catbarf on 29/7/2008 at 19:01
Stalker, the movie. Is it worth my time? Are the English subtitles any good (My Russian is waaaaay too rusty to watch a movie)? I'm not after a movie that is like the game, but the premise is interesting enough and I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Muzman on 29/7/2008 at 19:19
Depends what you like I guess. It's probably one of the slowest most uneventful films by anyone's standards. It's what you might call, charitably, meditative. It's also highly symbolic, with very little interest in being what they call 'in-world'. It's plain that the various characters represent archetypal points of view on the universe rather than being 'characters' as we generally understand them. Most of the shots and staging exist to underscore points about the human condition and be decorative. Old school european art house cinema in other words.
If that sounds like it's up your street, go for it.
Its relationship to the book and game is pretty small; mainly concept and scenery and that's about it. There are a few recent collections of Tarkovsky's work that have been put together with a lot of care and a preservational mindset I don't know for sure but I would hope that means the subtitles are intuitively done in good living english.
bukary on 29/7/2008 at 19:25
I first saw "Stalker" in the cinema 10 years ago. I found it to be :eek: ! I loved it.
I saw it again few months ago at home. And I thought: 'It could be good, but it's not'.
If you liked e.g. "2001" (btw, much better movie), you might find "Stalker" interesting. If you liked e.g. "Star Wars" (btw, much worse movie ;) ), you might find "Stalker" boring.
I don't think I helped you much. ;)
242 on 29/7/2008 at 20:48
Quote Posted by catbarf
Stalker, the movie. Is it worth my time?
If you're into art-house movies, you should watch it, this one is absolutely anti-action, all ambience and thinking. Muzman described it pretty well.
If you generally don't like such movies, don't waste your time.
redrain85 on 29/7/2008 at 22:01
Personally, I love the film. But like the others have said, it's very art-house. You'll either love it or hate it, for its slow pace and deep introspection.
The film and the game cover the same material, from very different viewpoints.
For me, the music and Tarkovsky's unique style of direction are quite mesmerizing. The DVD version I saw, definitely seemed to have well translated subtitles.
Rogue Keeper on 30/7/2008 at 11:38
Der Film ist sehr gut.
First time I watched it late evening and I went to bed quite sad. So I guess it worked on me. :(
mrle01 on 30/7/2008 at 12:59
As other have said it's a great movie (it's a lot like Solaris) if you like that kind of artistic movies. If you like action and CGI, skip it.
mothra on 30/7/2008 at 13:13
i like action and cgi. apart from that I try to watch every other "boring", "artsy" movie ever made and enjoy them, too. I don't understand why ppl always think that the one excludes the other.
i loved STALKER, many images in this movie that haunted me for days.
made me seek out more movies by Tarkovsky and he's now on of the greats for me. yesterday, e.g. I saw an old Mizoguchi B/W movie, VoicesOfADistantStar (emo-manga) and KillerOfSheep. today I think I'm gonna watch some bad kung fu movie :)
Rogue Keeper on 30/7/2008 at 13:23
Quote Posted by mothra
i like action and cgi. apart from that I try to watch every other "boring", "artsy" movie ever made and enjoy them, too. I don't understand why ppl always think that the one excludes the other.
Both cathegories have their quality charts. That's why I like Stalker, but dislike pseudoartsy exercises of Jim Jarmush. That's why I like Jurassic Park but dislike Emmerich's junk...
mrle01 on 1/8/2008 at 13:31
Quote Posted by mothra
i like action and cgi. apart from that I try to watch every other "boring", "artsy" movie ever made and enjoy them, too. I don't understand why ppl always think that the one excludes the other.
Well, I guess my post didn't come out as I wanted (I'm just bad at English). I meant to say that if he expects that Stalker is full of action and SF elements (like the game) then he will be disappointed.
