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Random Thoughts

My Review of War of the Worlds

So, late last evening, at the invitation of a friend who works for the Paramount family of companies, I attended a screening of War of the Worlds. So thanks, Parmount. Sorry I can’t give you a good review.

Eh. One and a half stars. Half thumb up.

Go if you want non-stop action with lots of low base noise to keep you nervous through the whole movie. Yes, the soundtrack’s low base noise was so consistent I actually noticed it consciously.

 

Spoilers ahead.

War of the worlds was no “Independence Day.” Independence Day, which is basically the same concept, was fun. It had comic relief. It had interesting characters you believed in. I thought the character development of Cruise’s character consided of 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of the movie where he acts like an idiot to his supervisor, and you then see he has no relationsihp with his kids and his ex-wife has married up. His kids are rebellious and hyper-nervous. Trite.

There were great effects and great action sequences. But I didn’t believe them. The concept of “good-guy/bad-guy bullets” was in full effect. People all around Tom Cruise are getting zapped or grabbed by the alien tripods, and yet it all goes by Tom.

The movie itself has a dark heart, and you see the worst in people come out during this time of emergency. I compare these scenes, which I won’t detail here, to the actual actions of people in real world disasters like terror attacks, the tsunami, earthquakes and floods, and I find the story unbelievable here. Yes, people will crowd to get away from monsters. But will they lose all sense of what it means to be human? Perhaps. I’ve never been chased by an alien. But the portrayal of panic and cruelty is more Hollywood’s concept of what would happen than what history and psychology show to be the reality.

Speielberg paints a gruesome picture of the world after an alien attack. I couldn’t help but wonder a few times if the scientologist in Cruise was laughing, thinking that when the aliens come he’ll be the one saved.

 

 

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howardgr

Testing tags again

Seeing if tagging this blog post Howardgr, and making the category howardgr and putting in this mojo: will get Technorati to pay attention to it.

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Random Thoughts

Flag Burning

One item in the press I found interesting.
At the Times online of the UK: “Countries that already outlaw burning the national flag include China, North Korea, Iraq, Iran and Cuba.”

I’m just rereading this sentence over and over again. I’m not for Flag Burning. I’m also not for putting the US in the same category as dictatorships.

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Random Thoughts

Newsflash: Last iPod holdout caves in

Hey there. I have officially arrived. I’ve joined the cult of the iPod. My cool ipod unit has the Tivo logo engraved on the back, since it was a Tivo Reward. Tivo rewards are what you get when you convince your friends to buy and subscribe to Tivo. 5 friends = ipod. Cool.

If you’re a friend, and you want to get Tivo let me know! I could use more rewards points!

Since I have an ipod AND a windows media player now, does that mean I go both ways?

Anyway, back to the iPod, I have figured out how to use it in a basic fashion. I still needed to look up how to change the volume – I didn’t instinctively know that you have to be looking at the song now playing and move your finger on the wheel. But I’m getting the hang of it. I’ve gotten a cool case, and applecare – the warranty that SHOULD HAVE COME WITH IT but didn’t.

Next on the list for items I wish I could afford….12” powerbook…oooh, ahhh.

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Uncategorized

Flash- The Llama Song

Flash » The Llama Song  at http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama via 7805, the ITP students weblog. Really bizzare and fun.

Of course, I have a thing for llamas. Not a good thing.