing. The video ended up being a trailer for a film. So despite my heart sinking, I was still intrigued to see what this film was about. After viewing the trailer, I was truly amazed at what I had seen. The film seemed to have so much potential of being a masterpiece. Most didn't agree but I stood tall with my opinion...Anyways, I finally got to watching one of my most anticipated films of 2011...and I was disappointed.

The film is about a girl and an accident she has that ruins her life and the victims life fully...oh yeah and then there's the whole preposterous "Second Earth" gimmick. I didn't HATE it...but I didn't LOVE it as much as I was hoping to. The mere sight of Another Earth just above our dear Planet was just...truly mesmerizing...but that's all that I did find that was actually better then average...which this film is. The reasons I say that are because a lot of the film felt very amateurish in almost everything. The characters weren't much explored properly ,the screenplay went to a stupid twist in the middle and the technical aspects were weak to the point of annoyance. Those 3 aspects are one of the main aspects that carry a film to greatness. I actually liked all the characters at first, and I was able to sympathize with the main characters troubles but for a girl who says she doesn't want to make mistakes, she sure made some stupid mistakes. ***Spoiler Alert*** (I really hated the fact that she went along and slept with the man whose life she ruined...like it just got really ridiculous...I didn't feel that the characters had enough development to even make such a decision.) Anyways, the ridiculous twist in the middle made me get annoyed towards most of the film afterwards. Then there's the ending. What the fuck? I mean it wasn't bad but it was rather cheesy and lazy...in fact the screenplay overall was lazy and dull. There were many moments where I was just waiting to see something that I haven't seen in so many other films...but it never came...

You notice how that whole paragraph above is constantly referring to the weak characters instead of what this film should be about? Yeah that was a problem as well. The film seemed to have lost it's overall focus towards the "Another Earth" after the middle of the film. I mean it tried to show that it was being a philosophical film by using metaphors, some good thought provoking messages, abstract images that I don't fully understand, which was fine in my opinion but those moments weren't enough. If it wasn't for the whole setting of the EARTH 2 to give the characters a chance at redemption in their lives; which is quite an interesting thought, the film would be pretty bad. Yeah it was a gimmick. I have a feeling we can expect more of these ANOTHER EARTH gimmicks. Once again I seem to sound like I truly hate this film. Which is not true. There were some redeeming aspects but I thought it was disappointing. I don't feel like talking much about the positives...what ever I mentioned earlier was pretty much it. Overall, Another Earth wastes an intriguing premise by trying to make the audience sympathize with weak characters while throwing in a couple unique and thought provoking messages about redemption and humanity, for which I ended up not even caring about anymore.

6/10


- Alexson Philipiah