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Batman vs. Superman vs. Captain America vs. Iron Man

June 2, 2016 Leave a Comment Written by James Piper Goth

So we have 2 very different super hero movies about the heroes fighting each other. One gets it right, the other fails miserably. I am sure, unless you have been living in a cave, you already know which one of the 2 I think worked. To start I will give a brief review of each; Then I will give my thoughts on where things went right and wrong.

Batman V Superman

BA2Now what I am about to talk about may seem a little off topic but bear with me, it will all make sense in the end. In 2012 a movie called Battleship was made, it was based on the popular board game of the same name. Now instead of making a World War 2 naval epic the studio thought it would be a better idea to set it in modern day, and make it about fighting aliens. I am sure none of you have seen this movie because it was terrible; but be warned I will be spoiling the climax of this truly bad film. Through most of the movie the good guys are on a destroyer class ship, because battleships are not used any more. Their ship is destroyed, and it looks like all hope is lost, until they arrive at the USS Missouri, a World War 2, steam powered, battleship that is currently acting as a museum. They don’t have the knowledge or the crew required to get it running; but a bunch of veterans show up to help take their ship on one final mission. Thunderstruck by AC/DC starts to play, the engines are fired up, the canons are loaded and the ship sails out to fight the big bad alien vessel. When that battle ship does a hard 90 and unloads its broad sides it is glorious! The vets have of the best lines like “Lets unload some led on these mother fuckers” and when their ship is taking some damage  “They aint going to sink this battleship, no way”. This entire sequence is powerful and full of nostalgia, pride and emotion. But it is only 10 minuets long of the total 130 minuet run time. And the rest of the movie is total garbage. This is exactly how I feel about Batman V Superman, a movie that is total garbage except for 2 short sequences where Batman gets to be mother fucking Batman!

I find it fascinating the stories about how Ben Affleck saw the train wreck coming; and how he tried everything he could to try and correct the course of the film. And in the end instead of being like all ‘I told you so’, he is sad, because he truly loves the character of Batman and really wanted to make a good move.

Captain America: Civil War

Captain_America_Civil_War_posterCivil War is a great Captain America movie and a great sequel to The Winter Soldier. It has one of the most amazing and fun action sequences I have ever seen. This alone is worth the price of admission, but the movie brings so much more. The Winter Soldier started as a smaller more intimate film, with the twist that it ends up become a much bigger world threatening event. Instead Civil War goes the exact opposite direction. All the trailers and build up to this movie show it as some epic earth shattering event, but the twist is that it becomes a smaller more personal movie. And at the core of the movie is a great moral debate between the two stars. Captain America on the side of unalienable freedom and Iron Man on the side of government oversight and security. Its this debate that frames the conflict and helps create deep characters that pull in the audience and turn the great action in to something more.

I don’t know how much more I can say about this film with out spoiling the ending. It is one of the best Marvel movies to date and one that everyone should go see. Now on to why this movie works where Batman V Superman fails.

Morality & Reason

I rewatched Man Of Steel to see why I named it the best film of 2013, and to find the differences between it and Batman V Superman. What I found, behind the epic visuals, was a story filled with moral conflict. General Zod wanted to do whatever it takes to guarantee the survival of his race. In contrast Jor-El, Supermans farther, saw the deep moral flaws, that were leading his people to destruction. That his people, in their turn to a communistic society, had lost what had originally made them great. The movie then becomes about Superman discovering his own morality, inspired by his time growing up in America. Its in this that he rejects his race and their ideas, and instead embraces the ideas of truth, justice and the American way.

Batman_v_Superman_posterBatman V Superman contains no rational moral arguments of any kind, instead it is driven by emotion. Unlike Civil War, where we understand at a philosophical level why they are fighting, we are treated to some stupid dream sequences. Any movie that relies on dream sequences is already greatly flawed and any writer that resorts to this should find another profession. There is no good reason Batman wants to kill Superman, just some irrational fear brought on by some irrational dreams. And because no good reason is given, the fight between them is unable to pull the audience in and have them become invested. The reason the fight ends is even more ridiculous and is now being used as a punch line.

Superman’s story is even worse. I admit that Superman is difficult to put in to films, he is so powerful that showing any kind of conflict, especially of the physical kind, is hard. Man of Steel was the fist movie that made me really love seeing Superman on the big screen. Because of that, I was really looking forward to this movie. In the trailer it showed a scene where Superman was going to be questioned in front of the senate. I thought this was going to be amazing. Just imagine Superman being questioned by our immoral politicians, and then having him use morality and reason to justify who he is and why he does what he does. Answers that harken back to the Founding Farthers and what originally made America great. But instead before anyone can speak a bomb goes off killing everyone but Superman. The rest of the movie shows Superman being all depressed that not everyone in the world loves him. This is pathetic and again shows the filmmakers choice to use emotion instead of reason to define their characters.

In Conclusion

My hope is that the people in charge will learn from there mistakes, or are let go. That they will find someone that truly understands why the Marvel movies are so great. That they will create intelligent movies, with well thought out philosophically based characters, instead or resorting to the lowest common denominator, emotionalism. I really want to see what Ben Affleck can do with the next Batman film, he has already proven himself to be a talented director. I just hope they can find some talented writers, because getting the story and characters right is far more important then filling the movie over the top CG. I think the main reason Man of Steel succeeded where Batman V Superman failed is because they had Christopher Nolan create the story. He truly understands the importance of good characters, as seen in the fact that he created the greatest super hero of all time: The Dark Knight.

Movies

Lists, Lists and More Lists

February 14, 2016 Leave a Comment Written by James Piper Goth

Ok the most important list for the year, the 10 best movies of 2015, is still a work in progress. I have about 12 more movies that I need to watch. The problem is that I have a bout 14 movies currently sitting on a list with only 10 spots. It will be difficult trying to trim that list down so it fits. In other words I think it was a very good year for movies.

So in the mean time I have another couple of lists to tide you over. The first is my favourite TV shows of the year. This list is very different from my movie list, as it is more a reflection of what I am watching and enjoying. With the movies I am trying to watch everything that was considered good, but with TV I just don’t have the time. There is way too much content to consume and when every show is 10 plus hours I would need it to be a full time job. The other problem is that I way too biased when it comes to TV, there are certain genres and settings that I will not even consider watching.

Top 10 TV Shows of 2015

10. Brooklyn Nine-Nine
9. Mr. Robot
8. Game of Thrones
7. Silicon Valley
6. Masters of Sex
5. Homeland
4. South Park
3. Better Call Saul
2. Black Sails
1. Justified

For the second list I have finally finished the first year in my Greatest Films of the 80’s project. I am finding there is a lot of great movies in the 80’s that I have never seen. So it has been a lot of fun to discover all this new stuff, but it will take me a while to finish the decade. So here is part one of ten.

Top 10 Movies of 1989

10. Glory
9. Ghostbusters II
8. Road House
7. Dead Poets Society
6. Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
5. Back to the Future Part II
4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
3. Lethal Weapon 2
2. The Abyss
1. Batman

Also I have done a little clean up on the projects page including adding in a page for the Greatest Movies of the 10’s. This will make it easier for looking up the best movies of the last 5 years.

Movies, TV

Star Trek vs. Star Wars

January 3, 2016 Leave a Comment Written by James Piper Goth

And how one man is running both…

After seeing both the new Star Wars and the trailer for the next Star Trek movie I feel I need to express my feelings on what the mean to me and where they are currently. This may contain some spoilers but they will be minor. For the most part I am going to talk about Star Trek, not the new Star Wars. I will say that if you have not seen The Force Awakens then you should spend the time to see it on the big screen.

The interesting thing about the two is that the last two Star Trek films and The Force Awakens were both written by, and directed by the same person, J.J. Abrams. For the most point I really like this director. He is able to create great characters that can really pull you into the story. Also he can come up with some amazing original ideas, even if they never seem to fully pay off.

When Abrams did his reboot / alternate time line Star Trek I really enjoyed that film. I thought he found some great actors to reprise those iconic roles and opening 10 minutes is simply incredible. But as much as I really liked that film it had a few things that kind of nagged at me. Because the rest of the film was so good I was able to ignore them. When the sequel, Into Darkness, came out these flaws where amplified to such a degree that I came out of that film hating it. There are few films I hate. I can write off a bad film and it will quickly fade from by memory, but a film I hate is something else.

The first major flaw is the lack of respect for the rules for the universe. Now Star Trek, in general, is not known for sticking to the rules, but when it does break them, it does it in smart ways that try to give some scientific explanation. In the movie Abrams introduces a teleporter that goes beyond beaming from the surface of a planet to a ship, it can beam someone on to a ship travelling at warp speed. In the sequel he increases this to have it transport some one across the galaxy. Now think about that, he introduced a technology that nullifies the need for star-ships in a show about star-ships.

When the transporter was introduced in the original series it was done to save production costs. But they gave it some scientific explanation and added a lot of restriction that directly related to the science behind it. This made it feel real and at the same time dangerous. Star Trek The Motion Picture started with some people dying in a transporter accident.

The second flaw is the lack of respect for Space and traveling through it. Space is really huge and in Star Trek travelling through it, even at warp speed, took a long time. Half of Star Trek the Motion Picture was spent trying to get the ship to a place where they could intercept Vger. In Into Darkness J.J. Abrams really wanted the finally battle to be over Earth, but the ships were in Klingon space. He solved this by having the ships go to warp for a few minutes. Not a few minutes of screen time, but a few minutes of actual time. This journey should have taken days.

The third flaw was how he showed mankind. And this might be the most telling. He showed humans as a much darker thing. There was corruption and a lot of internal conflict in Star Fleet. The plot of the second film was driven by this. Now think back on the the past Star Trek films and TV, there was none of this. Sure there was some conflict over how to solve a problem, but everyone was on the same side. It chose to show mankind in a way more positive light.

Now to be fair to J.J. Abrams, he has stated on numerous occasions that he does not understand Star Trek. When talking about Into Darkness, he said: “I found myself frustrated by my choices, and unable to hang my hat on an undeniable thread of the main story. So then I found myself on that movie basically tap-dancing as well as I could to try and make the sequences as entertaining as possible.”

As much as Into Darkness was a horrible movie and a disgrace to Star Trek we can all rejoice that J.J. Abrams has moved on to Star Wars. Star Wars is something he understands and is a huge fan. The Force Awakens still suffers from some of the problems he had with Star Trek (ex. traveling between star systems still takes minutes). But these faults are overshadowed by amazing, fun characters battling with their inner darkness; as well as being full of many huge epic battles, which make sense in this universe. This is exactly the type of movie I want Abrams to be making, like Mission Impossible 3 before it.

I had a really fun time watching Star Wars in IMAX. Seeing the Millennium Falcon and having the classic score kick in brought me back to what it felt like watching the original movies as a kid. That said it did hang its hat a little too much on nostalgia. The plot is so similar to A New Hope that the script had jokes about it. Also as cool as X-Wings and Tie Fighters are, I would have loved to see some more variety. Even A New Hope had more than X-Wings during the Death Star assault.

In conclusion, I think the reason J.J. Abrams does not understand Star Trek is that he was only 6 when we were last on the moon. He missed out on that thrill of seeing mankind rise to transcend an impossible challenge. The original Star Trek series was on TV at that time, and it captured the spirit of the time. Gene Roddenberry created a show about a group of humans, from all walks of life, coming together to explore the galaxy. “to boldly go where no man has gone before”. Comparing these shows to each other is almost pointless. One is a western about good and evil with space as a back drop, the other is conceptual science fiction which portrays man as he might be and ought to be. Both have their place and can be enjoyed in their own way. Just don’t have someone who does not understand this point to be the show runner.

Movies, TV

The Goblin King

December 11, 2015 Leave a Comment Written by James Piper Goth

I find it fascinating how many people fail to learn simple lessons from the past. You see it all around you, people doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. I believe that is the definition for insanity. But that cant be the case, because if it was then the majority of people are insane, making it the norm. And if it is the norm, then the insane people are in fact the the few that remember the results of past actions and chose to go another way, because they disliked the results.

Take for example Justin Trudeau, he is promising that his stimulus spending and huge deficits for the next few years will allow him to balance the budget in 5 years. Of course this is the same promise that his farther made, and we all remember how that turned out. Oh wait I forgot, people don’t remember the past. By the end of his father’s term in office, Canada was facing one of its greatest deficits. Maybe people do remember this, but they chose to forget.

For the last 9 years the leader of the country was avoiding giving handouts to everyone. Now here comes Justin waving around all this ‘free’ stuff and promises to punish the big bad corporations and evil 1%. And everyone is crowding around with out stretched arms saying “give me, give me”. Its easy for them to ignore the questions of where all this money comes from? and what would would happen to all their comfy jobs if the corporations decided to shrug? Maybe all the freebies are enough for them to ignore the facts and become sell outs. Its funny how when people talk the future of the environment, its all about saving it for our children. But when its about the economy, and the massive debts future generations have to pay, how easily the children are thrown under the bus.

Now I could spend time getting in to specifics and list out pages of facts but that would not matter. They will stick there fingers in their ears and shout at me about how I am being selfish, and ignoring all the poor and impoverish in the world, that are victims of this wealth generation. Again they forget that before corporations we were all poor and suffering. Working long hours in the mud suffering for some King that was supposedly chosen by god to dig his heal into our backs.

And then the masses will say no no that’s not what they mean, they dream of some socialist utopia where they don’t have to make any decisions for themselves and everything is provided. Again they forget that for this to happen it will also mean giving up their freedom, and that we already had this, it was called the USSR.

Again they will say that I am wrong and that some day their fantasy will become real. I could keep this argument going for a long time, but it wont matter. Plus I have to go get some sleep so that I can go to work and continue to take care of my own life. A life that belongs to me and no one else.

In summary, maybe its not that people forget, they just chose to push down the facts, deep into the back of their mind, along with their souls, so they don’t have to think about the consequences of signing a packed with the devil. And its easy for the devil, he never has to give anything in return except for empty promise. Promises of a world where your every need is provided for, where no one has to take responsibility for their own lives, where no one will say anything that can be taken as offensive. All that they have to give up in return is the right to their life.

The Goblin King: “‘I ask for so little; just let me rule you and you can have everything that you want. Just fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave.”  Sarah: “You have no power over me!” – Labyrinth

Politics

‘Greens stand for Canada’ not Canadians?

October 18, 2015 Leave a Comment Written by James Piper Goth

Is the statement ‘Greens stand for Canada’ intentional or a Freudian-slip?

I saw this advertisement in the elevator for the Green Party where they state that ‘Greens stands for Canada’. I thought this was strange at first because Canada is the geographical land mass that we live in, not the people that live in it. All other political parties would say they stand for Canadians. Was this a mistake, did they mean to say they stand for the people instead. Or is this exactly what they meant to say and that this statement tells us a lot more about the deeper philosophical views of environmentalist.

greens-stand-for-canada_small

What is it that the these environmentalist truly believe in? I am not talking about the smaller issues that they are protesting like objection to some oil pipe line or how some animal, that was grown to be eaten, is abused. I am talking about when their views are taken all the way to the end, when they are fully satisfied, what does the world look like?

Sure they may try to paint a pretty picture of a world powered by wind and solar, fed by local organic farms, where we prance happily through the meadows and are at one with nature. But I see a very different world. First I see all of the mass starvation that would kill off billions. Without the power of fossil fuels and the innovations of genetically modified organisms it is impossible to feed 7 billion people. Next I see all the diseases, that until now have been held at bay by the command we have over our environment, killing off millions more. And third I see how hard it will be for the few that live to continue to survive. Spending every waking moment digging in the dirt trying to get something to grow. And how much more the weather would play apart, how a harsh winter or a dry summer would kill our crops and make survival near impossible.

Now the real scary part about the world I described is that the real hard-core environmentalist would not care if that was the out come. “Human suffering is much less important than the suffering of the planet.” – David Brower. They don’t care if billions of people die, because they hold the environment as a higher value then human life. “In order to stabilize world populations, we must eliminate three hundred and fifty thousand people per day. It is a horrible thing to say, but it’s just as bad not to say it.” – Jacques Cousteau. They don’t look at the cost their actions will have on humanity, all they care about is the impact that humanity is having on nature. “…Man is no more important than any other species … It may well take our extinction to set things straight.” – David Foreman. They will tell us they are pro nature, but what this truly means is that they are anti human or in philosophical terms nihilists.

So back to the advert, I thing the statement that ‘they stand for Canada’ is very true. That they want to defend Canada from Canadians, from people that want to use nature for their survival and to improve their way of life. I personally hold the value of human life far above that of nature. Even if that means the temperature of the earth warms a fraction of a degree or that all blood sucking insects go extinct; I am ok with this if it means that humans have a better chance of survival and can lead better, happier lives.

Ok so we hopefully can all agree that the Green Party is not a good choice, luckily we do have some alternatives.  There is Tom Mulcair who is a pathological liar and his supporters with their communist … I mean “Leap” Manifesto. Or there is Justin Trudeau, who seems to be very honest when it comes to increasing taxes, running up the deficit and in his admiration for dictatorships. On other thought if the Green Party can steal some votes and prevent the Liberals or NPD from taking over they might not be all bad.

 

P.S. After reading this you may feel, through process of elimination, that I must be a fan of the Conservatives. This is not true, but I do think that they are the lesser of all evils.

Notes: David Brower was the first Executive Director the Sierra Club and founder of Friends of the Earth. Jacques Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer and famous oceanographer. David Foreman is a founder of Earth First, whose primary goal is the cutting the world’s population by ninety percent.

Politics
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You lock the door – And throw away the key – There’s someone in my head but it’s not me – And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear – You shout and no one seems to hear – And if the band your in starts playing different tunes – I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon

— Brain Damage, Pink Floyd