[QUOTE=wolfman]
I am on a mission about this. That is not bad dialogue. That is great dialogue. He has spent most of his life living as what is practically a monk, and is now trying to hit on the chick he has been in love with since he was 5. He isn’t going to be fucking Shakespeare, he is going to say something awkward and confusing and stupid. It is actually one of the few movies that have realistic dialogue in that situation.
[/QUOTE]
I don’t believe for a second Lucas intended this line to be realistically awkward. If he did, Padme’s reaction would have been a realistic roll of her eyes. Plus, there wasn’t a shred of “naturalistic” dialog in the rest of the movie (or really in the whole series), and you think Lucas picked this particular moment to say “Wait, I should realistically reflect that Anakin wouldn’t know how to talk to women?” I don’t buy it. I feel quite sure Lucas intended the line to be romantic, and if failed spectacularly.
[QUOTE=Baldwin]
Which is odd, since he co-wrote American Graffiti, which has some great, naturalistic dialogue.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, 30 years before Attack of the Clones. Is there really any doubt that the stuff George Lucas was writing in the 21st century isn’t on par with what he was writing in the '70s?
The real point is that The Matrix was only pretending to be science fiction. It was actually high fantasy. Neo, Morpheus, and Trinity were wizards. Computer technology was magick. Agent Smith was a demon. And most people had a sleeping spell cast of them so their souls could be stolen.
I always thought this line from Casablanca was really puzzling: “Who are you really, and what were you before? What did you do, and what did you think?”
Also: Star Trek VI: “That thing’s gotta have a tailpipe.” Uh, what?
[QUOTE=The New and Improved Superman]
Joss Whedon can complain all he wants to about Halle “not saying the line the right way.” It’s still a lame, lame, lame wisecrack…and it’s completely out of character for Storm.
Storm was a major character in the X-Men comic book for 25 years before the movie came out and had a clearly defined personality. She ALWAYS spoke in lofty, vaunted tones. Her catchphrases were “By the Goddess!” and “Lords of the Earth and Air!” This is simply NOT a character who makes off-handed, smirky Buffy-like one-liners.
[/QUOTE]
Exactly what I wanted to say.
I feel like every character he writes has the exact same wit and personality, regardless of whether it makes sense for the character.
Whedon has talent, but to me he’s a One Trick Pony.
The Kingdom of Heaven has the worst lines ever for me. I know that one-liners are dramatic and has sometimes, eh, have gems of wisdom in them, but in that show, it’s full of witty one-liners.
The ending lines:
Balian of Ibelin: “What is Jerusalem worth?”
Saladin: “Nothing…and everything.”
Buh-huh?
Or this scene, where this group of knights are riding off to war
Balian: You go to certain death!"
Knight: All death is certain.
AARGHH…
Plus lots of other inane lines which you can find here:
[QUOTE=CrazyChop]
Balian: You go to certain death!"
Knight: All death is certain.
[/QUOTE]
Mr. Furious: Okay, am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic? “If you want to push something down, you have to pull it up. If you want to go left, you have to go right.” It’s…
The Sphinx: Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage…
Mr. Furious: …your rage will become your master? That’s what you were going to say. Right? Right?
The Sphinx: Not necessarily.
[QUOTE=Alessan]
Believe me, to someone from this part of the world, that line makes perfect sense.
[/QUOTE]
Well, could you explain it then? Because it looks to me like a textbook case of a tautology.
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus]
Well, could you explain it then? Because it looks to me like a textbook case of a tautology.
[/QUOTE]
It makes sense if you think deep about it - 'cos if I remember correctly, Alessan is from that part of the world. I’m sure to people staying there, where the daily ‘problems’ (that’s really an understatement on my part) are happening, that city has a lot of significant (“everything”), but it is just a material city and will fade away (“nothing”). Or that how I will choose to read it.
The point is, it’s just not a good line, and it’s a groaner. Not really my commentary on state of thing there. It’s totally unnecessary, IMHO.
[QUOTE=silverfish]
According to Joss Whedon, who wrote that line, it was supposed to be delivered off-hand, not cool and badass at all, which I think would have worked better. cite
[/QUOTE]
His proposed way of delivering it would not have made it any cooler.
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
Huh. IMDb.com backs you up. All these years, and I thought he said “yeah,” as in, “I feel pretty good, considering.”
[/QUOTE]
Would I be correct in stating that you pronounce “yeah” as something like “yuh”?
I ask because “yeah” and “young” sound nothing alike in most of the accents I’ve come across. This would at least explain how you could have misinterpreted the line.
[QUOTE=Licentious Ectomorph]
But why didn’t the director, you know, direct her? Did he not know how the line was supposed to be delivered either? Did anyone talk to Wheedon at any point?
[/QUOTE]
Despite popular conception, that’s not the director’s job. It’s the actor’s job to interpret the dialogue and Berry failed pretty badly at this one. A good director might’ve surreptitiously coaxed it out of her somehow, but a lot of them (esp. action movie directors) don’t give a lick about dialogue.
Screenwriters have little to nothing to do with the actual production of the film. Unless he had another job (if he directed, for instance), Whedon wouldn’t have been on the set and no one would’ve cared what his opinion was. A screenplay is a rough outline of a movie that the director follows or doesn’t follow at his whim.
Screenwriters have little to nothing to do with the actual production of the film. Unless he had another job (if he directed, for instance), Whedon wouldn’t have been on the set and no one would’ve cared what his opinion was. A screenplay is a rough outline of a movie that the director follows or doesn’t follow at his whim.
[/QUOTE]
Right.
Wasn’t it true that the only thing that remained from his draft was that line? I mean, he essentially wasn’t involved in that movie at all by the time it was filmed.
[QUOTE=BwanaBob]
Would I be correct in stating that you pronounce “yeah” as something like “yuh”?
I ask because “yeah” and “young” sound nothing alike in most of the accents I’ve come across. This would at least explain how you could have misinterpreted the line.
[/QUOTE]
No, I pronounce “yeah” and “young” perceptibly differently. Dunno why I misheard that line all these years (esp. given Dr. Carol Marcus’s earlier lines about the glory of Genesis’s handiwork making one “feel young again”).
[QUOTE=yojimbo]
From Heat when Pacino finds his wife having an affair, one of the wife’s retorts is When I first heard that line delivered in the context of the whole scene I nearly fell outta my seat.
[/QUOTE]
I think it’s one of the funniest in all of moviedom. I was wondering what Ralph thought when he heard it.
[QUOTE=Skald the Rhymer]
In this post, Larry Borgia claims that Agent Smith’s line about humans being viruses is the dumbest line in a profoundly dumb movie. Larry is, only half right. While The Matrix is almost parameciumically idiiot, there are many, many stupider lines of dialogue in the movie; the assertion that humans are being used by batteries by the computers comes to mind.
What are some other incredibly stupid lines of movie dialog?
[/QUOTE]
Just FTR, I posted that more because I was annoyed at someone using the Matirx as a source for some silly and misanthropic ideas about vegetarianism. I actually enjoyed the Matrix and can overlook the thermodynamic absurdities (pretending that the matrix had some other purpose, though it would have been nice to see someone from Zion suggesting that) and the many silly portentious lines, like the one quoted.
This might just be my fanwank, but if I remember right, the machines and the people in Zion never make any claims that the humans are there for power generation. It’s Morpheus and his acolytes who say that. In the sequels Morpheus is shown to be more than a bit of a fanatic, and profoundly mistaken about the foundation of both Zion and the Matrix. As it turns out, nearly everything that Neo was told is revealed to be a lie.
[QUOTE=CrazyChop]
It makes sense if you think deep about it - 'cos if I remember correctly, Alessan is from that part of the world. I’m sure to people staying there, where the daily ‘problems’ (that’s really an understatement on my part) are happening, that city has a lot of significant (“everything”), but it is just a material city and will fade away (“nothing”). Or that how I will choose to read it.
The point is, it’s just not a good line, and it’s a groaner. Not really my commentary on state of thing there. It’s totally unnecessary, IMHO.
[/QUOTE]