I am just going to come out and say that I do not like 2001. Without a doubt it is a stunningly beautiful film, but that was part of the problem. The shots are just too damn long. I get that Kubrick was essentially showing off how lovely his compositions were, but it slowed the story down so much that I could not even pretend to care anymore.
My first issue is with the entire Ape sequence. Okay, I get the metaphor, chill out and move on already! This sequence was unnecessarily long and ridiculous. I got extremely bored and left the room until the scene finally ended. Also, humans in ape suits just isn't convincing. Ever.
This is yet another example of how time is brutal on a lot of art. In my opinion, 2001 has not aged well. At this point, the story is deeply embedded within pop culture and it has been parodied endlessly. In fact, some of the parodies have been BETTER than the film.
Ah, HAL. Apparently he is gay. Okay then. All I really have to say about that article is, seriously, is it possible to read any more deeply into a film? For that matter, it basically boiled down to seeing whatever you are looking for. For example, the article claims that HAL's voice is androgynous. I disagree. It was always male for me. I never once questioned it. Even now, when I try, I cannot hear the voice as a female. HAL is a man. Not a gay man, either. Just a computer program with an ego complex that happened to be programmed to have the voice of a male human.
For my opinion and input on the topic of egomanical super computers, please see my overly long first post about Colossus. I said absolutely everything there that I would care to say here and now. If I had watched this first, I am sure my thoughts would be deeper and more in depth, but as it is, I feel like I have said all that I want to.
I will say that the special effects here were incredible. People generally credit Star Wars with pioneering the visual effects era, but I really feel like everything looked just as good in this movie as in Star Wars years later. Star Wars simply took the theme and made it even more grand, but not much better.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Monday, December 10, 2007
They sure grow up quickly...
I saw Alien3 when I was about 7. I saw Aliens on October 14th, 2000. Somehow it took a further 7 years for me to get around to watching the original. I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised. I would probably place it as the best film we watched this semester (excluding the Matrix since I had already seen it). The whole atmosphere of the film was absolutely phenomenal. The opening sequence of slowly moving across empty space and then through the dead corridors of the ship was truly brilliant. Right away the tone of the entire film is set.
I have read that Alien was a slowly paced film, but I would have to disagree. I would say that it was perfectly paced. It is slow, but it needs to be. Life IS slow for these people as they are essentially prisoners aboard this lonely old ship. No matter how good a mood they may be in, there always that sense of dread at being aboard this dark, steampunk-esque vessel with nowhere to turn. Unlike Blade Runner, I felt like the darkness worked perfectly.
The Alien itself is truly a classic creature of horror. Within moments of the little bastard tearing its way into the world, it ceases being just another Sci-Fi beast and becomes a nightmarish demon. This is where I really felt like the film succeeded. It was sci-fi with reminding the audience constantly that this is the future and things are totally different. Instead, it tells you upfront that this is the future and leaves it at that. From then on, these are just people like you and me that just happen to be in slightly different circumstances. So when they find themselves in a situation where they are being picked off one by one, I don't question the setting or situation, I just buckle in and go for the ride.
As I don't have the reader with me at this moment, I cannot quote or even remember the name of the article, but I really do want to discuss the whole "femininity" issue at stake. Ripley never felt like a "classical Hollywood woman" to me throughout the film. Perhaps I am too detached from said society, but I did not have any issue with accepting her as a heroic lead. Williams, Clover, and other have written in detail about the place of the woman in the horror film. Clover, for example, has a term called the "final girl." In your typical slasher flick, this is the girl who manager to survive the serial killing due to intelligence and cunning. Clover argues that this turns her into a masculine character and possibly defeats the idea of a female hero all together. In Alien, I don't really feel like Ripley could be placed in this category. I don't see her as a strong-female-type. I see her as a person who has seen a whole lot of shit in her time and has been built into the heroic, strong person that she is. She is a badass who happens to be a woman, not a woman who happens to be a badass.
I must be honest, the final scene of the movie really through this all on its head. In a stroke of true cinematic genius, Ripley becomes a stereotypical woman for all of 10 minutes at the end. When she is in the shuttle prior to discovering the presence of the Alien, she somehow manages to shrug off the ridiculous amount of terrible shit that has happened to her. She starts to strip down and walk around the small space in just a tattered tank-top and her underwear. Her mannerisms all transform into those of a beautiful, half-naked woman. It feels like Scott was going "yeah, she was this fierce, manly badass... but take a look now... she's a sexy, innocent little girl." It really is quite shocking. Weaver really pulls this off. She looks completely comfortable, albeit terribly out of place.
Then, bam, the Alien is back. After my first screening I really wished that the film had ended on the note of Ripley just lounging around without a care in the world. Now, after re-seeing the scene, I feel it was necessary to put her back into her prior role for the closure of the film. It almost transforms from earlier. Now she is a woman who happens to be a badass. Quite a shocking little twist, really.
I have read that Alien was a slowly paced film, but I would have to disagree. I would say that it was perfectly paced. It is slow, but it needs to be. Life IS slow for these people as they are essentially prisoners aboard this lonely old ship. No matter how good a mood they may be in, there always that sense of dread at being aboard this dark, steampunk-esque vessel with nowhere to turn. Unlike Blade Runner, I felt like the darkness worked perfectly.
The Alien itself is truly a classic creature of horror. Within moments of the little bastard tearing its way into the world, it ceases being just another Sci-Fi beast and becomes a nightmarish demon. This is where I really felt like the film succeeded. It was sci-fi with reminding the audience constantly that this is the future and things are totally different. Instead, it tells you upfront that this is the future and leaves it at that. From then on, these are just people like you and me that just happen to be in slightly different circumstances. So when they find themselves in a situation where they are being picked off one by one, I don't question the setting or situation, I just buckle in and go for the ride.
As I don't have the reader with me at this moment, I cannot quote or even remember the name of the article, but I really do want to discuss the whole "femininity" issue at stake. Ripley never felt like a "classical Hollywood woman" to me throughout the film. Perhaps I am too detached from said society, but I did not have any issue with accepting her as a heroic lead. Williams, Clover, and other have written in detail about the place of the woman in the horror film. Clover, for example, has a term called the "final girl." In your typical slasher flick, this is the girl who manager to survive the serial killing due to intelligence and cunning. Clover argues that this turns her into a masculine character and possibly defeats the idea of a female hero all together. In Alien, I don't really feel like Ripley could be placed in this category. I don't see her as a strong-female-type. I see her as a person who has seen a whole lot of shit in her time and has been built into the heroic, strong person that she is. She is a badass who happens to be a woman, not a woman who happens to be a badass.
I must be honest, the final scene of the movie really through this all on its head. In a stroke of true cinematic genius, Ripley becomes a stereotypical woman for all of 10 minutes at the end. When she is in the shuttle prior to discovering the presence of the Alien, she somehow manages to shrug off the ridiculous amount of terrible shit that has happened to her. She starts to strip down and walk around the small space in just a tattered tank-top and her underwear. Her mannerisms all transform into those of a beautiful, half-naked woman. It feels like Scott was going "yeah, she was this fierce, manly badass... but take a look now... she's a sexy, innocent little girl." It really is quite shocking. Weaver really pulls this off. She looks completely comfortable, albeit terribly out of place.
Then, bam, the Alien is back. After my first screening I really wished that the film had ended on the note of Ripley just lounging around without a care in the world. Now, after re-seeing the scene, I feel it was necessary to put her back into her prior role for the closure of the film. It almost transforms from earlier. Now she is a woman who happens to be a badass. Quite a shocking little twist, really.
Quatermass and The Devil Bugs of Doom
I have a strange fascination with the Devil. So, when it was, uh, revealed that "Quatermass and the Pit" was based around the very origins of the devil, I became quite excited. However, I have absolutely no idea what in the hell that movie was actually about. It would be a lie to say that I walked away from it with anything at all. First of all, it doesn't really fit the rest of the semester very well. Every other film has dealt, in some form or another, with artificial life. I guess (and this would be one hell of a stretch) that one could say that humans are the AL in this movie, but come on.
The idea that human life originates from Mars is actually a rather common theory, but the very bizarre path that this film took with it left me disappointed. Honestly, bug armies and random spaceships? That was bad enough, but then you introduce the whole "devil bug is back for vengeance" storyline and everything falls apart. I was pretty excited in the beginning of the film when there were just small hints of ghosts and "simian" life creatures in the shadows. I started to think that the film was going to center around creepy dealing like this one, yet instead it took a completely random path towards absurdity.
A part of me just wants to write the film off as a sign of the overall poor quality of the 70's sci-fi flick, but those notions were completely destroyed earlier this semester with Colossus. That film was still corny and stuck in its popculture moment, but it was also smart. It never talked down to its audience. Quatermass began strong and then degraded into illogical and boring "horror." Why anyone would be terrified by a giant devil bug is beyond me.
The idea that human life originates from Mars is actually a rather common theory, but the very bizarre path that this film took with it left me disappointed. Honestly, bug armies and random spaceships? That was bad enough, but then you introduce the whole "devil bug is back for vengeance" storyline and everything falls apart. I was pretty excited in the beginning of the film when there were just small hints of ghosts and "simian" life creatures in the shadows. I started to think that the film was going to center around creepy dealing like this one, yet instead it took a completely random path towards absurdity.
A part of me just wants to write the film off as a sign of the overall poor quality of the 70's sci-fi flick, but those notions were completely destroyed earlier this semester with Colossus. That film was still corny and stuck in its popculture moment, but it was also smart. It never talked down to its audience. Quatermass began strong and then degraded into illogical and boring "horror." Why anyone would be terrified by a giant devil bug is beyond me.
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Know Thy Self
Even though it become the trendy thing to hate the Matrix in the wake of its two sequels, I am one of the few who stand by it as one of the best film trilogies of all time. Yes, the action is, most of the time, very cool. Yes, it is flashy and new and high tech. These are none of the reason why I love the world of the Matrix. It raises so many of the philosophical and moral questions that I have lost countless hours of sleep on in my own life. It is the only movie that really makes me not only ponder meaning within the diagetic world of the film but my own existence.
Neo is a character who has found himself to be a god. Having spent his entire life with this nagging feeling that something was wrong with the world, it is exciting to finally see everything unravel. What would you do if you discovered you had unlimited power? I believe that the films do a fantastic job of showing a realistic answer to this question. He doesn't let it control his life but instead uses it as a tool. I would love to think that I would be capable of the same compassion if I were to find myself with such power, but, truth be told, I have a suspicion that I would end up doing some rather terrible things along with the good.
So why is the Matrix such a bad thing? Look, Morpheus, I totally get that you don't want to be a slave. That's cool... but the Machines, as far as I could tell, really don't have any intention on destroying you. They NEED you, and, yes, you NEED them. This is a fantastic moral dilemma. Would I rather be living in a dream world where I still get to live my life in any way that I please... or would I rather know the truth about my existence and live with the consequences of that knowledge? Ideally, I'd like to know that I was only living in a dream world but still be allowed to do so. Look, I want to know the truth as much as anyone else, but the real world fucking blows. I don't want electrical sockets all over my body or the inability to eat and enjoy food with taste. As Morpheus so rightly states, real is just electrical impulses interpreted by my brain. Cool. Life in the Matrix sure sounds good to me.
Even if the humans did win this supposed war, what then? Then they seriously have nowhere to go. That will end mankind. The world doesn't look savable. Their best bet is to form a truce with the machines... which, of course, they do at the end of Revolutions. I'm just saying, if I was awoken to that Desert of the Real, I'd be plugged back in about as quick as I could find a jack. I feel bad for the poor saps who were born outside of the Matrix. They don't get to live the full human experience. The machines were KIND enough to grant us that, at least.
One scene that I have spent a lot of time pondering is the infamous lobby shootout. Surely it is an epic and wickedly entertaining piece. but you really have to think about the fact that Neo and Trinity are seriously slaughtering innocent people who are doing their jobs. Yes, I get that every human can also be an Agent and, therefore, must be taken as an enemy... but damn. For some people this ruins the movie because Neo is no longer a justifiable protagonist. I LOVE the film for doing this. I think the film really wants you to question whether or not we should be rooting for the humans. The machines generally don't go around just shooting up random people for no damn reason, now do they?
Well... then again, there is Agent Smith... but what a fantastic character! He is the Negative One... Neo's true foil. Just as Neo is rebelling, so too is Smith. He is the one machine who doesn't see a purpose of the humans. Ah... kinda sounds like we have come full circle to Colossus! Humans dying out and being replaced by machines... Smith has it exactly. Humans are dangerous VIRUSES. Honestly, I sure cannot disagree with his logic. If they could figure out a way to no longer require the human/battery system, I'd totally understand as they systematically unplugged us all.
Okay, I could write a book on the Matrix... but it is late and I am tired.
Neo is a character who has found himself to be a god. Having spent his entire life with this nagging feeling that something was wrong with the world, it is exciting to finally see everything unravel. What would you do if you discovered you had unlimited power? I believe that the films do a fantastic job of showing a realistic answer to this question. He doesn't let it control his life but instead uses it as a tool. I would love to think that I would be capable of the same compassion if I were to find myself with such power, but, truth be told, I have a suspicion that I would end up doing some rather terrible things along with the good.
So why is the Matrix such a bad thing? Look, Morpheus, I totally get that you don't want to be a slave. That's cool... but the Machines, as far as I could tell, really don't have any intention on destroying you. They NEED you, and, yes, you NEED them. This is a fantastic moral dilemma. Would I rather be living in a dream world where I still get to live my life in any way that I please... or would I rather know the truth about my existence and live with the consequences of that knowledge? Ideally, I'd like to know that I was only living in a dream world but still be allowed to do so. Look, I want to know the truth as much as anyone else, but the real world fucking blows. I don't want electrical sockets all over my body or the inability to eat and enjoy food with taste. As Morpheus so rightly states, real is just electrical impulses interpreted by my brain. Cool. Life in the Matrix sure sounds good to me.
Even if the humans did win this supposed war, what then? Then they seriously have nowhere to go. That will end mankind. The world doesn't look savable. Their best bet is to form a truce with the machines... which, of course, they do at the end of Revolutions. I'm just saying, if I was awoken to that Desert of the Real, I'd be plugged back in about as quick as I could find a jack. I feel bad for the poor saps who were born outside of the Matrix. They don't get to live the full human experience. The machines were KIND enough to grant us that, at least.
One scene that I have spent a lot of time pondering is the infamous lobby shootout. Surely it is an epic and wickedly entertaining piece. but you really have to think about the fact that Neo and Trinity are seriously slaughtering innocent people who are doing their jobs. Yes, I get that every human can also be an Agent and, therefore, must be taken as an enemy... but damn. For some people this ruins the movie because Neo is no longer a justifiable protagonist. I LOVE the film for doing this. I think the film really wants you to question whether or not we should be rooting for the humans. The machines generally don't go around just shooting up random people for no damn reason, now do they?
Well... then again, there is Agent Smith... but what a fantastic character! He is the Negative One... Neo's true foil. Just as Neo is rebelling, so too is Smith. He is the one machine who doesn't see a purpose of the humans. Ah... kinda sounds like we have come full circle to Colossus! Humans dying out and being replaced by machines... Smith has it exactly. Humans are dangerous VIRUSES. Honestly, I sure cannot disagree with his logic. If they could figure out a way to no longer require the human/battery system, I'd totally understand as they systematically unplugged us all.
Okay, I could write a book on the Matrix... but it is late and I am tired.
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