Review: The Matrix

The Matrix movies were not science fiction, and when the third movie proved that it made a lot of people unhappy. The Matrix movies were Anime or Manga. Crazy technology, crazy fighting, and an incomprehensible ending.

See? Anime.

Review: Edge Of Tomorrow

Pretty good, better than some we've seen recently. Probably will get the video. Possibly not true to the original source, but North American viewers don't really go for the whole Manga thing (see also: The Matrix).

Declining To Vote

Here's what declining to vote says:

I paid attention, weighed the options, and I don't see anything here I want to vote for, so I am not going to.

I spent the time to come out and say none of these options are good enough.

I am engaged and willing to vote for the right platform.

None of the platforms engaged me.

My vote is there for the taking, should the right platform be offered.

That's totally different from just not going out to vote -- that is a solid "I don't care".

And frankly, if enough people go out and decline their votes, it will be a graphic illustration of the block of voters willing to vote, but not finding what they want to vote for.

If more people decline to vote than elect a party, it speaks volumes to the legitimacy of a government.  You can hand-wave away those who just don't show up, but if people show up and essentially say "Not you", that's a message.

Today that might be pointless.  But if nothing changes, and we can turn the failure-to-voters into vote-decliners, we just might create change worth voting for.

(Edit: here's a timely and informative link about the process from a source other than me: I Decline: A Guide To Refusing Your Ontario Ballot)

Review: Transformers 3 - Dark Of The Moon

So for years I went to see maybe one movie a year, and for the most part I never wanted to see anything else that was in the previews. I could pick out the one movie months in advance and have a pretty good idea that it would be a good movie.

Jenn and I have been going to movies monthly (or more frequently, last little while) and for whatever reason there seemed to be more movies in the previews I was wanting to see. And my question was: is exposure to the previews increasing the number of movies I am aware of, therefore increasing the number of movies I wanted to see -- or was exposure to the previews lowering my standards for what would constitute an acceptable movie?

This becomes relevant because the previews for Transformers 4 looked like it had the potential to be a good movie. And Jenn said not to get my hopes up because she'd been watching Transformers 2 on an airplane -- where it was free, available, and there was a lot of time that needed killing -- and despite all that, she'd still turned it off.

So in the run up to Transformers 4, Transformers 3 made it on to TV. To whet everyone's appetite or something. So we recorded it, because how bad could it really be?

And:

A) My god, this is terrible. I mean, not *terrible* terrible, but still terrible; and

B) Jenn says this is *better* than Transformers 2.

I was pre-disposed towards liking this movie. I wanted to like this movie. High tech robots clobbering everyone? Leonard Nimoy? My history of watching the original animated Transformers? All biases in favor of this movie. It created a very, very low bar to clear. And it failed to do so. Heck, it smashed through the barrier like it was a truck that couldn't jump.

There's so much wrong with this movie I don't know what to say. How about:

• none of the apollo missions went to "the dark side" of the moon;
  
• it isn't "the dark side"; you might call it "the far side" if you are earth-centric, but really the only thing you can call it is "the other side";
  
• some guy had a nice model of a Saturn-V rocket on his desk -- in 1961, before the rocket had been developed;
  
• none of the astronauts noticed the tracks around the crashed alien spaceship? There's no erosion on the moon to wear tracks like that away;
  
• when the Autobots go to the moon, there's a nice apollo lander sitting there -- including the part that should have left with the astronauts when they returned to the orbiter
  

...and that's enough for now.
The end orgy of violence in Chicago was incomprehensible to me. I could not follow who was doing what, let alone allegedly why.

I'm watching it for free and frankly I'm paying too much.

So now Transformers 4 is off the table for the theatre. I may give it a try on TV when it comes out, but based on what I recall of Transformers 1, Jenn's abandonment of Transformers 2, and… THIS… well I don't see how I can justify spending money on it.

Review: X-Men - Days Of Future Past

I guess if you are going to ret-con your entire universe, why not be blatant about it? Very fast and loose with the past-and-future-coexistence, but over all no worse than anything else we've enjoyed.