It’s a chicken or the egg scenario. Ergo: Does Hollywood put on these relentless shooter movies because we the public want them, or do we just watch them, and develop a liking for them, because that’s all there is on?
I have just very recently wasted a lot of time watching movies. I enjoy science fiction because I like trying to imagine other realities, unfounded propositions and creative ideas. So the idea of artificial intelligence, to me, is interesting. How would it work, what would it look like? And granted, if that were a mainline interest of mine, I’d do better reading scientific journal on the subject than looking for answers on the big screen, but there you go, it’s just a “hobby” interest, one I ponder over for recreational purposes, as it were.
So I find a Johnny Depp film called Transcendence, wherein he manages to upload his consciousness onto the internet via some kick-ass hard-drive which he developed while still alive. So far so good, I cannot profess to understand all the bridges, but accept that he gets there. Bravo, what now. For some or other reason there is now a leap from the kind-hearted easygoing consciousness that was him in live state, to a megalomaniac computer brain bent on accessing and processing all the information available on-line. As he goes deeper and deeper and gains all the more knowledge, he uses it first to transfer billion to his account and then to build a stupefying underground science lab where develops robots to do his work and solves all kinds of medical riddles. Ok, sounds kinda interesting until he discovers nano-engineering and develops nano-robots capable of suturing and apparently reconstructing human tissue, almost immediately after injury. Thus making his patients indestructible. But, alas he is now also in the robotics, which means that he can possess his patients…see where this is going? Internet controlled zombies are not cool and the FBI or similar needs to shut him down and so everyone arms up and … Lets start a shooter movie! Plot over. It’s like all that thinking and plot development was simply another means to the same old end. Throw in the “best friend dilemma” and a pretty girl, and Hollywood is in full swing. A total waste of time which now features high on my recommended miss-list. Incidentally, I think Morgan Freeman is in there somewhere aswell.
Disappointed, but still bent on entertainment, I check out Lucy starring Scarlett Johanssen. Here we would apparently deal with a girl who, exposed to a massive amount of an extremely potent brain-function-enhancing drug, metamorphosizes as the drug sets about unlocking the full potential of her brain. Annoyingly but a-typically, they employ that sage old trusted truth teller, Mr. Morgan Freeman again, this time as a professor (no surprise there) to patiently explain what we are to expect of her as she develops through the awakening stages. First, at 15% she gets into the whole ESP thing, at 20% or so she is able to read and decipher info at lightning rate, a power relayed to us the regular way, thousands of screens open at the same time flashing before her eyes for a millisecond each, her fingers a blur on what must be the fastest damn server imaginable. And then the next thing on her mind, believe it or not…revenge. She gets two guns and can find no better use for her time than run around killing absolutely everyone in the usual never miss a shot routine. But alas, what would you expect from the super-intelligent human other than an ultimate killer. Guys, I cannot tell you how many people had to die for this plot to unfold. Innocent French policemen and unbelievably loyal Triad gangsters exchange every type of bullet and missile ever invented with almost no survivors, except of course, need I say it, old faithful Mr Morgan and a few of his cronies. Scarlett, who finally attaining 100% brain activation, degenerates into the apparently original human state: a one cell organism, and disappears before returning in the form of a text message which states “I am everywhere”. Oh God, please make it stop.
Increasingly irritated, my wife and I decided we would watch the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, our choice derived from curiosity piqued by a satisfactory viewing of the first part. Lets see where it goes, she argued. A bit of mindless entertainment, we thought. Well we got our monies worth there. Its best described as a two-hour episode of The Bold and the Beautiful, but where all the actors are dressed in monkey suits. After an eternity of monosyllabic discourse, they arm absolutely everyone including a handful of surviving humans to the teeth, and voila, more Hollywood mainstream coming your way. This movie was a bad choice from the start so I wont get any deeper than that. I admit, we were being stupid, and we paid a high price in time loss. Running a disk clean-up and faithfully watching the progress bar would have been more useful and oh so much more entertaining!
Enough, I say. Make it stop. A brief look at the news should be enough to conclude that we do not need anymore sensationalized killing. You’re not helping. You have the power to send out real messages of hope, of understanding, of compromise. You could be uniting communities and finding ways to dissipate anger, maybe educating people away from this reliance on violence to solve problems. Maybe shift the focus off the gun and the delusion of power which it creates and find heroes in people who are able to speak sense and reason things through to conclusion. I dont know but maybe “patience” and “empathy” could be underlying theme. Real problems are dealt with by employing reason, discussion, argument and profound thought. You guys know this. Just do it! And then make it entertaining because that’s your job.
And as for the actors, why not man up once in a while and say, “No thanks Mr. Producer, but I think you and I both know that this script sucks piles and is just another re-hash of the same old rubbish I have acted in so many times before”. “No” says Matt Damon, “I’m bigger now and I have outgrown the same old sniper/war hero routine. “Uh-huh” says Brad Pitt, “I wont take another life on-screen, give me an artistic challenge for a change”, and Bruce Willis, “Well…Ok, but just this one last time and then I want to try some serious acting!”
Post Mortem 