Matt’s Blog

After much anticipation on my part, I’ve finally gotten to see the first few episodes of Stargate Atlantis. I have to wait of the dvd’s since I’m unwilling to fork out outrageous amounts of money just so I can watch one channel (sci-fi of course). I’ve been slightly dissapointed with some of the story so far, but frankly, with sci-fi (at least on television) you have to learn to like what you get, since there isn’t much of it.

On another note, I’m constantly amazed at how stupid computers are. For all our lauding of their amazing capabilities, it’s still a nightmare when congress decides to make such a simple change as moving daylight saving(s?) time. If it saves energy, I’m all for it, I just hope they leave it there.

The Sea Inside is a film that not only is extremely well directed, but brings up important ethical questions about euthanasia.  I find myself torn with the final verdict of the film.  Our medical advances allow us to stave off death for so long, it seems almost that we’ve outgrown ourselves, and find difficult decisions that we don’t know how to answer.  Of course, growing as a society demands that we make such decisions in the best way we can.  This is definitely one decision that we haven’t made yet.  There may be laws in place in many countries, but how well they serve society is difficult to measure, since cases are few and far between.

The debate over euthanasia brings is interesting because it brings under question what we consider to be an individual.  In a society so centered around individual rights, I’m surprised that we are so against it.

Does an individual truly have the right to his own life?  What of the community that helped create that person, what of those left behind?  Yet most of us will never experience a life such as Ramon’s, thus we lack necessary perspectives to make wise decisions.  It’s a difficult decision that we may not find an answer for.  We cling to life so dearly, when some don’t want it.  We fight to stave off death, indeed the prospect of death can be a terrible burden for a conciousness.  To cease to exist is unfathomable.

I’ve often considered what I would do if I lost the use of my body.  Would I wish for the same fate as Ramon? or more like the priest, think of life as more than just running and jumping.  Evololution didn’t really provide us with the tools to make that kind of decision.  An individual is nothing under the great machine of natural selection, indeed death is the very gears in the mechanism.  There are some decisions that we may not be able to make, and how we deal with those will be very telling of our society.

I just saw this movie tonight with some friends.  It’s a powerful film about a man who, though dedicated and hard working, finds himself in a difficult position having to crawl his way back out.  It’s that kind of film which plays the emotional card so hard, that you just feel like a heel during the movie for being happy at all, while there could be people existing in the world like this.

In all reality, he’s probably better off than the rest of us.  Having faced his hardship and overcome, he’ll probably never dread sitting at the desk day in and day out.  I guess he probably doesn’t have to sit at a desk anymore, but the rest of us will.  Thus I decide not to feel pity for the man, which he probably doesn’t want anyway, he certainly had the drive to overcome his difficulties, I feel pity for the man who doesn’t have that drive.  For those who are content to lay by the side and drift.  I wish there was a place for those people, but America is so fast paced, they are often left by the wayside.

It’s definitely a movie worth seeing, and while it’s most certainly over-dramatized, I imagine living through some of those scenes is a far cry from simply watching them on screen.

I’ve often been caught saying that Hollywood was definitely lacking in creativity.  I had to eat my words after seeing “Stranger Than Fiction.”  Despite it being a Will Ferrell movie, it was very entertaining.  The idea is fresh and original and the movie is well made.  The style of directing was original and creative.  Best of all, it wasn’t too long, coming in at just under 2 hours.

Aside from the ill-conceived attempt at comic relief in the middle of the film (though it does play an important part of the story), Sideways is a great film. I think I liked it most for it’s quality of reality. There’s a scene when the two friends are on their way to a restaraunt on foot. In a typical Hollywood cellulite job, they’d be walking along a brick path, surrounded by impressive decorating and so called “beautiful people.” But in Sideways, they’re on the side of a busy highway, in front of a car dealership, like two normal people. That’s what makes it great, the characters are real, they have flaws and the movie explores them. Just as it should be.

I didn’t think I’d ever see this movie, since the preview looked like an over-bearing action film with little plot or reason for existence. Luckily, some friends of mine had seen it before and liked it. Honestly, “V for Vendetta” was much more than I thought it would be. The dialogue was excellent, and there were some well thought out references to pay homage to the films arguable predecessor, 1984 by Goerge Orwell. I really liked it, and I really want to see it again. It just captured human spirit so well, and portrayed the fact that it’s not enough just to live, that you have to live conciously, even if that costs you other well valued aspects of life.

Football fans in Britain take fandom to extremes by forming “firms”, which is really just a nice word for a gang, and take the game to the streets. It’s an interesting movie, and one that exposes viewers to worlds previously not known. I really liked the film, mostly for the acting, less so for the content. If the story bears any resemblance to society, then it’s a sad one indeed, where humans expend their energy in useless brawls, making everyone think they are doing great things by “standing their ground.” Luckily the main character came away with the true moral, which is that there is a time to stand your ground, and a time to fight another day. A movie to make you think though, and there aren’t many more of those these days.

I just watched an old sci fi movie with Gary Sinise. It’s about a futuristic war between humans and centauri in which the enemy sends replicants to infiltrate Earth. These replicants are made indistinguishable from humans using advanced nano-technology. It’s a theme repeated in the new Battlestar Galactica, and one that I find very interesting. In the movie, (spoiler coming up, highlight to read) the replicants don’t succeed completely in their mission, but one of them does manage to detonate the bomb each one carries inside the rib cage.

I find it an interesting idea because it truly is the one tactic I don’t believe we’d be capable of combating. Humans are too dependent on one another, our relationships with each other are too important to allow us an unbiased decision were such an attack possible. I think even if we had the ability to screen replicants from genuine humans, we would probably still lose because of our emotions. It will be interesting to see how Battlestar Galactica plays it out.

Just saw A Scanner Darkly tonight with a friend.  It’s not really the kind of show that’s meant to be enjoyed.  It’s more of a story than a commentary.  At the end, there’s a list of dedications from the author to friends who lost battles with drugs.  While it’s a bleaker view of the future world than I’d care to forecast, I’d say we’re already there in many respects.  And not just necessarily with drugs.  Media has become such a narcotic in our lives, it’s just as addictive as chemicals in many ways.  And it definitely changes our perception of reality, but in a different, more dangerous way than drugs.  Chemicals alter our brains, while media alters our minds.

My lastest Netflix arrival is the City of Lost Children. I’ve been running down the line of Jeanne Pierre Jeunet’s films because I find them refreshing in their different style. The films coming out of Hollywood have been very cookie cutter lately. I liked the film, though it was much more bizarre than I expected it to be. My favorite part of the show was One, he was a great character, reminds me of another favorite character of mine from The Wheel of Time, Loial. Both are big, slightly dumb, but fiercely loyal to their friends. A little like a human pet. Nevertheless, I wasn’t dissapointed and found the movie to be very different in style, but a little on the long side, probably not one of my favorite Jeunet films.