Thursday, March 26, 2020
World War Z (2013)
I have a background in film, and was assisting with a streaming pilot before quarantine regulations put it on hold. We joked about Coronavirus on set, but nobody thought it would be treated as a pandemic. As a result, I have more time to put much-needed work into my indie game.
What I’m trying to say is that pandemics aren’t all that bad. I know it’s a different story for someone pissing blood in the hospital (no offense to those who get off on the insertion of foreign objects; just making a point), but I’m a naturally healthy and socially isolated individual, so pandemics don’t affect me as much. But in the movies, it’s always the end of the world for everyone.
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Westworld (1973)
This is not an indictment of a franchise but of a particular film. Before Jonathan Nolan, before Beyond Westworld, there was Westworld, a campy little sci-fi western. That’s how these things start. In a case of life imitating art, Westworld (the setting, the film, or the franchise) gets more interesting and dangerous over time until its flimsy foundation collapses under the weight of its own ambition.
The cheese factor is at a critical level. Imagine Tron (1982) on horseback. Double down on the AI-taking-over-the-world trope and you’ve got Westworld. This may have been one of the first films to go so completely overboard with sci-fi cliches. The basic ideas themselves are not absurd, but the story is in the telling.