Tuck Everlasting?

The film Star Trek: Insurrection was the first ever film that I viewed within the Star Trek franchise. I had heard various opinions on the films throughout my life which gave me an idea of what to generally expect from this semi-dystopian film. One major feature of the movie that caught me off guard was the fact that a great majority of the setting didn’t take place in the stars at all; instead a great deal of the film took place on the Planet of Youth. I initially expected to see an endless, drawn out battle between space shuttles and characters that never leave the confines of their own ships; however, I was pleasantly surprised by the ability of film to allow the plot to go beyond outer space.

One distinct feature that this film offered that differs from almost every other movie I’ve critiqued is the fact that on the Planet of Youth, the citizens choose not to take advantage of the opportunities technology can offer them in their daily lives.  The majority of the futuristic/science-fiction movies I’ve critiqued in this blog have presented societies which have been corrupted by technology and are battling the consequences of what their “advancements” did to them. It is admirable that the Planet of Youth chooses to ignore the use of advanced technology in their lives, despite the fact that they are more than capable of taking advantage of such technologies. They believe that using technology to make Man’s life easier ultimately “takes away from the man”. Perhaps their views on the abuses of technology are what have allowed them to survive peacefully on their planet for so long (and the fact that they are immortal helps).

Speaking of immortality, it is the concept that ultimately drives the entire plot of the movie. The bad (dystopian) guys hope to take over the Planet of Youth, while the good (utopian) guys just want to stay on their own planet and live peacefully as they have for hundreds of years. Hey, why can’t we all just live forever and be happy? This concept of immortality is interesting because it is usually dealt with in Halloween-like movies with witches, werewolves, or vampires (the multi-million dollar Twilight saga) who have lived for thousands of years. The concept can also date back as far as the Bible where God closed the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve which held the Tree of Life. Some speculate that we would all have the ability to live forever if Adam and Eve hadn’t deceived God and caused the everlasting tree to become forbidden. Within the film, the question of, “who deserves to live forever?” is one the audience should ask themselves. Does anyone truly deserve to live forever? Does the fact that the citizens of the Planet of Youth were there first mean that they are the only ones who should be allowed to be immortal? Is it morally right for them to keep outsiders from experiencing the luxury of immortality that they have the ability to experience? I personally don’t think I would live forever if I was given the chance. Life would seem meaningless and become a bore. If the characters in the movie thought more like me, perhaps they would have avoided such troubles.

These ducts are made for spying: Brazil

After several views of Brazil, I still had only one question in mind; how many movies did I just watch? The film has so many different things going on that it’s hard to tell what it all means as a whole. Additionally, I’m not going to lie and say that I enjoyed the movie because I honestly didn’t care for it and I still am very fuzzy on the actual purpose of the whole film.

For starters, why on earth is the movie even titled “Brazil”? There isn’t one ounce of information that indicated a connection between the content of the film and the country of Brazil. Perhaps the title, like the film, is just random and a further piece of information (or lack there of) to confuse the audience. I know that when I sat down to watch the movie entitled “Brazil,” I expected to see a South American country, or at least a reference to it. But instead, I found myself on edge the for the entirety of my first viewing in hopes of the them ending up in Brazil some how, and unfortunately that hope never became reality for me.

Speaking of reality, lets talk for a minute about how big of a cliché is it that half of the movie turned out to be a dream. I mean, here I am rooting for this guy and the woman he’s repeatedly fantasized over, thinking that they’re going to escape…and then BAM! It’s all just a dream and he’s still in that creepy room pending possible torture? Come on Terry Gilliam, I’m sure you can do better than that.

Surprisingly, one of the things that I actually did end up enjoying in the film (there weren’t many) was the portrayal of the communist/totalitarian government which controlled all aspects of the citizens lives. In one of my previous International Politics Classes, we focused a lot on the governing style of North Korea and the daily lives of their citizens which is eerily similar to many aspects of the movie Brazil. Just like in the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea), the characters in Brazil are constantly exposed to disgusting governmental propaganda which is supposed to make them feel like they actually are lucky to live in the conditions that they do. The propaganda brain washes the people to think that they have it better than everyone and that following the governmental rules and the Ministry of Information is the only way to be happy and successful. I found it sort of humorous how there were actually commercials for ducts that come in several hundred different colors which is supposed to make the citizens feel like they have some kind of control over their lives. To me it sounded kind of like “Hey, we’re probably going to spy on you through these ducts and violate any personal privacy, but you can choose to color of the duct we do it with!” So in that respect, the political portion of the movie was very skillfully done, but the rest of the move is just up in the air with me. 

You Made Your Bed, Now Sleep In It: WALL-E

    Each of the several occasions that I “experienced” Wall-e, my head was spinning because there were so many pressing issues at hand. First of all, the critical side of me was curious to know how a cruise ship in outer space was able to maintain itself for seven hundred years. I found myself constantly questioning how they received water and food without any resources from the earth.  But with that inconsistency aside, I noticed that the film presented issues very relevant to life in society today.  Being a Pixar movie, it seems that the goal is to always teach about a greater moral or social issue with a child-friendly approach that can also appeal to adult audiences. Wall-e masterfully touched on some of the most relevant issues pressing our world while simultaneously achieving the status of a science fiction film. We are enlightened about neglect of our environment, dependency on technology, and general human laziness.

     One of the most alarming issues I found in the film was the fact that humans knew that they were doomed before-hand and still continued down their destructive path. The president in the film had an entire protocol arranged for various situations that may occur while in space. He knew they would have an issue with finding life on earth and he knew that the humans on the ship would become lazy and have a possible lack of bone density. Just as now in our current society; we know that our careless actions towards the environment will soon catch up with us, but we never take any great measures to protect the earth. If the president in the film knew of the world’s fate, why didn't he make a greater effort to fix things before they reached the level of extremity that they did? If he knew that the humans on the ship were going to get lazy to the point of losing their bone density, why didn't he make sure to not provide them with electric chairs that would deter them from something as basic as walking?  

    Another point of interest in the film was that the technology of the various robots had become so advanced that they were practically outsmarting the humans. The captain of the ship’s robot assistant, Auto, was determined to not let the captain perform the protocol necessary to return to earth. This sends a message to the audience that we cannot become too dependent upon the luxuries and comforts of technology because it can prove to take over our lives if we’re not careful. This draws me to a connection with the movie Artificial Intelligence where many humans had a severe dislike for the “mecha” because they felt threatened of what they could do to the “orga” humans. Additionally, much of the world had been flooded due to the irresponsibility of humans in regards to the environment. In the end of Artificial Intelligence humans eventually died off and robots were the only thing left in memory of their existence. In Wall-e, we are similarly shown that the earth cannot sustain abuse forever, and that continuation of our actions can lead to us to total dependency on technology. Fortunately, in Wall-e the human race survived (barely) and was able to restore the earth with the assistance of the robots, as shown in the credits.