Category: Movie review

Movie Review: Dune, part 2

The novel ‘Dune’, by author Frank Herbert is, like Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ and Martin’s ‘A Game of Thrones’ best known for the author’s ability to convincingly create a world unlike anything the book’s readers have ever experienced. The world of ‘Dune’ takes place about 9,000 years from now when humanity has spread to a number of different star systems. Interstellar travel is only possible however, thanks to a mystical drug known as ‘spice’, which can only be found on the desert world called Arrakis.

Poster for the Movie Dune, Part 2 (Credit: GadgetMates)

How the ‘spice’ works is never fully explained, suffice it to say that ‘spice’ is a hallucingenic, mind expanding drug, of the sort that were all the rage back in the 1960s when ‘Dune’ was written. Obviously this ‘spice’ is the most valuable and sought after commodity in the known universe. ‘Dune’ is about the political intrigues and violent conflicts over control of the ‘spice’.

Back in the 1960s many people, including respected scientists, thought that hallucinogenic drugs could open our minds to new possibilities, new modes of thought. The results didn’t quite live up to the hype. (Credit: Amazon.com)

Now world building of this sort takes time and a lot of attention to details, which is why stories like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘A Game of Thrones’ are really long books, so long in fact that they are usually cut into several books. The original ‘Dune’ remained as one book but Frank Herbert and his son have written a number of sequels that take place on the desert world Arrakis.

The original Dune novel was so popular that author Frank Herbert had to turn it into a trilogy. Dune Messiah the movie is currently under consideration by the producers of Dune pt. 1&2. (Credit: Amazon.com)

Still, trying to turn a large work like ‘Dune’ into a single movie is a recipe for disaster as was demonstrated by the Dino de Laurentiis version in 1984, well known in SF circles as something to be laughed at despite having some really good actors in it. In order to come in under budget the special effects were childish and there was simply not enough time to really enter the world of ‘Dune’.

Poster for the 1984 version of Dune. The entire book in only 2 hours with some of the worst special effects I’ve ever see did not make for a good movie! (Credit: Wikipedia)

The producers of the latest version of ‘Dune’ recognized this problem and so they immediately decided to split ‘Dune’ into two movies, each longer than the entire 1984 version. What they didn’t recon with was the covid-19 pandemic, which forced the two parts of ‘Dune’ to be released 3 years apart.

Poster for Dune Part 1 which you’d better see before watching part 2! (Credit: Medium)

In Part 1, Duke Atreides has been granted the planet Arrakis by the Emperor, played by Christopher Walken, to replace Baron Harkonnen, played by Stellan Skarsgard, because the Baron has failed to put down a insurrection by the native people of Arrakis known as the Fremen. The takeover is really a trap however because the Emperor is jealous of the Duke’s influence with the other noble houses. Thanks to treachery the Harkonnens attack and destroy the Atreides, only the Duke’s wife Jessica, played by Rebecca Ferguson, and young son Paul, played by Timothȇe Chalamet, manage to escape into the desert. There’s a lot more to Part 1 then that but I don’t want to give too much away.

In part 1 of Dune the family Atreides takes control of the planet Arrakis from their enemies the family Harkonnen. Needless to say the Harkonnen’s are looking for some revenge. (Credit: The Gamer)

I do have to mention the giant worms that inhabit the deserts of Arrakis however. These animals attack anything that causes a vibration and can easily destroy almost anything they can reach, making the harvesting of the ‘spice’ quite dangerous. Anyway Part 1 ends with Paul and his mother making contact with and being tentatively accepted by the Fremen.

At the end of part 1 Paul (far right) and his mother Jessica (far left) are on the run from the Harkonnen when they meet up with a group of the native Fremen. (Credit: The Gamer)

In part two Paul and Jessica learn Fremen ways, including how to actually ride the giant worms. At the same time the Harkonnens begin an offensive against the Fremen meant to eliminate them. Part 2 is therefore the story of the fight between the Harkonnen, backed by the Emperor and the Fremen with Paul and Jessica gaining power within Fremen society.

One of the best parts in Dune the novel is Herbert’s description of how you get on a worm in order to ride it. But getting off again is probably every bit as dangerous and never described at all! (Credit:Great Freakin Robot)

On top of all the political intrigue and battles there’s a heavy coating of religious mysticism in ‘Dune’. Everybody has prophecies, the Bene Gesserit sisterhood have their prophecy of a superman type, the Fremen have their prophecy of a saviour etc, etc. The question is, is Paul the one who was foretold?

Paul being ‘tested’ by the BeneGesserit Reverend Mother in Part 1. From the very beginning of Dune Paul is treated as as sort of Messianic figure by several of the religious cults in different societies in Dune. (Credit: Polygon)

While the special effects in ‘Dune Part 2’ are quite good I do have a couple of criticisms. For one thing the editing is a bit annoying, Paul has many visions during the story and it’s often hard to tell reality from vision, you can get quite confused if you’re not paying attention and aren’t familiar with the story. Some of the acting isn’t great as well, particularly  Timothȇe Chalamet who seems to be sleepwalking a good part of the time. Finally, as I mentioned above the novel really glosses over how interstellar travel works, well in ‘Dune Part2’ it’s completely ignored, I believe it was mentioned briefly in part 1.

In the novel Dune the Guild of Navigators who pilot ships between the stars are so deformed by the spice that they are hardly human. This is badly explained in the novel but almost completely ignored in the movies Dune 1&2. (Credit: Pinterest)

Those are a few of my problems with the movie ‘Dune Part2’ but I have to be honest, I’ve always had a few problems with the novel Dune ever since I first read it back in the 70s. First of all, on the desert world Arrakis, where do the worms get enough food to grow so big? Second, and more importantly, if the ‘spice’ is absolutely necessary for interstellar travel, something that again is never really explained, how did humanity ever get to Arrakis in the first place to discover the ‘spice’? I know that’s nitpicking but in a story that pays so much attention to detail in the rituals of the various societies portrayed, those questions leave quite a big hole to me.

One thing that spice does it turn your eyes blue! Everyone who lives on Arrakis for a while gets this effect. (Credit: YouTube)

Nevertheless ‘Dune’ is a classic of Science Fiction and it deserved a decent treatment as a movie. So go see ‘Dune Part2’, but only after seeing part 1, otherwise you’ll be completely confused as to what is going on.

Movie Review: ‘Godzilla Minus One’

Best Godzilla movie ever! And I’ve seen them all.

Poster for the release in Japan of ‘Godzilla Minus One’. (Credit: IMDb)

O’k I’ll go into a little more detail. As a personal aside I’d like to let everyone know that Godzilla and I are the same age. I made my premier in Philadelphia just a month and a couple of days before the Toho studio film ‘Gojira’ (1954), which is the big green guy’s name in Japanese, made its premier in Tokyo.

Poster for the 1954 release in Japan of ‘Gojira’, the original Godzilla! (Credit: Wikipedia)

In that first film Godzilla was a prehistoric creature, a dinosaur released from suspended animation by, and mutated by the first atomic bombs and tests. The film was intended as an allegory on the existential threat of nuclear weapons.

Back in the 1950s the world was terrified by the threat of nuclear war. Maybe we have become a little too blase’ about it nowadays! (Credit: The New York Times)

Like all of us Godzilla has had his ups and downs. Starting with his third film ‘King Kong versus Godzilla’ (1962) Toho started teaming Godzilla with other monsters. In the film ‘Ghidorah’ (1964) Godzilla becomes a ‘good guy’ protecting the Earth, if not necessarily mankind, from the title monster.

In the movie ‘Ghidorah, the three headed Monster’ Godzilla becomes an anti-hero, protecting the Earth if not necessarily humanity. (Credit: Gojipedia)

For the next few movies Godzilla became not only more heroic but more of a child’s character, with the 1970s representing Godzilla’s low point. For the 30th anniversary of ‘Gojira’ Toho studio released the film ‘Godzilla 1984’ where the monster becomes once again, well a monster. Since that time the Toho films have kept Godzilla a fearsome monster even when he fights against other, more destructive monsters.

Throughout his long career, Godzilla has shifted back and forth between a destructive force of nature and an anti-hero. Personally I prefer the former. (Credit: Behance)

Starting in 2014 an American studio, Legendary Pictures, has begun a series of Godzilla movies in cooperation with Toho in Japan. In those movies Godzilla is portrayed as an anti-hero, protecting the Earth from any and all threats, both other monsters and even human beings.

In the American made ‘Godzilla versus Kong’ the two mighty beasts start out as enemies but in the end combine forces to defeat Mechagodzilla. (Credit: IMDb)

‘Godzilla minus One’ is all Toho however and in fact the film is being shown here in America in Japanese with English subtitles, the only way to truly experience Godzilla. The movie starts in the final days of World War II with a Japanese Kamikaze pilot named Koichi Shikishima, nicely played by Ryunosuke Kamiki, who has decided to abandon his suicide mission and stay alive rather than sacrifice himself for a lost cause. Claiming that his plane is malfunctioning he lands on Odo Island where a Japanese repair base is located. While the repair crew checks out the plane they are all attacked by a dinosaur-like creature, ‘Godzilla’.  When told to use his plane’s guns to kill the beast Koichi again saves himself, while most of the technicians are killed by the creature.

Godzilla Minus One is as much about how the defeated people of Japan started to rebuild their broken country as it is a monster movie.(Credit: The Montclarion)

Rescued from the island Koichi returns to a defeated Japan whose citizens are trying to rebuild their country from the devastation of the war. This human story is probably the best plot for a Godzilla movie ever, clearly showing the trauma to the Japanese people caused by their defeat and Koichi’s shame at his cowardice. Their government’s adherence to a code of honour and victory had made defeat seem impossible so the reality of their situation is incomprehensible to them. 

The Bushido code that the people of Japan lived by before WW2. It’s the code of a warrior and you’ll notice that there’s nothing here about just living a good, peaceful life. (Credit: The Comic Vault)

At the same time the creature Godzilla gets caught up in the atomic bomb test at Bikini atoll in 1946. The radiation of the bomb causes the creature to not only grow much larger but it also acquires the ability to regenerate along with a heat ray that it can fire from its mouth. If the war has brought Japan back down to zero, Godzilla will now take it to minus one, that’s the meaning of the movie’s title.

To my mind Godzilla is at his best when he’s just a force of nature, like an Earthquake or Tsunami. A creature beyond Good and Evil. (Credit: Deadline)

I do consider ‘Godzilla minus One’ to be the best Godzilla movie ever, even better than the original ‘Gojira’ from 1954, for two reasons. For one thing the special effects are some of the best I’ve ever seen. Several times in these posts I know I’ve complained about CGI looking rather cartoonish but the CGI in ‘Godzilla minus One’ is really good. Now I know it’s not fair to compare the special effects of a movie from 70 years ago to those of a movie today but still the fact is that the effects in ‘Godzilla minus One’ are really good. The battle scenes in particular.

In ‘Godzilla Minus One’ the mixture of live action with CGI is about the best I’ve seen. (Credit: Pajiba)

The other reason I think ‘Godzilla minus One’ is the best is the allegory. As I said above in ‘Gojira’ the monster is an allegory for nuclear weapons and warfare in general. Even so the original movie still displays a belief in self sacrifice and ‘a noble death’ when the scientist Serizawa uses his discovery of an ‘oxygen destroyer’ to kill Gojira but then sacrifices himself to prevent his discovery from causing further destruction.

Ideas like this have caused much of the suffering in the world. The only true defeat is death and we all die eventually so the best thing to do is to live and only fight to preserve life. (Credit: A-Z Quotes)

In ‘Godzilla minus One’ the monster is still the same allegory but the people of Japan only fight it to save themselves. There’s no sense of glory or honour, nothing remains of the ‘Bushido code’ that Imperial Japan once sacrificed itself to. To me that change of attitude is a good thing, a philosophy the world needs to hear right now.

The only legitimate reason to fight is to end fighting and persecution. (Credit: The Seattle Times)

I do have one little complaint however. In order to keep the fight against Godzilla a Japanese only thing the movie states that ‘tensions’ between the US and the USSR prevent the US from taking action against Godzilla. That’s a bit of a lame excuse, especially since at that time Japan was occupied by about four divisions of US Army troops and Japan was actually ruled by General Douglas MacArthur. The Japanese people at that time actually referred to MacArthur as their Shogun and at least the General is mentioned in the film.

After the defeat of Japan US general Douglas MacArthur ruled the country for several years pretty much as a dictator backed by American occupation troops. Here he is with the Japanese Emperor Hirohito. (Credit: PBS)

So all in all I give ‘Godzilla minus One’ my highest approval. Yes it’s true I’ve always loved monster movies but ‘Godzilla minus One’ is also a serious movie taking on important ideas even while the title character is stomping on cities.

Movie Review: Oppenheimer

Any regular reader of this blog would have to expect that I would be seeing, and reviewing the new film ‘Oppenheimer’ as soon as possible. After all, the development of the atomic bomb, and the man (played by actor Cillian Murphy) who directed that development, are watershed moments in the history of science in general, and physics in particular.

Poster for the Christopher Nolan film ‘Oppenheimer’. (Credit: Goelevent.com)

Now, ‘Oppenheimer’ is not the film industry’s first attempt at telling the story of the Manhattan Project, to use the code word for the building of the first nuclear weapon. Shortly after World War 2 the film ‘The Beginning, or the End’ was the first while two other notable efforts are ‘Fat Man and Little Boy’ along with the TV movie ‘Day One’. There’s even a grand operatic telling of the story, ‘Doctor Atomic’ by the composer John Adams.

In the opera ‘Doctor Atomic’ Oppenheimer is a tenor while General Groves is a bass. Still it’s another version of the story of the bomb! (Credit: IMDb)

Those movies concentrated on the building of the bomb however while ‘Oppenheimer’ deals much more closely with the man. Based upon the book ‘American Prometheus’ by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin, Christopher Nolan’s film includes portions of Oppenheimer’s life both before the war, and more tragically after.

Cillian Murphy plays Oppenheimer in the movie based upon the book ‘American Prometheus’ by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin. (Credit: Men’s Health)

As a director Christopher Nolan likes to use the time-skipping, stream of consciousness style, in ‘Oppenheimer’ we are actually present at the Atomic Energy Commission’s review of Oppenheimer’s security clearance in 1954 and that hearing is then used as a setting for a series of flashbacks into portions of Oppenheimer’s life.

Stream of Consciousness may be the way our brains actually work but it is a very difficult writing, or film making style on both the author and audience. (Credit: ProwritingAid)

Beginning with a tour of Europe by the new doctor of Physics Oppenheimer meets other important physicists like Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg while learning about the new physics being developed in the 1920s. It’s also during this time that Oppenheimer becomes acquainted with American Physicist I. I. Rabi (played by David Krumholtz) who became a great friend of Oppenheimer but who rarely gets mentioned in stories about the Manhattan Project for reasons I will discuss in a little while.

A leader in the post WW2 generation of physicists I. I. Rabi received the Nobel Prize for his description of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance making possible the modern MRI. (Credit: Wikipedia)

After learning the secrets of Quantum Mechanics in Europe Oppenheimer returns to the US where he joined the faculty of UC Berkeley and became the theoretical counterpoint to experimentalist Ernst Lawrence (played by Josh Hartnett). The gentle antagonism between these two was actually one of my favourite parts of the movie.

Ernest Lawrence and his cyclotron, the first in a long series of ‘atom smashers’ leading to today’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. (Credit: Facebook)

While at Berkeley Oppenheimer also becomes involved with left-wing politics, his brother, his wife (played by Emily Blunt) and several close friends were all one-time members of the communist party although Oppenheimer himself never joined. These associations would later prove to be Oppenheimer’s downfall.

Fueled by the depression during the 1930s the Communist Party of America attracted many followers including many in academia. (Credit: Marxists Internet Archive)

The central portion of ‘Oppenheimer’ is of course his years as the scientific director of the Manhattan Project and leading scientist at Los Alamos labouratory. Oppenheimer was chosen for the position over several Nobel laureates by General Leslie Groves (Played by Matt Damon) for reasons that are still a bit murky, Groves just seemed to trust Oppenheimer more than the other, more prestigious physicists. Unlike the other versions of this story in ‘Oppenheimer’ Enrico Fermi and the other scientists at the University of Chicago have minor roles simply because they rarely interacted with Oppenheimer.

Constructed beneath the handball courts at the University of Chicago the first nuclear reactor was a critical step in the Manhattan Project but since Oppenheimer had little to do with the reactor it only appears for one brief scene in the movie. (Credit: Smithsonian Magazine)

Although I knew very well many of the details of the development of the A-bomb director Nolan still managed to make this portion of the movie engrossing and at times thrilling. Even though many filmgoers would be unfamiliar with nuclear physics and might be confused by such terms as isotopes, implosion and critical mass Nolan refused to turn his movie into a science lecture. ‘Oppenheimer’ is about the people who believed they were doing the right thing by building the most powerful weapon ever rather than the actual science of building a bomb. All the scientists at that time believed that the Nazi were also working on a bomb and were certain that with such men as Heisenberg the Germans had a 12-18 month head start.

Werner Heisenberg (r) led the German atomic bomb but because Hitler (l) considered modern physics to be ‘Jewish Science’ the German program never got much support and at the end of the war Heisenberg had barely started building a reactor. (Credit: First Curiosity)

After the war, and after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many of those who worked on the Manhattan Project hoped to find some way to prevent an arms race, to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, to ‘put the nuclear genie back in the bottle’. In particular Oppenheimer’s opposition to the development of the even more powerful Hydrogen Bomb made him a number of enemies among the anti-communist politicians of the early 1950s. One in particular was Lewis Strauss (Played by Robert Downey Jr.) head of the Atomic Energy Commission. It was Strauss who orchestrated the hearings on Oppenheimer’s security clearance, using Oppenheimer’s known associations with communist party members back in the 1930s to question his loyalty. Many people today believe that it was the rescinding of his clearance that broke Oppenheimer, he stayed well out of the public eye for the rest of his life, but perhaps it was simply the final straw.

Security’s twin gods of ‘Clearance’ and ‘Need to Know’ are recurring themes in ‘Oppenheimer’. Who gets clearance and who doesn’t is often a matter of politics as much as loyalty to America. (Credit: Advantis Global)

My one complaint about ‘Oppenheimer’ deals with the portrayal of physicist I. I. Rabi. As I mentioned above Rabi is rarely mentioned in other stories about the first atomic bomb because despite his friendship with Oppenheimer he refused to join the Manhattan Project. In ‘Oppenheimer’ however Rabi plays a large role and the movie actually includes the scene where Rabi turns down Oppenheimer’s request to work on the project. In fact the movie seems to imply that Rabi was a pacifist who did not contribute to America’s war effort.

The Manhattan Project was not the United States’ only top secret program during WW2. The Radiation Lab at MIT produced a large number of radar systems that not only detected enemy aircraft but submarines along with radar trackers for naval guns and anti-aircraft weapons. (Credit: Google Arts and Culture)

Nothing could be further from the truth. Rabi was a central figure at MIT’s Radiation Labouratory developing the radar systems that gave the allies a tremendous advantage over the axis powers. After the war Rabi was known to say, “The Atomic Bomb may have ended the War, but Radar won it!” 

Still the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did end the war and for good or ill started the nuclear age. (Credit: The Conversation)
Prometheus Bound by Peter Rubens. The Greeks understood how we often punish those who try to help us! (Credit: Wikipedia)

As a film ‘Oppenheimer’ is a great achievement, a thought provoking view on one of the most important moments in history and the man at the center of it. The acting is simply superb, the effects outstanding, the direction taught and engrossing. ‘Oppenheimer’ is just one of the best movies to come along in a long time so go see it. In Greek mythology Prometheus stole fire from heaven and brought it to men. For that the Gods chained him to a rock and tortured him for eternity. Oppenheimer’s greatest achievement, along with how he was treated afterwards, mirrors the Prometheus story in many ways.

 

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

As I’m sure everyone knows, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny is the fifth and latest movie adventure of the archaeologist character Indiana Jones who first appeared in ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ way back in 1981. It is also the last adventure according to its 81-year-old star Harrison Ford, which means that everyone concerned with making the movie had an extra incentive to try to go out on a high note.

The first and still the best. Raiders of the Lost Ark set a standard for action movies that has never been surpassed. (Credit: Fathom Events)

To let you all know, I’m a big Indiana Jones fan, I consider ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’ to be the best action movie ever made. I also really liked both the second and third Indiana Jones movies, ‘Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom’ and ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. At the same time I really didn’t like the forth movie, ‘Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skulls’ known to my friends and I as ‘Indiana Jones and the Movie that should never have been Made’. Those facts should give you some idea of just how honest my opinion about ‘Dial of Destiny’ will be.

Every Indiana Jones movie actually contains two stories, before going after the ark of the Covenant in Egypt Indy first spent half an hour searching in South American to find a golden idol. (Credit: Empire Online)

‘Dial of Destiny’ begins in the last days of World War 2 with Indy and another archaeologist, Basil Shaw played by actor Toby Jones, trying to prevent the Nazis from stealing various historical artifacts, one in particular being the head of the spear that pierced Jesus as he hung from the cross. That artifact turns out to be a fake but at the same time Basil recognizes another as the Antikythera, a mysterious clockwork like mechanism that was found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Mediterranean in 1901 and is dated to sometime before about 80BCE. Of course Indiana Jones succeeds in defeating the Nazis and rescuing the Antikythera.

Indiana Jones seems to be at his best when he’s up against the Nazis. Three of the five movies have everybody’s favourite bad guys as the villains. (Credit: IMDb)

   One of the most interesting aspects of ‘Dial of Destiny’ occurs during this opening segment for while Indiana Jones was still fairly young during WW2 actor Harrison Ford who plays him is now 81. So while Ford did the acting the producers employed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) imaging program to make his face look young, using Ford’s previous outings as Indiana Jones as a guide. The effect works surprisingly well, Harrison Ford looks young in this opening segment and in some ways that’s a bit terrifying. Think about it, what does the future hold, will we see Humphrey Bogart staring in the next ‘Star Wars’ installment, will the entire original crew of ‘Star Trek’ be brought back from the dead to act in new episodes written by an AI generated version of D.C. Fontana? (Yea, I know a couple of them are still alive but they’re old!!!!). In fact the use of AI in films is one of the big issues that led to the current strike by the actor’s union!

Harrison Ford was 81 years old when he filmed this scene. He doesn’t look it thanks to AI! (Credit: Slash Film)

 After defeating the Nazis in the opening the story skips ahead about 25 years to 1969. Here Professor Henry Jones, to use Indy’s real name, is a retiring teacher at a New York City University and obviously none to happy about that fact. In fact Indiana’s life is a bit of a mess, his son has died, apparently in Vietnam and his wife Marion, played by Karen Allen in both the first and fourth movies, is divorcing him. Here the 81-year-old Ford does some poignant acting showing the misery of someone who has all the time in the world on their hands but who really doesn’t think they have much of a future ahead of them.

In a later scene we see the real Harrison Ford sans AI. Dial of Destiny does give Indy the chance to grow old while still displaying the heroics that we’ve all come to expect. (Credit: Syracuse.com)

Indiana’s retirement doesn’t last long however for Basil’s daughter Helena, played by actress Phoebe Waller-Bridge, shows up with the idea of finding the other half of the Antikythera and putting the two together. Before Indy can crack his whip he’s off on another daring adventure, fighting Nazis who want to refight WW2 and unearthing ancient secrets. I’ll stop my description at this point so as not to give away too many spoilers.

The three main pieces of the Antikythera mechanism. The use of gears in the ancient work was a shock when the mechanism was brought up from a shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. (Credit: Encyclopedia Britannica)

I would like to take a minute or two to discuss the actual Antikythera however, for there really is a mysterious mechanism that was brought up from a Greco-Roman shipwreck back in 1901. In the movie the Antikythera is in perfect working order, ready to do whatever it was made to do. In reality however two thousand years on the seafloor has left the artifact so corroded that it is never going to work again. As to why the Antikythera is such a mysterious object, simply put, it’s a gearbox, the sort of mechanism that you’ll find in an old watch or the transmission of your car. Most archaeologists agree that the Antikythera is a kind of clock designed to follow the motion of the Sun and Moon across the sky.

What we think the Antikythera mechanism originally looked like. The device was probably used as both a calendar and for keeping track of where celestial objects where in the sky. (Credit: Nature)

Prior to the discovery of the Antikythera historians didn’t think such gear based technology had been invented until about the 14th century yet the Antikythera is at least 1500 years older. Also, in the movie it is simply accepted that the Antikythera was made by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes. Well, aside from the time being about right there is no evidence at all to link the Antikythera to Archimedes.

Archimedes of Syracuse was one of the giants of the ancient world. (Credit: Slideshare)
But what he is best known for today is taking a bath! Eureka! (Credit: Englesberg Ideas)

So, is ‘Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny’ a good movie? Is it a worthy final chapter to the Indiana Joes saga? I think so, the movie manages to maintain a roller coaster pace of thrills and chills even while allowing Harrison Ford to play a guy who’s getting too old for this shit. The movie is a bit of a nostalgia trip, I wouldn’t recommend it as a first Indiana Jones movie to see. Nevertheless ‘Indiana Jones’ is a fun two and a half hours with a character we’ve all grown to love. All in all ‘Dial of Destiny’ is a good way to say goodbye to Indiana Jones.   

Movie Review: Chevalier

As the movie ‘Chevalier’ begins we are attending a musical performance in late 18th century France. A small orchestra, by today’s standards, is on stage while front and center a young man is playing a solo violin while also conducting. As the concerto ends the young man introduces himself as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and asks if anyone in the audience has a request, something that never happens at a concert today.

The composer Mozart actually lived with the Chevalier de Saint-Georges for a summer while he visited Paris. I expect the two musicians played together quite often. (Credit: Classic FM)

A voice from the back asks if he could accompany Mozart. When the famous composer agrees a young black man, dressed as a French Nobleman steps on stage. Mozart is rather surprised, “Is this a jest’, “Who put you up to this?” he asks. Willing to go along with what he thinks is a joke Mozart being to play a cadenza, the black man quickly follows suit and the two violinists are soon deep in a musical duel. After a few minutes Mozart realizes that his opponent is a little bit better than he is, Mozart was really a pianist after all, so he turns to one of the orchestra members and asks, “Who the f%*k is that?”

A contemporary portrait of Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the subject of the new movie ‘Chevalier’. (Credit: LA Opera)

So we are introduced to Joseph Bologne, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, wonderfully played by actor Kelvin Harrison jr. Once regarded as the most accomplished man in all of Europe in the movie we learn that Joseph is the son of a wealthy plantation owner in the French colony Guadeloupe named Georges Bologne and one of his black slave girls named Nanon, played by actress Ronke Adekoluejo. At the age of seven Georges returns to France to enroll his half-black bastard son in a musical academy, the boy is exceptionally good with the violin. Before leaving Georges gives his son one last piece of advice, “Be exceptional, they can’t stop you if you’re exceptional!” Joseph never sees his father again.

Poster for the film ‘Chevalier’. (Credit: IMDB)

Joseph does become exceptional. In addition to his musical ability Joseph becomes the most celebrated swordsman in France, the film shows his famous bout against fencing master Alexandre Picard. This ability with the sword earns him the title Chevalier de Saint-Georges from Queen Marie Antoinette, actress Lucy Boynton. Joseph’s main ambition is to become the Director of the Paris Opera and his chief romantic desire is the Marquise Marie-Josephine de Montalembert, a married woman, played by actress Samara Weaving.

The french Queen Marie Antoinette, plays a bigger role in the movie ‘Chevalier’ than she did in the real history of Joseph Bologne. Once again Hollywood feels it has to introduce historic figures everyone knows whether they belong in the story or not. (Credit: Commonsensemedia)

Both goals come to naught because of course Joseph is a black man and, as his mother puts it, “Just a tourist in their world.” In response to his rejection by French nobility Joseph joins with the revolutionary elements in Paris and helps to bring down the ancient regime.

Joseph’s affair with a married white Marquise is the central theme of ‘Chevalier’ even though historically it was only a insulting rumour. (Credit: Rotten Tomatoes)

The story of the Chevalier de Saint-Georges is an important one, one that needs to be told. His music is only now being rediscovered; I recently bought two CDs of his concertos and symphonies. Joseph was also a statesman and soldier, he served his country, he was a French citizen, both as a Chevalier and after the revolution he helped form the first all-black regiment in the French army. Nevertheless he was black and we all know how even today systematic racism conspires to keep blacks, however exceptional, in their places. The ‘Chevalier’ is an attempt to reestablish the reputation of a man who really was exceptional.

The 2016 film ‘Hidden Figures’ covered many of the same themes as ‘Chevalier’. Stories of talented people who are deliberately ignored because they don’t fit our picture of what a talented person should look like are stories that need to be told. (Credit: 20th Century Studios)

The music in ‘Chevalier’, as performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra is excellent, as are the costumes. Also the movie was filmed in the city of Prague, the same location as the movie ‘Amadeus’. All of which make ‘Chevalier’ enjoyable as well as important.

Although best known today as a musician, Joseph Bologne first achieved fame as a swordsman. (Credit: IMDB)

Unfortunately, as all too often happens in Hollywood, ‘Chevalier’ tends to prefer tired clichés over historical accuracy. In fact Joseph was originally enrolled in a fencing academy not a musical one. The romance with the Marquise Marie-Josephine is only a salacious rumour and had nothing to do with Joseph’s losing his bid for the Paris Opera. Also the friendship between Joseph and the French Queen is greatly overblown.

Cliches in Hollywood have become so numerous that people have even taken to publishing lists of them. (Credit: MovieCliches.com)

Perhaps more importantly is the relationship between Joseph and his father. Georges Bologne did not just abandon his son at school but actually asked his brother Joseph to look in on the boy from time to time. Then, just two years later Georges returned to France with Joseph’s mother Nanon. The three lived together in Paris for nine years before Georges returned to Guadeloupe to attend to his possessions there. Georges did apparently care for both his son and his mistress, although at that time the relationship must have been extremely complicated. In a better world Joseph and his parents may have been just a normal happy family.

For most of our nation’s history interracial marriage was a crime in many states. It wasn’t until 1967 that the Supreme Court finally struck down all laws banning interracial marriage. (Credit: Freedom to Marry)

I’d like to add another criticism, after the movie’s first scene Mozart disappears from the film and several people I know who saw the movie came away thinking that Mozart hated Joseph. Nothing could be farther from the truth, Mozart greatly admired the Chevalier and if fact Joseph conducted the world premiers of about a half a dozen Mozart symphonies, and the French premiers of many more. Mozart and Joseph had another thing in common as well, they were both Masons.

Like Mozart, Ben Franklin, George Washington and over a dozen other US Presidents, the Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a member of the Masons. (Credit: Grand Lodge of Ohio)

The glossing over of such facts is a great shame because the story of ‘Chevalier’ is too important a lesson for us today to allow it to be obscured by Hollywood clichés. So I still highly recommend that you go see ‘Chevalier’ so that you can be introduced to someone who is really worth knowing. The world needs more people like Joseph Bologne regardless of their colour, sex, nationality or whatever characteristic we use in order to hate each other.

Movie Review: Everything, Everywhere all at Once

Yes, I know. I really should have reviewed this movie months ago, or at least before it won the academy award for best picture. To be honest I just didn’t get around to seeing ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ until after it won the Oscar. I just hope you can forgive my tardiness and that you’ll still find my review to be of some interest.

Even the best of us can get a bit behind sometimes. (Credit: Redbubble)

First off the film isn’t quite ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ but for a motion picture it certainly does pack an awful lot of action, in a great many different location, into two and a half hours. The idea behind ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ is that an opening in the Multiverse allows the characters to experience something of the lives of their alternate selves in other realities. I recently reviewed a novel by Blake Crouch entitled ‘Dark Matter’, see my post of 18th February 2023, that deals with the same idea and like the novel ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ is a breathtaking thrill ride full of wild ideas that will make you think.

The novel ‘Dark Matter’ by Blake Crouch deals with the same ideas as ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ using the Multiverse to question how our lives could have been different if we’d made different choices. (Credit: Goodreads)

Evelyn Wang, played by actress Michelle Yeoh, leads a rather boring existence. She and her husband Waymond, played by Ke Huy Quan, own, manage and live above a laundromat. The couple’s only child is a daughter Joy, played by Stephanie Hsu who has recently begun a lesbian relationship and who feels she simply cannot communicate anymore with her parents.

It is of course impossible to fully display the Multiverse in a motion picture, but ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ does a pretty good job of giving a small glimpse of it! (Credit: IMDb)

The Wang’s also live with Evelyn’s father Gong Gong, played by actor James Hong, who thinks his daughter ruined her life when she married Waymond. Oh, and by the way Waymond is planning to divorce Evelyn. To add to the troubles the Wang’s are being audited by the IRS, specifically by IRS agent Deirdre Beabeirdra, played by Jamie Lee Curtis.

In addition to winning the Best Picture Academy Award ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ received three best actor awards. From left to right Michelle Yeoh won for best actress, Key Huy Quan won for best supporting actor while Jamie Lee Curtis won for best supporting actress. (Credit: CBR)

It’s midway through the Wang’s audit that the Multiverse breaks in, as Waymond suddenly becomes an agent fighting the ultimate evil, the daughter Joy, in another Universe that only Evelyn can defeat. When Evelyn asks how she could possibly defeat anyone the other Waymond tells her that she is actually the least accomplished of all the Evelyns in the Multiverse and that allows her to assume the abilities of all the others. At this point don’t ask, just go with the flow as ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ becomes part Science Fiction, part Comedy and Part Action Movie.

Actress Michelle Yeoh has spent much of her career playing in such Kung Fu pictures as ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’. Her abilities as a martial artist were put to good use in ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’. (Credit: DGA)

Throughout ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ there are numerous references to other well known movies like ‘The Matrix’, ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ and ‘The Terminator’. The big reference however is that in another Universe instead of marrying Waymond Evelyn became a star in Kung-Fu movies, which of course is exactly what actress Michelle Yeoh actually has been throughout her career.

Movies making references to other classic movies has become a thing nowadays. ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once ‘even reminds us of the origins of man section of ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’. (Credit: Peatix)

The action and dialogue in ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ is frantic and I think this is one movie I’m going to have to watch several times to really figure out everything that’s going on. To add to the confusion the Wang’s go back and forth between speaking English and Mandarin, sometimes in the same sentence. There are subtitles for the Mandarin but with all of the rapid fire dialogue you have to concentrate a bit to keep up. If at any time it all becomes a bit bewildering that’s O’k, this is the Multiverse and anyone who doesn’t find the Multiverse to be bewildering just isn’t paying attention.

The Multiverse will do that to a person. (Credit: Robotics and Automation Review)

In the end everything works out for the best, Evelyn reconciles with her husband, daughter and father, in fact the final scenes are a bit maudlin. Nevertheless ‘Everything, Everywhere all at Once’ is an intellectual roller coaster ride of ideas and action that is just a lot of fun to watch.

Review: House of the Dragon on HBO Max

The first season of HBO’s new series ‘House of the Dragon’ has finished and so I’ll take this opportunity to give my two cents worth. As I’m sure everyone reading this post knows ‘House of the Dragon’ (HOD) is a prequel to HBO’s massively successful series ‘Game of Thrones’ (GOT) and the network hopes to capitalize on the popularity of its biggest ever hit.

HBO’s House of the Dragon (HOD) is the prequel to the network’s hugely successful Game of Thrones (GOT) with much of the same production staff and even input from the creator of GOT George R. R. Martin. (Credit: IGN Nordic)

As a prequel HOD is more constrained in what new ideas can be portrayed than could be done in a sequel. For example, since in the final season of GOT the supernatural creatures the ‘White Walkers’ were totally defeated and destroyed a sequel could replace them by introducing a completely new supernatural foe, maybe some sort of amphibious creature or bat like people. A prequel on the other hand cannot introduce anything too important that’s completely new without explaining why that new thing never got mentioned in the original show. 

As a prequel HOD cannot introduce any new ideas or important characters that would cause anachronisms (literally out of time) in the already broadcast GOT. (Credit: IMDB)

HOD definitely succeeds in not going outside the bounds of a prequel. In fact it may succeed too well because whereas GOT is a sprawling tapestry of many stories woven into one, HOD is much more narrow in theme, too narrow in my opinion.

HOD is really just a family squabble played out across the background of seven kingdoms. Nevertheless by concentrating on a single family it loses much of the complexity and variety that made GOT so interesting. (Credit: IMDB)

Season one of HOD concerns itself with the political intrigue between two branches of the Targaryen dynasty that rules the ‘Seven Kingdoms of Westeros’. In HOD the Targaryen family rules Westeros because they control the dragon’s that are by far the most fearsome weapon in the whole GOT Universe.

Since their power comes from their dragons the Targaryen family has taken to revering, almost deifying the creatures. By the way many people have begun to criticize the cinematography of HOD as simply being so dark it’s hard to see what’s happening! (Credit: NPR)

King Viserys Targaryen is the fifth king of that line and when his wife dies in childbirth Viserys names his daughter Rhaenyra as his heir rather than his hot-tempered brother Daemon. Things get even more complicated when Viserys marries a second time to the lady Alicent Hightower who bears the king two sons. The marriage between the old king and the young noblewoman was the contrivance of Alicent’s father Ser Otto Hightower, the king’s first minister, known as ‘the Hand’. Ser Otto seeks to increase his own power by putting his grandson on the iron throne as king. It’s in episode 9, when King Viserys dies that the peace of Westeros unravels as the various claimants grab for power. 

As HOD begins the young noblewomen Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower are the best of friends. That doesn’t last long however, not when there’s the throne to be taken. (Credit: Vanity Fair)

And so we have a tale of political intrigue worthy of GOT, but GOT was about a lot more than just than just political intrigue. In GOT in addition to the fight over the iron throne after the death of King Robert Baratheon between House Stark and House Lannister there were the adventures of Daenerys Targaryen across the narrow sea in Pentos, there were the adventures of Jon Snow beyond the Wall in the north, and there were the adventures of Arya Stark with the Assassins, plus a lot more.

George R. R. Martin freely admits that much of his inspiration for GOT came from England’s ‘War of the Roses, a war for the English throne between two branches of the same family. GOT however also went beyond that simple conflict to explore a unique and interesting world while HOD is just a family quarrel. (Credit: Ancient Origins)

There was also a lot more magic, whether it be Bran Stark with the Raven’s eye, or the witch Melisandre along with the religious fanaticism of the High Sparrow, and I’ve already mentioned the demonic White Walkers. In other words there were a lot of things going on at once, I haven’t mentioned a tenth of everything that happened in GOT and trying to keep it all straight was part of the fun. If one story ever got a little boring there were a half dozen other stories to keep your interest.

In GOT the gift of clairvoyance was represented by the three eyed raven (r). Bran Start (l) had it. Aside from dragons there’s a lot less magic in HOD. (Credit: Diply)

 HOD isn’t that complicated, and therefore it just isn’t that fascinating. It also isn’t as surprising as GOT was, remember the Red Wedding! A lot of things happened in GOT that were totally unexpected, but that certainly isn’t true of HOD where everything is pretty much predictable. In fact we’re told about Ser Otto Hightower’s plans to put his grandson on the throne at least a dozen times over five episodes before the king dies.

GOT’s ‘Red Wedding’ just before the blood starts to flow. GOT made a point of killing off major characters suddenly and sometimes almost pointlessly, in a sense almost like real life. HOD hasn’t shown that same spontaneity however. Everything that happens is is pretty much telegraphed well ahead of time. (Credit: Herald Sun)

I’ll add one more criticism, at the beginning of GOT we’re told that the Night’s Watch who guard the northern wall are just a shadow of their former glory and at the same time GOT starts with no dragons still alive. Well, when I heard that they were doing a prequel I was hoping to see the Night’s Watch at full strength and learn a little about what happened to the dragons. So far I’ve been disappointed on both counts.

Winter is Coming. In GOT the Night’s Watch were tasked with guarding ‘The Wall’ that kept the wild peoples and supernatural creatures of the north out of the ‘Seven Kingdoms of Westeros’. (Credit: winteriscoming.net)

Now this is only the first season of HOD, and to be honest GOT got a lot better in season 2. Still HOD seems to be much more committed to its main story and when that story sags the whole show becomes uninteresting. And that’s one thing Game of Thrones never was.   

Movie Review: Jurassic World, Dominion

Anyone who is even a casual reader of this blog knows quite well that I am a big fan of dinosaurs. Fossil collecting is one of my favourite pastimes and I’m always on the lookout for any news about extinct species in general and dinosaurs in particular. And that’s not just in order to have something to write about in these posts, I really am very interested in paleontology and especially dinosaurs.

Poster for ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ showing the Jurassic World Team, top, and the Jurassic Park Team, bottom. I’l bet even money this won’t be the conclusion of the Jurassic Ear!

So as you might guess any movie that stars dinosaurs is a must see for me. I happily admit that, as a kid I dragged my dad to see many a really bad movie simply because it had a dinosaur in it. If you’d like an example of this go to the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDB) and check out a film called “Dinosaurus’ from 1960.

Not Suitable for Children? I was six when I saw it and trust me there weren’t that many thrills, just two claymation dinosaurs. (Credit: IMDb)
The big climax was when the claymation T rex fought a steam shovel. Sounds more exciting than it was! (Credit: Michael’s Movieplace)

Of course the difference now is that dinosaur movies back then were low budget “B” movies with actors no one ever heard of while today dinosaur movies are big budget blockbusters with a cast of “A” list stars. The new movie “Jurassic World: Dominion” is the latest example of this trend being the sixth in the “Jurassic Park” series and I for one am quite certain it won’t be the last.

The one that started it all, Poster for 1993’s ‘Jurassic Park’. (Credit: Prescott Park Arts Festival)

The big draw in “Jurassic World: Dominion” is that it takes a look backward to the first movie by uniting the main characters from the first three “Jurassic Park” movies with the main characters from the latter three “Jurassic World” movies. That list includes actor Sam Neil as Dr. Alan Grant, Laura Dern as Dr. Ellie Sattler and Jeff Goldbloom as Dr. Ian Malcolm. All three are reprising their roles from  29 years ago while Chris Platt continues his role of Owen Grady along with Bryce Dallas Howard as Claire Dearing and Isabella Sermon as Maisie Lockwood.

Along with human actors ‘Jurassic World: Dominion also stars Dinosaurs, maybe too many dinosaurs! (Credit: Variety)

And really that’s the start of the problems with “Jurassic World: Dominion” because the plot is really just intended to bring these two groups together while at the same time having them be threatened by a very long list of dinosaur species. In other words having a plot that simply made any kind of sense was not a primary concern of the scriptwriters. What plot there is concerns an evil CEO of a biotech corporation trying to use dino genetics to control the world’s food supply. Really, calling the villains in “Jurassic World: Dominion” cartoonish is an insult to cartoons. Wile E. Coyote from the old Roadrunner cartoons was a more fleshed out character than any of the bad guys in this movie.

When the characters in a movie become cartoonish the entire film becomes nothing more than a special effects extravaganza where you really don’t care what happens to anybody. (Credit: Vox)

And all of the contrivances that are employed to bring our heroes together strain credulity rather severely. Really, at one point the main characters are spread out in a large nature reserve in Italy where the biotech firm has its labouratories and yet they all somehow manage to just run into each other, ‘oh hi’!! The coincidences in “Jurassic World: Dominion” are just a bit too much.

Security at BioSyn, the evil corporation, can’t be very good if seven non-authorized personnel can go running all over the place. (Credit: Variety)

But of course the real reason to go to a Jurassic Park movie isn’t the plot or even the actors, it’s the dinosaurs and unfortunately even here “Jurassic World: Dominion” falls short. There are just too many different species, it’s as if the producers went through ‘A Field Guide to Dinosaurs’ and said, “we want one of those, one of those, and of course one of those.”

This really is pretty much the script to Jurassic World: Dominion. (Credit: Wikipedia)

In the original “Jurassic Park” movie the main characters were really only threatened by two species, a T rex and three velociraptors. That gave the dinosaurs a chance to actually develop as characters themselves. Not so in “Jurassic World: Dominion”, there are simply so many large, predatory dinosaurs trying to gobble up our heroes that you lose track of how many there are and again the whole thing comes off as cartoonish. 

At the end of ‘Jurassic World: Dominion” a T Rex stands triumphant, which is as it should be! (Credit: Cinema Blend)

Still, there are dinosaurs and, just like when I was a kid, I still enjoy seeing dinosaurs, even if they are just CGI. “Jurassic World: Dominion” is supposed to be the last in the “Jurassic Park” series but let’s be honest, if it makes enough money there will be another one, even if they have to re-boot the entire series from scratch.

How many times has Batman been rebooted now? Do you really think they can’t do the same with Jurassic Park? (Credit: www.thebatman.com)

And you know I’ll go to see it!

Movie Review: ‘Don’t Look Up’ on Netflix

For the most part Science Fiction and satire don’t cross paths very often. The best known exception is of the course ‘The Hitcher’s Guide to the Galaxy’ series but aside from those novels satirical science fiction stories and novels are rare and usually light on the satire. I suppose that’s because science fiction is usually an adventure in a completely different world while satire tends to poke fun at the world as it actually is.

The Original and still the best, the ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ took pot shots at everything and everyone. (Credit: Amazon.com)

‘Don’t Look Up’ is a new movie now showing on Netflix that illustrates rather convincingly how science fiction and satire can be combined to produce a story that is both thought provoking, and hilariously funny. Starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio as two astronomers desperately trying to convince the world of the danger of a comet heading straight at the Earth ‘Don’t Look Up’ takes place in the superficial, instant gratification world of modern society.

Both a straight critique of modern society and an allegory for the threat of Climate Change ‘Don’t Look Up’ is now available on Netflix. (Credit: Netflix)

Lawrence plays Kate Dibiasky, a doctoral candidate in astronomy at Michigan State University who is searching for supernovas in order to measure the expansion of the Universe. (For me a lot of the fun in ‘Don’t Look Up’ consisted of hearing them mention a topic that I’ve blogged about! There were actually quite a few!) Just by accident she discovers a comet. Calling in her advisor Dr. Randell Mindy, played by Leonardo Dicaprio, the two work out the orbit of the comet and realize in horror that it will strike the Earth in 6 months and 17 days.

NASA is busy trying to catalog the orbits of any threatening asteroids in order to give us decades of warning of any danger. But comets can appear without warning with only months before a possible collision. (Credit: Space.com)

The two immediately inform NASA of their fears and once the space agency has confirmed their calculations they are whisked to the White House for a meeting with President Orlean, played by Meryl Streep. Problem is that the President is having a problem getting her Supreme Court candidate past the Senate, it seems he once appeared in a soft corn porn film, so the astronomers have a long wait and little time to brief the President about the crisis.

PhD student Kate Dibiasky, played by Jennifer Lawrence, accidentally discovers the comet while searching for supernova. (Credit: Refinary29)

Once the President is made aware of the situation she decides to “sit tight” and wait for scientists at a more prestigious university like MIT or Princeton to confirm the observation. She’s also worried about the effect of the end of the world on the upcoming midterms.

To President Orlean, Meryl Streep, the end of the world is just another crisis that can hopefully be put off until the next administration. (Credit: CNN)

Away from Washington the two astronomers attempt to get their story out to the people by the media and are scheduled to appear on a network morning show hosted by Bree Evantee and Jack Bremmer, played by Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry respectively. While Bree tries to keep the news of a comet destroying our planet light and upbeat Jack seems obsessed with supernovas, “…exploding stars, stars can explode???” he asks Dibiaski.

Yes, stars can explode. This one did about a thousand years ago. (Credit: The Atlantic)

It isn’t long before the story has gone viral with predictable results. President Orlean finally decides to act and deflect the comet because saving the world might help her poll numbers only to have an Elon Musk / Jeff Bezos type character named Peter Isherwell, played by Mark Rylance, suggest that he has a better use for the comet, which is chock full of valuable materials.

There’s been a lot of press coverage of all of the valuable metals there are on the asteroid Psyche, and a lot of crazy, for now, ideas about how to get them. Now it’s great to imagine the technology of the future but we have to solve today’s problems with today’s technology. (Credit: Space.com)

So the comet now becomes a jobs creator and everyone in America soon takes side to either ‘Just Look Up’ or ‘Don’t Look Up’. Those slogans kinda reminded me of ‘Build Back Better’ or ‘Make America Great Again’, which I’m certain is what the writers intended. In order to avoid giving too much away I’ll stop there.

In ‘Don’t Look Up’ the media treats a collision with a comet as just another news story, the same way is actually does treat the threat of Climate Change. (Credit: The Sentinel Assam)

‘Don’t Look Up’ is delightfully funny in places, even having a couple of running jokes that have nothing to do with the comet. At the same time it is a painful reflection of our current shallow, celebrity driven culture. The acting is uniformedly excellent although I was surprised at how hard Meryl Streep tried to be funny, a bit too much for someone playing a President I thought. The special effects worked well on my TV screen, which is one of the advantages of watching a Netflix movie as opposed to seeing one on a big theater screen where CGI can sometimes look cartoonish.

I know this will get me in trouble but I think CGI works much better on the little, i.e. TV screen. In the theater, on the big screen too much CGI starts to look like Bugs Bunny and friends. (Credit: StudioBinder)

All in all ‘Don’t Look Up’ was a fun 2 hours and 18 minutes but I hope that it will be more than that. Maybe it could start a fashion for science fiction satire.

Movie Review: ‘Belfast’

The new movie ‘Belfast’ from writer / director Kenneth Branagh is a semi-biographical account of his own experiences as a young boy living through ‘The Troubles’ that broke out in Northern Ireland during the late 1960s. And while ‘Belfast’ may not be science fiction it is an important film showing how the smallest of differences between people can be exploited to generate a hate that can last for decades.

‘Belfast’ a new Film from Writer / Director Kenneth Branagh, official Poster. (Credit: IMDB)

Now a bit of self disclosure to start. By descent I am much like Ireland herself, three quarters Irish Catholic and one quarter Scots-Irish Presbyterian so I’ve known about ‘The Troubles’ my entire life and in some sense they are actually inside of me. (I’ve always loved the old George Carlin line, “I used to be Irish-Catholic, now I’m an American, ya grow!”)

The Wisdom of the Irish is always mixed with a little bitter humour. (Credit: AZ Quotes)

And another thing I’ve recognized my entire life is that, if you showed pictures of Irish Catholics and Scots-Irish Protestants to 95% of the people in this world not only wouldn’t they be able to tell the difference between them most probably wouldn’t even know what you’re talking about. Think about it, would someone from China be able to tell? Would someone from Bolivia? Pakistan? Chad?

Throughout “The Troubles’ men like the Protestant Ian Paisley and the Catholic Gerry Adams took advantage of the hated for their own ends. Can you tell which one is which? (Credit: Wikipedia)

The truth is that the people of Northern Ireland are really all the same, one people living together and it takes a lot of hatred and anger to find enough differences to start a quarrel. And maybe that’s true of the whole world, don’t you think?

Actor, Director and now writer Kenneth Branagh escaped ‘The Troubles’ by moving to England. Many others didn’t have that option. (Credit: Disney wiki)

That’s enough sermonizing, back to the movie ‘Belfast’. The story centers around a young boy named Buddy, played by newcomer Jude Hill. Buddy is a Protestant who lives with his family on a street that also has several catholic families so their street becomes one of the centers of violence as ‘The Troubles’ erupt. Buddy’s family includes his mother, played by actress Ciatriona Balfe, his father, actor Jamie Dornan and older brother Will, played by Lewis McAskie.

Newcomer Jude Hill plays young Buddy with wide-eyed innocence. (Credit: MARCA)

Family is a strong theme running throughout ‘Belfast’ nearly every other actor is listed in the credits as ‘Auntie Violet’ or ‘Cousin Vanessa’ or ‘Uncle Sammy’. And family plays a role in the plot because while Buddy’s father wants to protect his family by leaving the country his mother can’t bear the idea of moving to Canada or Australia because, “we won’t have any family there!”

Buddy and his family at the movies. If they added an older sister it could very much be my family! (Credit: Roger Ebert)

As we view the events of ‘Belfast’ through the eyes of a young boy we also see those things that are important to a child, his friends, his toys, TV shows. And from this viewpoint we don’t really learn much about ‘The Troubles’, the causes or the leaders, we simply experience them as sudden, chaotic and frightening. I don’t know if it was director Branagh’s intention to portray the causes of violence as unimportant but that is a message I got, and maybe children who don’t understand the causes of the violence around them are actually wiser than we are.

The causes of violence are many, or maybe we’re just not as evolved as we think we are. (Credit: YWCA Evanston)

And that’s what makes ‘Belfast’ an important movie for today. In a world where those whom we’ve elected to govern us are behaving more and more like bratty children, where any perceived insult is a reason to start shooting, where every issue is viewed through a lens of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ seeing such childish attitudes from a child’s viewpoint may actually remind us that we’re supposed to be adults. Well maybe!

We always grieve for the children whose lives are impacted by war and violence. Of course that’s never stopped us from having wars of other kinds of violence. (Credit: Motherhood)

I do have a few criticisms of ‘Belfast’, one in particular. The movie is mostly filmed in black and white because we all know that the 1960s were in black and white, really some directors just think that black and white gives a film an ‘olde time’ feel. Some parts are in colour however, for example when the family goes to see the movie ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” the movie is in colour. Or when Buddy takes his Grandma, played by Judy Dench, to see a live performance of Dickens ‘Christmas Carol’ the actors on stage are in colour while the audience is black and white. Personally I found the cinematic trickery distracting, and while Northern Ireland in the 60’s may not have been very colourful it wasn’t actually in Black and White. The message of ‘Belfast’ would have been better served if the whole movie had just been in colour, like the reality it sought to reflect.

The city of Belfast has known peace since the ‘Good Friday’ agreement brought power sharing in the north and the formation of the European Union removed the border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Now Brexit threatens that peace. (Credit: Queen’s University Belfast)

Still ‘Belfast’ is both an important and a very moving film. By reflecting a chaotic and violent event from the past it portrays very well the madness that’s growing in our world today.