The Matrix

I decided that for my last post I should take advantage of a new technological wonder, the "translate to Hindi button". The rest of this post will now be in Hindi:

ओह थे मत्रिक्ष्. इत'एस कुइते थे इन्तेरेस्तिंग स्टोरी, एवें थौघ तेरे अरे सेवेरल लाव्सुइट्स ऎंड इंफोर्मेशन पोंतिंग तो सेवेरल ओथेर स्तोरिएस दोने बेफोरे थे मूवी ठाट अरे अल्मोस्त एक्षक्त्ल्य् लिके थे मूवी. दीद थे वाचोव्सकी ब्रोठेर'एस रिप अ प्रे-एक्षिस्तिन्ग् स्टोरी ऑफ़ तो मके थेइर फिल्म? तेरे'एस सर्तैंल्य अ गूढ़ डील ऑफ़ इंफोर्मेशन ठाट कोउल्ड लीड वन तो सुस्पेच्त थिस. अन इन्तेरेस्तिंग लीड...बुत सोमेथिंग ठाट'एस हार्ड तो प्रोवे.

ई लोवे थे आईडिया ठाट थे मत्रिक्ष् हस बीन स्तार्तेद ओवर अ कपल ऑफ़ तिमेस, सोमेथिंग ठाट एजेंट स्मिथ एक्ष्प्लैन्स् तो मोर्फयूस ऎंड सोमेथिंग ठाट इस गोने इन्तो मुच मोरे इन देप्थ इन थे नेक्ष्त् मत्रिक्ष् मोविएस. थे मत्रिक्ष् हस बीन रेविसेद ऎंड मदे मोरे "रेअलिस्तिक" ओवर हुन्द्रेड्स ऑफ़ येअर्स. इत'एस अमज़िंग तो थिंक ठाट ओर वर्ल्ड इस बीइंग रेविसेद जुस्त लिके अ कंप्यूटर प्रोग्राम ऎंड इत'एस अल्सो अमज़िंग तो थिंक ठाट वी'डी बे ओब्लिविऔस् तो इत. इत'एस अ स्कार्य थौघ्त तो थिंक ठाट वी'रे नॉट इन चार्ज ऎंड ठाट वी'रे सो एअसिल्य लेद तो बेलिएवे इत व्हें ओर लिवेस हवे बीन ताकें ओवर. थे मत्रिक्ष् रेअल्ल्य ब्लोव्स मय मंद सोमेतिमेस त्र्यिंग तो इमागिने इफ ठाट वास रेअल्ल्य वहत लाइफ वास लिके, बुत वी सी हाउ क्य्फेर डेसं'त रेअल्ल्य सीम तो कारे ऎंड ठाट हे'डी राठेर बे देलुदेद ऎंड लाइव हप्पिल्य थान क्नोव थे ट्रुथ ऎंड लाइव इन अ क्रेप्प्य शिप रिस्किंग योर लाइफ एवेर्य्दय. इत सिम्प्ल्य कोमेस डाउन तो अ चोइस: क्नोव थे ट्रुथ ऎंड लाइव "रियल" ऎंड रिस्क्य, ओर देनी रियलिटी ऎंड लाइव अ "रियल??" ऎंड मोस्ट लिकेल्य सिम्प्ले लाइफ.

थे चोइस इस यौर्स.

The Truman Show

I really love the Truman Show because I really love the character of Truman, which is basically the point of the movie. The Truman Show in itself is entirely about Truman, and the Truman fans we see are fanatical about watching his life, his every movement. I find it very interesting that the entire movie becomes just this, and that we the audience are transformed into fanatical Truman fans ourselves. I certainly become invested in Truman and am cheering him on throughout the movie, just like the TV fans are cheering him on throughout the show.

Truman becomes more than a person during the course of the film. He represents something as standard and constant as the change from day to night. He is always there, and basically always the same. Truman becomes a staple of life for many people, maybe society in general. It's almost like he is worshipped by his fans, after all they tune in everyday/night and Truman is always there to give them their sense of stability and normalcy. So in a way Truman was greatly benefiting society and so in a way I agree with Ed Harris' Christof "I am the Creator - of a television show that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions." Truman is basically taking one for the team by unknowingly giving up a "real" life. Ultimately however, Truman is freed which is the right thing to do, but I do not necessarily call Christof an evil man for keeping Truman his entire life. He merely had a different outlook on life and expressed his creative side in a weird, human-rights violating, method.

Christof offered an ideal world cut off from the sick realities outside the dome of Seahaven. It's unfortunate though that someone missed their chance at a 'real' life in order to create this ideal world.

Conceiving Ada

List of Reasons Why Ada Should Be No One's Role Model:
-she's a hypochondriac, always complaining something's wrong with her
-she's addicted to opium
-she has a gambling problem, losing lots of people's money at the track
-she's a know it all
-she was killed by math...something that i'm pretty sure is impossible
-she can't do simple math: 2000 - 1852 does not equal 166.

"All these mathemathics are too much on your body". That had to be the best quote of the entire movie. Unfortunately I have to put this film in my Top 5 worst movies of all time list. I simply can't see it in my heart to include a film in which time travel was acheived through a still photograph from 1832. Let's take a brief look into the history of photography. The first permanent photograph was taken in 1826 and required an 8 hour exposure. The daguerreotype wasn't even invented until 1839, and those looked horrible. I'll always wonder how Ada's picture represented such amazing picture clarity and how it was snapped in a matter of a second.

But basic lapses in history and plot weren't the biggest problems for this film. Well, maybe they were, but the production values and acting were lacking too. The plot just doesn't make sense...even for a science fiction film. At least in Back to the Future a flux capacitor explained the impossibilities of time travel. Suddenly colonizing Mars, storing information on brain implants, and cyborgs make a lot more sense.

I don't mean to completely bash this film, but having a script supervisor on hand might have worked wonders. It's just that a poorly made film makes it hard for me to take it seriously and see the good points in it. The film does bring up some interesting ideas on technology, like the idea that information waves never die, but the film poorly executes them.

Johnny Mnemonic

I found it funny that Johnny gave up his personal memories to get more storage in his head so that he would be able to earn more money. Now he's just trying to earn enough money doing this "one last job" in order to get his memories back. Funny how things can change and how we can quickly regret greedy decisions we make in the heat of the moment.

I also think there is some discrepancy as to what the name of the film is referring to. "Mnemonic" refers more to the access codes Johnny has to access the information later, rather than the whole process of information storing. Flash Gordon (was it him?) is a great 1/3 of a mnemonic device that helps unlock 320 gb of information. that's a lotta info!

Overall Johnny Mnemonic is on my list of awesomely bad movies. Sure the acting is pretty bad, but that's half the entertainment. I half-expected Jones to be in Ice-T's chest when we're introduced to the best and last hope for Johnny. It's crazy twists and turns like this, plus a psycho jesus, that makes Johnny Mnemonic shine.

The story and the film may be a little out there at times, but I don't think the premise is such a bad idea. Sure the technology used to get the information in and out of Johnny's head may seem like a bit overkill, but the idea of using the human brain to transport information makes increasingly more realistic sense. Exactly how the brain will be used to do this may take a few years to figure out, but it's just another example of how the body is becoming a commodity and how people are willing to sell themselves to make money. What's so different between renting out space in your head to carry information and a woman carrying another couple's child for 9 months (or even selling sperm)? Sure the latter example may have more noble causes, but the point remains. We're letting technology take over our bodies, and much of the time purely for money.

Let's just be careful and not let our society become Newark.

Total Recall

You know it's a great year when October comes around and the Toyko Samurais have made the World Series once again. I relish the moment every year. Those damn Samurais remind me of the Yankees, another baseball dynasty relying solely on talent bought by money.

One of the most fascinating things about Total Recall wasn't that the Samurais made the World Series, but that the movie, set in 2084, didn't have flying cars. I don't think you can leap so many decades into the future without seeing some flying cars pop up. Arnold + Flying Car = Oscar Win. I'm still amazed that the movie got two nominations.

There's been a lot of speculation/debate over whether Arnold is dreaming the entire time, or whether his experiences are happening in real time. I maintain my view that what happens to Arnold is not a dream. His botched "trip" to Mars resurfaces actual erased memories of his real experiences on Mars, and sets him off on his whole crazy adventure. If it was really a dream, I don't get the ending. Don't we usually wake up from dreams in the end? Shouldn't the audience be kept a little more in the picture?

The politics of Total Recall are another interesting aspect of the film. I like how they are interwoven throughout the entire movie, popping up here and there, always an underlying, foreboding, aspect of the movie. Mars politics remind me very much of the colonization problems the colonials had when they tried to break free of England. The rebels of Mars really only want freedom from Cohaagen, and Cohaagen only wants to control them, and their air, much like Britain wanted to control and tax the Americas. This might be pushing it, but I see many similarities between each colonization.

Blade Runner

I recently had to write a paper for my film/video II class on the whether film or digital video was better and what were each medium's advantages and disadvantages. Digital video, I concluded, is much easier to use, is of better quality, and is easier when it comes to putting in special effects. However, film definitely has that 'look' to it, and I think Blade Runner is just one of those films that I'm glad didn't have the option of using digital video. It'll always look better on film.

Blade Runner is a grainy, dark, and overall gritty film, and I love it for it. The way in which it was filmed brings the world of replicants and the year 2019 to live, and scares me a little bit. More specifically the replicants themselves scare me, and not because they're strong, fast and deadly. They scare me because sometimes they seem to be the most "human" characters in the movie.

The replicants have such a strong desire to live, to find out who they are and where they came from, it puts the real humans to shame. Deckard seems to care less whether he lives or drinks himself to death, but the replicants are the ones who are really interested in life and real emotion. The human desire/will to survive has long been a strong quality of the human race but seems largely abandoned in 2019 LA except by those who aren't human at all. The replicants to me represent much of what a human should be, they are almost role models, minus the killing and eye-gouging.

Specifically, Rachael has a very strong will to experience love and intimacy, and gives in to Deckard. Funny that the most romantic moments happen in a scene with a replicant (or two if you really must include Deckard). Also, exhibiting the strong will to survive is Roy, doing everything he can to save himself and his fellow replicants. That's another human quality too, saving your fellow persons, as Roy seeks a cure to his eventual death, but not only for himself.

Humans scare me in Blade Runner's depiction of the future. Sometimes being a replicant is just more "real".

TRON

I think it's interesting how similar the computer world and the real world are in some ways. For example, the main way to decide things in the computer world is not by logic, what we'd expect from a computer, but by games. The Master Control Program decides that who stays and who goes will be determined on "the game grid", something that has an element of chance and skill. Why would a computer program let outcomes be determined by chance? It just goes to show that even the MCP shows characteristics of having a user, even though it denies the existence of such beings. Although more powerful than any other program, the MCP is still the creation of a user, just like any other program. We also see this through the idea that the MCP is male, with a deep voice and male characteristics, just like its user.

I kind of wonder if Tron was more a novelty or a cutting edge film when it was first released. I feel that a lot of the interesting themes were lost with such cheesy and cheap humor. Tron brings up some interesting points about the computer world and how similar and dis-similar the real world can be. The computer animation was also cutting edge for the 80s and is actually very cool. However, much of the symbolic meaning of Tron is lost with its silly acting and bad dialogue. I think that we can definitley learn a few things from Tron, but that these things are harder to see because the cheesiness of Tron overwhelms the viewer. I mean really, Jeff Bridges? Come on.