Skyline, Marring the Name of a Cool Car

So... I often go into movies, regardless of what people say about them with an open mind. for example M. Night Shymalan's Last Airbender did not receive rave reviews but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I even watched it twice. Skyline however seems to be a movie where they left the better part of the story, if one existed, on the editing room floor. Don't get me wrong the special effects were very good and they hit the majority of the Sci-Fi action wickets for me (tentacled aliens, space ships, hope nearly lost) yet the story was so poorly executed I would be very angry if I went to the theater for this one, luckily I didn't. This was one of my last NETFLIX movies (they are jacking up their prices, another post perhaps) and I can't say I would recommend it to anyone I like. Perhaps a better way to use the movie would be for psy-ops and play it outside of hostage stand-offs at full tilt until the bad guys exit the building screaming. If you absolutely must see this, turn the volume off and make up your own dialogue.

Eart Abides

George Stewarts Earth Abides

I’ve read so many reviews that tout this book as the classic post apocalyptic novel, perhaps rightly so in some respects. I loved the premise, a global pandemic that kills the vast majority of the population. I understand that this is nothing new in the genre, however the author does it really well and was perhaps one of the first authors to use it.

The pandemic occurs when Ish, a grad student, is doing research isolated away in the desert. He has little interaction with the outside world. On one of his excursions he is bit by a rattlesnake. It is this bite (which he treats with a snake bite kit) that may have saved him from the illness that killed the majority of the population. There are very few other survivors in the book. Some had natural immunity and survived. The entire book takes place in the United States and spans a few generations into the future. Ish, who is slightly neurotic travels the country in the beginning of the story and even makes a trip to New York City. The sites and landscape described are haunting and very well written. Ish finally decides to make his way back to California where he is from (moving back into his childhood home).

Eventually Ish finds a woman who he marries. They live alone for awhile until they meet a man named Ezra who stays with them for awhile, leaves for a spell, and then returns a few years later with other people in tow. The new group (called the Tribe at times in the narrative) live together in California (near San Francisco).   

Some things I really liked about the novel are the physical descriptions of the environment the character finds himself in. The landscape and biological repercussions of the vast majority of humans disappearing is explored in depth and is very well thought out. In fact the earth itself could be considered one of the main characters, if not the main character. There is a lot of tension with Ish and the new generation of kids that are growing up in the Tribe. He worries that the loss of intellectual pursuits will condemn them to savagery in future generations. They depend on foraging from the remains of civilization. Using bullets and matches, opening cans of food, etc. Ish wonders when these limited resources are depleted if they will be able to survive.  

There were some hiccups for me in the book and some things I did not care for. As the book was written in the 1949 I was a little put off by Ish’s encounter with some poor black farmers who survived the plague. As these folks at this time in this country would defer to a white man, Ish contemplates staying with them thinking he would be like a king to them. Also, there is a girl who has mental problems, possibly associated with shock, and Ish thinks the really ‘just’ thing to do would be to kill her. He is worried that if she is some type of imbecile her offspring would mentally handicapped as well. The Tribe also votes to hang a man (and do end up hanging him) who admitted to having numerous diseases and was a threat to the tribe.

From a spiritual perspective the main character Ish, as I mentioned, is very neurotic. He is essentially agnostic and has some peculiar ideas about religion and society. The Christians in the novel are portrayed as superstitious simpletons, though they are not shunned for their beliefs. Ish sees religion as something that can be beneficial, and even holds ‘church’ services for a little while but God is not really considered as even possibly being a reality in the mind of Ish. It is for the others in the tribe that the services are held. Ish ponders the beliefs of the kids and does not want them to become superstitious. He understands that he could easily mold their beliefs into anything he found convenient to the group and their survival, though he never actually does this.

The book as a whole is very good. As it was written so long ago is almost entirely on a ‘PG’ level. There are no scenes of gratuitous violence, no language, and all sex is within wedlock. I would definitely recommend it to other readers.  

Happy Tanksgiving!

What I'm Reading: 'World War Z' Continued...

I’m really coming around to ‘World War Z.’ As is my habit, I look for little gems of spiritual truth in everything I see. The part of the book that I covered today mentioned a group of people who during the Zombie War were so overwhelmed by the things going on around them that as they started acting like zombies themselves, though they weren’t. It was a sort of coping thing, like the Stockholm Syndrome. They would even go as far as to bite other non-infected humans. The zombies would not consider these people to be one of them and would tear them apart. Brooks made an interesting comment in this part of the book saying that these sad people were being destroyed by the things they are trying to be (paraphrased). Tell me there isn’t some spiritual application there. .. Below is the MP3 version, if they restock, on Amazon. The voice acting is pretty good.

Finally Finished 'Omega Man' (thank goodness)

So, I suffered through the last half hour of the movie. Up until this point it was just bad in general. The last half hour just ruined something that was almost a complete wreck already. Perhaps they knew it was tanking and that's why they added...you guessed it...gratuitous nudity. Luckily it was not Charlton Heston. I'm on to the book 'I Am Legend.' I have a feeling I am going to like this a whole lot better than any screen adaptation.

What I'm reading: World War Z Continued...

There is some gold among the dross in ‘World War Z.’ Let me reiterate that this is by no means a book that I would recommend to anyone easily offended by foul language or gore. The book is broken up into a series of interviews of people who were on the front lines of the zombie war. All of the language comes from the interviews with these folks. Honestly, it adds a level of realism to the book. The book is set in modern times and unfortunately this is the way that people talk. For example, a soldier is being interviewed who was at a major battle that turned into a devastating defeat for the living, I would probably put the book down if he said something like, ‘gee willikers that’s a lot of zombies’ or ‘golly, they’re eating Joey.’

Is this a book for Christians? Maybe not. That is not to say there are no redeeming features to the book (I had mentioned some gold among the dross). Some examples of this are: the way that some countries come together and racial barriers are broken down to fight a common enemy. That’s something right?

On a slightly more abstract level, there is a scene where two old intel spy-spook types read each other’s reports on the zombies and they don’t speak the entire night because they are so engrossed in the reports. Why? They are reading about life and death, about the fate of humanity. It made me ponder, what if we approached the scripture in this same way? It is a book of life and death, do we take it as seriously as we should? I am still however reading the book. The final verdict is not yet in.

Films: Omega Man

Omega Man – How I really wanted to like this movie…I understand in 1971 the special effects were slightly lacking, but that is not my issue. For the uninitiated, ‘Omega Man’ was an early adaptation of Richard Matheson’s novel ‘I Am Legend’ starring Charlton Heston. Perhaps they were impressed with Heston’s previous post-apocalyptic film ‘Planet of the Apes’ (1968).

Though there are no damned dirty apes in ‘Omega Man’ there are poorly dressed ‘family’ who are the protagonists of the film. They are black robed, night-stalking albinos clad in sunglasses who shun everything from the pre-plague world including gunpowder. Sounds cool right? I thought so too.

Unlike the Will Smith movie, the ‘family’ are rather coherent and have regular conversations with each other, and an organized plan right from the beginning of the film. Cool, no issues here.

The problem comes from poor editing and lack of common sense. I don’t need CG and big explosions. Some issues were: Heston is driving in a ‘deserted’ city during the day. The ‘family’ is light sensitive so they would not be about the streets, yet as the camera pans on Heston whipping through the streets there are numerous (and I mean numerous) people in the background. Also, not to trash the movie too much, Heston uses generators in the movie multiple times (rightly so as there is no power grid). However, when Heston is rescued in the middle of the film in a sports stadium, his rescuers use the stadium lights to scare off the ‘family.’ Am I being too picky?

I put the cart slightly ahead of the horse here because I have not read the book yet. Forgive me, I’m planning on it. A lot of people did not like the Will Smith version but I thought it was pretty decent, especially compared to its predecessor. I enjoy the idea of abandoned places. Whole cities occupied by nothing but the birds and animals. I thought the Will Smith version depicted this pretty well. I could get into the atmosphere of a big empty place in ‘I am Legend’ starring the Fresh Prince. Seeing some guy smoking on the corner in ‘Omega Man’ or people using the crosswalk in the distance put me off my tea too early in the film. My forgiveness bank was already approaching capacity and the opening credits were still going. Did I mention I have not even finished the movie yet? I may need to amend this review but it will not likely be in the favor of ‘Omega Man.’

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