Living Down To Expectations

Conditions: Stable

A Thousand Lies?

Rolling Stone magazine has come under some heat for having their most recent edition portray a photo of Boston bomber Tsarnaev on its front cover.

'The truth is that glamorizing the face of terror is not just insulting to the family members of those killed in the line of duty, it also could be an incentive to those who may be unstable to do something to get their face on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.

'I hope that the people who see these images will know that this was real. It was as real as it gets.

- dailymail.co.uk/news

Well that’s actually kind of the point. The photo Tsarnaev took of himself is a real photo. He took it, and it depicts him. Rolling Stone putting it on their cover is not a lie, it’s usage of a real photo. It disappoints me that an actual depiction of a person is being treated as some kind of a hateful lie. Since when have people been so afraid of the truth?



Film Review: Pacific Rim

Well director Guillermo del Toro has done some "out there" movies in the past, including Hellboy and Blade2, with this film he’s taken his brand and stretched it right out over the framework of a genuine blockbuster. It’s war! Between... giant robots, and... giant monsters, which come up through a ...trans-dimensional rift somewhere in the Pacific before trying to destroy any near city. Del Toro has focused on the final days of the war, after about ten long years of combat and destruction have already taken place. He’s done a good job of trying to show the true scope of the film, with countries pooling their resources to build these giant mechs, called Jaegers, that are driven by two pilots who are linked up through some kind of mind-interface system, called the drift. But the war is starting to go bad for the humans, with the monsters, called Kaiju, getting bigger and coming at shorter and shorter intervals. The plot comes down to a desperate plan where the remaining Jaegers are sent underwater to the rift in a final attempt to blow up the tunnel that the Kaiju come through.

We’re introduced to this world thanks to the lead character, Raleigh, who was a top gun Jaeger pilot until his co pilot, and brother, is killed in a fight. Now he’s recruited back into the program and has to get a new co pilot so their Jaeger can take part in the final battle. This is a classic blockbuster movie, all about giant monsters crashing through buildings and huge combat sequences between the enormous Jaegers and Kaiju. In the mix is Raliegh trying to get his mojo back and sort out his partnership with Mako, who for her part lost her family many years earlier and burns for a chance at revenge.

Here’s the problem. It’s not as deep as it probably should be. I know that blockbuster films these days are usually shallow affairs, but time and time again we have seen deeply talented filmmakers make truly brilliant blockbuster movies, as loaded with ideas and drama as they are with explosions. The hope for Guillermo del Toro helming a film like this is that he would infuse as shallow a concept as monsters vs robots with heart and character and make it so much more. But for some reason it hasn’t really happened. What characters there are are rather bland, simple, and frankly overwhelmed by the gigantic action sequences. And ultimately this is sad. Sad because I have to say that while del Toro has paid fantastic attention to the nuts and bolts of building this world of people under siege by monsters and giant robots being built to fight them, the actual spark of human drama has been neglected. And so that overall this is yet another shallow and empty spectacle.  Say it ain’t so, del Toro. Two robot punches out of five.



- 300 Posts Victory Dance!!!! This! Is! Sparta!