Saw these tonight, makes the wait until December even harder!!!!
Tron: Legacy Is Officially Going To Be Really, Really Good
‘Tron: Legacy’ exclusive: Disney looks to Pixar for help; hires screenwriters Michael Arndt and Brad Bird to beef up script
candybowl
some cool articles on CNET the past day or so on the upcoming movie – release the dadburn thing already!!!!
candybowl
Just finished re-reading the last two books in The Clone Republic series – The Clone Elite and The Clone Betrayal. As noted before (see previous post re The Inheritance Trilogy) I think these books are well-written, effective pacing and a good mix of action/character development. I have enjoyed the entire series so far and have read all the books twice now, pretty sure.
Although some major characters’ motivations remain opaque in some situations (Ray Freeman most notably) the series does a good job of drawing you into Wayson Harris’ world (and how it progressively alienates and isolates him into taking the law into his own hands by the time of the events depicted in The Clone Betrayal). I will leave it to the reader to spoil the series’ plot (so far) for themselves by reading the Amazon page 🙂
This series is primarily military sci-fi first and foremost, and explores far more of the action/warfare side of things than anything else. On the human side of things, I’m not completely sure if centering nearly everything on Wayson Harris’ point of view is meant to make a bigger societal commentary or not, however – given he is a clone (and the last of his kind – a Liberator) there are plenty of underlying themes possible here:
a) a clone race created to serve man smacks heavily of slavery and ‘disposable people’;
b) the initial conquest of the galaxy followed by a revolt/religious war, followed by a war with aliens could be seen in many contexts given current world events, etc.);
c) the continual rivalry between the clones and humanity – on the part of the humans – pretty much solid prejudice despite what clones do for them and instead of them – on the part of the clones – given their mental programming to believe they are in fact human – disbelief when proved otherwise (or a building hatred of and frustration with humanity for those clones like Harris who figure it out and survive).
The author doesn’t seem to use the ‘symbolism so thick you can cut it with a knife’ approach of say, many Spike Lee movies to make allegories or imply a different meaning, either. I guess it’s up to the reader to decide.
But Wayson, despite his regular penchant for violence and increasing alienation by the end of this book, is in many ways a product of his environment and increasingly sympathetic (to me?). Kent definitely explores Harris’ awakening humanity and emotions despite the bad side arising at the same time (his vendetta against Earth and the Unified Authority, started in The Clone Betrayal but likely continuing in at least the next book or two).
I am definitely looking forward to the next book expected out later this fall, hoping it won’t disappoint – there are several loose ends still out there I’d like to see tied up (but I won’t spoil anything for you).
Astute (or extremely activity-challenged) readers will remember I watched 1973’s Westworld again back in July. This evening I saw its later (and lamer) sequel, Futureworld, circa 1976.
So – before I ‘review’ this movie I’m just going to say – I’m not worried about any of you going to rent it (turns out even the Mecca of Movies only had it on VHS) so all plot points (as may exist – and there aren’t many) will be spoiled herein.
So – basically fast forward several years from the events in Westworld – Delos has been rebuilt, bigger and better than ever. Now they have Roman World, Medieval World, Spa World and FutureWorld – no more WestWorld – although they visit its remains in this movie. Given the tragedy of before, Delos needs better PR to encourage people to come back, so they enlist a TV reporter (Blythe Danner) and the newspaper reporter who broke the story the first time around (Peter Fonda). But prior to heading out to Delos, Peter Fonda gets a clue from an informant (who is killed just before PF meets him to discuss the scoop) that something is still very ‘wrong’ at Delos this time around, too.
So they go there, and far too much time is taken up showing all the high-tech stuff, people walking here, people walking there, and there are two bit-characters (a Russian General + wife, and a famous Japanese person, probably a politician) who get some minor screen time. Very little of this advances the plot, save some (seemingly) random sequences showing people very interested in computer recordings and simulations of the main four characters.
It develops that Delos is making (effectively – they don’t name it directly) clones of world leaders and politicians because they don’t trust humans to keep from blowing themselves up. The visitors come to Delos, and the clones are sent out into the world to replace them, under Delos’ control. The movie never says if the robots hatched this plot on their own (one of the major Delos characters, Duffy, turns out to be one) or if they have mad-scientist backers (it is never revealed whether Dr. Schneider is human, robot, or something else) working with them.
At any rate, PF and BD find a (still-human) mechanic named Harry who helps them discover the truth, and then there is more running around with guns until the end, where they both escape Delos and (presumably) tell the world. Yul Brynner is wasted in a weird dream sequence with BD as a fantasy lover – I’m sure I was impressed by this back in 1976 (as a nine-year old) but it’s pretty silly now.
So….without dwelling on what the movie does wrong (mostly far too much tedium in advancing the meager plot) – i’d rather mention a few things that could have made it MUCH more interesting by contrast.
1) Futureworld never explains how the robots figured out how humans always want to destroy themselves (and thus hatched a plot to stop it and save themselves from our stupidity). By way of comparison, the recent BSG remake trickled this info out over the entire length of the series – of course to keep you coming back until the end, but partially because it kept you guessing and interested and inventing your own ideas about where the plot was going, then to watch it and confirm (or see where they went instead).
It might have been very interesting to see the ‘between’ story explained in more detail with more motives and the ‘how’. FW talks about the ‘700 series’ robots as being far more advanced than those in the prior movie/robot generation, but it’s only a few lines of spoken dialog at best and nothing beyond that.
2) Just like in the previous movie, the big ‘seller’ behind the concept of Delos is ‘sex with robots’ – but at $1200/day – would that really do it? And I would think more stuff (even Disneyland has Pirates of the Caribbean, and The Haunted Mansion) than just the Middle Ages or Roman times would be required to get people there (the lack of showers and actual cooking comes to mind, but I digress :)). Westworld itself might have had some attraction, I agree – but even in 1976 I’d think more would be needed (and Disney had both POTC and THM back THEN, too).
3) It would have been interesting also to see robots who didn’t ‘agree’ with the crazy clone strategy to take over the world, and if they helped PF and BD succeed to blow the story open. Here, BSG did this in various ways and various characters – creating a mosaic of character motives (if done well) can really serve to spice things up, no?
4) finally – what if Delos had actually ‘won’? What if they largely succeeded and THEN a reporter came back say, 20-30 years in the future and found out what had happened? And here comes the broken record, because now that I think of it (literally) BSG did this too – in a way – with the whole idea of Cylons being all-but human in appearance, etc. But they limited its scope by keeping it a limited number of models – in FW’s case, it might have been *many* world leaders over time – what if the clones ushered in a time of peace and world achievement, and then we found out we had all been tricked for 20-30 years? What then? I can’t help thinking of Kent Brockman saying “And I, for one, welcome our new ant overlords” with the paper sign on the wall behind him – too funny.
Anyway, if you find the book of this movie on a seedy bookshelf somewhere, and you are killing time on the beach, read it. Otherwise, just rent BSG and get the same thing only done far, far better. They should have quit while they were ahead with Westworld.
candybowl
(Re)watched the ancient sci-fi classic WestWorld late last night. It was shorter than I remember (in other words gets to the killing spree/chase scenes/etc. faster than I remembered), but definitely some classic performances in there, most notably Yul Brynner in the title role as The Gunslinger.
Since this is an old movie, even for me (in 1973, I was 6) let’s recap – a very expensive ($1,000/day), exotic resort (Delos) opens up in a distant desert (they never say where, but looks like the American Southwest), where there are three distinct ‘worlds’ people can visit – Roman World, Medieval World, and West(ern) World – each is tailored to fulfull guest fantasies based on advanced robots to cater to their every whim, within the theme of each ‘world’. In an early part of the film, an announcer talks about enjoying the ‘relaxed morality of earlier Roman times’ (meaning guilt-free sex with lifelike robots, let’s be clear here 🙂 ) And this is consistent with the other ‘worlds’ – the main two characters (james Brolin and Richard Benjamin) visit WestWorld (and at least one brothel therein). Then, things subtly start to go wrong, and mayhem ensues in a variety of ways.
So, this is a pioneering and influential sci-fi film in many ways. It is very well made for its time, obviously a bigger budget than some of its contemporaries (yeah, Omega Man, i’m talking to you). The decor, sets and computers/effects are spartan, but still look decent, and unlike many sci-fi movies, don’t get in the way of the plot. Not on the level of the earlier 2001: A Space Odyssey – but almost NO movies (sci-fi or otherwise) compare to that one even now.
WW has to be considered one of the first ‘relentless, unyielding stalking killer’ movies – Yul Brynner’s Gunslinger – used to great effect many times later in countless horror movies but also every Terminator movie ever made, elements of The Matrix movies, etc. Even Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men is reminiscent of this theme (and also very scary). In WW, this may be considered more remarkable because The Gunslinger stalks Richard Benjamin throughout the day – never at night – so his power over the intended victim grows not through cheap special effects or misdirection, but ultimately on the strong, almost silent performance of Yul Brynner (who hardly has more than maybe 3-4 sentences of dialog in the whole movie).
WW’s story also builds one of the earliest ‘no matter how perfect our technology gets, it will get us in the end’ themes – and does it about as subtly as the 16-ton weight from the classic Monty Python sketch. But the early ’70s was definitely a time of ‘man is doomed’ themed-sci-fi movies (Soylent Green, the earlier Omega Man, Silent Running, etc.) so not really surprising in hindsight.
Another thing that struck me this time around has to be the interaction between the resort guests and the robots who serve them. At one point after a barroom shootout, James Brolin remarks about ‘the beauty of the place is you never know if it’s real’ (or words to that effect). The guests feel free to just shoot the place up, start bar brawls, have sword battles (in effect act like a pillaging pirate – no Pirate World? :)) etc. – and let someone else pick up the pieces. I guess at $1,000/day, i’d expect the same – but it’s interesting how easily they just slot into it and tear it up with no consequences (well, that was the Delos sales pitch anyway). Given that the director/screenwriter was Michael Crichton – author of this theme many times over (The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, etc.) again, not a big surprise.
Stepping back (to a soapbox) it’s also interesting here is that despite continually warning us of the dangers of technology and how we overreach ourselves far too often in his books and films – MC was one of the biggest global warming deniers on the planet, right up there with Big Oil and James Inhofe! Like Mel Gibson of recent past, MC shows that many times in Hollywood – appearances can be VERY deceiving. Was he having fun at our expense on either side of the issue? I’ll have to look around to see if anyone ever asked him that question – he’s dead now (2008) so we may never know. End soapbox.
All symbolism and soapboxes aside – WestWorld is still an entertaining movie despite being now almost 40 years old. Yul Brynner makes the movie for me – without him, i don’t think WW would have been near as effective – his Gunslinger really is a Hollywood icon, sci-fi or otherwise.
candybowl
Saw TS3 this past Sunday. This is a great movie – and like the last Pixar movie we saw – yet another tearjerker in at least two places! I won’t spoil the plot, but suffice it to say there yet more twists ahead for Woody & crew, although I was able to predict the end about 2/3 of the way in.
Like most other Pixar movies, TS3 is a nice blend of silly and adult humor – not quite as many pop-culture references this time around, but still a solid plot and the characters continued to develop from last time around. About the only thing(s) missing (OK, slight spoilers ahead) were a bigger role for my favorite unspeaking character in the 3 TS movies and Kelsey Grammer from the last one – he always plays a great villain. The outtakes at the end with Zurg arriving at the daycare were pretty amusing too.
I’m glad they made this movie – and I’m pretty sure it’s the last one – which is also fine. And this probably has to be one of the few (if not the only) series of movie sequels that actually worked as well as the original? GF3 was sheite, after all – were there any other sequels that worked as of the 3rd movie? And NO, Police Academy was arguably lame the FIRST time out of the gate (sorry Bobcat, love ya!)
go see it!
candybowl
Picked up an old arcade game for my buddy – Wizard of Wor. This game dates back from the latter arcade classic era, 1981. It shares the same robotic speech as Gorf from the same era (both of us actually have one of those machines, although mine currently languishes in my dad’s barn in OR). Basically the game consists of either one/two people in what seem like land-going spacesuits in a maze, zapping weird creatures, some of which are invisible at times (you can see them on the radar screen below the maze, though).
Once you clear the maze, other bad guys appear you have to zap of course (e.g. Warlock) – and then the Wizard himself may or may not appear. The game also has organ-style music at the start and end of each maze-zapping session, in addition to the weird voice.
Good stuff. This is also a convenient moment to shamelessly plug the upcoming 3rd annual pinball/arcade show here in Seattle next month, weekend of June 11-13. Come one, come all!
candybowl
So a lifelong friend and I connected for some old-school gaming this weekend. And when i say ‘old school’ while not quite as old as say, Frisbee, Monopoly, or Go – these were still pretty old videogames. He has an extensive collection of old (mostly 70s-80s but a few are even older) videogame consoles – the same ones we used to play on the big ol’ 25″ tv in his basement back in the day. We actually had an Atari ‘flashback’ console for those – it has a ton of games built into it instead of plugging cartridges in and out all day – and it even has a few previously-unreleased and prototype Atari 2600 games as a bonus, which is pretty cool (and I’m sure doesn’t hurt sales :)).
So after some Atari, we hauled out the Bally Arcade, then sidetracked to a couple (real) arcade games – we both have several of these – a couple of mine are at his house) – then off for pizza. Then back for more Atari, followed by Colecovision (played through nearly all the cart’s he had, although the controllers on that system haven’t stood the test of time well – they were all but impossible to use) and then back to Atari with a brief sojourn in C64-land. We also surveyed several other systems he has around, but ultimately forgot to get around to hooking them up.
Then of course the required pilgrimage to Fry’s in Wilsonville, followed by a quick dinner and then to Ground Kontrol (an actual arcade in Oldtown Portland with 80s-90s videogames and about 20 pinballs – great stuff!).
We got done around 945 pm. And the good thing is, there are plenty more games for NEXT time 🙂 We need to get back to more C64 – and then some older PC and Amiga games we used to play for hours on end.
Ah, memories…..
candybowl
Watched Pirates of Silicon Valley again (all the way through this time – only had seen bits and pieces of it before). It’s not the world’s most riveting film in a second watching, but it’s decent (more so if you are a computer nerd, definitely). If you didn’t already know – it’s basically a TNT-made movie, the story of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates – with ancillary players including Steve Wozniak, Steve Ballmer, Paul Allen and a few other assorted personalities. Woz and Ballmer take turns narrating it, depending on whether the movie focuses on Apple or Microsoft at any given point. The movie basically covers the period in time from the very earliest days of Apple and Microsoft in the mid-late 70s, up until about 1998.
This is an interesting film for me on so, so many levels:
a) Watching what goes on in this movie (and having read a bit on the subject of Silicon Valley craziness elsewhere) and by virtue of simply having worked in the software industry the last 12+ years – it still to this day boggles my mind as to the money flying around. With Apple and Microsoft – it’s at the level beyond what most COUNTRIES have, let alone personal fortunes – really! How many countries can you name that have $40B+ in the bank like Microsoft does? Not bloody many, barring our own, maybe Canada, and possibly some of Western Europe and Japan? It’s just beyond the ability to comprehend.
b) It’s not completely clear how many actual situations in this movie are ‘factual’ – and they sure don’t paint a nice picture of Steve Jobs (Gates gets off a bit easier in my view, because he gets to be the ‘business nerd’ that doesn’t care about saving the world and then points out Jobs’ hypocrisy on this point to his face in a short, but effective outburst) – but in a recent speech (2006), Woz noted that they got the real feel and gist of what happened all but exactly right. The fact that this movie is already over 10 years old, the events in it already over 20-30+ years old makes ME feel old – doh!
Side comment – Dr. Edward Roberts, creator of the Altair 8800 (the home computer Gates and Allen wrote their first software for) passed away earlier this month – RIP.
c) I guess this movie in many ways crystallizes what I perceive as core dysfunctions (and crazy advantages) the tech industry has and to some extent, still enjoys – Certainly most corporate environments end up creating ’empire builder’ people who care most about getting to the top and lording it over the rest of us – that’s not exclusive to the tech industry by any means (nor are egomaniacs – sadly that’s a human problem, not a tech problem). But on the other hand, if a tech company is driven and (definitely) lucky at being in the right niche at the right time, the acceleration from bootstrap to crazy wealth happens in such a short time it’s not to be believed. Along the way, many yes-men and bottom feeders manage to attach themselves for the ride, and naive people in at the start may be left behind (through a combination of their own ignorance/personality, coupled with key people deliberately taking some advantage). The old adage ‘looking out for #1‘ applies in many ways across the tech industry – mostly neutral, but some crazy good (for a lucky, often early few) and some actually really bad in a few cases.
d) I remember from dot-com days when I would sometimes look around the office and muse whether the founders were in it for ‘building the best software x we could build’ – or just for the money/IPO cashout – or some ego thing, or something completely different and not apparent. I never did figure it out, although certainly people cashed out quite well, and we did have a great product for a time, too.
I guess the moral of the Apple/Microsoft story is ‘watch your back, because just when you think you’ve conquered everyone and established yourself as untouchable – someone is poised to knock you right off the mountaintop’.
Certainly just when Jobs thought he had obtained the crown jewels from Xerox (the ‘rich neighbor/open back door’ analogy Gates makes – pretty spot on, whether or not he actually said it), Gates was there to take them away and move in a completely different (and far more lucrative) direction. It helped enormously that Gates also built a monopoly (which they milk to this day), but those parameters weren’t apparent until much later and not to Jobs until it was too, too late.
To me, the bigger lesson (which I think in many companies has yet to be learned) is ‘most people don’t care about building an empire, they just want to be treated well, paid a decent wage and valued for their input and contributions (dependent on role).’ It’s too bad that money, egos, and turf battles often obscure this simple fact and make far too many people’s lives otherwise unhappy for no good reason.
candybowl
