by John Lobell

The Chronicles of Riddick, directed in 2004 by David Twohy and staring Vin Diesel, has always been a favorite of mine. It had a poor critical reception and its gross did not make back its production, marketing, and distribution costs. However it has since seen success on DVD and television broadcasts.

While the movie was set up for a sequel, its poor reception precluded the possibility. Until now. “Shock Till You Drop” posts on IMDB regarding the soon to come sequel: “Betrayed by his own kind and left for dead on a desolate planet, Riddick fights for survival against alien predators and becomes more powerful and dangerous than ever before. Soon bounty hunters from throughout the galaxy descend on Riddick only to find themselves pawns in his greater scheme for revenge. With his enemies right where he wants them, Riddick unleashes a vicious attack of vengeance before returning to his home planet of Furya to save it from destruction.”

So what was Chronicles about and why did I like it? Read the rest of this entry »

by John Lobell

An expedition goes to a remote planet where there was an outpost of beings from another world called the Engineers. The members of the expedition piece together that the Engineers had created life on earth, and that those on this outpost had created a vicious bio-weapon (the aliens of the Alien movies) for the purpose of destroying human life on earth, but their bio-weapon got out of control and killed the Engineers on the outpost. The movie ends with the emergence of the first of the aliens that we saw in the older movies, and with our sole-surviving intrepid female expeditioner taking off for the Engineers’ home plant to solve the mystery of why they created us and why they want to destroy is. Both of which we will presumably find out in the sequels to come.

What to make of all of this? And, why we will take Alien over Prometheus as the more philosophically mature movie. Read the rest of this entry »

The Hunger Games

Reviewed by John Lobell

First, this is a discussion of the movie; I have not read the books. Second, I am going to exercise some laziness and, for those not familiar with the story line, quote from Wikipedia to get us up to speed:

“The story takes place in a dystopian post-apocalyptic future in the nation of Panem, which consists of a wealthy capitol surrounded by 12 less affluent districts. As punishment for a past rebellion against the government, the Capitol initiated the Hunger Games—a televised annual event in which one boy and one girl from each of the 12 districts are selected in a lottery as “tributes” and are required to fight to the death in an arena until there is one remaining victor. When the protagonist Katniss Everdeen (Lawrence) hears her younger sister’s name called as the female tribute for their district, she volunteers to take her place in order to save her from having to participate. Joined by her district’s male tribute Peeta Mellark (Hutcherson), Katniss travels to the Capitol to train for the Hunger Games under the guidance of former victor Haymitch Abernathy (Harrelson), expressing resentment for both the Capitol and its populace for forcing her and her fellow tributes to fight to the death for their own amusement.” Read the rest of this entry »

Immortals, Mythology and Metaphysics

A Review by Benton Rooks

“…Myth remains the proper language of metaphysics.” –Ananda K. Coomaraswamy

There are three essential layers and functions for any mythology: social, psychological and metaphysical /spiritual. The dualistic social function varies significantly from culture to culture—myths have often been used by the media, Church and the State as tactics of control to subdue the “masses”—but they are also educational tools for illustrating how mere mortals can achieve spiritual perfection or immortality through divine acts. A myth, then, cannot always be said to be false, at least not metaphysically, and therefore it may in fact be more true than some of the mythical narratives our consciousness weaves for us in the day-to-day routines we often find ourselves hopelessly trapped in. Read the rest of this entry »

Source Code: A Movie Review

by John Lobell

[Spoiler alert] In my comment posted after Ebert’s review on this site of Inception, I wrote: “Notice that we have been getting a lot of movies with a non-linear, layered time, and notice that (most) audiences are totally comfortable with these movies.” I then went on to briefly discuss Groundhog Day, 50 First Dates, Memento, the Terminator movies, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Lake House. I could have added the Matrix movies, 12 Monkeys, Vanilla Sky, and The Adjustment Bureau. Read the rest of this entry »

My Top 20 Films Since 1992

by John David Ebert

After watching Quentin Tarantino’s list on You Tube and then realizing that absolutely none of his films overlap with my own list, I’ve decided, just for fun, to post that list here, with brief discussions of each film.

Here they are, then, in order by release date:

1. Ed Wood (1994) This is my favorite Tim Burton film, his funniest and also Johnny Depp’s best performance. The sheer, maniacal insanity of the film, its evident love of filmmaking, and the persistence of Wood’s vision mark it as a classic. Fans of Forrest J. Ackerman’s (now defunct) magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland will know exactly what I’m talking about. Read the rest of this entry »

Tron: Legacy a Movie Review

by John Lobell

It is bad enough that movies have become so formulaic, but when they are, they could at least follow the rules of the formula.

In Tron: Legacy, we have:
- Search for and reconciliation with the father
- Travel to the underworld for the completion of the self
- Travel to the underworld to save the world
- The realization that technology cannot replace humanity Read the rest of this entry »

Black Swan: A Movie Review

by John Lobell

A female ballet dancer in a New York Lincoln Center company has for too long been passed over, but now she has been chosen for a role in a reworked Swan Lake which will require her to dance both the role of the pure White Swan, and the aggressive erotic Black Swan.  She is perfect for the White Swan, but her sexual repression keeps her from capturing the Black.  The movie presents her sexual/artistic (they are one) awakening. Read the rest of this entry »

Skyline: A Movie Review

by John Lobell

[Spoiler alert] Mummy movies begin with the 1932 film The Mummy starring Boris Karloff, and subsequent mummy movies follow the pattern it lays down. Our mummy, who has survived for thousands of years (by the miracle of tana leaves) is seeking to kill a contemporary woman whom he intends to resurrect as his long lost love. The two of them will then become immortal and will hobnob with the gods. Read the rest of this entry »

by John Lobell

[Spoiler alert] First, some personal background. I have for the past few years been consulting on a project called Timeship, a $300 million project devoted to extreme life extension. Put simply, the developers of the project object to death and intend to “cure” it, finding the genetic cause of aging and turning it off. (You can find out more at Timeship.org, and get the book on the project, Timeship: The Architecture of Immortality, on Amazon.) So what was fantasy for Mary Shelley is now becoming reality. Craig Venter has announced the creation of a new life form as he gains the ability to code DNA as facilely as computer programmers code C++. But as in all great science fiction, the core of Splice is not science, but metaphor. Read the rest of this entry »