Up until the last 10 minutes, I thought this was one of the best films I'd ever seen. It seemed like they were headed toward the perfect ending, and the actual ending felt like it didn't work. It's still a great film, but the ending takes it down a notch for me.
shareAgreed.
shareWhat didn't work?
Can't stop the signal.
I agree that it was a "deus ex machina" ending which, while it might have been completely logical (within the conventions of sci-fi fantasy), threw so many different implications at us so quickly it felt like a "fudge". I will need to watch it again to see if it all makes sense.
On the other hand, I have recently watched a string of "difficult" or "puzzle" movies which left the ending open or ambiguous. Sometimes it works but increasingly it is used as a cop-out by clever film-makers who are still not clever enough to round things up in a coherent and believable way. So it made a pleasant change that this one did at least have a "proper" ending (of sorts).
I class this with movies like "Open Your Eyes" (1997) and "The Prestige" (2006), beautifully made films which nonetheless left me unsatisfied, because the "reveal" depended upon science fiction inventions which were impossible at the time the movies were set, and still are today. To me, that is cheating, cutting the Gordian Knot of the plot.
Kaufman's "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)" is the same, except that the fantastical gadget is revealed earlier in the movie.
The sort of puzzle film I respect are those where, after repeat viewings, we see all the "clues" and feel that, had we been perceptive enough, we could have worked out what was going on ourselves.