MovieChat Forums > Childhood's End (2015) Discussion > err.... what?

err.... what?

posted 4 years ago by maximmm (3374)
2 replies | jump to latest

This was recommended to me by a dude I know.
I saw the whole thing in one day and wow - it was crappy.
I hope there is a lot that I'm missing (I had to skip quite a few filler scenes of people staring into stuff), because if not, this was really crappy indeed.

For this to make sense, earth has to be dying and aliens would have to come in to save the remnants of the humanity - to archive it, if you will. This would make perfect sense - it would give a good reason for all things happening.

I didn't see any of that though (there was no explanation given) - what I saw was alien species come in, give humanity a few good years, take the children, make all women barren and then destroy the whole planet - lol

Which is like... WTF? How is this in any way philosophical, logical or sad?
I still think the book probably went with the first scenario, while the series depicted it as an entirely different thing which made no logical or even philosophical sense.

Bullshit tv series -

PS. I read some comments here of the people who read the book - turns out the book really is crap. In the book, children really do destroy earth after evolving, just like in the series. Basically, this is just a variation of 'the children of the corn' with an addition of the overmind entity and its demon-like minions doing its bidding. It's not exactly a case of amazing sci-fi.

[–] Owlwise (1536) 4 years ago

No, the book was more subtle in its depiction of the human race being preserved & guided towards the next step in their evolution, by aliens who themselves could not make the same evolutionary leap. In a prefatory note, Clarke stated that he did not see this as the inevitable destiny of the human race, but that he simply wanted to explore the concept of merging with a greater being. In the book, it's the first generation of evolved humans, who have become a hive mind, that consumes Earth in the act of leaving it. And depending on one's viewpoint, this can either be seen as a triumph or a tragedy for humanity.

I completely agree that this series' attempt to "improve" the story made a hash of it instead.

[–] maximmm (3374) 4 years ago

Yeah, I read a few comments on the board - left a PS to my original comment.
In all honesty, it all seems like a poorly written sci-fi fantasy (Yep, I know AC Clark a big name in sci-fi field).
Evolution is not immediate - the odds of children getting way more advanced than their parents after a mere generation are pretty much non-existent (as far as evolutionary cycles are concerned).
As many have pointed out, opting to merge with children with their innocent, but not particularly intelligent mentality, while leaving adults, not all of whom are violent and vile beings, with most being by far more intelligent than children.... it seems illogical at best.

My perception is such that we were witnessing genocide - not just genocide of humanity, but genocide of all creatures on this planet by no less arrogant and not a whole lot more intelligent creatures than human beings. Meanwhile, the soundtrack was playing soft and gentle music which seemed so off, given what we were witnessing - lol
In addition, given what this all was, I saw very little, if any anger, in the adults who were basically being mass-murdered via being made barren - and their kids being forcefully kidnapped with no option of returning them. A few adults simply offed themselves. Basically, AC Clark appears to have missed a myriad of options that human adults had left at their disposal after the kidnapping.

Anyways, there is so much wrong with the series/book (based on the comments - I haven't read it and won't now) that I won't bother trying to go through it all.