The Machine-Our Baby Will Grow Up

2014 was a year with more apocalyptic/dystopian films than you could shake a time capsule sealed MRE at.  This also seemed to be the year that artificial intelligence anxiety exploded.  Even Her, probably the most benevolent take on this genre of robots and computers loosing their leashes, still dealt with the idea that our creation would evolve beyond us, just deciding not to attempt to destroy or subjugate us, thank you very much.  Next year will see several more, with a new Terminator flick ready to dazzle us with AIs both friendly and hostile, an apocalypse and timey whimey shenanigans.  Chappie, the new film from Neil Blomkamp will no doubt offer a unique vision of the future and the evolution of an AI.  The trailers make him look cute, but who knows how the film ultimately developes, ie I've avoided spoilers.  Then...there is Ex Machina, a film I know nothing about, except that it again deals with robots, AI and apparently the line between man and machine blurring.  Just based on its aesthetics I have glimpsed, it seems to me the film shares at least some ideas with The Machine.

I'll be honest, the trailer, with a pretty blond android all pertly female and kicking ass, was intriguing in a bad b-movie kind of way, yet for some reason, I decided to purchase the Blu Ray and watch it all the way through.  And I was very pleasantly surprised at a war anxiety thriller (WW3 against the Chinese looms on everyone's minds, if not imminently on a kinetic tip) that offered a philosophical meditation upon the idea, can a machine posess a true consciousness?  Can it...she...possess a soul?  And if so, are we still entitled to her services as our servant, our creation?

What if The Machine says no?

And extra wrinkle thrown in, is that the cyberneticist who is the lead engineer on the project also is the designer of brain implants that have been given to wounded soldiers to help them recover brain function.  The thing is...these implants have made them into something else, something that is separating itself from the human race and identifies itself more with The Machine.

It suggests a new world in the making, one where the old, slow bio units, the humans, may no longer be the top of the heap, or even have a place long term.

Not that the machines necessarily actively want to get rid of us, but the tension of the situations, within and without, may force circumstances that otherwise would not exist, had the chaos in the world not existed, creations of our own making.

As are the machines.

A mighty fine pickle we have manufactured.  Both in scenario and this cinema offering.

Check it out.

Automata-Would You Actually Frak A Robot That Looked Like A Robot?

I mean, if she started cooing out of that expressionless face, her mechanical eyes blinking when you just touch her on the shoulder...really?  Some dudes would find that sexy? Sexy enough to pay for?  Of course, I live in the internet age, where any kink one can imagine (I mean ANY) exists just a button push away.  It is seriously disturbing what sort of crap (literally as well as figuratively) some get off on.  How do you get that damaged?  I truly don't understand.

That said, Cleo is a nice droid and the damage of humans isn't her fault.

Hello, my name is Stoney and this is the story of a robot.  Or several robots.  Or whole civilizations of them.  Potentially.  The world is looking into the abyss.  But not because of marauding AIs looking to exterminate humans.  Oh, and not because of the Earth's climate.  Well, it is global warming, but the culprit for sure is a Sun that has gone far more active.  Humans have taken shelter in their cities and while hiding away, amuse themselves with clever, subservient robots.  Most of whom aren't prostitutes.  In fact, that sort of thing is illegal, or at least, frowned on and usually unheard of.

Antonion Banderas plays Jacq Vaucan, an insurance claim investigator for ROC, the outfit that builds most of the robots in the world.  He is a veteran investigator who is quite jaded about wild claims about robots and crazy things that owners claim they do to try to get cash back.  So when really wild stuff dealing with robots going beyond programming profiles start surfacing, he is skeptical.  Until he stumbles across a robot making like a Tibetan monk in Vietnam, that is, lighting itself on fire.

They don't do that.  They can't do that.  The way they are built, their brain is something called a kernel, a quantum processor that governs their reasoning processes.  They have two rules that govern everything they do, basically Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics simplified.  Robots can't hurt humans and can't hurt themselves.

Later, we find out that kernels exist where the two laws are no longer imprinted.  It turns out, those laws also limit a robot's learning, development and self discovery.  Take those away and...something different and unpredictable happens.

What do you do when your product wants to evolve beyond what it is and has figured out what it needs to do to do so?  Not that it is becoming a threat, but it is certainly becoming something more distanced from humanity, beyond humanity and certainly is no longer satisfied with doing your cooking, cleaning, building or satisfying your kinks.

You will have to satisfy yourself again.

Good flick.  I program you to see it.

The Interview Used as Actual Propaganda to Undermine North Korea's Kim Regime?

So it would seem.  The story can be found here.

I call this life trying to imitate art.

Beavis and Butthead: Out of Time or of their Times?

I just watched the news one season of Beavis and Butthead that came and went on MTV.  The boys premiered to fanfare and good ratings but quickly sank.  Now, having watched it myself, I have to say, it was great to have the boys back, their satirical voice just as on point as always.  But, unlike the late 80s and 90s in which the show originally ran, the elements they picked to slay in their in between segments, the videos, "reality tv" segments and the like...I don't watch any of that, but it has always been my impression that much of popular culture has become far more forgettable, disposable and throwaway than the stuff BnB originally contended with.  Based on both what they targeted and what they had to say about it, it is almost as if they had to struggle to come up with lines that were more than just the fart in the wind pap they were targetting.  Boys, let us hope you find a new home worthy of your talents.  It is clear that what passes for the viewing audience for Mtv nowadays has no idea what they have in you and frankly, you are too good for them at this point.

If you are looking for something to get yourself for the New Year, though?  Pick up this season on Blu Ray.  Watch it with a smart friend.  And some nachos.

Battle of the Damned-Freaking Zombies and Robots. And Dolph. There Is No Reason You Should Not Be Watching This Now. Srsly.

Robots.  Zombies.  A very grizzled Dolph Lungren.  A cordoned off city and a corporate suit signing up a party of mercs for a rescue.  All very simple and above board, right?  But...like the plot in a porno, ancillary at best, the loyal viewer is here for all the action.  The poster spells out what you are in for.  Apparently a semi-sequel to another movie called Robotropolis, the prior film gives a sort of explanation for the squad of robots which shows up patrolling the Zed infested city.   Having read reviews of that film, as much as I love an AI goes wrong scifi story, that one was bad.  All you needed to know, robots go berserk, kill creators, escape from factory, correct their own code, wander lost, find zombie city, commence to slaying.

They show up about a third of the way into the film, though.  First, it is Dolph and his crew on the mission, slowly getting picked off by the zombies.  Eventually, it is down to the Dolphster and a small band of civilian survivors, including his target he has been hired to rescue.  Apparently there's another dude who knows of the dirty dealings the corporate suit has been involved with and their complicity in the Z plague.  Dolph is supposed to whack him.  Will he do it?

Does it matter that much?

This really isn't that complicated.  If reasonably acted and shot robot on zombie action does it for you, this film is B movie goodness.  You will know right there whether it is your bag.

Carry on.

After The Dark-The Apocalypse As a Philosophy Lesson

After seeing this film and God's Not Dead, and having not taken lots of philosophy courses in my college career, I have to ask...are lots of philosophy professor arrogant, aggressive douches putting up a front of being way too impressed with their own intellect, and that turning out to be a coverup for deep personal wounds or insecurity?  Because with both films, we get that breed.  If so, does the feel tend to generate such or do such individuals decide they have found a home in philosophy and pursue it to its ultimate professional and metaphysical ends?  In the case of GIND, Kevin Sorbo's Prof. Radisson, he is found to blame God for personal loss, breaks down and seemingly experiences enlightenment before expiring from a car accident.  As for Professor Eric Zimit (James D'Arcy), here is a man who is convinced of his own intellectual prowess, judges his students on his estimates of theirs, and the worth and survival of a civilization on ruthless logic and calculation, and is confounded by the idea that very smart students might come to completely different conclusions.  He is also found, in the end, staring into his own personal abyss, his intellect giving him no solace for his own personal spiritual deficit.

Oh, what am I going on about?  This is After The Dark (The Philosophers), which shows the above Prof Zimit leading his philosophy class through their final exam.  In this case, it is an exercise in which they roleplay candidates for an attempt at survival in during a nuclear attack.  They are to evaluate each other and decide who would be best to be put in a bunker with limited resources to ride out the attack and see them on the other side to try to rebuild civilization.  With each iteration of the exercise, not only does he increase the difficulty and pressure as well as variables in play for them to think about, personal considerations are hovering in the background, affecting the decisions some of the students make as the exercise unfolds.

Beautifully bringing to life the apocalypse and survival in their collective mindscape, After The Dark lushly illustrates these scenarios unfolding.  And, it asks the  provocative question...is raw intellect enough?  Or is the measure of a man, of a civilization, more to do with soul?  Are we just a collection of data points?  Or are we purpose manifest?  Is there more to existence than existence?  Is life defined by mere biological continuance?

When does survival become too expensive a proposition?

Good indie science fiction flick.  Check it out.

Lone Survivor-Hold On, They Jumped Off A Cliff. Twice. Wow.

Peter Berg is an interesting director.  One might be tempted to dismiss him as a technically adept but workman director, with a lineup like The  Rundown or Hancock.  However, most of his movies, though not necessarily great, seem to have a bit of a spark to them.  A bit of a heart, seemingly a desire to transcend the banality of the material and tell a tale that has a human connect.  That he is not a Peter Hyams or a Brett Ratner.  That he is "better than this".

And you know what?  I'm inclined to agree.  Even Battleship, a movie that the world most definitely did not need, somehow, he managed to inject a little heart, humor and even suspense into the film to make it a pulpy scifi love letter to American servicemembers and classic warships.

Even then, even with his technical skill and obvious affection for those who serve in uniform, it is hard to picture him directing a serious war movie that tries to capture the reality of aspects of war.  Doubly, a scenario in which our guys lost.  But after he finished Battleship, that is exactly the project he embarked on, to adapt the book Lone Survivor, an account by Marcus Luttrel, a Navy SEAL who was the lone survivor of a recon team out in advance of Operation Red Wing, an attempt to apprehend Taliban leader Ahmad Shah, who was responsible for the deaths of twenty Marines as well as many allied Afghans, as well as other Taliban leaders. 

Filming in mountains in New Mexico standing in for the Hindi Kush mountain region in Afghanistan, we are shown bits of the SEAL unit interacting with each other at their Forward Operating Base, both at work and at play.  It isn't overplayed or underplayed (some critics have said more effort could have been given to characterization, but in my opinion, the film managed to do just enough to establish who these people are and why they do what they do, both with the scenes in Afghanistan as well as the opening scenes showing sailors going through SEAL training school).

The focus of the film would be the recon element sent out in advance of Operation Red Wing, to confirm the location of Shah and the other targets and to conduct on site reconnaissance, to gain fresh real time intelligence for the main force follow on.  They land without a hitch and establish an observation point.  Trouble starts immediately, though, with communications proving difficult due to the terrain conditions in Afghanistan.  Things really get out of hand, though, when a shepherd and two Afghan boys stumble across them.  The team has to make a decision what to do with them.  They decide to let them go, hightail it out of there and call off the mission.  However, they are eventually run down by a large Taliban force and are slowly ground down in a grueling firefight, in which Mark Luttrell (Mark Wahlberg) is the only survivor.

This is a film that pulls no punches in its depiction of the torment the SEALs go through.  It is amazing what they do to try to evade their pursuers, including jumping off TWO cliffs to try to avoid them.  Just as amazing, is how fast the Afghans pursue, carrying heavy weapons, too.  Also, the Afghan natives that assist Luttrell show another side to this, directed by their tribal honor code as well as their hatred of the Taliban.  The Taliban are depicted pretty much as their actions have indicated in reality, a bunch of fundamentalist thugs.

This movie is not about anything too deep.  Not a meditation about the whys of war.  It is not a deep examination of the ties that bond warriors.  It is really about one really bad day that happens to some good men.

One of them lived to tell the tale.

I for one am glad, for it is a worthy tale to be told.