Mood's In Control


Tuesday, March 8, 2011
WALL-E


I loved this movie. It's the full range of emotion that makes it such great storytelling. The fairly small amount of actual dialogue from the robots just goes to show that with perfect cinematography such as this, dialogue isn't even very necessary.

The favorite scenes for me would be, the flight sequences, especially when Wall-E first meet Eve. She glances up to the departing spaceship and it's as if she's thinking "Okay the boss has gone, nobody's looking" and she spreads her wings and takes to the air. Beautifully done especially with Thomas Newman's musical composition. I could watch it over and over. Another is Wall-E and Eve's first proper exchange of dialogue, telling each other their names. Wall-E struggles with Eve's name "Eve-ahh". It’s absolutely charming.

What I like most about this movie is that it’s a cautionary tale about the wasteful nature of human beings. They want to show that by adopting everything that the television is selling us and through our desperation to have things faster and easier, we’ve taken all the work and thought out of life where we could somehow miss the entire world around us because we’re so focused in on ourselves and our gadgets. It does show a perception of the future what it would be like if we humans would not be cautious and would totally be dependent to technology.

It's hard to say where I'd rank it compared to the other animated movies that I like, Toy Story 1,2 and Finding Nemo. All of them are great pieces of story-telling, but I think Wall-E's simple tale of true love conquering all and saving the planet, as well as the stunningly realistic art, puts it in a class of its own. It certainly deserves to be an enduring classic.



EAGLE EYE


Eagle Eye movie is not that great for me. Since I love action thrillers, I am more particular when it comes to its story, its plot, and especially looking for its twists. It’s a loud, violent movie and your ears are bombarded to painful levels. In this case, action scenes made the movie get into life. The story to which an unknown woman with a sort of sexy voice that is omnipresent and extremely powerful that can control just about everything on the planet, traffic lights, neon signs, cell phones, train lines, TV screens, computers, and even automatic paper towel dispensers that is in a presence and existence of a supercomputer named ARIA who is making the phone calls and controlling the whole operation, with the objective being to assassinate the President and all those in the succession order is exaggerated.

A lot of reviewers are going to blame the twist, but I think the film survives it’s potentially silly twist admirably. The problem comes as the movie tries to deal with the consequences of that twist, and slowly begins to lose its way. It’s also not helped by the Eagle Eye’s ending, which suffers from a bad case of War of the Worlds syndrome.

Eagle Eye has its flaws, but you’re not going to care or notice them. It sets out to be fun, empty escapism and succeeds at it. Lastly, pay heed to the movie's warning: Technological advancements might indeed become a concern in the future, especially if they allow for greater mass production of duds like this one.


SURROGATES


This is a movie that had a lot more potential than it utilized. It certainly makes you question the nature of reality and the possibilities of advancing technology. It’s enjoyable. Surrogates did a good job of showing the difference between surrogates and humans. Surrogates were always perfect and beautiful. The actors do an incredible job of portraying being a lifelike machine controlled by a person rather than just a person. Surrogates are clearly surrogates when they are on screen, all the details of humanity tweaked just a little bit off skew.

Although technology can certainly enhance our lives and help defeat lethal diseases, I really don't believe that technology will extend our life spans beyond how long our "healthy" bodies would otherwise survive. Artificial intelligence will always improve as better algorithms are written. But that's all it really is, preprogrammed algorithms.

The movie was fun, not the best, but definitely worth seeing. The movie points out that an SUV flipping twice into an unsuspecting crowd would be reported as vandalism, not murder. In this sense, the number of murders would be drastically reduced. The character with "too many surrogates than logic would dictate" is perfectly justified within the movie.

Overall, it was a good movie if you’re the contemplative sort, or if you just enjoy action with a science fiction twist. Surrogates, for me, was probably one of the best movies in the year 2009. I highly recommend seeing it.


PIRATES OF SILICON VALLEY


“Pirates of Silicon Valley” was a film based on a historical fact regarding on Steve Jobs and how Apple got started and also about Bill Gates and how Microsoft got started. The movie then proceeds to narrate the events that led to the development of the first Apple computer. Initially, I didn’t understand the concept of the film. It was later that I found out that this was sort of a documentary that’s why I forgive the rawness and the lack of effects. I can’t criticize the cinematography or the musical score because the movie was shown in 1999 and you can’t expect much when you’re trying to create a motion picture about a timeline that’s 3 decades earlier. There aren’t that many special effects needed because it is what it is, black and white. It’s an informative way of telling the story of the time when the big giants (Microsoft and Apple) started out small in their respective careers. Also, the movie is about hard work, and not to let money and power go to your head. Bill Gates worked hard and Steve Jobs worked hard. But when Apple became something, Steve Jobs let it go to his head. Eventually he was fired before he learned his lesson.

I was wondering at first why the title became as it is. At first I thought it’s only because it is about piracy in the computer world and Silicon Valley is a place in California where computers are built. Then I realized that the characters have an innocent way of displaying themselves but are actually deceptive and sneaky in most parts; all because of wanting to get that bigger piece of the computer pie. Hence, they became “pirates” in their own rights.

The movie was entertaining because of the humor and the insight of the revolution of the internet and computers. The movie “Pirates of Silicon Valley” was a very inspiring, forgiving, and a full of competitive views in terms of running a business. The characters (Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) in the movie are kind of people which can be able to admire and challenge anybody. In addition, the movie brought out the great minds of these great men behind the Apple Company and Microsoft Company which stimulated them to reach not just the threshold of their dreams but the climax of their success.


I, ROBOT


I, Robot is a smart, and a good action movie. I loved this action-comedy movie not only that it was starred by one of my favorite actors in Hollywood, Will Smith, but it really is a must see movie. Thinking that it was released in year 2004, imagining things about what the creation of robots can give, produce, and their benefits to us with high technological advancements and aspects applied is just amazing.

It's man against the machines. I, Robot is an intriguing movie that is a thinking person's action picture. Although it has plenty of humor, it expects to be taken quite seriously. It starts as a murder mystery and quickly blossoms from there into a movie with a lot on its mind. In addition to action and comedy, the film also explores some interesting ideas about robots and consciousness. It also explores the troubling idea that we can never be totally safe from our own mechanical creations.

This movie is entertaining, thanks mainly to a fine performance by Smith and solid supporting performances. Good character development and the great on-screen chemistry between Smith and Bridget Moynahan also give this movie a big boost. The film looks great, with excellent production design. The special effects are also excellent, with lots of gleaming robots created by teams led by visual effects supervisor John Andrew Berton Jr. and digital effects supervisor, Tyler Foell. Despite the abundance of blue screen effects, the live action and animation are well-integrated.

I, Robot may not break much new ground, but it's engaging enough in what it does to keep the viewer interested. Best of all, this is a story that's actually about something – the soul, free will, revolution. Very cool.


Posted by ♪_TARIZTA_♪ at 3:33 AM |

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