In which I have to discuss Disclosure Day in a somewhat meta way

*  Man, this movie seems to have attracted a huge amount of commentary on social media - and I find it hard working out the numbers between those who enjoyed it and those who hated it.

*  I predicted that those approaching from an American culture war Right point of view would find reasons to hate it - and I was very correct about that.  X is dominated by hatred/dismissal of it - so much so that I suspect Musk might have even tweaked the algorithm to highlight it.  But to be fair, there are some reviewers who I would presume are politically neutral or lean Left in their tastes who dislike it as well.  

*  Wait a minute, I guess I can check audience review numbers online.  I see that on Rottentomatoes the critic reviews are running at 80% positive, and audience at 73% positive.  Metacritic is running at 74% positive and audience at 5.2 (which seems low - but the break up is 33% negative and 38% positive and 29% mixed.)  Not bad.

*  I saw it last night with my daughter, and we both enjoyed it in somewhat trying circumstances (just about the most restless, toilet attending audience I can recall ever being in.  Has streaming caused people to think everything about watching a movie at a cinema is just like watching a mover at home, so they not only text on their phone without compunction, but don't plan so they can avoid going to the toilet for two hours?)   

I have some observations:

*  Most of the criticism, in my view, comes from people thinking it would be a different kind of movie, and not judging it for what it is.   People shouldn't take kids to it, not because it is violent or anything - it's just that it's a movie of mature themes.  

*  It is a quite "clingy" movie, in that I have continued to think about it a lot today, and not just because of social media.  I do quite like that it is causing some debate, in a way.    And I actually think I may need to see it again, with a smaller, less annoying, audience.

*  I don't think it's perfect, and to do my own bit of judgement, there are background story elements that I would have liked emphasised more.  Maybe some bits ended up on the cutting room floor, and an "extended edition" would add a bit more explanation.  

* I think it is a bit of bad luck that it would have been written before the rise of "AI video for all", which has only been a thing for a couple of years, as there probably should have been a bit more emphasis on how that issue was not a problem for the disclosure.

*  The ending did surprise me somewhat, but I thought it was fine.   

 

I may come back to add more to this later...