Jan 03, 2009

Saturday morning was particularly interesting. Dani offered to make me breakfast but she fell asleep, so I just head over to the Quarry to hang out with Isabel, whom delivered several items that had gone missing from my collection, thanks to the interest of Elysia (Isabel's older sis). Items include GTAIV for the Xbox360, the inspiring book "Blink" by Malcom Gladwell, and the most intriguing encyclopedia of signs and ideograms "Symbols". After having a chat with Isabel's dad about taking care of his lil baby, we walked around and had breakfast at Chili's. I splurged on two appetizers of Southwest Eggrolls while she didn't have a single bite. Afterwards we walked around Borders, which is a bad idea because I always want to take the books home with me, and in order to do that I have to hand over money. While there I was looking for the much acclaimed Jefferson Bible, in there are the majestic and humanistic words of Thomas Jefferson's rendition of the Holy Bible, without all the smoke and mirrors of course. Down to the basics of morality and the evident truths.
After killing an hour or two, next door was the theater where we got a last minute ticket of Day the Earth Stood Still. A lot of other things stood still that day, like my unresolving interest in Keanu Reeves. Constantine was pretty neat, hints of Matrix dejavu. But this was just silly. Just because it's Keanu Reeves does not mean it's okay to make him act like the character Neo but just in another film dimension. The original was a classic, yet this remake had way too much in common, in particular the cheesy lines and over the top with blaring special effects and little substance to the plot, reality, and immensity of the situation.

 *PLOT SPOILER* The U.S. holds the Alien ambassador/scout prisoner while proving that we're all a bunch of idiots anyways who need to be wiped out in order to save Earth.  It was touching when he said the Earth does not belong to us and we're threatening it's survival. Though with the characters, the little boy was a real pain in the ass, his role was entirely not necessary and seemed to be included in order to show not only family values, but how they're seriously deteroated in our generation. Instead of real discipline, he's spoiled to the brink of threatening humanity's survival. In all seriousness, even for a sci-fi movie, this was a bit bland and messily put together. We're in a film era of remakes because genuity has also declined in the rapid extortion of creativity. Yet we're going to reach an era of remakes of remakes in no time, because this kind of movie-making is more for budget-making than real entertainment. (hints of The Matrix, Godzilla, X-Files, Independence Day, and other ridiculous sci-fi spoofs in a big mashup) 

To sum things up, this is why alternative and independent productions, mostly from smaller companies, are going to be showing real progress as we're transitioning into an age of the self publisher for the greater masses. Cutting out the middle men who reign control on the flow of creativity and information. That way we can get productions with higher quality and passion, in greater quantity. 

Though on a positive note, there were some ideas that could've been explored more, which goes hand in hand with my own beliefs, the fact that nothing is never lost, only transformed into something new. Reincarnation in a various sense. The film had a lot of interesting views, which follows some neo-athiest type of understandings. Existentilism in a way. Also the fact that Earth is a precious resource not only to ourselves, but for other life out there in the Universe. We're a standing beacon of survival in a galaxy of dead planets. The universe is a big big place, and this is the only world we're going to have for a long time. We definitely need to get our act together without divine intervention from aliens.