Favorite Movie of the Week

The BFG

On the implementation layer, It's a beautiful movie complete with live actors acting and advanced CGI.

At its core, the BFG is about the author, Roald Dahl, himself and how he brings fantastic tales to the budding minds of lonely children.

4/5

It's not a surprising movie, but a classic nevertheless.

Mooovie Review: WILD TALES

6 separate tales. 1 common way of living. A hilariously, crazy, wonderfully subversive movie.

Spoilers Below!

Revenge is a big part of the fun, but it goes deeper. There are local social issues at play too - loan sharks, classy jerks, predatory parking tickets, corruption, injustice, adulterers.

Before watching, I thought psychopaths and sociopaths had no real role in the human world. Why is at least 1% of the population psychopathic? Why haven't they been evolved entirely out of the gene pool?

Now I know part of the answer. Psychopaths take things to what they think should be the conclusion, irrespective of what anyone thinks about them. They have no empathy, sympathy, care for the side effects. They are entirely true to their intentions. They don't care what you think ,they just do it. And they will stick to it until the awesome...or bloody end. Psychopaths are evil, but they may also be the most honest.

There is another word for this, made popular by startups - FAIL FAST. Failure is ok and necessary, but logically, we would succeed faster if we don't waste time on failure. With the minimum of drama and waste, things should be taken to their natural conclusion. Speed up life, so you can live more.

ALL in ALL...

Never betray your principles and you will reach your fate before you know it. If you think it's a good fate, go for it. If you think it's bad, well, don't follow it just yet, examine yourself and change accordingly.

Now go watch Wild Tales in a real cinema and watch 6 crazy life-stories condensed into 2 hours!

To be continued...

Lucy: A Movie Review

A way overdue movie review for a movie most people probably aren't going to watch/rewatch now.

Lucy... the New Woman.

Directed by Luc Besson, this movie is reminiscent of the Fifth Element, the Professional and other action movies. There is more than enough action to go around, but there is more than meets the eye...

Plot Summary

Credits. A cell becomes 2 cells, then 4 cells, then 8 cells, doubling.

We open with an ape/chimp/monkey drinking from a river. A montage ensues taking us through the passage of time, of human progress from prehistoric to civilization to horse-drawn to modern Taipei.

A young woman, Lucy, is persuaded to be a drug mule. She gets the drugs inserted into her abdomen before being sent to another country. Unfortunately, she is intercepted by a rival gang, where she gets beaten up. The package in her abdomen rips open, and she begins to become superhuman. Overcoming her captors with extreme ease, she proceeds to take revenge on the drug gangs, informing the authorities of the situation.

While things cool down, she goes to contact a certain top expert (Morgan Freeman) in this field. She tells him she has "read all his research" and wants to know what is going to happen to her. He does not know. She tells him she knows that the drug CPH4 is slowly killing her.

So, she goes back to exacting revenge on the gangs, but this time, with the goal of retrieving all the other drugs. She finds that she needs it to survive.

Eventually, she meets the Expert, who has brought his fellow top-expert friends along (they look like bewildered dorks). They analyze the drug, while a firefight ensues outside, between the authorities and the gang who want their drugs back.

Eventually, the gang breaks through, after employing an anti-tank missile. The gang boss hangs there, his pistol aimed at Lucy. I can't think why he would do such a thing, but it seems to be important to the plot.

A time travel sequence brings Lucy backwards and forwards in space and time, as she appears to gain the ability to effortlessly manipulate space and time. Eventually, she returns to the room only to become this black goo that eats all the equipment in the room

The movie ends with the villains dead and a shiny, space-black flashdrive being created.

Analysis

Here are some truly significant excerpts I thought everyone who did/didn't watch the movie should know.

When cells grow in a hostile environment, they will choose immortality.
When cells grow in a friendly environment, they reproduce.

The Myth of 10% Brain usage

Are we really using 10% of the brain's neurons? No, that's just an urban myth. I'm thinking 10% potential sounds about right - my brain could be doing wildly awesome things, but only after the training and learning required to even comprehend such knowledge bases.

"One factor to rule them all" CPH4. For some, a growth hormone. For others, certain death from overdose.

The Role of Force

While most of the action (shooting and car-chases) are pretty much for entertainment, much of the brutality is there to shock. By that, I mean the hiding of drugs in the abdomen via surgery.

The Obsolete of the State

Before being tipped off by Lucy, drug enforcement officials are sitting around and basically ineffective. Their security measures are pretty useless too.

If you think about it, the only reason why drugs must be smuggled via such extreme means is because the drugs are illegal. Understanding this, Lucy was as much a victim of the State, as she was of the mafia-like drug gang.

Men are Useless

Yes, that's right. Feminism is everywhere. Every man are absolutely and totally useless. The cops, all men, are only good for killing the criminals, who are also, all men. The "top scientists" of all fields are men, but all are incompetent jaw-droppers in the face of almighty Lucy. Lucy's sidekicks all want her sexually, but Lucy is like this asexual organism.

If women were given the treatment the men are given, the movie would never be made. When men are treated this way, most men have no problems with it.

2001:A Space Odyssey

Honestly, I can never cease to be amazed at how many tributes to 2001:A Space Odyssey are in remotely sci-fi, philosophical movies. Lucy is uncannily similar to 2001 in plot and visual metaphor.

The Matrix

Anonymous agents perfectly dressed in black suits? Uploading yourself into any screen or electronic device? Downloading skills and information at will? The bending of reality?

The violent, deceptive Win-Lose world. The Win-Win world evolves out of the Win-Lose cut-throat world. Technology grows out of it. That's the story of the human race, for now. What is done with the technology determines whether we boom or bust.

Integration. 

The Singularity, achievable by recognizing fully human potential. It is not machines who will cause the Singularity, but human beings aided by machines.

The meaning of life

In a voice over at the beginning of the film we hear "Life was given to us a billion years ago. What have we done with it?" At the film's conclusion another voice over tells us "Life was given to us a billion years ago. Now you know what you can do with it." 

At the end of her lifespan, she turns all her knowledge into a USB flashdrive and hands it to the scientists to help the world. The movie argues that the meaning of life is to realize you are part of a bigger whole, and so serving the world is the meaning of your life, and everybody's.

Internet of EVERYTHING

Download any skill, all of every kind of science. Hardwork all nonsense now. Beat the experts of different fields within a few seconds, by somehow reading everything they ever published. Isn't that a modern, info-age notion of Enlightenment, as being able to process data and make decisions quickly.

Cell Mitosis, Cell Integration. Monoliths.

Cells separate, and specialize as a human being grows. Eventually though, the film makes the argument that self-actualization is achieved by becoming whole again.

Deux Ex Machina. You know exactly what's going to happen the moment she starts evolving...10%...20%...30%...40%... so on ... 100%. You know no bullet can touch her.

Digital Immortality, if you so choose to accept it.

In the end, Lucy becomes this organic supercomputer that proceeds to consume all the other computers in the room, before creating a USB flashdrive to store all that she had learnt. She then ceases to be a physical form, turning the screens to "I am everywhere". 

Which reminds me of... the starchild at the end of 2001.

Transcending physical existence is one of those things that only movies and art can do. The movie makers have full control of the "reality" on screen, its space and time... and even your mind. You may not be conscious of all the details, but your unconscious is affected... all the time. As the name "unconscious" goes, you are

Think it Through Critically, or Be Subconsciously Programmed...

Gravity: A Space Odyssey?

While watching the movie, I became rather curious as to why there seemed to be no telling of Ryan's story. But then I realized it's all there.

The main character buries herself in her work (18 hour shifts), which puts them in greater immediate danger, but ultimately saves them from being shredded in the false safety of the space shuttle. I saw this to mean that while overwork is better than false comfort and can help someone move on in the short term, you can't do it forever because doing it any longer would kill not only you, but also everybody who cares about you.

Her fellow astronaut helps save her from the carnage, but is swept away. Even here, we see how she must save herself by unhooking from her work (symbolized by the satellite repairs).

Surviving the initial storm, she realizes it has taken a toll on her oxygen - the problem is killing her slowly. AND she's spinning. Which, (wait for it...) could be a metaphor for how people with psychological issues tumble in endless loops forever until they get help.

Thankfully, her man returns from the carnage. He has the stupidest idea of trying to retrieve the other dead astronaut (which definitely freaked out at least one of the audience, besides me) while she is running out of air. That looked like one unlucky headshot - "such a stupid way to die".

However, she is slowing them both down. The space tow scene could symbolize how her past baggage made it difficult for them both to move on.

Once outside the international space station, they must grab onto the station, because they used up all their fuel on the way there. Here, as they tumble out of control, she gets caught in the parachute cords. A possible symbolism here would be her joining the space program. It saves her from flying off into the emotional void, but it also looks like they broke up. Plus, he's out of gas.

We don't know explicitly what happens to her man. For all we know, he could have lived for a while and chose not to respond. What matters is he's gone now. The porthole shot reminds me of those old movies where a woman stares longingly into the distance.

In the space station, we see how she gets along. The fetal position shot signifies her psychological and technical development. She does some stupid things, like flying through the burning chamber into the wall with the fire extinguisher...and knocking herself out. (that was fun, we all LOLed. Also, the interior reminds me of Halo)

Wait, fire going out of control...sealing the bulkheads...knocking herself out trying to suppress the inferno? Could that be symbolic of her internal struggle? Or simultaneously, her burning desire to leave the training and actually go to space?

People have a tendency to compartmentalize the trauma they can't deal with. It's the natural way to move on and keep going.

So, she tries to escape on the soyuz pod. She gets it out, only to have it bungie right into the exploding space station. (sorry, woman driver jokes came to mind.) It is as if her lifeline is now preventing her from moving forwards.

Lucky for her, the debris field returns and she is now free, in space. The destruction of the ISS and the cutting of the lifeline could be symbolic of cutting the umbilical cord and literally blasting off.

It's exciting for a while, but now that she is freely floating in space, she must find the meaning of her existence. Find the reason to turn the air back on. Find the will to survive and get back to earth.

She attempts to contact others for help. But all she gets is trivia. Nobody understands. It's like something out of Lost in Translation, a kind of empty nihilism - and in space too.

And of course, there are her childhood problems associated with her dad expecting a son. Parental expectations can ruin childhoods. "There is no greater pain, than to remember happy times in misery." The inner child was left alone, wondering as she was forced to grow up. To me, the howling was the innocent child attempting to reconnect with the rest of her, just as dogs howl to signify their location.  

The howling scene probably ranks as one of the hardest scenes I've watched. At first, it was like - a grown woman pretending to be a dog! - how could that not be funny? But then, it started becoming sad. That was some brilliant emoting there.

But time is running out.

The answer comes in the form of a hypoxia-induced hallucination - "Landing is Lift-Off". In psychological terms, that means to resolve a past issue is to move forwards. And to resolve issues, one must first be grounded in reality and recognize its nature. Only then can one move on. (though I'm pretty sure for a second, we all wanted Clooney back! the audience almost get what they wanted.)

Cut to the capsule blasting itself free. That was really cool and realistic. She is now ready to face life and reality all over again. But to get to her new life, she must be prepared to enjoy the ride... in the burning TianJong space-station.

Back on Earth, she dumps the life-support, symbolized by the spacesuit, that allowed her to cope with the past. Then she breaks the surface into fresh air and swims out to shore and renewed life.

---

I walked out of the movie thinking it was actually slightly hostile towards space development. Now that I realize it could be a metaphor, I realize it is not space that is the problem, but escapism from one's past. 

A word about 2001: A Space Odyssey. What 2001 expresses philosophically for the history and future of mankind, Gravity does for the individual. The two films are complementary and though both are set in space, they are on different orbits. But they do intersect.

More on this later.

Writing this review has allowed me to see the movie through new eyes. I'm sure many more interpretations will surface as more people recall the movie.

I hope you have too.