Gattaca (1997)

This is a really good movie. It's a sci-fi, so I was slightly skeptical and was half expecting the cheesy acting or second-rate plot line that can sometimes be found in some sci-fi movies. I can happily say however, that this movie was pretty gripping.

The film places itself in a not too distant future, a time that is more heavily practicing genetic engineering. Our protagonist is name Vincent, who was born at a time where more and more people were choosing to genetically modify the fetuses of their children to create 'ideal' children. They remove less than ideal tendencies, such as alcoholism or depression, and they also make more desired genes more prominent, such as desired height or muscle mass, behavioural practices. At one point the characters go to a musical show and the pianist has six fingers on both hands, which we can only assume were chosen by his parents before he was born. Vincent, being born on the turning point of this trend, is one of the last generations to have parents voluntarily choose to not modify their baby's DNA, and in fact choose to genetically modify his younger brother. As more and more 'ideal' people are being 'created', the people who were not genetically modified slowly become second class citizens. Because of his blood, Vincent was only able to get janitorial work, as no well paying or reputable company would employ a non-genetically modified person. The whole idea of an interview is replaced by a blood test to differentiate between the two kinds of people.

Maybe because of his blood, Vincent is obsessed with the idea of becoming an astronaut and traveling through space, and was since he was as a child. He studies hard, and steadily works hard to get into the company that dealt with this... but is only able to get in as a janitor. He seeks out a guy who, under the table, helps people like Vincent pass themselves off as genetically modified people by pairing them with a genetically modified person who underwent an accident or is in some way unable to work. The crippled person will give samples of blood and urine (which are tested almost daily in workplaces), and pieces of hair or skin that can be spread around a workstation, and in return, that person will be allowed to live with the non-modified person and receive a portion of their paycheck. Vincent it set up with a man named Jerome, and from that point on, becomes 'Jerome'. He applies to the company he wishes to work for, and gets in easily. Things seem to be going well for Jerome/ Vincent, until there's a murder at his work, and one of his hairs are found at the crime scene. The problem is that the hair registers as an invalid... aka non genetically modified person, and endless surprise DNA tests pop up all over, which endangers Vincent's secret identity. Worst of all, with this untimely murder, he is now selected to go to space, but will never get there if is secret is discovered.

This was a really great movie exploring both the mechanization of society and the idea of discrimination. The society is tailoring a new generation of people who are almost 'super people', with only the best qualities present in their genetics. It's like creating an army of robots, in that there is no chance left to their creation. They are intentionally selected to be smarter, faster, stronger, taller, etc. than generations that came before them, and indeed than they may have naturally turned out being. We can clearly see how this is beneficial to a workplace and how this can be seen as an ideal state by a society, so it follows then that we can understand why people who were not 'made' to be better, faster, etc. might be seen as and treated like second class citizens. Why would you want to hire or date someone not as smart, not as fast, not as amiable, when they could have someone better? Why would they  even waste time asking the question when a simple blood test will determine if your genetics were 'improved' or not? There's also a Big Brother aspect to this world as well. Everyone's DNA is in a universal data base and the government/ law has complete access to it and people are literally created to meet a social standard. A sort of caste system arises, wherein people who were not manufactured to meet the social ideal are worth less as individuals. For people who do not deal with racism or sexism or class-ism or ageism on a daily basis, this film provides an example of what living with that constant and completely bigoted and illogical injustice is like.

The interesting thing that the film does to provide a sort of counterbalance to that idea is to make Jerome, the man Vincent is pretending to be, unable to use his legs, and so even though he is this super person, is still limited to the flesh and is dependent. On the other hand, Vincent, who is a lesser being, is able to easily pass off as a person who was made to be 'ideal'. This suggests that he is mentally the same or better than some of the people he's working with, and the largest distinction between the two kinds of people is the general perception of their class.

This was an interesting film, and the acting was spot on. Jude Law, Uma Thurman, and Ethan Hawke all perform really well, and the plot keeps you guessing. It's worth the watch.

Last Exile (2003)

This anime is beautiful to look at. That is the first thing I will say about it because I'm sure that that is the first thing you will notice about it, and is what will probably keep you watching for the first half.

Last Exile is a story about two orphans, Claus and Lavie, who make a living as couriers. In the land they live in, people move around in the sky more than they do water or land, and the two fly an aircraft known as a vanship. All is normal in their lives until one day, during a vanship race in their home town (think star wars), a foreign vanship cuts off their path and crashes into the forest below. Claus, the pilot, decides that they should go down to make sure the people in the vanship were all right. When they get there they see that the pilot has been shot, but is still alive, and there is a dead person in the back seat holding a small sleeping girl. The pilot tells them that an enemy faction, The Guild, is after this young girl and asks the two to see his mission through to the end and escort the girl to safety. The Guild is an advanced race of people who have superior technology and almost silently rule the people below them. Of course the pair accept the mission and take the girl. This leads the two to eventually come on board a ship called the Silvana and on that ship, they will face wars with others and ultimately battle The Guild's control over them by attempting to prevent their awakening of a powerful and unknown entity known as 'exile'.

The first half of this anime bored me to tears. I'd heard so many rave reviews I couldn't believe that it could possibly be as bad as I initially perceived it to be... so forced myself to watch episode after episode. The beginning is king of pointless and disorienting. We see Claus and Lavie living life as usual, doing a mission or two, fighting in a race, but there was nothing that really drew me into the plot or care about the characters until around the twelfth episode. The story up until that point was kind of like the middle of an anime... boring and just filling up space. And at that point the audience doesn't have enough emotional history with the characters to care. I was so bored I spent more of the time picking out character flaws. Lavie is completely useless for most of the series. This is actually stated in the show by one of the other characters. For a majority of the first half of the show all she does is whine and yell. She continues to do this in the second half, but not as much because she is not in as many episodes. I felt that they could have done so much more with her character, there was so much potential there.

The show was not all bad though. As I said, the second half was much better than the first and I would say that the ending makes up for the pain of having the watch the build up. The flashbacks helped, as did the actual purpose given to the character's existence. The war inspired many emotional and political problems for the characters, and the characters were a defined a little bit better for the viewer. The Guild reminded me of the blue giants in the animated film Fantastic Planet, for those who have seen the film, both in how they acted and how they treated the people. The end of the anime was the very best part for me.  I don't know why exactly, but as I watched Claus and Lavie flying over that field with Claus' overtone and the music in the background, I got this nostalgic sort of feeling. Kind of like the feeling I get after watching a Miazaki film, a feeling of endless possibility... but I have no idea how as I don't think I liked the show that much to have developed such feelings about it's final moments. But it is as it is I suppose.

The animation in this anime is absolutely stunning. It is one of the most beautiful animes I've seen artistically speaking. In regards to the scenery anyway. One of the funny things about this anime is that even though the landscape is so well drawn.. for some reason the characters can look very amateurishly drawn at times. There will be a stunning scene with some sort of aircraft or landscape or room and is so amazing that it will have you sighing in awe, but two seconds later there will be a scene with one of the characters positioned awkwardly or drawn with an arm or leg too skinny. Just in general I feel that the artists put so much effort into the world the story takes place in that they sort of just drew the characters in last-minute like 'oh ya this story actually revolves around people... we should draw some'. Claus and Lavie we see the most of because the show is about them, and Claus I'm fine with, I feel that his look suits the artwork surrounding him. Lavie, on the other hand, I do not like one bit. There is so little detail in her features that her face is literally a circle with huge 'anime eyes' and a big mouth. While the other characters are drawn seriously, like the characters of a drama, Lavie is drawn like the heroine of a high school romantic comedy... you expect her to go chibi any second. And since this is not a romantic comedy, and Lavie does not even serve as a comic relief in this story, her look is completely out of place and always takes me out of the whimsical mood the scenery has so beautifully created for me. Most of the other characters could also be drawn better, but Lavie is where they so obviously slacked or guessed wrong... I'm not sure which. And her haircut doesn't help.

I have mixed feelings about the anime, but for each negative point I have, there is a positive one to combat it. Overall I would say that it is indeed worth the watch, and you will probably enjoy it immensely at some point. The question is how much are you willing to put up with to find what you might intensely like?

 

Splice (2009)

I've always been a big fan of Sarah Polley, so even though I wouldn't have normally took it upon myself to see this film, I watched it because of her.

The story begins with a romantically involved bio-chemist team, Elsa and Clive, (it doesn't specify whether or not they are married or are just seeing each other) who are working on a genetic mutation project wherein they combine the dna of several species. The project so far is a success and they want to push it a little bit further and incorporate human dna into their experiment, which would potentially help find cures from many diseases , but the board denies them because they feel it would be too risky. This does not stop them and they go ahead with it. The result is this oddly alien looking being that grows very quickly. Elsa becomes instantly attached to their creation and treats it more like a child than a science project and ends up calling it Dren. Clive is skeptical about the whole thing and at one point tries to drown it, but even though he's so opposed he takes a back seat to Elsa's desires. As Dren grows she gets harder to conceal and eventually they move her to Elsa's childhood home, which happens to be a farm. Things spiral more and more out of control as Dren grows more and as the tension between Elsa and Clive heightens. There's actually a point in the movie where Clive starts to lust after Dren, maybe because of the stress, maybe because it has some of Elsa's DNA, but in either case it's a bit weird. I won't spoil the ending by going further.

Overall I'd say it wasn't a bad movie, but is quite possibly b film material. It's still worth watching though, especially if you're into the whole alien/ sci-fi genre to begin with.

Avatar (2009)

Even without knowing what this film was about, knowing that it was James Cameron's new film and that he spent something like 10 years creating this was enough to know that this was going to be something of a hiccup within movie going society. so going into the film only knowing that the graphics would be 'groundbreaking', I of course thought it would suck. however, I was pleasantly surprised.

I've heard and spoken to people who were not very impressed by the plot and pass the film off as a 'Pocahontas in space' kind of story, and it's true, that's an accurate description. Something to keep in mind however is that all stories borrow from that which came before it, and most often the best stories are simply re-imaginings of earlier ideas. It could be said that pride and prejudice is nothing more than a glorified Cinderella story, but that doesn't make it bad. basically, even though this movie is a blockbuster, try to keep an open mind.

The film takes place in the future and focuses on this marine, Jake sully, who lost the use of his legs on the job. he gets called back to duty when his scientist twin brother dies, to take his place as an operator of an organic being grown from his brother's DNA and the DNA of the Na'vi, the people on the planet Pandora. Earth is running out of resources and humans want to farm an ore found on Pandora (which has become the equivalent of gold or diamonds). So the army recruited a team of scientists to create these beings that could be used to communicate with the natives and essentially move them out of their home so that they can mine the ore underneath the tree they live in. Of course the scientists only have a professional interest in Pandora, in the people and the land, but are funded by the government/ military and are therefore at the disposal of the source of the funding. On his first journey to Pandora, Jake gets separated from the other two scientists he's with and is forced to attempt to survive the night in this unknown and deadly jungle. Before an unfortunate 'death by jungle dog' incident, he is found by the chief's daughter, Neytiri, and she saves him. Before she can leave him to fend for himself, the holy being of the Na'vi signifies to her that he is important so she takes him home and he is ultimately given a trial period in the tribe to learn the ways of the people. As he learns more about the na'vi he comes to support their perspective. Pretty standard stuff, but the plot isn't what grabbed me most about this film.

One of the most obvious themes in the movie was the push for environmentalism, or preserving our planet. The reason humans were in Pandora was because their planet was dying, because the people on earth used and wasted almost all of their resources. This of course represents the perspective of mainstream north American society. It's pretty much an accepted philosophy that the economy rules nature, destroying nature in the name of money is logical even if it may rub some people the wrong way. it's logical. But people haven't thought this way forever, not all people and cultures think this way, and an alternative perspective is represented in the Na'vi. For them nature is the economy. to harm or destroy whatever is alive is akin to harming yourself. This of course is reminiscent of a sort of aboriginal ideology that takes time to respect the living aspect of nature and the symbiotic relationship they share with it. This connection to nature is presented in a very literal sense in the movie. the Na'vi literally connect to their environment. They all have a long pony tail hairstyle, and at the end of their hair are these tentacle- like feelers that can wrap around certain things and allow them to 'plug in' to that thing. this allows them to create a bond with animals they ride and with the tree that represents their deity and holds the memories of their people. This was a lot like the way people today are constantly 'plugged in'. Whether it's cellphones, iPods, computers, TV, radio, we are rarely without our technological network to connect us to our world, or the part of our world we care about. It might be harder for the average post-colonial North American to truly appreciate a connection to nature as did pre-colonial societies, so M think the way this was presented helped get that message across.

my favourite scene in the movie, and the reason I enjoyed the movie as much as I did was the scene when Neytiri and the general were fighting near the end of the movie. I loved it because symbolically they were both 'plugged in' to the technology of their own worlds and were using that connection to fight each other. Neytiri was connected to a this wild, jaguar/ jungle dog animal through the 'bond' and the general was sitting in this robot, gundam wing/ escaflowne kind of idea. the two of them had to use where they came from as a means to fight the other, they couldn't just face each other person to person. They were kind of like Jake's Na'vi body, Jake was sitting in some lab somewhere while his intentions were lived out through a body not his own. Basically their ideals and I guess you could say worlds were fighting against each other with the help of the intentions of the people behind the wheel.

It was not the most ground breaking film I've ever seen, nor the best told story, but overall I'd say it was a good movie and worth the watch.