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thomas-fackler
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Zootopia (2016)
Nature vs. Nurture
Overall the message is a positive one. Problems arise when we begin to explore the message from a more granular perspective.
Zootopia is an animal utopia. That's a relatively straightforward naming convention. What exactly is an animal? What exactly is a utopia?
To answer the first question we can look at the phylogenetic tree (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phylogenetic_tree) to see how our current system of classification places our animal ancestry. (If you disagree with this system of classification please help to make it better by pursuing studies in some form of biological science.) Animals appear to appear somewhere around 2500 to 1000 million years ago* and have given rise to the plethora of forms seen in Zootopia as well as other forms unseen**.
The second question, that of utopia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia), has a mixed history. Quite possibly the history of the meaning of the word is as diverse as the thought-processes of the animals that imagined the word. An article in an encyclopaedia can only give us so much of a definition; a foundation on which to build. Utopia, in my mind, brings up the concept of a dystopia. Do we currently live in a dystopia? Are there pockets of utopia and dystopia? Is my utopia another's dystopia? Ignoring my atopian ramblings, a utopia has as one of its primary parameters an implicit agreement between all involved that this particular environment is the the plateau of social dynamics; there is no improvement that can be made and any change will diminish the experience. Zootopia is not a utopia. This is evident in the fact that there are disagreements about who can be what within the Zootopian society. Zootopia is clearly intended to be a mirror on human society.
So, what does Zootopia ask us to question about human society? Primarily difference. How do we hold back our fellow humans through the nurturing environment we call society***? Zootopia looks at the mutability of social status. A rabbit can become a cop. This is unheard of until the days portrayed in the movie. The struggle begins in the family. Mom and dad are worried for their daughter's well-being in a world that doesn't like change. Mom a dad don't like change. Daughter doesn't see it as change; just that she wants to be something that already exists in her world.
In training rabbit finds and overcomes more than one barrier. These barriers exist because society has not recognized them as barriers simply because no-one that these barriers exist for has ever come forward to attempt to move past the barriers. This is complicated. Testing for barriers requires either a vast imagination to think of all possible combinations of situations or requires members of society to bump into those barriers. In the bumping, slamming, or general feeling out of societal barriers how many members have to undergo this "feeling out" to elicit a change in the hardware of society? From Zootopia, how many rabbits have to jump onto a too-tall commode and fall in before commode height is changed? Additional questions like these come up when rabbit finds herself assigned to meter-maid duty instead of detective work. She does the best she can in a menial task. Is there an ethical imperative to do the best you can at a menial task? Zootopia doesn't explore this.
Eventually our heroine, a rabbit, is placed in the spotlight of greatness and flubs it up by placing the emphasis of Zootopia's current criminal activity on the nature framework (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_versus_nurture#Genomics); in this case the division between predators and prey; a division that has been overcome to the point of a societal revulsion (taboo) against primal animal tendencies. Our heroine doesn't see the harm in her comments and thereby propels herself into a political fight that ousts the current mayor (a predator) and breaks her friendship with the fox. She has to rebuild her relationships.
In the end it all works out. Animals are just living their lives. The rabbit, through hard work, finds her place in society and the society, through several hundred thousand years of inertia continues the slow grind to the next moment.
Things you can participate with me in being bothered about:
The concept of a predator no longer being a predator. What do predators eat in Zootopia?
There is a clearly a crime syndicate run by moles. They ice people. Is this more acceptable than "going primal"?
How does society change? How do we examine barriers to others? How do we imagine barriers that don't exist today, but will certainly exist tomorrow? How do we get ourselves and others to act on eliminating those barriers when only one person or very few people are affected by the barriers that exist? How low can barriers be made if they must exist at all?
*Though today's DNA techniques are only useful on DNA up to 1 million years old. **What would the movie have been like if humans had been thrown into the mix? We are, after all, animals not that far removed from all of the others. And what about insects? ***I use nurture atypically here. It simply means the environmental milieu through which we are born, subjected to, and die.
Kung Fu Panda (2008)
Pandemonium!
The existential overtones of this philosophical tour de force cannot be set lightly aside. A panda named Po, born into a world in which his only parent is a masterful noodle-making gander* who only wants Po to be a happy noodler as well. Po, however, dreams of a greater fate. He sees for himself a future amongst the five greatest kung-fu artists of his time. This dream, and his own filial insincerity, take him to the temple on dragon-picking day.
Once again the unknown chaos that is life develops an absurd situation out of an absurd situation. Po finds himself the chosen and responsible for the safety of an entire valley. He is then given the choice to stay or go. After meditatively eating peaches from an inexplicable peach- tree** Po is convinced, by his turtle master, to stay.
By staying Po must confront the negative energy of his new peer group, all of whom felt their fate was his fate. Po manages to comedically shrug off the negative energy and disappoint everyone, including himself.
Valley protection becomes urgent when the greatest kung-fu artist still alive escapes from an inescapable prison***. When Po discovers that this s%^t's real he calms his nerves the only way he knows how; by eating. His new meerkat master picks up on this nervous twitch and uses it to train him in a matter of minutes?, hours?, day?...time showing definitively that within every panda in this movie there is a kung-fu artist.
Evil spotted cat then makes his appearance and a second epic battle**** commences. This battle consists of yet another series of rapid-fire choices in which "good" and "evil", "nature" and "nurture", and "scroll" and "mirror" are masterfully articulated through face- punching, clawing, explosions, and other forms of cartoon violence. In the end everything returns to normal except that the turtle is gone, evil spotted cat is in an evil spotted cat shaped hole instead of in rhinoceros prison, the dragon scroll is no longer a secret*****, there is a bridge that is probably important to commerce that is broken, the peach tree no longer has blossoms OR fruits, and a certain amount of time has passed.
In the end we find that meaning, in it's most specific sense, is not illusory, but is meaningless. Sartre would be proud.
*Possibly drake, but we are never provided the paternal phylogeny which only compounds the existential milieu in which Po must thrive or perish.
**This peach tree has ripe peaches AND peach blossoms on it. Oh fate you are a fickle gigolo.
***Foucault may have touched on this in his discussion of the panopticon.
****The first epic battle was no less epic, but has been skipped in this review due to time constraints and a lack of sufficient funding for existential panda research.
*****Unless by secret we mean obscure koan-like point of view.
O Menino e o Mundo (2013)
Many people have many voices.
Many people have many voices.
Once, I watched this film. In this film I saw myself. I was simple; I was young. I was old; I was young.
I watched this film and saw the world through eyes. 'I's that were and are and ever shall have been. I watched and saw. I was Earth; I was young. I was Human; I was growing. I was Society; I was aging. I was All Alone; I was laying down to sleep.
To understand I'll watch again. To understand I'll watch again. To understand I'll watch again.
To understand.
Phineas and Ferb (2007)
Wit, fun, creativity, and something else I can't remember
Phineas and Ferb is a great little set of shorts to park yourself in front of with your kids. Each vignette begins with a, "What are we going to do today?" and ends with an unexpected clean-up effort. Once you have seen one you'll know the shtick. Fortunately the algorithm is rich in its rearrangement allowing for many different things to happen between A and B. You could think of Phineas and Ferb as a lower dimensional Gravity Falls or a way family-friendlier version of Rick & Morty.
The main negative I see with the show is the reinforced stereotypes portraying males as precocious, inventive, and generally getting away with everything and females as fawning, vapid, overly-trusting, and many times inept humans. This will allow for some discussion if you are watching with your son or daughter.
Also, there is a platypus. Thank goodness they didn't choose a naked mole.
Sorcerer (1977)
Teamsters Unite!
So, I'm sittin' in my office one day when these guys come in...
No, they call me...no, their agent calls me and says, "You gotta hear about this movie my boys have put together!"
I'm not to busy, so I hear him out.
"These guys drive a bunch of old nitroglycerin across the jungle."
"Why?"I ask.
"To put out an oil rig fire," is the reply I get.
"Okay," I'm willing to go with it, oil runs the world after all. "How did the oil rig fire start?"
"The rig blew up, but that isn't important," he says. "The important thing is that these four guys are driving across a South American jungle in two dilapidated trucks that they rebuilt themselves. They're each carrying enough nitroglycerin to leave only tiny bits of their huge lorries lying on the ground when it explodes, and the nitro is more than likely to explode because it has been sitting in the jungle for a long time. You like it?"
I decide to approach it from another angle because I still didn't fully understand the hook. "How did these four men end up in this position?"
"That's not important. They just end up somewhere in South America working for an oil company. If you really need to develop them, just make one a terrorist in Jerusalem, one a mobster from Jersey, one an assassin from Vera Cruz, and the last a banker from Paris. Everything else will come together around the drive through the jungle."
"Do they make it?" I ask.
"Yes, and no." he answers. "One makes it, but it looks like he dies anyway.
I guess I wasn't getting it, but I decided, 'What the hell?' and threw a bunch of money at the kids. Enough money so that they could film on location and make one hell of a movie about driving through the jungle.
Strange Magic (2015)
A musical of disjoint sets
There are two lands. A land of light and a land of night. A land with folks who are in love and a land with folks who are trying to avoid it. In between the two lands are the flowers that make you feel in love, but not in true love. Those flowers are destroyed by those who live in the dark land and mostly ignored, except for the purposes of plot, by those who live in the light.
Regardless of which land you hail from you will have a singer in your midst. He or she will sing pop tunes remixed to fit the mood of the moment or to generally get an unclear point across. The singing does not seem to come from the heart in either case, but that may be because the animation struggles to embrace the singing; we may need some love potion for the two.
A preening bad guy comes to light in the land of the light. He seeks power through infatuation and generally mucks up him life, but he is CGI hot and our heroine-like character is in love until she sees him kissing another fairy. This kiss drives off all possibility for future romance clearly setting the stage for unimaginable future romance.
A bad guy who made some wrong choices rules the dark with his telephone-line inept hench-biologicals. He also has a mother who is trying to set him up. I wonder when he will fall in love.
Somewhere in the middle is a troll - you know the gnome-like ones with the funny hair. This troll is in a love that is not reciprocated. He needs some love potion ASAP, but he needs a jerk to convince him that this is the right thing. Where will he find a jerk? At a dance? Yes.
From there is all comes together exactly as we expect it to. A love- potion is sought and imbued with meaning by a character randomly names the sugar-plum fairy who escapes, but is easily caught. The troll-gnome ineptly applies the love-potion during an abduction. Valiant rescues are attempted and CGIed into mere rescues. Passion is flogged into heady titillation and the pain of misunderstanding finds a way to a kaleidoscopic finale.
The only thing left to wonder is how much LucasFilms Ltd. lost on this project.
Children of Men (2006)
Where the hell am I?
Granted, I do not appear in the movie, but at some level I should be able to connect with someone in the movie and from there feel my way to the end. This did not happen anywhere.
---
The human female population of the world is infertile. The world is upset about it in a very cliché mid-life crisis sort of way where we want to break up with everybody and have our own way. The imperial powers are locking down their playgrounds and the armed body politic is guarding the gates. Countries on the periphery seem to be evacuating causing the imperial powers to create a refugee crisis. As told and depicted, none of this makes sense, and not because human violence of this sort is nonsensical, but because there is no pattern, method, hook, or plot line to examine and go along with.
Where the hell are we?
We are in Britain. This is true.
We are in a year where the youngest child is no longer a child both in the sense of being a grown-up and in the sense of being dead.
We are in a political climate where the government is repressing non- Britains.
We are on a journey to move a pregnant woman through Britain to meet a clandestine group who might be associated with Greenpeace.
We are in a rush, but in a way that never feels rushed.
We have a baby.
We walk with the baby amongst reverent onlookers.
We escape.
All of this is somehow connected. Really, most definitely connected, but we are never connected to it. We might as well be watching an embedded reporter's war footage every half-hour and on the hour.
---
There are some neat cinematic decisions. All of the footage is interesting and well put together but does little to redeem the film.
Calvary (2014)
Life's Mysteries
The mysteries of life seem so familiar because it is we who, in our ignorance create them.
Through his vocational duties an Irish priest attempts to determine who his killer will be. Throughout this mystery we are asked to confront our own conclusions about all that we are familiar with as well as examination of that which is outside of our experience.
Many have some relationship with a body of faith be is of the theistic or atheistic variety. Each faith has its own mysteries phrased as clues. It is in these clues that faith is developed because, as the faithful we examine our clues in the hope that a connection between clues exists providing us with a whole that can sometimes lead us forward in our lives. Where this thread does not exist we ignore our own faithlessness and looks to others to satisfy the void.
In this film the void is laid out before us with the opening quotes and opening lines of dialogue. (*) As we move from the void in the beginning through the lives of the characters in the film we are not just asked to figure out who the killer will be, but also who this community of people is as well as their relevance to us as individuals and as an audience. We quickly become wrapped up in deep questions about relationships, choices, and the long-lasting effects that these stories have in our lives.
Calvary is a process laid out in 7 days. Each day we meet a character and develop a slightly deeper relationship with them. We also confront them as kindred spirits, adversaries, as well as foreign. The kindred spirits we identify with and hope that they, like us, are not in the wrong. Our adversaries mock us openly and tempt us to lash out at them. Those who are foreign alienate us; push us away so that we can see a larger picture where they do not seem so alien. By the end of the seven days we know more, but the tension created by this knowledge and the faith that we will soon know more, potentially all, leaves us overwrought and drained. What are the ways that this denouement can be finalized?
*If we cannot wait we may move forward to find the outcome of these symbols, but would miss the entirety of experience that gives meaning to the beginning and the end.
---
Authenticity is a claim we make on ourselves by our choices and absurdities are the claims we make on others by our choices. To put it another way; the absurd is the timeline of choices by others that cause our inexplicable suffering today. To make peace with this absurdity requires forgiveness. Forgiveness requires authenticity.
Karigurashi no Arietti (2010)
Where do our lost items go?
Have you ever wondered why there is a little less sugar in the sugar jar? Wondered why that flash of color happened in the corner of your eye? Wondered why there are tiny footprints in the dust up on your mantle?
Having read The Borrowers I knew why, and in Arriety's adventures I know a little more...
A young person has been sent to rest before heart surgery which he may not survive. Upon arrival at his parent's country home he catches a glimpse of Arriety who is collecting flora for her room. Arriety manages to hide herself and then escape from the house-cat, but is reprimanded by her anxious mother for venturing out. That evening Arriety's father takes her out on a borrowing, but she is seen again by the young person which frightens Arriety and cuts short the borrowing.
The boy tries to talk with Arriety, and since she will have none of it he leaves a sugar cube with a note. This interaction frustrates Arriety's parents and leads them to begin preparations to move. Arriety takes it upon herself to return the sugar and note as well as to tell the young person to leave them alone. He cannot leave them be, partially because of his mother's memories and desires to see the little people and so frightens The Borrowers by remodeling their house.
The young person's mean old woman catches on that her young man has discovered the borrowers and begins a chase that eventually captures Arriety's mother who is put into a jar in the cupboard until pest control can arrive. At this point Arriety enlists the help of the young person to rescue her mother and thwart the mean lady's designs. ---
The secret world of Arriety does not have much of a story-line. It is more of a window into a time of crisis with humor, absurdity, and courage all animated by the meticulous hands at Ghibli studios. It was a fun view with very few of the undercurrents and twists that exist in much of the other Ghibli works.
Omoide no Marnie (2014)
Always vivid. Always beautiful
Not knowing who we are can be emotionally draining. Circumstances can make the process of discovery more daunting than it might otherwise be. And when we find ourselves amongst others on similar treks we can easily become overwhelmed. When Marnie was There explores the twists and turns these relationships with ourselves and others can take and how our each pathway may be connected in multiple and un-thought-of ways.
---
Anna finds herself in the uncertainty of depression. She was a happy child, but knowledge without fact has broken her younger self; leaving her drifting even though clear anchors are in sight. She is gently sent away to live with relatives of her foster mother a loving fun gardener couple who care deeply about her and allow her her freedom.
She explores the marsh nearby her residence and becomes enchanted by a house across the way. At low tide she can walk to it and so begins her magical engagement with Marnie. They quickly become fast friends. Marnie, who is a all alone except during her parents rare visits in which they host extravagant parties, teaches the young woman to free herself from her uncertainty and embrace her gifts as well as to see the love that surrounds her and keeps her from begin alone.
In the end Anna finds herself whole and will always have Marnie as a part of her life.
The Thing (1982)
Otherness Cannot Live
The Thing is Other to, at the very least, mammalian life-forms on Earth. They have been frozen away in the depths for the last 100,000 years at least and now that they are out they are trying to figure out their place on an unknown world. If they had crash-landed further north how would the evolution of our planet been different?
For more of this kind of perspective you should do a search for the Clarkesworld short story by Peter Watts that moves through the storyline from the perspective of The Thing.
Aside from human speculation about alien thought the film is certainly a classic in the sci-fi horror genre. It has similarities to Alien in both plot-line and special effects. The thing the movie lacks is a sense of humor. I like that in a good horror flick.
The Book of Life (2014)
Life as Myth
On the Day of the Dead we celebrate the lives of those we remember, but there are those who have been forgotten, so we must never forget...
The Book of Life takes a group of "at-risk" children on a visit to a museum, but they get the tour that very few get. While the physical tour is quite short the majority is through the story-telling of the Queen of the Dead and has qualities reminiscent of the story-telling done in The Princess Bride: audience interjections and story-teller descriptions.
The story is an ages-old story familiarized in Romeo and Juliet, but leaves the tragedy behind as our hero binds those who are living to those who are dead to defeat the evil that exists in the world.
The Book of Life seems to be a good jumping-off point into Latin American mythologies. This and the interesting animation that appears at times to be stop-motion makes the film an interesting watch.
The Princess and the Frog (2009)
Due to Hallucinations Do Not Kiss the Frogs
A Disney movie of the 90s style with a story with a moral with a tale of whimsy, woe and strength....
New Orleans, Creole, and the swampy river delta get their time in the theater through a connection of a young woman with dreams, a young prince with a silver spoon dangling just our of reach, and a set of supporting characters who either are the hand-puppets of the Gods, fall in love with stars, or toot their own horn in a jazzy sort of way. All together they form a lovely set that is par for the Disney course. Good fluff and fun for the family.
What is left behind is the history of each culture appropriated, something that Disney has successfully and unsuccessfully done through the years. Little bits and pieces come up such as the big house in with the princess within and the little houses where the help must return. Setting all of this aside is a necessity for enjoyment, but those who view the show with an eye for details might ask how many frogs were licked to make a story in the given setting seem real even with all of the magic of voodoo.
Meet the Robinsons (2007)
I Have Met the Robinsons
The future is a fantastic place most especially when it is your own and when you are a pretty well-adjusted person. This particular future is even more fantastic in that it allows movement from it back into the past; a fluidity that is made believable by the abilities of the young inventor.
What is difficult to believe is the lack of interest by prospective parents in an apparently precocious child who builds a new invention for every interview; all of which inevitable fail catastrophically. There seems to be an unintended motif of adult negligence towards the support of young persons interests and passions.... Fortunately, our hero is brought to a future wherein passions of the human sort are celebrated. The rub is that this world is entirely of his own creation.
Solipsism aside, Meet the Robinsons is a fun flick for the full family. The plot line wends its way through layers of time and personality with plenty of fun moments allowing for laughter and discussion; the former uncontained and the latter a matter of choice.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015)
A Brief History of English Magic
Magic has and always will be a part of England, but the modern magician is a weak facsimile of the medieval magicians who found little separation between the human world and the world of faerie. A theoretical magician has been studying the magic of the past attempting to trim away the inhuman parts of magic to make magic a respectable profession for modern England. In pursuit of this respectability he buys all reference to English magic and contracts with the modern magicians against their will to discontinue their study of English magic.
The contract with the modern magicians comes about in a display of practical magic by the one magician wherein the statues of the cathedral are allowed to speak and that would be that except that living witnesses will always speak. Word makes it to London high society and the magician, hearing of this word, takes the opportunity to further the respectability of English magic by moving to London and seeking employ with the English government. At first he is ridiculed, but then used magic of a blurrier sort to review the dead wife of a member of parliament. In doing so he opens the doors between the human world and the world of faerie....
This miniseries captures the alternate history of England, an England where wars are won by magic instead of luck and where books and the words contained therein have power to change the landscape itself. England is seen as a dichotomy between theory and practice as well as that between refined constraint and a seemingly reckless abandon each of which obtain results outside of expectation.
American Graffiti (1973)
Honestly, You Couldn't Spoil This Movie
It was the worst of times and this was the worst of movies about it.
George Lucas manages to put together a horrific nightmare of boredom on wheels with little respite from the torture. He subtly paints over the meaninglessness with another layer of less meaning creating a hodge-podge of pointed affectation only topped by the four printed lines of denouement; all of which could have been written more succinctly in an aphorism and not gone several million over budget. Lucas would have done better had he clipped the first five minutes and looped it, or maybe the first fifteen depending on the average attention span of whoever thinks this movie is anywhere to the right of the movie greats bell curve.
I went into this film not knowing what to expect and left it pretty sure I was disappointed.
The Zero Theorem (2013)
Finding Meaning in the Vacuum
To paraphrase Douglas Adams,
The Universe is very big and almost anything that can be imagined has already happened.
or to go a bit older with the same concept:
You cannot step into the same river twice - Heraclitus
and the latest bit from a little over 100 years ago that we are still working on
Entropy seems to be the arrow of time.
Putting all of the above together we or I or you could come to the conclusion why bother with anything? Anything has already been done somewhere/sometime and anything is just going to disorder itself over time. So why bother? Is the universe meaningless because the universe exists or is the universe meaningful because we exist?
We meet this meaningfulness out of meaninglessness head-on in our world every day. The Zero Theorem slaps us in the face with it giving us various approaches to the meaning we provide such as engaging in discovery through computation, engaging in the power dynamic through relationships of business, sex, & age, engaging in experience for the sake of experience, and engaging faith for the layer of meaning it hopefully adds. None of these and all of these have value through interpretation because interpretation is intertwined with social engagement; both in our engagements outside of one another and in our internal engagements. There is no value because value is a human overlay on the universe and yet there is value because we are in the universe.
The Zero Theorem explores the value spectrum as constructed by Q in our modern universe. We observe Q's loneliness and the coping mechanisms that may alleviate that sense of loneliness: faith, absurdity, forced engagement, recusing oneself from society, layered, facilitated, & mediated interactions, and focused intention are some of the ways we cope while the world continues on somewhere outside of our darkened rooms. We dig in to hold on more tightly to a value to either find the meaning for alone or await the revelation of the meaning directly to ourself, but that meaning will always sit inside of interpretation and interpretation is limited in perspective if we can find no way to engage the larger world.
In typical Gilliam fashion the sets, costumes, universe, and mental imagery is all developed in such a way as to alienate, comfort, and embrace the viewer leading them to believe that they are not a part of this world, that maybe this world can be avoided, that someone else is having this problem, but that ultimately this is the world that they live in and have to deal with.
Paddington (2014)
A Glimpse into Paddington
Why are there talking bears in Peru? We do not have to worry about this because this story is not about ecology, but about the antics of a bear who loses his home and family.
The Paddington stories are loosely encapsulated in this slapstick story giving us a peek into the fantastical universe of a young bear whose confidence leads to both disaster and a happy ending. The stories are far more lively and should be read well before the movie is watched and the ending should be summarily ignored.
The movie is a fun romp and well worth watching with youngsters and oldsters alike.
Interstellar (2014)
2001: A Space Odyssey for the Modern Individual
I liked it. It was fairly smooth and put me through enough mental gymnastics that two days later I am still in recovery. It was a nice remake of the Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey and keyed in on some of the problems homo sapiens sapiens could potentially face in this ever- changing world and universe.
I really like the human feel: the idea that love, as a physical trait, might manifest itself across space-time is a fun philosophical speculative fiction.
The use of theoretical physical models - anything can be done with mathematics and some computational power - adds an element of believability to the physical structure of the show.
I am leaving off the three stars because Interstellar has some 'splainin' to do: ---plausibility is inconsistent. We can deal with the biological necessity of food in space, but can't deal with it on the easiest place for us to live in space? Maybe they should have hired a biologist and/or a chemist as well as a physicist for consulting purposes.
---time is inconsistent. Yep, relativity. The Gargantua scene is done magnificently and really gives a great visualization of Einstein's theories as they relate to us as people. Again, when Cooper sees his daughter on her death-bed. However, Cooper fell into Gargantua. If one hour was the equivalent of ten years in the orbit he and Brandt were in on tidal wave planet then Cooper's clock must have been running ever slower relative to Earth's clocks as he fell towards the gravitational center of Gargantua.
---what happened to all of the non-white folks on Earth. Were they eaten? Did they succumb to the blight? Just what is up with that? Maybe this should be under plausibility? This is probably just a United State problem.
---making the sound-track louder and making things shake a bunch shouldn't be used to cover excursions into the fiction part of sci-fi. I am sure it is hard to move between the factual and the speculative, but a smoother transition would be much appreciated. I don't need the director to scream at me "Suspend...belief...NOW!"
Free Birds (2013)
Funny in meh....it is what it is.
Was I sad when I watched Free Birds?
No.
Did I laugh when I watched Free Birds?
A couple of times.
Did I cringe when I watched Free Birds?
Yes, I cringed at the weirdness of the turkeys of the past.
Would I recommend this movie to anyone?
Maybe, if I can remember the name of it.
There wasn't anything particularly wrong with the movie, but there wasn't anything particularly right. It is just not that great of an adventure. Much of what happens will come as no surprise. That which comes as no surprise seems forced.
Unfortunately nothing grabbed my imagination in the movie enough to give me any ideas about how I would make it better. So, as you watch it think of it as the absence on which you may meditate.
Frozen (2013)
A musical?
I didn't read up much on Frozen before subjecting myself and my family to its hidden pleasures so I didn't realize is was a musical. Presumably you are reading this so now you know. There is one extremely hilarious song with the rest being poppy and/or catchy moving tunes that break out when you would expect them to in times of joy, sorrow, frustration, and denouement.
The movie visuals are crisply animated giving Frozen a gemlike quality fitting to the topic. Characters are as you would expect in a Disney movie/fairy tale. Rakishly charming males. Fiercely petite females. And the twists and turns of the plot are pleasantly modern enough to suggest that this fairy tale has something new to offer. Animation, characterization, plot, and song all combine to make this a movie worth watching once.
Megamind (2010)
Beyond Good & Evil (Chapter 1 Adapted)
This cartoon engages the Will to Truth, which continues to tempt Megamind to many a hazardous enterprises and continues to bring him into engagement with seemingly singular escapades with the famous Metro Man of which all citizens of Metrocity have hitherto spoken with respect.
What questions has Megamind not laid before us! What strange, perplexing, questionable questions! The story of his existence is a long one yet it seems as if it were hardly commenced when we meet our protagonist in the the bad guy place. Is it any wonder if we begin with distrust, impatience, and turn away from this maniacal pseudo-genius? We may compare him with the Sphinx who will teach us at last to ask questions? Who is it really that puts questions to us here? What really is this "Megamind" before us?
In fact we make a an hour-long discovery of this Megamind—until at last we came to an absolute standstill before a yet more fundamental question. From the beginning we inquired and were told about the value of this Megamind. Granted that we want Metro Man: why not rather Megamind? And uncertainty? Even ignorance? The problem of the value of Metro Man is presented to us—or is it the viewer who presented the self before the problem? Which of us is the Metro Man here? Which the Megamind?
Megamind, the movie seems to be a rendezvous of questions and notes of interrogation. And could it be believed that it at last seems to us as if the problem had never been propounded before, as if we were the first to discern it, get a sight of it, and risk raising it. For there is risk in raising it, perhaps there is no risk. Enjoy!
Predator (1987)
Bro-mance
In Predator a strapping alien, York, visits Earth for sport, but finds a perfect match in Dutch, an ex-Green Beret who now heads an elite squad of mercenaries.
Imagine, if you will, yourself as a teenage alien from a planet bent on never relinquishing it's 2nd amendment rights. One day your wealthy parent/s give you full access to their hyper-cruiser and cut you loose with their only rule being that you must self-destruct if you feel close to death. If you can imagine this then you have successfully placed yourself in the specially designed cameo-suit of York who sees in Dutch an adversary worth stripping off his tech for. In the end York find this to be a poor choice, but willing laughs off the mistake before blowing himself to smithereens. Dutch leaves wondering about what could have been had York lived to be the partner he'll never have
Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
All the Substance of an Arcade
I wasn't really looking for much going into this movie. I figured there would be a story, some plot development, and something to neaten things up in the end. I don't think I was disappointed.
Wreck-it Ralph starts as a first person account of a bad guy in a video game, quickly jumps from that to a self-help group, moves into some other video games where non-pressing problems are resolved, and wraps it all up in a ending that may or may not be happy. It was just as flat as it sounds. No CGI eye candy. No human interest development. No real attempt. I get the sense that the video game theme was meant to carry the picture, but it didn't.
This film compares well with sequels that were never supposed to be shown in the theatre. If you spent time in an arcade or played any video games the characters do what you would expect. Beyond tugging at memories of past gaming experiences Wreck-it Ralph is just a disconnected collage of those same memories. Watch it and then go play some video games to erase it from your memory.
Lilo & Stitch (2002)
Life...in about an hour
A genetic experiment designed for destruction and adaptability bends space and time to escape from his confinement and imminent destruction. Naturally, he ends up in Hawaii. During his escape the implication is that the potential for destruction is great. However, we find that our little anomaly is the ideal partner for a pair of orphans who also desire escape from their unfortunate existential circumstances.
Lilo & Nani, meet Stitch. Stitch, meet Lilo & Nani.
Despite the apparent difficulty inherent in merging an orphan alien with destructive tendencies into a broken Hawaiian family the writers for Lilo & Stitch pull it off perfectly. It turns out that an alien destroyer is just what a broken family needs, but not really in the typical Disney way wherein all of the pieces fall together to make the lives wholesome and unrealistic. In the end pieces fall, they are broken pieces, and they merge to give a broken social environment a new hope.
All difficulties are wrapped up in the end and humor abounds.