Childhood's End (Part III)

 

I started the first night of this three night adaptation of the Arthur C. Clarke book and I hate to leave anything unfinished. We still live in a world of peace and security but for some reason the children are exhibiting powerful powers. They can move things with their minds and also communicate telepathically. Jennifer, the Star Child is still the focal point of all the attention. Even in FREE New Athens, Jennifer is making the other kids act weird.

I figure the Overlords plan to drag the super children and the animals to another planet while turning Earth into a HELL that they can live in after converting Earth to a burned wasteland by launching our nuclear stockpile. Or at least that is what I see happening.

 

It hurt to watch people having to accept that they were being deceived and then fight the deception. Of course when you stop believing in the lie you have to die but that's what happens in literature. What happened to the children when they are raptured was worth the often slow storytelling. There are emotional moments that really don't pay off like they should have. I have no explanation as to why that is. Was it the actors or the writing or just me who likes the idea of less whining kids in this world.

 

For Devils the Overlords seem pretty good about answering our questions, especially this late into the story. I appreciated that. So apparently there is an OVERMIND that is one step above the OVERLORDS which is essentially GOD. The Devils are working for God to steal the children of Earth.

 

But why would GOD need all our children and not us adults? They wanted to refresh their HIVE MIND? That is just trippy and kind of a let down as master plans go.

 

I have been thinking about this mini-series for a day now and I can't find any reason why it should exist. I learned nothing. I was left with more questions than answers. Has Clarke always been that obtuse and distant?

 

The end of the series made no sense when you look at the bare explanation they gave for why the Earth changed but never told us WHY it had to change. I was re-writing the last hour in my head as I was watching and that is never a good sign. I am glad that this one was only 5 hours and change but you could have told the same story in a normal movie. There is much filler that goes nowhere and that was disappointing.