Movie Reviews - Brief Commentaries

Movie Reviews - Brief Commentaries

Cultural Criticism

2014.5.11. Predators (2010). Amazon. Wikipedia.

Predators (2010) DVD covers.

I watched Predators (2010) last night. It was about how the alien "predator" creatures magically whisk away some of Earth's biggest bad asses and land them on another planet that they use as their private hunting grounds. The Predators kill humans for sport. But they get more than they bargained for as a couple of humans are still alive after the last Predator is killed. The human group includes various trained killers from the military and organized crime.

The only way to enjoy the movie was to suspend your disbelief and enjoy the battle strategies and personal interactions among the various tough guys, gals, and alien dog creatures and predators. Thinking beyond this limted scope brought up too many unanswerable questions regarding the plausibility of any of this.

What did I like? I liked the various booby traps and self-defense measures taken by the combatants. In the modern world people have gotten too soft. It's important to at least fantasize about what it takes to survive under adversity. In a survival situation you find that not everyone makes it out alive. Adrien Brody's character (an ex-black ops guy) makes the call that Danny Trejo (drug cartel guy) is in a trap that will kill them all if they rescue him, so he decides to let him die rather than save him. Alice Braga (Guatemalan death squad survivor) shoots him to give him a merciful death (though we find that he was already dead, and that the calls for help in his own voice were being made by a nearby Predator). Another character is injured and then booby trapped to kill a Predator. We find that he was a bad guy and not deserving of life anyway, but still it was a difficult decision to make so that others could survive. A couple of characters go on suicide missions to kill Predators and are successful, though they too died in the process. This kind of heroism, though deadly, has its inspiration.

What didn't I like? How did these omniscient Predators know who the baddest people on Earth are so that they could bring them in a flash of light to another solar system's planet? Only Godlike powers could know that a guy on death row in a federal prison for rape should be selected as "game." Apparently, every few weeks more "game" are dropped via parachutes over the alien planet to be hunted. All the characters remember is a burst of light but nothing else about their instantaneous transfer across millions of light years. If the creatures are so powerful as to move effortlessly across the universe, wouldn't their tastes and pasttimes evolve as well? Would they still be addicted to such base acts of sadism and domination? That is a scary thought. Some people argue that the nuclear weaponized humanity of 2014 is no more evolved than the Neanderthals of past eons. I used to think that the brutality of the Middle Ages with its witch burnings and mass killings of tribal peoples was a thing of the past. But then I see our heavy metal ladened skies and the genetic altering of our food supply and I know that not only has nothing changed, but things have gotten worse. The characters were pretty much two-dimensional. But what do you expect in a videogame-like movie? I prefer more depth and intelligence in my science fiction. This movie was more of an action/horror flick. I learned about a plant that secreted a paralyzing fluid; but how was the doctor so familiar with it if this was truly an alien planet? It's best not to ask.

What's the spiritual angle here? The movie was a waste of my time, and that I took a couple of precious hours to watch it is evidence of there being multiple things in my life that I don't want to look at or deal with. The movie, at least for me, resulted in a loss of spiritual reserves. The hope is that by numbing myself that the pain is eased; but it is not. Unattended to, the pain deepens. The movie, I suppose, does make a case for Maslowe's hierarchy: That is, you won't be meditating or self-actualizing when "Predators" (used as a metaphor for anything bringing you down) are attacking you. If you want to grow and make the world a better place, then such dark antagonists much be dealt with squarely and dispensed with.

My mind has grown increasingly distracted and bored the last few years. I rarely take the time to comment on anything. I am glad that I made the time for this.

2016.9.16. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). DC Comics. Wikipedia.

It took me about a week to slog through this movie. It was dark and uninspiring. More and more movies are rendering fictional and cartoonish the divine potentials within the human body. We live in a world populated by obese voyeurs affixed to their couches, whose spiritual aspirations are reduced to objectified, digitized images that can be viewed at one's convenience while eating genetically modified teevee dinners full of artificial texturizers and taste enhancers. The bifurcation of our species is taking place, just as Julian Huxley, the blue blood globalist, predicted. There will be a stunted, ugly, stupid population of sheeple; and there will be the supermen, History's Actors, who will appear Christ-like and genius by comparison. It is the latter people who will be taught that the media is a lie, that public education is a joke, and that modern agricultural and animal husbandry methods are unsound -- but that all these and other deceits are necessary for the subordination of the underclass. These "elites" will be trained to accept the pseudo-science of eugenics where there is no such thing as "Truth," and where science and public policy are reduced to Machievellian tools, whose principle function is to maintain the top 1/10th of 1 percent's power and control of the upper class. It's intentional and Godless. In such a world beauty and innocense are no longer possible.

There are a handful of things about the movie worth criticizing. First was its use of propaganda to support the lie we were told and shown regarding 9/11. In "Batman v Superman" there was a building collapse at the beginning, the result of an alien attack upon a city. From this single collapse arises a high plume of dust that darkens several city blocks. Similarly, on 9/11 we were told that the structural failure of a steel framed building results in a 500 foot tall plume of dust that coats the city, with melted steel framing, melted filing cabinets, melted cars for a block in all directions, but with tons of unscathed office paper floating around everywhere. This is what happened on 9/11, but it is unlike any other building collapse before or since. Cinderblock buildings might kick up some dust, but that is not the case with a modern steel building. Apart from the three buildings that collapsed on 9/11/2001, there had never -- and has never -- been a structural failure of a steel framed building. Jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel. Explosions were heard and felt at the lowest levels of the towers prior to the planes hitting. Squibs (pressurized smoke and air from interior explosions) and later, molten metal, were seen exiting windows at numerous levels. Why was there melting and deformation of cars 50 yards away? And what about the 1000 other discrepancies (pdf) not cited here that point to the event not being due to jet fuel, or in the case of Building 7, office fire. In any event, the Batman v Superman movie shows a massive plume of dust darkening the sky from a collapsed building, something that just doesn't happen in building collapses, apart from the treasonous acts carried on 9/11. So by showing viewers such a dust plume, we are being propagandized to accept as true and normal that which is deviant and false. I liken this propaganda to Disney's insertion of chemtrails into children's movies. It's called "conditioning." Scientists studied the dust from the area and found large quantities of military grade nano-thermite (pdf), a substance that cuts though steel framing like a hot knife through butter, burning at over 4000º F. It is this substance that likely pulverized the metal framing of the WTC skyscrapers.

The movie also had some obvious lines of geoengineering aerosol spraying. Hollywood must have the public view as normal that which is not.

There are scenes where Superman kills people with a fire streaming out of his eyes. I recall as a child something about Superman's having "x-ray" vision that enables him to see through anything that doesn't have a lead lining, like the x-ray technology in vogue at the present time for diagnosing bone fractures. I never liked the idea of using something that causes genetic damage in the service of routine medical "care," but that is where we are today. There is an extended scene toward the movie's conclusion where Superman and a green humanoid creature from the planet that Superman's original genetic code came from fight in a battle to the death. Both blast each other with the power emanating from their eyes. To me it was unsettling, as the eyes, in actuality, are a source of life giving, subtle sustenance. Eyes, it is said, are windows to the soul. Innocence, wisdom, and power are present in the eyes. Eyes are not instruments of death, as the movie argues, in its obvious bias toward the militaristic death culture permeating the "advanced" modern world. Laser weapons, though banned, are used covertly on select Muslim populations by Israeli and US forces. Laser weapons from space are now operational today, with all EMF harnessed in the service of financial and political exploitation of the world's nations and peoples. It would seem that the meme of "light as death" has taken hold, the opposite of Earth's many religious creation beliefs where God, in the beginning, said, "Let there be Light," which was a very good thing and allowed Life to emerge from the primal, inorganic darkness where perhaps transcendent Spirit existed, but nothing "alive," let alone complex life forms, had yet emerged. It is fitting that in what are perhaps Man's final days, given the destructive technological forces he as unleashed, that God's laws would be inverted.

My last criticism of the movie is that viewers are shown, once again, that a few lone agents of truth control the fate of the planet. It is not collective action that will alter our course, or protect our children; rather, it is a motley crew of genetically engineered aliens from outer space that we must cede our destiny to. I find this message self-defeating. The truth of the matter is that the 4% of the population that are sociopaths have joined together to control, dominate, and ultimately exterminate the comparatively peaceful 96% of remaining human beings on planet earth. Our true enemy is the professional liar class that controls Washington D.C., the City of London, New York City, and the halls of power worldwide. These are the people who worship technology and see fit to strip earth of its biodiversity and life-giving properties. While "soft-kill" weapons descend on us all (GMO, vaccines, heavy metal nanoparticles, etc.), and our self-preservation alarms should be sounding loudly, all we hear is the soft placating messaging piped into our homes from the Satanic media -- a "message" that is the functional equivalent of the gentle "hush" whispered to cattle being sent down the slaughterhouse chute. "But I was on the government's Universal Basic Income!" exclaim the victims as another bar of soylent green is made...

According to Yahoo,"Superman derived his invulnerability from his supercharged bioelectric 'aura' which acts as an invisible 'force field' around his body within a few millimeters from his skin, and presumably within his body as well." This seems like more fantastic hype to me. Spiritually, human beings are in contact with power that is infinite. However, as physical vessels or conduits for this power, we are limited. I've made reference elsewhere to the body's being able to derive sustenance from the ethers after having achieved an advanced state of consciousness or Kundalini development. But this doesn't mean that a physical body can be maintained indefinitely, or that the physical body can avoid decay and injury. Perhaps there is a yogic state by which a bullet can be repelled. I kind of doubt that, but who knows for sure what is possible, ultimately? It is more likely that a heightened condition can be utilized to repair the body more quickly after injury.

Three yogis levitating. I think this is wishful thinking and I don't know why Transcendental Meditation (TM) practicioners make such a big deal about it. The aspirant's focus should be upon the soaring of one's inner spirit and not physical manifestations or "siddhis" of spiritual attainment like this. Maybe walking through walls and teleportation are possible; but in my opinion such feats won't be achieved if the aim of one's practice is some physical achievement like this. The greatest fruits flow to those whose deepest aspiration is love and the salvation of all beings.

2016.10.22. Ridley Scott's "The Martian" (2015).

Please remind me to review Ridley Scott's (2015) "The Martian" where artificially aerosolized skies plague the sky. The gullible masses will see this and think to themselves, "Hey, if skies look like that on Mars, then what I am seeing on Earth must be natural!" It is said that propaganda works best on moral cowards, people who want a reason to continue to deny reality.

2016. saw trailer JK Rowlings magic in NYC

2017.6.30.

Miss Hokusai (2015)

Last night I finished watching Miss Hokusai, directed by Keiichi Hara, an anime film that takes place in 1800 Japan centering around the revered painter "Hokusai" and his equally gifted, though comparatively unknown daughter, O-Ei.

The movie's pace was slow and absorbing. My consciousness was not scattered to the winds as happens so often with the choppy edits and blaring soundtracks of today's moving image productions. Miss Hokusai had no music at all. What you heard was wind blowing, feet walking, kimonos shuffling, human conversations, the movement of a paintbrush across canvas, and silence. I found myself intrigued by the clacking of Hokusai's wooden-soled sandals, wondering whether I would find them comfortable to wear. Scenes where O-Ei was painting were austere, with nothing that might distract from the viewer's immersion in the moment's creative flow.

The illustrations were rich and visually appealing. The clothing. The sky. The landscape. There was a vibrancy and vitality that made it easy to pay attention. However, compared to Westerners, there was a lack of facial expression that reflected the muted emotional affect of the characters. I found that it forced viewers to gaze more into the characters' eyes for discernment of emotional tone or meaning. Overall, the lack of self-expression reflected a culture that demonstrates greater self control that, given many of the excesses of the West, can provide a helpful counterbalance.

Geoengineering. There were at least some natural clouds in Miss Hokusai; and the sky was a deep blue, which is a rarity in the modern age, even when the skies haven't been sprayed. I began to think that the movie would avoid the geoengineering propaganda inserted into 95% of Hollywood productions, including the industry's high definition remastering of older movies, seeking to normalize the highly unnatural "clouds" we are expected to take for granted today, but I was mistaken. Later in the movie there are several scenes where the billowy cumulous is replaced with straggly cobweb-like clouds that I never saw 20 years ago. I believe that Hiyao Miyasaki, another Japanese anime director, uses only natural clouds. I thank him for that. But he shares Hara's focus on historical pieces that showcase the comparative simplicity and naturalness of pre-wireless technological society.

The film has no high tech gadgets or wireless devices. No cell phones. No cars. No neon lights. It is heartening to be reminded of the relaxed pace and human-centeredness that characterized life in this period. Digital screens have taken over human consciousness for the most part today. This has deformed the way our consciousness interacts with other people and the world as a whole. Given my own extreme allergy to the "wireless revolution," I can't help but be enchanted by these visions of a more innocent and physically healthful period in humanity's development.

Miss Hokusai's characters are deeply absorbed in what they are doing. They are not distracted as is the norm today. They look at something and retain their focus for far longer than is typically observed in the modern period. [Studies have shown that the human attention span, since the advent of the "digital revolution" and our reliance on computers and "smart" phones, has dropped to just 8 seconds (*), or below the 9 second attention span of a goldfish.] O-Ei is shown working all night on her art. She displays an intense dedication to her work that you just don't see these days. The modern socialist Welfare state has produced 100's of millions of people who expect their needs to be met while doing nothing in return. This affects people's work ethic -- and even their attention spans, I would argue.

When O-Ei attempts to draw a dragon, it is implied that she must merge with a higher power -- a spirit world, if you will -- to tap into the ability to fully communicate the essence of this magical beast. It takes hours of intense focus, and the blessings of a higher power, to achieve this. This aspiration to merge, in order to reveal a deeper level of reality, points to everyone, both artist and non-artist, having to be dedicated, industrious and receptive to the profound consciousness that surrounds and forms us. People today, with their constant access to the Internet, expect solutions and work to be completed immediately. If something takes more than a few seconds to figure out, interest wanes. The need for immediate gratification shortchanges us. It has been shown that quiet and boredom stimulate brain growth because the brain is forced to find new and deeper means of entertainment. Unstructured, unsupervised play among children in the outdoors leads to increased creativity and resourcefulness. Such experiences lay the foundation for the kind of sustained artisitic effort that we see in Miss Hokusai. Today, children are given electronic devices to stimulate them ceaselessly from age two on up. No downtime or pauses are allowed. Today people fear silence.

Today not even cars have escaped desecration. Cars historically have been the domain of boredom and an important location to hone your skills at self-stimulation. But today's parents have prevented that by installing movie screens that prevent one second of down time -- or social interaction -- to emerge in the course of a ten-hour trip. Maybe this is because children today are brain damaged from vaccines and can no longer access the stillness within. Or maybe it's due to 60% of adults being on prescription medications due to depression, pain, and a variety of other ailments, and thus are incapable of bonding with others. Whatever the case, the long history of self-inquiry and self-direction and self-engagement is long dead in America today, even moreso in the American car.

silence, coloring don't like, sing songs,

in the children have access to movie screens to keep their neurons firing in a passive, superficial mode. There is no depth. If we want a more compassionate and creative culture, we need more boredom and opportunities for day dreaming.

Onao, a young, blind, sickly girl is O-Ei's sister. It was touching to see her simple pleasure in playing in the snow, going for a boatride, and smelling different smells in old Tokyo. Her blindness gave her heightened sensitivity in other areas. She could sense a praying mantis 50 feet away. Hara emphasized the child's dependence on other's was emphasized. It is important for people to be aware of the importance of their supportive parental and sibling roles. When Onao dies near the end a great wind bursts through Hokusai's home, blowing about hundreds of his paintings that had been set loosely in piles. This points to the connection of human spirit to the natural world, and the heightened forces at play in life (and death). In order for that connection to be honored we cannot mask or substitute the natural world for its digitised imitiation.

Miss Hokusai's view on sexuality is interesting. O-Ei's father criticizes her erotic paintings, especially the male subjects, due to her lack of experience with men. There are several conversations where the local brothels are referred to, almost reverentially. O-Ei visits one of these where she encounters a transvestite geisha. The geisha has a regal, larger than life demeanor. There was a level of respect and mystery afforded to plyers of the sex trade that is demeaned and ignored in the West. The geisha's spirit wanders the town at night, and O-Ei, her father, and another man are invited into the bedroom to observe his spirit's departure from his body. Later, O-Ei and the geisha spend the night together. The geisha speaks of the many monks and other important members of the community that he services. O-Ei appears to be a virgin, and after the male geisha overcomes her refusal to make love, he promptly falls asleep on her without consumating the act. O-Ei blushes when she is near a handsome, older, prominent artist. Though he acts kindly toward her, nothing more comes of it. O-Ei becomes jealous when sees him one evening on a date with another woman. I don't know what exactly to say about the "sexuality" portrayed throughout. Sex appears to be important to Japanese life, but it doesn't dominate all aspects of a person's personality. The characters appeared controlled and focused, with "sex" being kept in its appropriate box awaiting the correct time and place. In my life I have celebrated spontaneity and passion breaking down walls between this area and that in your life. There has been an emphasis on impulsivity, self-involvement, and a lack of self-restraint. While this is still my focus, and my remedy for a broken, downtrodden society, it can lead to problems, especially in employment where you can be accused of "crossing the line" in terms of speech or behavior. I still think it's important not to shut down your innate energy that seeks self-expression. Sometimes you pay a price for it, sometimes you don't. But you can't go wrong, in the big picture, in honoring the native, spontaneous spark within you. Having said that, it is important to cultivate the capacity for sustained, intense concentration. The focus and self-discipline of the characters in Miss Hokusai are integral to any attempt to delve into the deepest recesses of our being. But there is a polarity and synergy in this where liberated energy from other spheres of one's life are turned inward via concentration and focus; and the more expansive and spontaneous you are in the rest of your life, the deeper and more intently you can plumb your inner creative and spiritual world.

Miss Hokusai was just a wholesome, complete slice of life. The movie was what it was. The perfection it pointed to laid beneath the plot and actions it contained. Hokusai neglected his blind daughter because he didn't like to be around sickly people. Hokusai was absorbed in his art and chose not to live with his estranged wife. O-Ei had a stupid, obnoxious men who expressed affection for her, but she wanted a more refined man, who was also a painter, but she found him with a more beautiful and less socially awkward young woman. O-Ei was given an expensive ticket to the kabuki theater, but she threw it in the river when she saw the man of her dreams with another woman who also attended. O-Ei narrates the last few minutes of the movie, describing how she ended up getting married, but then left that marriage to return to her father's home to continue her art. The little blind girl dies, though in the preceding scene O-Ei and her mother were certain that the little girl would live.

No one is terribly ecstatic, and use geishas and saki to let it out.

As all of Edo flocks to see the work of the revered painter Hokusai, his daughter O-Ei toils diligently inside his studio. Her masterful portraits, dragons and erotic sketches- sold under the name of her father- are coveted by upper crust Lords and journeyman print makers alike. Shy and reserved in public, in the studio O-Ei is as brash and uninhibited as her father, smoking a pipe while sketching drawings that would make contemporary Japanese ladies blush. But despite this fiercely independent spirit, O-Ei struggles under the domineering influence of her father and is ridiculed for lacking the life experience that she is attempting to portray in her art.

Comments

We touch our phones 2,617 times a day (*) on average, says study. Heavier users touch their phones 5,427 times a day. TruthStream Media: 5 Ways Smart Phones Are Dumbing People Down. You Now Have a Shorter Attention Span Than a Goldfish (*). Also, per a recent Microsoft study, human attention span is now at about 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds 15 years ago, and below that of a goldfish (9 seconds). go for a digital detox

Time for digital detox? Searching for Wi-Fi becomes normal vacation behavior (*)

25% of Americans would give up sex before they give up Wi-Fi

"41 percent of respondents said that they choose locations when traveling based on what will look good on social media." "Half of people spend more than one hour searching for a Wi-Fi hotspot at their destination, and “What’s the Wi-Fi password” is now as important a phrase to learn in a host's native language as “Hello” and “Thank you,” ..." "But “life is not meant to be lived through your phone,” Sadowski says. And indeed, the survey found that 24 percent had tripped, fallen or walked into something while looking at their phones." http://www.networkworld.com/article/3072912/mobile-wireless/time-for-digital-detox-searching-for-wi-fi-becomes-normal-vacation-behavior.html

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