Oh My God, What a stupid movie. I mean I have seen comical movies that are meant to be stupid in order to get in some laughs from the viewers. But this was just beyond stupid, I'm just glad that this movie wasn't very long, I don't think I could handle it. What I think the movie went wrong was that they were trying to hard to be funny, which made it boring (for me) and not funny. I like the idea of the story, of having these two people that were meant to sleep for a year and prove that people can be frozen. Then having them trying to find a way back home. If someone told me that story, without seeing any visuals of what the films version, I would say that it could be a good movie with some interesting visuals. But after watching this movie, I went and watched other movies to make me forget about this movie (I watched Narnia The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and Dark Knight, both good movies with great story and characters. The way movies are meant to be). Looking back at this movie, it has a similar comedy level as the Dodgeball movie, I bet it was made by the same people.
I think this movie should be under the horror section, the fear of that future being true, that we are all going to be idiots. Maybe in the films own way it's trying to tell us that "If you don't want to end up like these fools, read books and go to school."
Monday, April 18, 2011
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
This was a fun audio book/radio show podcast I have listen to. each episode was very entertaining and funny, that at times I forgot about it as a book but as a show playing in my head. I like the depress robot, I think I laughed at his scenes the most, because when ever he said something in that down in the dumps tone of voice, I can imagine the people around him rolling their eyes at his poor life story, when he is the smartest one out of all of them. I have never seen the movie adaptation of this book, but I do know that the voice of that robot character is played by Alan Rickman, and when I was listening to this story. I can see why the director would cast him for the role. The way the narrator voice the robots is similar to Alan Rickman's voice.
There was another thing about this book that caught my attention, that was when someone mention the people/planet of Beetlejuice. I don't know if that is the right spelling, from how I heard it, they were saying Beetlejuice. But for me, when someone says that name, I immediately think of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice movie and the cartoon series. So I was laughing a little when they said that, because then I was thinking of my favorite scenes form Burton's movie. It's strange, but this isn't the first time I heard the word Beetlejuice used in book. I forgot which book it was, but it was one of the sci-fi reading list for this class. And one of the books said something about Beetlejuice, but it is spelled differently than how Burton spelled the name.
I wish I had read/ listen to this book in the beginning of the sci-fi book reading weeks, because it might have got me more excited about what other sci-fi stories their are. Also I would have less blogs of me explaining why I'm lost in the story. I do wish that this podcast of the book was longer, it was so exciting listening to it, that I didn't want it to stop. Now I must go and find the dvd and watch it, and see if it's as good and if it holds up to the original story.
There was another thing about this book that caught my attention, that was when someone mention the people/planet of Beetlejuice. I don't know if that is the right spelling, from how I heard it, they were saying Beetlejuice. But for me, when someone says that name, I immediately think of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice movie and the cartoon series. So I was laughing a little when they said that, because then I was thinking of my favorite scenes form Burton's movie. It's strange, but this isn't the first time I heard the word Beetlejuice used in book. I forgot which book it was, but it was one of the sci-fi reading list for this class. And one of the books said something about Beetlejuice, but it is spelled differently than how Burton spelled the name.
I wish I had read/ listen to this book in the beginning of the sci-fi book reading weeks, because it might have got me more excited about what other sci-fi stories their are. Also I would have less blogs of me explaining why I'm lost in the story. I do wish that this podcast of the book was longer, it was so exciting listening to it, that I didn't want it to stop. Now I must go and find the dvd and watch it, and see if it's as good and if it holds up to the original story.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
This was an interesting story out of the other books I have read in the sci-fi range. It was interesting in a way that it both confused me at time but in some ways I was able to follow along with the main character's story.
What I found to be the most entertaining was the different kind of mixed creatures (animals) that live in this new civilization. These creatures were "Genetic Engineered," they combined different animals and made something new. For example, there is a creature called "Rakunks" that is a hybrid of a raccoon and a skunk. They make great pets. The main character Snowman, in his past his real name was Jimmy and he named his "Rakunk" Killer. In this story there are many other genetic engineered creatures and some of them can be pets or wild animals. This is also a common theme used in the sci-fi themes. Sometimes "Genetic Engineering" can be animals or humans, and it can be viewed as a good or bad things to humanity in the sci-fi world. But in our world today we are kind of doing that already with our pets, mostly dogs. There are people that have mixed breeds of dogs. True it's not a mix of other animals, but we are combining other breeds of dogs so that a family can get the perfect dog. I don't know if this is just a rumor or an idea I heard once, but pretty soon people can customize what gender their baby will be and what they look like. I find that to be more wrong than animal genetic engineering. I feel that if people are going to be picky on what their child should look like, then they should not be parents, because it is shows that they only care about looks and not caring about their child.
This story was being told in a flashback type of style. We are introduced to Snowman and these children are calling out to him and asking him tons of questions, which he is getting tired of answering and explaining, because these children don't know the simplest of things. Then Snowman goes back to his childhood with his parents and the fights that went on between his parents, his mother leaving, and him being questioned by some men about his mother (like does Jimmy a.k.a. Snowman know where his mother is and is there anything they can get out of him to get some answers.) Even though the whole idea of telling the main character's story in a flashback is an interesting way of reading, I did get lost at moments when I was thinking "am I still listening to Snowman talking about the past, or am I still in the past with Jimmy explaining what's going on in the present?"
Another part of this story that I like and thought to be funny is when (back in the present) Snowman is getting a little annoyed from these kids not leaving him alone. These kids wanted to know more, but at the same time they didn't know what anything was and asked him to explain more. On and on they kept asking him "what is this" or "what is that?" I can understand the frustration of trying to explain something to younger kids, you have to have patience and try to remember when you were that age and how hard it is to understand everything. My only question I have after listening to the whole story is why didn't the author explain why Jimmy is called Snowman? Maybe I might have missed that part somewhere in the story, but it would have been nice if they would have repeated that part at the end of the story, after viewing his past. My imagination is already imaginating the new animals of this world, but it is strange imaging a snowman telling a story when it not winter or Christmas, plus I think Snowman (Jimmy) and the children are on a warm Island with other people.
What I found to be the most entertaining was the different kind of mixed creatures (animals) that live in this new civilization. These creatures were "Genetic Engineered," they combined different animals and made something new. For example, there is a creature called "Rakunks" that is a hybrid of a raccoon and a skunk. They make great pets. The main character Snowman, in his past his real name was Jimmy and he named his "Rakunk" Killer. In this story there are many other genetic engineered creatures and some of them can be pets or wild animals. This is also a common theme used in the sci-fi themes. Sometimes "Genetic Engineering" can be animals or humans, and it can be viewed as a good or bad things to humanity in the sci-fi world. But in our world today we are kind of doing that already with our pets, mostly dogs. There are people that have mixed breeds of dogs. True it's not a mix of other animals, but we are combining other breeds of dogs so that a family can get the perfect dog. I don't know if this is just a rumor or an idea I heard once, but pretty soon people can customize what gender their baby will be and what they look like. I find that to be more wrong than animal genetic engineering. I feel that if people are going to be picky on what their child should look like, then they should not be parents, because it is shows that they only care about looks and not caring about their child.
This story was being told in a flashback type of style. We are introduced to Snowman and these children are calling out to him and asking him tons of questions, which he is getting tired of answering and explaining, because these children don't know the simplest of things. Then Snowman goes back to his childhood with his parents and the fights that went on between his parents, his mother leaving, and him being questioned by some men about his mother (like does Jimmy a.k.a. Snowman know where his mother is and is there anything they can get out of him to get some answers.) Even though the whole idea of telling the main character's story in a flashback is an interesting way of reading, I did get lost at moments when I was thinking "am I still listening to Snowman talking about the past, or am I still in the past with Jimmy explaining what's going on in the present?"
Another part of this story that I like and thought to be funny is when (back in the present) Snowman is getting a little annoyed from these kids not leaving him alone. These kids wanted to know more, but at the same time they didn't know what anything was and asked him to explain more. On and on they kept asking him "what is this" or "what is that?" I can understand the frustration of trying to explain something to younger kids, you have to have patience and try to remember when you were that age and how hard it is to understand everything. My only question I have after listening to the whole story is why didn't the author explain why Jimmy is called Snowman? Maybe I might have missed that part somewhere in the story, but it would have been nice if they would have repeated that part at the end of the story, after viewing his past. My imagination is already imaginating the new animals of this world, but it is strange imaging a snowman telling a story when it not winter or Christmas, plus I think Snowman (Jimmy) and the children are on a warm Island with other people.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Children of Men (2006 movie)
I remember hearing people talking about this movie when it first came out into theaters. At the time I didn't see it for two reason's. The first one is that it is not my type of movie, and I thought I would have a hard time following along with the story line. It seemed to me that it would be a movie with a lot of complicated dialogue for a movie that wants the audience to take it seriously, like if this event could happen.
Recently watching it, it felt realistic for a different type of sci-fi movie. While most fans of sci-fi like stories and themes with aliens, far off distance planets, and galaxy battles, the type of sci-fi stories that I enjoy are the ones that can be believable, not flashy and show offy. This movie is a great example of what I'm trying to say. In the future on earth, no one is having children (something to deal with the government) and there are tons of fighting, anger and rage with the people. I can believe that the government can go that far as to ruin humanity and life on earth, and the people are fighting to get revenge on them. Movies about the future should be something that might happen and have a traumatic affect on the people, instead of just placing the characters in a crazy out of this world future with technology far more advanced than our own.
I'm glad that this movie changed how I originally thought of it. I like the main character and the African American girl who is pregnant. What I like about this movie is that you see how everyone reacts to life. In the beginning of the film, everyone is watching the news about the death of the youngest citizen left on the world (the boy looked to be around the age of 20). Every is very emotional about it because he was the last young human left, everyone else is older there were no little kids seen in the movie. Just that beginning opening of the film got me thinking of why is this future the way it was, why aren't there people having children. Is this the government's way of decreasing the number of people on earth. Which brings me back to why I can believe the government would do something so cruel to humanity. Because in our world today, earth is over populated with people and when there is more people in the world, there are more problems and messes that the government needs to clean up. After other obstacles in the beginning of the film, the main character is introduced to a young woman and for the first time in many years, he see's a pregnant woman and he is left without words. It is his job to help bring this girl to a boat and to this group called the "Human Project" and it is there that she and her baby can be safe.
It was a little bit scary to watch the movie at times, with all the shooting and the worry of this African American girl and her baby. The film takes you on this journey of the hard life of people and seeing the determination and will to continue forward to seek shelter and to bring hope for the future. The hope of bringing life back to the world. I think that this is what the movie was trying to tell us and having the girl pregnant was a symbol of that. I really like how at the end of the film after she has her baby girl, everyone, even the guards/ soldiers (that were shooting earlier) stop and look at the little baby. Some of the people went on their knees and praised and blessed the baby and the girl. The guards hold their fire and made a path for the girl, her baby and the main character. There were even some guards that went on their knees and bless the lord for this miracle.
Recently watching it, it felt realistic for a different type of sci-fi movie. While most fans of sci-fi like stories and themes with aliens, far off distance planets, and galaxy battles, the type of sci-fi stories that I enjoy are the ones that can be believable, not flashy and show offy. This movie is a great example of what I'm trying to say. In the future on earth, no one is having children (something to deal with the government) and there are tons of fighting, anger and rage with the people. I can believe that the government can go that far as to ruin humanity and life on earth, and the people are fighting to get revenge on them. Movies about the future should be something that might happen and have a traumatic affect on the people, instead of just placing the characters in a crazy out of this world future with technology far more advanced than our own.
I'm glad that this movie changed how I originally thought of it. I like the main character and the African American girl who is pregnant. What I like about this movie is that you see how everyone reacts to life. In the beginning of the film, everyone is watching the news about the death of the youngest citizen left on the world (the boy looked to be around the age of 20). Every is very emotional about it because he was the last young human left, everyone else is older there were no little kids seen in the movie. Just that beginning opening of the film got me thinking of why is this future the way it was, why aren't there people having children. Is this the government's way of decreasing the number of people on earth. Which brings me back to why I can believe the government would do something so cruel to humanity. Because in our world today, earth is over populated with people and when there is more people in the world, there are more problems and messes that the government needs to clean up. After other obstacles in the beginning of the film, the main character is introduced to a young woman and for the first time in many years, he see's a pregnant woman and he is left without words. It is his job to help bring this girl to a boat and to this group called the "Human Project" and it is there that she and her baby can be safe.
It was a little bit scary to watch the movie at times, with all the shooting and the worry of this African American girl and her baby. The film takes you on this journey of the hard life of people and seeing the determination and will to continue forward to seek shelter and to bring hope for the future. The hope of bringing life back to the world. I think that this is what the movie was trying to tell us and having the girl pregnant was a symbol of that. I really like how at the end of the film after she has her baby girl, everyone, even the guards/ soldiers (that were shooting earlier) stop and look at the little baby. Some of the people went on their knees and praised and blessed the baby and the girl. The guards hold their fire and made a path for the girl, her baby and the main character. There were even some guards that went on their knees and bless the lord for this miracle.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Bloodchild Short story (in class reading)
I'm not finish with this story, but I do have a question about it.
1. What are the characters? Are they human, alien, monsters? Within the story one of the characters (I think it's the mother) talks about the different limbs and stinging till you fall asleep (Are they bug creature that feed of humans?). This is what throwing me off, I'm getting a confused image in my mind, yet at the same time I think I understand what is going on. Are we still on earth? Are the humans slave on another planet?
2. I think that this story is showing us the perspective of the monster, alien, whatever it is that is attacking humans. One of the family of monsters doesn't sound like he wants to be part of the killings. My question for this story is how old are the characters, who is younger and oldest, and how long do they live. Do these creatures need the eggs to survive?
3. After seeing the photo of the author, I wonder what was her reason for coming up with the idea. What there anything from her life experience that she included in her story. Is she one of the characters or is her personality in one of the characters? I can see that there is a lot great detail and thought put into this story. I would like to know where she got the ideas and and what inspired her.
1. What are the characters? Are they human, alien, monsters? Within the story one of the characters (I think it's the mother) talks about the different limbs and stinging till you fall asleep (Are they bug creature that feed of humans?). This is what throwing me off, I'm getting a confused image in my mind, yet at the same time I think I understand what is going on. Are we still on earth? Are the humans slave on another planet?
2. I think that this story is showing us the perspective of the monster, alien, whatever it is that is attacking humans. One of the family of monsters doesn't sound like he wants to be part of the killings. My question for this story is how old are the characters, who is younger and oldest, and how long do they live. Do these creatures need the eggs to survive?
3. After seeing the photo of the author, I wonder what was her reason for coming up with the idea. What there anything from her life experience that she included in her story. Is she one of the characters or is her personality in one of the characters? I can see that there is a lot great detail and thought put into this story. I would like to know where she got the ideas and and what inspired her.
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
The reason why I chose this book was that the title caught my attention and set my imagination busy with ideas of what the story could be about. I know that you should never judge a book by it's cover or title, but sometimes you have to takes chances and see if a story appeals to you. The first thing that came to me was that this might be sci-fi book that I can easily follow, just like the fantasy book, meaning not as much scientific detail and complicated words. Long story short, I thought that this book would be as easy to visualize in my mind, like the fantasy books and the other books we have gone through in the class.
I don't know if this the same in the book version, but when I listened to it on the audio version, the author of the book Paolo Bacigalupi telling the listener of how he got the inspiration of the story. Out of all the audio books that I have listen to, I think this is the first one that included the author to tell a little bit of how the story came to them. I like it because it tells me that the author cares for the viewer and his fans and wants to reach out to them and tell them the insight of how the author got the ideas. It's a good connection between author and reader/fan. I think it would be cool if more authors did that, especially if they are popular in the literature field. I can imagine tons of Harry Potter fans going crazy to hear J.K. Rowling at the begining of her Harry Potter audio books, especially the last book and hearing her thank all the fans that keep on reading and love her characters and stories. and how if it wasn't for the fans, Harry Potter might not have gotten as far as it is today (there wouldn't be any theme park or anything if it wasn't for the loyal fans). Listening to Bacigalupi did help me to get some visual of the setting of the story. He got the idea of this story when he went on vacation and he got more than he bargained for. He went to a place that in some parts of the area was in chaos and things were not as it seemed. Also that things like food and water were hard to come by. All these problems were included into his story The Windup Girl.
Sadly though, like the other sci-books I have read so far, this one also was hard to follow at times. Not that it was bad writing or story. It's just that there is too much detail that it's hard to tell it apart from the other crisis in the story. I like the theme of the story being that it's in the 23rd century and organic food like plants aren't around as much as there use to be, and everything is artificial (factory made kind of food). But there is rumored that there is a place that has seeds of real plants, and this guyAnderson Lake is undercover and is trying to things back to normal. There are other character in the story that have important parts as well, but like I mentioned before, It hard to follow along to who is talking about who.
The one character that really got my attention and I had feelings for this character was the windup girl Emiko, a Japanese designed windup girl. The cover of the book doesn't have a picture or illustration of this windup girl, so when the story talked about her, I imagined that she was a girl with a fragile and innocent looking face (the ones that can do no wrong) and you can see some mechanical parts of her on her body. Like you might see on her back, the windup that makes her function. These function of the Windup girls (there are more than just Emiko and I think there are some boy Windups also) is to find a master and obey their commands, they have to obey any command given to them. When the story introduces the listener to Emiko, it was well decriptive of where she was and what was happening to her. Emiko was in a club type place that men can abuse her and do things to her. Through every detail of it, I imagined how terrible that felt and to have men view a woman that way and not being able to do anything about it, I felt so sorry for Emiko. But towards the end of the story it was a surprise that she also designed as a weapon, she killed a man with her hands. At that point it change my idea of how Emiko might have looked if here was an Illustration of her. Know I can imagine her having the gentle looking eyes of wonder and hope, and some bruises or marking for fighting off people, and maybe she has a weapon or two on her or as part of her design.
I don't know if this the same in the book version, but when I listened to it on the audio version, the author of the book Paolo Bacigalupi telling the listener of how he got the inspiration of the story. Out of all the audio books that I have listen to, I think this is the first one that included the author to tell a little bit of how the story came to them. I like it because it tells me that the author cares for the viewer and his fans and wants to reach out to them and tell them the insight of how the author got the ideas. It's a good connection between author and reader/fan. I think it would be cool if more authors did that, especially if they are popular in the literature field. I can imagine tons of Harry Potter fans going crazy to hear J.K. Rowling at the begining of her Harry Potter audio books, especially the last book and hearing her thank all the fans that keep on reading and love her characters and stories. and how if it wasn't for the fans, Harry Potter might not have gotten as far as it is today (there wouldn't be any theme park or anything if it wasn't for the loyal fans). Listening to Bacigalupi did help me to get some visual of the setting of the story. He got the idea of this story when he went on vacation and he got more than he bargained for. He went to a place that in some parts of the area was in chaos and things were not as it seemed. Also that things like food and water were hard to come by. All these problems were included into his story The Windup Girl.
Sadly though, like the other sci-books I have read so far, this one also was hard to follow at times. Not that it was bad writing or story. It's just that there is too much detail that it's hard to tell it apart from the other crisis in the story. I like the theme of the story being that it's in the 23rd century and organic food like plants aren't around as much as there use to be, and everything is artificial (factory made kind of food). But there is rumored that there is a place that has seeds of real plants, and this guyAnderson Lake is undercover and is trying to things back to normal. There are other character in the story that have important parts as well, but like I mentioned before, It hard to follow along to who is talking about who.
The one character that really got my attention and I had feelings for this character was the windup girl Emiko, a Japanese designed windup girl. The cover of the book doesn't have a picture or illustration of this windup girl, so when the story talked about her, I imagined that she was a girl with a fragile and innocent looking face (the ones that can do no wrong) and you can see some mechanical parts of her on her body. Like you might see on her back, the windup that makes her function. These function of the Windup girls (there are more than just Emiko and I think there are some boy Windups also) is to find a master and obey their commands, they have to obey any command given to them. When the story introduces the listener to Emiko, it was well decriptive of where she was and what was happening to her. Emiko was in a club type place that men can abuse her and do things to her. Through every detail of it, I imagined how terrible that felt and to have men view a woman that way and not being able to do anything about it, I felt so sorry for Emiko. But towards the end of the story it was a surprise that she also designed as a weapon, she killed a man with her hands. At that point it change my idea of how Emiko might have looked if here was an Illustration of her. Know I can imagine her having the gentle looking eyes of wonder and hope, and some bruises or marking for fighting off people, and maybe she has a weapon or two on her or as part of her design.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The Brother From Another Planet (1984 movie)
This movie is probably the most strangest and odd movie I have ever watched. When I rented it from the Ringling School Library, one of the guys that works there said that "this is a funny movie." So I took his word for it, thinking it was going to be a comical movie. But after watching the whole movie, I was left speechless and in my mind I was thinking "....What the Heck is going on." There was no intro description of where this "Brother" came from, what planet, what was his reason for flying in space, and does he have a purpose. It all seemed forced and no real plot that caught my attention as strong as other films I have seen.
I understand that this is a 1980's film, so back then it might have appealed to people at the time. But I didn't feel like this guy was an alien, as the movie forced the viewer to believe that he came in an alien spaceship and crashed landed on earth. They made that begininng scene very quick, with quick sound effects. The parts in the movie that tried to make us believe he was an alien was that "This Brother" had three toes on each foot and he can take out his eye and record what he sees. When he puts the eye back in his head, he replays everything in his mind. He can also repair things and heal without any tools. Before I saw the parts where he took out his eye, and I saw the three toes, what came to my mind was that he is not an alien, he's one of those curcius people with something strange about their appearance. I'll give the movie credit for making him mute, that brings more of a mystery to a person and makes them more alien from everyone else. What I notice and what also got on my nerves what that whenever he was around someone, they will go on and on talking, knowing that he can't talk back, but he can listen. At times I wish the people would be quite like the alien. I think this movie would be better as a silent film and you figure out what is going on by watching the body movements of the person, just like the alien.
From looking at IMDb.com, the ratings of this movie is 6.8 out of 10. In my vote this was a 4 out of 10. My reasons for giving it a low rating was that there was no real story to follow, the main character wasn't engaging, the side characters talked too much and everything was forced onto the screen, like if we already know the rules of a sci-fi film and aliens.
I understand that this is a 1980's film, so back then it might have appealed to people at the time. But I didn't feel like this guy was an alien, as the movie forced the viewer to believe that he came in an alien spaceship and crashed landed on earth. They made that begininng scene very quick, with quick sound effects. The parts in the movie that tried to make us believe he was an alien was that "This Brother" had three toes on each foot and he can take out his eye and record what he sees. When he puts the eye back in his head, he replays everything in his mind. He can also repair things and heal without any tools. Before I saw the parts where he took out his eye, and I saw the three toes, what came to my mind was that he is not an alien, he's one of those curcius people with something strange about their appearance. I'll give the movie credit for making him mute, that brings more of a mystery to a person and makes them more alien from everyone else. What I notice and what also got on my nerves what that whenever he was around someone, they will go on and on talking, knowing that he can't talk back, but he can listen. At times I wish the people would be quite like the alien. I think this movie would be better as a silent film and you figure out what is going on by watching the body movements of the person, just like the alien.
From looking at IMDb.com, the ratings of this movie is 6.8 out of 10. In my vote this was a 4 out of 10. My reasons for giving it a low rating was that there was no real story to follow, the main character wasn't engaging, the side characters talked too much and everything was forced onto the screen, like if we already know the rules of a sci-fi film and aliens.
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