Not Falling For It

Conditions: Gloomy

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's a Hoax.

Buzz around the net this week has been the youtube sensation of man flying a glider-type contraption by flapping his arms. Of course, I knew it was a hoax as soon as I saw it, but only now has he finally confessed to the fake out. And why?

The video was a huge hit on YouTube, and quickly went viral, being picked up by media organisations around the world.

But viewers started to become suspicious when the engineering institutions he claimed to belong to revealed they had never heard of him.

Mr Kaayk then confessed to fabricating the footage, which he says is an exercise in "online storytelling".

- bbc.co.uk/

An exercise in online storytelling. You know, we've seen this with publicity stunts for upcoming movies, where various conspiracies are hinted at thorough a series of fake websites, and I wonder if this may become a new form of entertainment. Allowing oneself to be led down the garden path via a web browser may become as legit as doing so via a book or a movie. The key as always is in keeping the viewer interested, and having them have to actively hunt to get to the next "chapter" seems to be an effective way of doing so. What concerns me is the gradual undermining of legitimate news or analysis websites due to more and more hoax ones. Still, if it makes us all a little more skeptical of what we're seeing, then that's a good thing.



Film Review: Underworld - Awakening

I really don't know why they keep dragging Michael Corvin along through these sequels since he never actually does anything in them. Either it's an attempt to keep reminding the audience of why we're supposed to care, or it's some kind of bet. Either way, I'm finding it annoying that we can't just simply have an Underworld sequel without the dead weight of Micheal dragging us down. It's the vampire apocalypse, again, but this time now that the Humans have found out about the Underworld, it's the humans killing off the vampires and the werewolves. Vampire Selene, played by Kate Beckinsale with all the focused savagery we've come to enjoy, is on her way to the docks to join Hybrid Michael as they attempt to run off in a boat to ...somewhere. But that doesn't matter as a human hit team attacks them all and puts paid to any escape. Selene wakes up 12 years later in a frozen block of ice, inside a research facility. Several grisly yet stylish deaths later she's driving away in a van with her new found daughter in the back. Like Michael, the daughter is a hybrid as well, and it seems the research facility is very keen to get her back as her blood is the key to the werewolves developing an immunity to silver.

They manage to find a coven they can hide out in, but before they can rest and get a bite to eat they're under attack from the werewolves, who steal the daughter away again. Now it's up to Selene to get her back, find out what's actually going on, and perhaps even check in with Mike to see what he's been up to as well. Directed with a lot of flair and fury, helped no doubt by having to shoot in 3D - which at least has proven to be a marvelous technique for forcing directors to shoot action sequences properly and abandon the hated ways of the shaky cam - the latest Underworld film is a good monster action movie. Unfortunately considering it's heritage, good isn't good enough, and it comes across as shallow. There really isn't any of the back-story or history or grand style of the previous films. Swept away in order to have more bloodletting I suppose. But without any history, and without any romance, where's the bloody heart of the story supposed to be?

Yes they have a high-level conspiracy to uncover, but since said conspiracy is threatening to vivisect Selene's daughter, her methods of dealing with the conspiracy consist of simply slaughtering anyone who gets in her way. And I simply couldn't help but notice that she kills an awful lot of humans who were really just doing their jobs. And it made me think for a bit, just exactly who are we supposed to cheer for in a movie about humans fighting vampires fighting werewolves? Selene's cute, but there's the whole killing-humans thing. The werewolves are just in it for power, with not really a character among them, and the humans, well. The ones not charging around killing anything with bigger teeth than them are cowering out of sight. Except for one guy, who I guess is the hero of the film. So well done, that guy. I think he was a cop or something. Two bats out of five.


- Peace out