Thread: Waking life sucks

I saw that movie a few years ago and I wasn't impressed by it.. my biggest problem though was the animation.. I dunno, it made me sleepy? Because of that I wasn't really able to get into the dialogue.

I'd agree with you on the animation but it is a great film, it makes you think deeper into your mind, very good film, i wasn't aware it was on last night on channel 4. Cool stuff

The way I watched (and watch) Waking Life is as if it were more a dream than a movie. Seeing it that way made it the most interesting movie I've ever seen for me.
I loved the animation and the way random objects kept changing and (de)materializing and stuff.
I didn't watch it for the philosophy and don't care much that some things weren't explain properly. I liked what they added to the "surrealness" of the whole, and I don't blame the movie for not being able to thoroughly explain the ideas of so many philosophers in such a short time.

I guess it's all about which perspective you're watching from. All a matter of taste.

Yea, like Umbrella said. I watched in several installments, in bed on a little player right before going to sleep, to try and stimulate dreams. I enjoyed it. It might not have been as good all at once.

I loved the movie. I think it did a perfect job of capturing the essence of dreams, and served as an interesting exploration of different ideas.

I'm struck by the fact that you said the film made you really angry. I can understand not liking something, but why would you continue to watch it if you didn't like it?

I only caught around 30 mins but what I gathered from it, it seemed just 'OK'.. obviously VERY dialogue heavy. i suppose you have to be in the right kind of mood to watch it. i'm a big fan of any kind of animation - and this movie has tons of different styles so i was buzzing.
if I wasn't aware about lucid dreaming etc. then i am sure i would be more impressed. it seems as though the people who dislike this movie are those people who have already discussed the subjects explored in it & are already very knowlegeable - you may feel insulted because of the amount of time that was spent on each idea/theory.. It's difficult for me to type what I am thinking & get my point across.. hopefully, someone will understand what i'm getting at.

I thought it was a great movie! As others before have mentioned, it did a very good job at capturing the essence of dreaming. False awakenings, reality checks, the whole shaky unreal feel to things, random places, random people, random things. Awesome movie.

Never seen it. And I love movies, I tear them apart.

Sounds stupid and sounds quite interesting from the replies I've read.
Is it on DVD, yet?

I loved Waking Life, I love the way it gets you thinking once you get into the speeches the characters make. I wonder where all the rants/ speeches actually came from - I doubt they were all specially written for the movie.

I know a lot of the ideas expressed in Waking Life are from famous philosophers. Most of the speeches probably were specially written for the movie, but I'm almost sure each of them were based on some well-known person's thoughts.

I liked it. When I watched it the first time, I wasn't aware it was animation, so I was like "What the fuck is this, that can't be the right thing" but yes, it was. Great film, lots of dialouge, which I like. As Umbrella said, the point is to show a dream, which is why everything is so weird and stuff.

Originally Posted by wendylove

It was incredibly dumb too, particulary when they compressed existentialism in to a 5 minaute speech, this was one of the main problems as it basically compressed a lifetime worth of work of the greatest philosophers into a piece of junk 5 minaute speech.

I also feel I should note that the existentialism speech was delivered by one of the greatest philosophy lecturers of our time, Richard Solomon.

I liked it.

this movie was awesome. the animation is called rotoscope. they did the same thing in a scanner darkley. both movies were philosophical.

i saw it on channel 4 but fell asleep, then got it yesterday on DVD and i really like it, the anomation is great its not ment to be perfect much like watching a dream / LD. Its a movie i could watch over and over again. It takes a while to it but when you do its great.

also try "a scanner darkly" made buy the same ppl also in Rotoscope very cleaver story.

I think this is an excellent movie. When it comes to the condensation of philosophy I don't mind it one bit. The movie is not meant to be a thorough examination of free will, existentialism, physics, or anything like that. It is meant to introduce people to new ideas and get the brain jogging a little. Like Umbrella, I too watch the movie as if it was a dream and that makes it muuuuch better. I believe it does have alot of dreamlike quality and I really enjoyed the film.

Oh yes, Knot, "Scanner Darkly" was niiice. I really liked the rotoscoping in that film, and come on!! IT'S BASED ON A PHILLIP K DICK BOOK!

Originally Posted by themindsi

Oh yes, Knot, "Scanner Darkly" was niiice. I really liked the rotoscoping in that film, and come on!! IT'S BASED ON A PHILLIP K DICK BOOK!

indeed and K Dick i mean what more can i say, also i think someone has done another movie of one of his books, ill ty and find out who and which book.

there are tons knot, blade runner (losely), minority report etc.

well man Waking Life to me is a great film, but the reason the animationis kinda weird is because every scene was made by different artists (ARTITST WHO ARE NOT ANIMATORS JUST ARTISTS). So its a little hard to understand but if you watch Slacker who is made also by Richard Linklater or A Skanner Darkly you could see how this director made an early attempt and refined the outcome later. I mean it was an experimental film ya know? but either way i think it was an awsome film and i never get tired of watching it...

Waking life is a great film!

Though, to give you a point I wasn't won over the first time I saw it either. I had to turn it off cause i thought it was boring. After seeing it a second time I think the movie has a lot of valid points.

But Waking Life in general is one of those movies as you love it or hate it.

The most widely known movie based from the writings of Philip K Dick is Minority Report. He's realllly interesting, claimed the have ties to the future. Read up on him, you come accross some really weird stuff!!