More Thoughts on 24

This seems to be a trend in my articles lately (this one here, and this one over at my new co-authored site, Dream Reviews), but I guess it’s on my mind. Well, that, and I’m watching a lot of it. Which brings me to the focus of this article. Although I have been keeping up with the current season, I have also been slowly working my way through the first season of the show. I’ve been a huge fan of the show for about 7 years now, although those of you who are aware of it will notice that the show has been on for around 8 years (because of the writer=strike-induced hiatus). I started watching the first season, but both VCR glitches and other uses for my time intervened, and so I never finished it.

So, now that it’s being slowly cycled through on Hulu, I have a prime opportunity to catch up. And man is it different. First of all, everything is yellow. This I remember very well from when I watched it the first time. For some reason, all of the outside shots, and indeed anything with vaguely natural light, is very tinted. I’m nor sure if this was a conscious choice (like the color masks in Traffic, which I haven’t seen), or whether they just weren’t used to filming yet. I’m tending towards the second option. There’s a few more bits of evidence that point to that.

My reaction to the aforementioned evidence is really skirting the boundary between “Argh that’s so distracting!” and “Aw, that’s so cute. They’re new at this.” At least twice (I think maybe three times?) in the first season of the show, there has been a very obvious camera or cameraman in the shot. Now, a few things about this. First, I have never seen this in any other season, so I think they learned how to deal very quickly. Secondly, one could think of this as poor filming technique, poor editing, and so on, but think about what they’re doing. When this happens, it’s when they’re setting up one of the really cool shots of multiple angles on the same event simultaneously. This isn’t something they could just edit out without making everything more boring, and I think it is surprising that this doesn’t happen more. Yes, maybe you never see cameramen in other shows, but I don’t think they’re setting up the same kinds of shots. And you do see a boom every now and then. But there have been a few times when, in my mind (or out loud), I’ve said “Look out Nina!! Someone’s sneaking up behind y-… Oh. That’s just a cameraman. Never mind!” or “AAAH what’s that crazy machine?! Ah, a camera.”

Now, about the characters. Firstly, it’s really weird seeing this season and knowing how it turned out. I know the twists, but not when they happen. And so it’s almost like watching The Sixth Sense for the second time (or the first time if the surprise is ruined by stupid Time magazine…), except that there are really no clues. I think they probably figured things out as they went along, so I’m not sure if the characters who turn out to be evil even know they’re evil at this point in the season.

Jack. Jack is a person! It’s crazy. He’s driven, yes, but he loves and cares for his family, and is almost kind at points. I really hadn’t noticed that he had hardened through the series, but the events (that haven’t happened yet) of the first season did in fact change him. I sort of thought (because he was roughly the same for all 6 seasons I’ve seen all of) that he was always like that, but it’s cool to see him as not only a tool of the (neo-cons and) government. Also, Kim Bauer isn’t as annoying as she is later in the series. Still annoying, but not as much.

It’s cool to be seeing the very latest and the very oldest episodes of a series roughly at the same time. I kind of want to do this with more shows. But first, I want to get through the ones I’m watching at the moment. And believe me, there are a lot of them.

As a parting gift, I point you towards the Jack Bauer Torture Report, a really entertaining live blog of each of the episodes.

Review: The Age of Stupid (RATING: 5/10)

I wish I could say I liked this movie. I really wish. It heralded itself as the new Inconvenient Truth, shepherding in a new generation of caring environmentalists. I heard that it was bringing those concerns to a wider audience by fictionalizing the narrative, rather than the fact after fact that Mr. Gore gave us. And that part, at least, was true.

A little background. The Age of Stupid is a movie that was primarily crowd funded (and this shows at points), with a main character played by Pete Postlethwaite looking back at the recent history of the earth from 2055. The climate has been destroyed, and so has the human race. He is an archivist who is trying to figure out why we didn’t save ourselves when we had the chance. Although it is fictional, it primarily follows, as a documentary, five stories from real life—an oil scientist from New Orleans, a doctor-to-be in Nigeria, an old mountain guide in Switzerland, a cheap flight start-up in India, and a wind farm planner in Britain. (I think I didn’t forget any.) These people, as you can probably tell, at least for most of them, directly affect or are affected by climate change. And so this movie shows the true effects of climate change, and what is causing that change. It intersperses this with some fairly obnoxious animations about consumerism, the future, etc., etc. It succeeds pretty well at telling these stories in a moving fashion, and, if it weren’t preaching to the converted (myself included), which is one of the largest criticisms of the movie, would incite people to act.

And that’s where this movie fails. However great it is at gaining attention, gaining funding, showing the world as it is, it does not tell us what to do. There’s a brief mention that everyone can do their part to help, but not once—or at least not once in a clearly set out way—does it suggest a course of action. And that’s what this kind of movie needs to do. Whatever it shows, it needs to tell the world how they can help. Whether they have just accepted climate change as a product of man (through this movie or otherwise) or if they’ve been a strong proponent of change from Day 1, for something like this to be useful it has to give people something to do. And this doesn’t. For the few stories that are about champions of climate change, it shows what they do, but clearly not everyone can put up windfarms. There’s a general hint towards demonstration, activism, to show the government that we care, but it’s not clear. And it has to be clear for it to do any good.

I went to the premiere of this movie. I didn’t see it then, but I saw the stars. And so today, a week after, I went to its test opening weekend, the one that decides the real distribution of the film. There were about 15 people in the theatre of 300. And I wish I could do a better job of promoting this film. I wish I could help it out by saying “Go see this movie now!” But, honestly, I can’t. If you want to see a movie about climate change that will move you, both emotionally and to action, then see An Inconvenient Truth. It didn’t win an Oscar for no reason. Or maybe The 11th Hour (which I haven’t seen.) Leave this one alone. Keep thinking about its impact, its goals, but in this case, the means are not worth the end (if you’re “the converted,” going for the end already).

So as a final thought, I’ll plug its website, its movement. Make sure the Copenhagen conference is useful (and listen to a fun little speech by the President of the Maldives). Notstupid.org (It truly launches April 1st, but you can sign up now.)And you don’t have to see the film.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

Why is the iTunes version of the series finale of Battlestar Galactica only half of it!!!! WHERE IS THE SECOND HALF!!!!! I’ll pay more, I just want to see it!!!!

Another Great Email

Well, maybe it’s not actually the email that’s entertaining. But just look at the “targeted” ads on the side. I see one that has to do with Twitter. What about the others? Gmail is hopelessly confused about the subject matter of this email, it seems.

Once again, click for (real) full-size.

(I don’t actually know the person who followed me on Twitter, but I think s/he still has the right to privacy, hence the censorship.I swear it doesn’t have anything to do with hemorrhoids or any other medical condition.)

Another Good Spam

I believe I was just rickrolled. By spam. This almost makes me want to buy whatever it is:

That picture is really small. When they say insert full-size, apparently they’re lying. If you can’t read it, just click on it and you’ll get the (real) full-size version.

For those of you who don’t know, I’m pretty sure this is a reference to the weird internet meme that went around a while ago—and is still going, kinda—of Rickrolling (there’s a post of mine on it here). I thought you might enjoy.

Another Heads Up

I know, I know, I’m due for another roundup. Long overdue, even. I have a bunch of links, they’re just all over the place because I switched from Firefox to Safari. I’ll try to get it out in the next couple days. Should be some interesting stuff in there. I hope, anyway.
In the meantime, read my review below!

Review: THX 1138 (RATING 5/10)

Let me preface this by saying that only its reputation allowed me to give this film a higher rating than Next. [EDIT: After actually finishing this review, I have decided to take away that extra point.] I watched them one day after the other, both on Netflix Instant Viewing (which is, by the way, amazing), and had roughly the same opinion of each’s quality. Which I feel are not the opinions I should have.

I think George Lucas has some problems that he has to deal with, in terms of his filmmaking. The first, which is as relevant to THX 1138 as it is to the original Star Wars is, well, STOP CHANGING THINGS ONCE YOU’VE MADE THEM!!! NO ONE CARES WHETHER THE GRAPHICS ARE QUITE AS REALISTIC AS THEY COULD BE. NO CGI IN MOVIES MADE IN THE 70S! SERIOUSLY! I didn’t realise when I started watching this that it had been George Lucasized. That is to say, when it was rereleased, he changed it both (I assume) content-wise (which is acceptable, in terms of editing scenes, adding in new ones, etc—as long as you make the original still available) but also by taking out what I presume were fairly low-budget special effects, and replacing them with CGI. Which really stands out, and does NOT help the movie in any way, shape or form. It even distracts from it, because you look at the new effects, realise that they’re new, and start thinking about that rather than what is going on in the story.

What is going on in the story. Ah, yes. Well, there, George, you have your second problem. You managed to surpass it with Star Wars, but ultimately you failed with this (a growth curve, perhaps, since this was made in your earlier days). And yes, this is apparently now an open letter to George Lucas. You are really good at creating worlds. You think of lots of cool things, and you make them fit together really nicely, and they seem like they have backstory. But then, when it comes to writing, you know, plots, those little tiny insignificant parts of films, you break down. Let’s see… Well, everyone is surpressed by drugs in this society. So let’s have… ummm… a romance! Yes, that’s it! A romance! Where they don’t take drugs and realise their feelings for each other! And then, well, let’s have them get caught! Haha! That will show the Man! And then… uh… I guess they’ll escape? But no, let’s just forget about the woman and focus on the man. Where did she go? Well, I guess she must have… died. Somewhere. And let’s have him escape with a crazy guy! Who is annoying and then goes somewhere else, while the man escapes into the wild. Which will surely kill him. But we don’t have to think about that part, because the movie will end right when he gets out. And done.

Because really, nothing happens in this movie. I mean, things happen, but not within people. Movies are, for the most part, supposed to be about character development. But not once in this movie do we ever get a sense of why someone is doing what they’re doing. Maybe with the crazy guy. But he’s crazy, so he doesn’t count. Neither of the main characters (one of whom, as I mentioned, disappears about 1/3 of the way into the movie) ever gives reasoning, and we never get a sense of how they actually feel. For a movie that’s about people rebelling against the non-feeling mainstream (because they all take sedatives, other pills), they don’t really feel at all. Or, rather, they feel for no reason, which again is not really a good rebellion. They just suddenyl have emotions, that aren’t necessarily related to things around them, or anything at all.

I had been looking forward to seeing this movie for a long time now. I felt that it was part of my cinematic education. But, just like, say, a bad math class, it was a part of my education that I should have enjoyed, but didn’t. It is, though, supposedly one of the films you should see. So, don’t take my word for it, see it yourself! (Thank you, Levar Burton.)

Musicals You Should Listen To

I’m a reasonable fan of musical theatre. I’m a bigger fan of weird musical theatre. I could honestly care less about big shows like Rent, Chicago, and so on. I’m much more entertained by, say, Zombie Prom, or Evil Dead the Musical; tongue in cheek revues that really have no connection to the mainstream. Or, a connection that is so odd that it’s just perfect. It’s two of these last category that I’m about to share with you, and, what’s more, they’re free online, so you have no reason NOT to listen.

24: The Musical—This is basically amazing. By the same people who apparently wrote a musical version of The Silence of the Lambs, it’s a musical of the second season of 24. I mean, honestly, there’s not much I can say about this that wouldn’t be better experienced by listening to it. It also has a somewhat specific base of experience, it’s going to be much funnier if you’ve seen 24 at all, and even more the second season. The one track not to miss is “I Will Torture You,” which includes such choice lines as “I will yell at you in my angry voice [if you've seen 24 you know exactly what this means].” Similarly, “Three Countries in the Middle East” (which also makes fun of the very unspecific threats consistent in 24) contains a reprise of the following: “Bauer: I will torture them! David Palmer [president]: Please don’t torture them! Bauer: Let me torture them!” Occasionally melodies are based on the relatively stupid incidental music by Sean Callery, which makes his music much better. There’s also one moment where the best phone ring ever is used melodically, somehow.

Star Wars: The Musical—This is good in a slightly different way. Some of this music is unbearable, in my opinion, but it’s still an entertaining concept. But what makes this one especially interesting is that one song is, well, actually, really good. The special edition version of “One Season More” is produced and written incredibly well. I’m impressed.

Anyway, I just thought I should share.

Review: Next (RATING: 5/10)

“Here’s the thing about the future. Every time you look at it, it changes, because you looked at it, and that changes everything else.” —The divine sage that is Nicholas Cage

I’ve found out that this is true, from personal experience. Every time I looked at my own future, sitting down to write this review, I thought more about the movie. And that changed what I was going to write in my review. And that changed… Well, everything else stayed basically the same. But yes. Had I written this review the day I saw this, without thinking too much, I would have given it 7/10. And then, yesterday, after I thought about it some more, the rating was going to be 6/10. And now, after too much thought, it’s settled at a nice round 5/10.

This movie was stupid. And it’s rare that I say that. Well, not exactly. It’s rare that I say that as an insult. I tend to like schlocky action movies with some kind of gimmick (such as Underworld, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen… because it’s terrible), and in fact that’s the reason I saw this in the first place. But come on, the gimmick is that Nic Cage can see two minutes, no more, into his own future, no one else’s, and saves the world.

Kinda. You do have to give the director points for trying. He doesn’t actually save the world; there’s a huge nuclear explosion at the end and everybody dies. Again, kinda. Roughly a third of this movie doesn’t actually happen. It turns out that Cagey can see further into the future as long as it has something to do with Jessica Biel. I mean, Liz Cooper. Now, I would go out of my way to see Jessica Biel, too (in fact it’s pretty much the only reason I saw Blade III), but it doesn’t seem to give me any special powers.

So basically, he’s recruited against his will to help the FBI find a nuclear bomb before it explodes (because for some reason they think that two minutes would be enough to stop it? That’s never really explained). Biel gets kidnapped, and one thing leads to another, they save her, and stop the terrorists, but the bomb goes off still. And then we discover this was just him seeing the future from an earlier point in the movie (see, it was more than two minutes because Biel was involved! CRAZY!), and the movie really ends with him going peacefully with the FBI to presumably fail again at finding the bomb.

Plotwise, this is entertaining. But, as I said, the more I thought about it, the more I disliked it. For example, one of the key twists of the movie is that Cage sees Biel explode on the roof of a parking lot (because the terrorists rigged her with explosives) and rushes out to that lot. This of course hadn’t happened yet. Mulder—I mean Julianne Moore—races after him, and catches up with him. She tells him—you know they only were going to do that so that you would be lured out onto this roof so they could kill you. As long as you’re not paying attention, this is fine. But then I noticed. The terrorists did something in the future so that they could kill Nick Cage. But, they haven’t done it. And if they only did it to lure him out, then they had no real intention to do it. Which would mean that they didn’t. So, that’s a paradox in its own right. But, more importantly, no one except Cage himself knows that he can see more than two minutes into the future when the chick is involved. So… it just doesn’t work.

The other part I had a problem with was the (admittedly cool) concept and effects of him dodging bullets, punches, falling cop cars, etc, because he knew where they were going to be. But just seeing into the future wouldn’t be enough for this. He would still need lightning-fast reflexes. Granted, he is a stage magician, so maybe sleight-of-body is involved somehow. He dodges roughly 12 bullets fired in short succession at a distance of about 10 feet in a big confrontation, with an effect showing all the possible futures of him dying, and so he takes the one path that keeps him alive. Not possible. Even within the confines of the movie. There is also a scene of him splitting into many different versions of himself to check all the decks of a ship. Again, cool, but in theory before every split he would have to consciously decide to go a different way, and not just do it to check a place, but really choose. In order to change the future. I have doubts about this.

Although the movie was bad, I did think about the following: it would be an awesome way to pick up women—or really do anything. Kind of like a mini version of Groundhog Day. Keep doing things until you do it right.

Never see this movie. It’s rare that I close a review with that, but really, don’t. It was entertaining while I watched it, but every time I think about it, it gets worse in my memory. To me now, this was not worth the two hours it took out of my life. So let’s change that quote from the beginning of the review:

“Here is the thing about the past. Every time you look at it, it changes, because you looked at it, and that changes everything else.”

Updates to the Blog

The email address knightstrikeblog@gmail.com is up and running again. Google had decided that I had violated their terms of service… I discussed this with them, and everything is back to normal. So, if you have any suggestions or comments about the blog in general (not just a particular article) feel free to send them there.

Secondly, the Works In Progress section of the site has once again been added to; there is now a page listing ideas for articles I plan to work on in the near future. This is all in hopes of being more transparent, just like the Obama adminsitration and Facebook. Also, to get readers a little more involved. Suggest things! Critique stuff! It’s part of the fun!