New Perspectives

I will admit that Rocky has been one of my personal favorite movies, and I will also confess that when I was a kid ( I do not recall exactly when I started doing this or when I finally phased out of it) but for a period of time it was a sort or ritual of mine, that on summer break from school, I would get up early in the morning and begin watching the entire Rocky series. I would watch one movie a day. I did this for a period of time every summer break, rewatched the Rocky collection. So needless to say I thought I knew everything there was to know about the movies, especially the first one.

Well it has been a long time now since I actually watched them, but my partner and I had started a while back doing these marathons where we would pick various actors and watch all of their movies in chronological order, from oldest to newest. Sylvester Stallone happens to be one of the actors chosen for this project, and we finally worked our way up to the first Rocky movie.

Now watching this movie again, as an older person, and perhaps with a fresher perspective since it has been so long since I have seen it, I could no longer predict or recall every single little moment and scene, there are some things about this movie that I never really noticed, or took consideration of before.

For one the whole relationship between Adrian and Rocky was kind of disturbing in the beginning. After they have their first date, Rocky invites Andrian into his apartment. She eventually decides to go in, but after a while she feels uncomfortable and wants to leave. Rocky tries to convince her to stay, and when Adrian finally heads for the door, Rocky blocks her from leaving, puts a hand against the front door and keeps her pinned in a corner. The whole thing was quite aggressive, and hostile, and well there are various implications here. He then tells her that he is going to kiss. In his words “I am going to kiss you, you don’t have to kiss me back, but I am going to kiss you.” So he is basically physically holding her against her will, and telling her he is going to kiss her and well she really isn’t given any say in the matter.

She does than presumably consent and as they sink down to the floor together the scene cuts away, leaving us to imagine how far they really went, but there is this whole suggestion of Rocky potentially raping her before they become a couple.

The other thing I never really took in before, was how much of the movie consists of people yelling angrily at each other. I also forgot about what a complete asshole Rocky’s alleged best friend Paulie really was. He is abusive to his sister (who happens to be Adrain) and he treats Rocky like crap.

It never dawned on me until now that Rocky is a movie about a bunch of bitter, unhappy people who lash out there aggressions at others.

Why People in Zombie Movies Don’t Know What Zombies Are?

I am a big fan of The Walking Dead, and last night the sort of prequel/companion show to the The Walking Dead, called Fear The Walking Dead premiered and prior to the show there was a special Talking Dead preview of the new season for The Walking Dead, and they were talking about Fear The Walking Dead on the show and it will be interesting because the viewer will have more information than the characters on the show. And as a joke they said it is not as if the characters are going to be like “Hey didn’t you see The Walking Dead.”

And that did make me start to think. though The Walking Dead has made zombies far more popular than they used to be, zombies  and zombie movies have been around for a very long time of course purpose one of the most well known is Night of the Living Dead. In many of these zombie apocalyptic movies it seems as if the viewer is just supposed to accept the idea that in this modern time period the people within the movie/show simply have no concept of zombies at all. Never seen a zombie before, or read any zombie comic books or stories. Like zombies never existed in pop culture within this world. And everyone is just confused and baffled and cannot comprehend what is happening.

Even if logically it should not be possible, and I don’t believe in actual zombies if I happen to witness a person attack another person and attempt to eat them, then get shot, stabbed, hit by a car, or whatever, and get back up again, the first thing that is going to pop into my head is zombie. Then I am going to take it out like Michonne (because of course I always carry a katana with me, that is only common sense).

Ok I get that maybe most people don’t actually think that way.

But in one of these zombie shows, there should be at least one horror nerd who is like “shit, that is a zombie”  even if no one else believes him and they all think he is crazy, there should be someone who is like “Hey I know what is going on here”

Instead there just seems to be this presumption that prior to this event happening, the whole concept of zombies has never existed before.

Ex Machina

The mark of a good movie is its ability to linger with you after you exit the theater and resonate within your mind, provoke thoughts make you see things in a different way and Ex Machina successfully does this. In general I don’t consider myself to be a particular fan of Sci-fi and I am not typically into the whole robot/AI thing but I was intrigued by this film and I thought it was intelligently done. It was a well made psychologically and philosophical film that I think is more about our humanity than it is about androids. 

Now before I continue I give you fair warning that spoilers about the film will be revealed below.
One of the theories which has propped up about the film is the idea that Caleb is an android. I will state that I am not convinced of this and I think there are some problems to overcome with the idea but I think it offers some intersting possibilities. One of the biggest problems with this theory is of course the fact that when Caleb cuts himself he bleeds. This would seem to be the ultimate proof of his humanity but was the blood just a diversion tactic to misdirect/distract the audience in the same way that Caleb accuses Nathan of giving Ava sexuality to distract him. It would not be impossible to create a system that creates fake blood. One intersting thought, after he cuts his arm we never actually see it again it is always covered. Presumably because he dosen’t want Nathan to see it but it does beg the question what did he use to bandage it? Do we presume there was some sort of first aid in his room? 

One intersting point someone brought up was the scene in which Caleb is shaving, he has no stubble or facial hair, he is shaving an already clean shaven face. So is he shaving out of human need or because he was programmed that shaving is normal human behavior? 

An intersting is the thought that the true Turing Test is not between Caleb and Ava but between the audience and Caleb. 

But my theory is that Caleb was not truly a literal android but symbolically he was more of a robot than Ava was which is why he ends up locked up and she is free at the end. 

Caleb and Nathan are presented in stark contrast to each other. Nathan is undeniably human. He represents are primal, carnal desires, he is humanly flawed. In spite of his remarkable intelligence he is also very primitive. He is very physical. 

Caleb does seem almost too ” perfect” in comparison. He is Nathan’s oppisite in every way. And we barely see any evidence of him exhibiting or tending to his own basic human needs. I think there are only one or two scenes where he eats or drinks anything. And in spite of his admittance of viewing porn and his obsession with Ava ( incidentally both involve a form of intimacy with non-human entities) he seems almost asexual. He his always kept at a distance from the objects of his desire he attempts no physical interaction. We are given no indication of him having human relations. Nathan the only human he has to interact with, he always keeps a certain distance from, he is awakard and mistrustful of him. Nathan critsizes Caleb once for being too analytical and he says he just wants to have a human conversation but Caleb seems incapable of providing this. In many ways his conversations with Nathsn mirror Ava’s responses to him.      

In some of his conversations with Ava she does seem almost more human than he is. A couple of things that particularly struck my attention:

When Ava asked him about himself he tells the story of his parents death in a car accident where he himself almost died and Ava says “I am sorry” and Caleb tells her “It’s ok, it was a long time ago” and he was very matter of fact about it. 

People handle grief and tragedy in different ways and we all have to move on with our lives, I don’t Exocet him to be still in mourning but it is intersting that Ava shows empathy while Caleb seems emotionally detached from this tragic event that happened to him. 

Ava asked him what his favorite color was.

He says red 

She says he his lying 

He says that since he is not 6 he dosen’t have a favorite color.

A few things about this. Why lie about your favorite color? 

Either he was testing Ava’s ability to detect truth from lie or   

He was giving the expected “programmed” response.

Most adults I know have a favorite color. Having a favorite color is actually very human. I bet Nathan has a favorite color. Not having a faveorite seems more computer like.  

It also made me think the story he told Ava of Maria ( I think her name was) and the black and white room. Maria knew all about color but lived in a black and white room. Then one day she is allowed out into the wold of color.

Maria in the black and white = computer Maria perceiving color = human.

This is ironic because of Caleb’s own denial of a favorite color. Also intersting is the fact that Caleb himself has a very black and white view.  

Because of his infatuation with Ava he has created this idea of Ava = good Nathan = bad. Or Ava = victim Nathan = oppressor 

Even when he is warned that Ava is just using him as a means of escape he takes everything Ava says at face value and cannot conceive of the idea that maybe he should be mistrustful of both Ava and Nathan. 

And finally at the end after Ava kills Nathan wheather one believes Nathan deserved it or not, and walks into the room with one missing arm Caleb displays no normal human reaction, no surprise or shock, anger or fear or even relief, he dosen’t question what happened. Ava tells him to stay and without a word he obeys. While a man his bleeding to death on the floor all he can do is watch her infatuated while she changes clothes. 

Snowpiercer

When I first heard about the movie Snow Piercer I thought it sounded like the sort of thing that would be right up my alley. I am a great lover of dystopia and post-apocalyptic settings, but then I started hearing all these terrible reviews about it and how it was the worst movie ever, and how bad it was.

I wasn’t going to let that completely discourage me from watching it. So I got it on Netflix, and while there were a lot of things about it that where to say the least rather stupid, or just didn’t make any kind of sense, perhaps because my expectations had been so low it was not as awful as I had thought. It was an entertaining movie to watch on a night when there is nothing else on TV and there where somethings about it that where kind of interesting.

The premiss of the movie was that the world was becoming inhabitable because of global warming and as a last ditch effort to try and fix the problem some chemical was shot up into the atmosphere to lower the global temperature, but as a result ended up causing the entire earth to freeze.  But before all this happened there was this Walt Dinseyesque type of character (who even had a name which started with a W) Wilford  and he was this visionary who had this idea for creating this ultimate luxury train that could circle around the entire world. And the last remaining survivors of the earth are living on this train that is endlessly circling.

In a way this movie reminded me a bit of the Titanic, mostly because there was the “steerage” section on the train which was called the tail, all the poor people where crammed into the back of the train, and then there was the “upper deck” section with all the rich people living in the front of the train, and like in the Titanic there where this really stark polarization between the different classes. The movie was also a bit of Noah’s Ark, and somewhat reminded me of this mini-series Ascension on the Syfy channel, and there was one character that made me think of Effie Trinket from the Hunger Games.

Now the first thing that popped into my mind was what does the train run on? It most require some kind of fuel or energy source of some kind, so if there is nothing left within the world and all of humanity is contained upon this train, where does the train get its power source from?

Any kind of coal or gas would eventually run out and it cannot be electric because it would eventually need to recharge. I suppose it could be solar powered, even if the world is frozen over there is still a sun in the sky presumably, or maybe it runs on some kind of ethanol type thing and they make fuel from whatever leftovers they have from the food they eat.

The whole food question is another problem. While there is this one scene in which the people are walking through a garden where they do grow their own food, and while to a certain extent you could create some kind of sustainable system. There is also a scene where they walk through this train car that is a big ole fish tank where they get fish from, but that also raises a whole wealth of questions as to how they maintain the fish tank, and feed the fish, I won’t try to get into those complications.

But one of the big things is the people in the tail talk about how the people at the head of the train get steak to eat, while the people in the tail are just given these protein bars to eat. Even on a very large, super train set in some futuristic world I think it would be difficult to keep and maintain sufficient cattle for an indefinite period of time.

Then the whole water thing is an issue to. Apparently these giant blocks of ice sometimes form on the train tracks and the nose of the train is designed to break through this ice (hence the name of the film) without damaging or derailing the train. At some point it is than explained that somehow the ice that the train breaks up is what is used and filtered for the water supply in the train. How exactly to they harvest, or collect, this ice the is outside of the train to somehow get int inside the train? The train never stops moving and it is not like someone could just walk outside and scrap the ice off and bring it inside because it is so cold that as soon as you go outside you freeze instantly.

The other issue is that the tail is plotting this revolt to take over the front of the train and to do that they want to break this guy out of prison who was like head of security so he knows how to get through all the doors, and as it happens the prison on the train is basically just these morgue box looking things. They open up this drawer and pull open this slab and the guy is lying on it. First of all, a person wouldn’t be able to survive in that condition for long, certainly not without some significant health issues. He wouldn’t be able to just pop back up and start running around on this train after that. Second of all he has an addiction to this type of futuristic drug, how does he have accesses to drugs if he is locked in this tiny metal box? The movie was based on a graphic novel so there most be some background information here that explains this better.

One thing that was interesting about the movie was the fact that Wilford is seen as being this Divine/God like person because this train is the whole world to these people and he designed the train, he was the “creator” and he keeps it running, he controls the engine. And he also has power of life and death over the people on the train. He creates his idea of the necessary balance to insure the continued survival of everyone. And there is this other character, this old man who lives in the tail who can be seen as a sort of Satan like figure in the way in which in a sense he is both adversary and friend to Wilford, they do work together to help keep this sort of balance.

Into the Woods

I just got back from seeing Into the Woods, which I was at first a bit dubious about seeing. I love fairy tales, and so at first I was rather intrigued by the movie, but the fact that was a musical made me hesitant. I will see musicals and there are a few of which I do like but also they can be quite annoying. But this movie had such a great cast.

Johnny Depp as the Wolf was irresistible and Meryl Streep is a fantastic actress and she was great as the Witch in this. I also like Emil Blunt, she has been in a lot of good movies I really enjoyed. Christine Barnanski I loved in the Ref and it was fun seeing her in this.  And the kid who plays Jack in this was just about the only thing I liked in the Les Mes musical, so he was good.

Needless to say I really enjoyed Into the Woods more than I thought I would. It was really good, and just kind of fun, but dark at the same time. There where some great visuals, and I loved some of the costumes. I also liked the way in which on the one hand they gave their own really interesting twist to some of the fairy tales, and on the other hand stayed true to the Grimm Brother’s versions. The stories where grim, gruesome, dark.  But it was also balanced out by touches of humor. So it was just a good, fun entertaining movie with a really strong cast and a lot of good talent.

The one thing I will say, and I do not know if it was intentional or not, if it was the way the character was supposed to be, or just something in the personality of the actress but I did find that Red Riding Hood was just completely obnoxious, and I never really did like her.

 

The Equalizer

I just watched the movie The Equalizer, and it was a decent movie, pretty much about what I expected it to be. It was nothing expectational or unexepced, but than I wasn’t expecting it to be such, but it did what it was meant to do, it provided all sorts of ass kicking fun, and gave me my fix of vengeance killing. It did have some pretty good shots I thought. There where a couple of scenes of which I thought where very well edited and quite cool looking. One of the other things I particularly enjoyed about the movie was that one of the quirks as it where of the main character was that he was always reading. There was this cafe he would go to every night, and always had a different book with him. Being an avid reader I found that an intrigued aspect of the charter and the film. I always wanted to know what book he was reading.

But there where a few things about the film of which I had some issues with. One of the thing that bothered me, though luckily they didn’t do this very often only in a couple of scenes where they had these flashbacks which where entirely unnecessary,  as well as feeling a bit insulting to the audience. I know people in modern society and perhaps particularly people from America have a reputation for having a short attention span, but still, there where these scenes that would flash back to something we had just seen like 5 minutes ago. And it was as if the movie was insinuating that we needed to be reminded of what we just watched in order to understand what was happening now, and considering the movie didn’t exactly revolve around a complicate plot it was just irritating.

The other thing that bothered me was this scene with the main bad guy, who was some Russian mobster guy, and he is sitting in this chair with his shirt off and he is covered in all of these really cliched satanic looking tattoos. Which for one thing what exactly why does a Russian mobster have Satanic tattoos? Is he supposed to be a Russian mobster and also a Satanists? And second of all it was just so over the top ( a bit like the flashbacks) where they had to hit you over the head with the fact that he is a really bad dude. Like look at me look at me, I am the bad guy. It made him seem like a comic book villain or more of a caricature of a villain than an actual person/character.

And one other little pet peeve I had was there was this one scene which was one of the moments where you are just thinking, OK so why hasn’t anyone actually contacted the police right now?

Lucy

I just saw the movie Lucy, which I had been looking forward to since I saw the trailers for it as it looked like the kind of movie which would be right up my ally. I have to say I did find it to be quite interesting and thought provoking in some ways. There where some intriguing visuals and symbolism and I really enjoyed the surrealistic aspect of the film, I also found that somehow it just wasn’t quite as good as I expected it to be. It is hard to pin point exactly what I felt the movie was missing (ok I will admit that a part of it was I did think there would be more ass kicking/gravity defying fight scenes). But I don’t know I just wasn’t blown away by it, the movie didn’t live up to the hype that I had anticipated for it.

There was also one major issue I had with the flim and of which did almost make me refrain from going to see it (but than I kept getting bombarded by trailoers for it and admit I gave into the temptation) and that is the fact that the whole prmiss of the flim is based around the idea that humans only use 10% of thier brian but than on account of some new drugs Lucy is able to acesses 100% of her brain. The poblem with this is the fact that it is sicentifcially untrue that we only use 10% of the brain. It is a commnly beleived misnomer.

I understand it is just a movie, a work of fiction, and though unfortunately many do actually get their information from movies, you shouldn’t go to the movies expecting accuracy and truth, and I don’t expect movies to be completely realistic, I have no problem with movies bending (or altogether breaking) the rules of reality. But at the same time it does bother me to that they are helping to further perpetrate something which has been so wrongly believed for so long. They are intentionally spreading misinformation. It would not have taken the people making the movie very long to figure out that it just simply is not true. And when your entire movie is  built up upon a false fact it cheapens the whole movie . But the sad thing (and irritating thing) about it is that the people making the movie are counting on the general public to just buy into it and not to be aware of the inaccuracy of the statement they are making.

There was one quote within the movie that I did really quite like a lot.

“Humans are more concerned with having than with being”

I do think there is a lot of truth within these words.

I also liked the fact that the movie opens up with the question. “We where given life 1 billion years ago, and what have we done with it? ”

It might be true that we have made a lot of fantastical, mind-blowing, and once thought impossibles achievements and discoveries, but at the same time, I think one does have to wonder are we really worth this life we have been given?

So many people really do waste it away and so many of our inventions and creations serve the purpose of helping us to waste it away.

I know that is ironic coming from someone who just got back from the movies, and is now on my blog typing a blog post about it, but I least I am trying to gain some deeper level of thought and understanding from the experience. And as they said in the movie, the primary purpose of our existence, the purpose of a cell is the sharing of knowledge. And so I am trying to pass down my own knowledge and maybe offer some glimmer of enlightenment and understanding, or at least make people think and question.

 

 

The Three Musketeers

I just watched the newest (2011) version of the Three Musketeers movies. Now, I am a huge fan of the original Three Musketeers, and by that I mean the books. Dumas is one of my favorite writers, and the stories, are fun, and so full of adventure, in addition to having some very complex, and well developed characters.

Based upon the previews I have seen for this movie I did not really expect the movie to be an actuate rendition of the book, but I thought it would make for a rollicking good swashbuckling fun movie, and I was curious to see how some of my favorite and beloved characters (and some not so beloved) would be interpreted within the movie.

I found myself quite surprised and impressed with how well the movie actually did follow the book, though adding a few embellishments. It gave the story a steam-punk twist, as well as adding in some Matrix style fighting moves, yet it remained true to the essence of the plot of the book. The portrayal of the characters also closely matched with how I envisioned them from reading the books. The movie did a clever job of merging the essence of the original story with the modern, to stay true to what I love about the Three Musketeers while throwing in some kick ass fighting scenes.

There where also some really good visuals with costuming as well as with scenery

Also I have to say that the movie was filled with some very good actors. But I must admit that I did feel the kid who played D’Artagnan wasn’t very good.