Carl Alves's Blog, page 16
July 4, 2018
Movie Review: Jurassic World Fallen Kingdom
If you were strictly watching a movie for the action and special effects, then you wouldn’t be disappointed by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. After all, it had an island filled with dinosaurs experiencing a total volcanic eruption. There was a daring escape. And as far as special effects and CGI, the dinos certainly looked impressive. If you were looking for something beyond action and effects, well, this might not be the movie for you.
The movie villains (the human ones) were little more than cardboard cutouts. In particular, Ken Wheatley, the head of the military operation to extract the dinosaurs, is about the most generic mustache twirling villain the laziest of lazy writers could conceive of. Furthermore, the movie was so utterly predictable. Every once in a while, I would turn to my wife and tell her what was going to happen in a given scene, and low and behold, the scene would go exactly as predicted. Also, and this is a carryover from previous movies as well, dinosaurs for some reason find villainous human beings far more tasty than their virtuous counterparts. Given the choice, they apparently would much rather eat a bad person than a good person. Believability is a big problem. There were quite a few plot holes. Case in point, if you try to make a transfusion where you take blood from one species and give it to another species, I’m quite certain the creature that receives the blood is going to reject it. Anyway, this is a movie that your kids will probably enjoy. Mine did. But if you want a deeper movie, you may want to look elsewhere.
The movie villains (the human ones) were little more than cardboard cutouts. In particular, Ken Wheatley, the head of the military operation to extract the dinosaurs, is about the most generic mustache twirling villain the laziest of lazy writers could conceive of. Furthermore, the movie was so utterly predictable. Every once in a while, I would turn to my wife and tell her what was going to happen in a given scene, and low and behold, the scene would go exactly as predicted. Also, and this is a carryover from previous movies as well, dinosaurs for some reason find villainous human beings far more tasty than their virtuous counterparts. Given the choice, they apparently would much rather eat a bad person than a good person. Believability is a big problem. There were quite a few plot holes. Case in point, if you try to make a transfusion where you take blood from one species and give it to another species, I’m quite certain the creature that receives the blood is going to reject it. Anyway, this is a movie that your kids will probably enjoy. Mine did. But if you want a deeper movie, you may want to look elsewhere.
June 24, 2018
Movie Review: Hereditary
After seeing all of the positive reviews and the 90% positive Rotten Tomatoes ratings, I was stunned watching this movie, and realizing it was a complete and utter disaster. How bad was Heriditary? Let me count the ways. It was probably one of the ten worst horror movies I’ve ever watched. I can’t even remember the last time I saw a movie this bad in the theater. Even Sponge Bob: The Movie was better than this mess.
The movie started off slow. Very little happened for about the first half hour. Unfortunately, when things started happening is when it got really bad. It all started going downhill in the first major action sequence and character death. I won’t go into the particulars but it was so utterly preposterous and there were so many things wrong with the whole sequence. Things just got worse after that. Basically, this movie is a collection of as many strange and “disturbing” things as they can put on screen. I put disturbing in quotes, because they weren’t so much disturbing as dumb. The bottom line here is that there was no logic to the plot, to the backstory, or the character’s actions. The characters, other than the father of the family, were not at all likeable. Toni Collette, the lead actress in the movie, was in a constant state of hysterics. There were few moments when she wasn’t crying, screaming, or was on the verge of losing it. It’s not that I didn’t understand what was going on. I knew exactly what was going on, but that didn’t help matters because everything was so utterly illogical.
This movie was God-awful. I would call it a dumpster fire, but that wouldn’t do it justice. Instead, I like to think of this movie as a flaming pile of crap that should be avoided at all costs.
The movie started off slow. Very little happened for about the first half hour. Unfortunately, when things started happening is when it got really bad. It all started going downhill in the first major action sequence and character death. I won’t go into the particulars but it was so utterly preposterous and there were so many things wrong with the whole sequence. Things just got worse after that. Basically, this movie is a collection of as many strange and “disturbing” things as they can put on screen. I put disturbing in quotes, because they weren’t so much disturbing as dumb. The bottom line here is that there was no logic to the plot, to the backstory, or the character’s actions. The characters, other than the father of the family, were not at all likeable. Toni Collette, the lead actress in the movie, was in a constant state of hysterics. There were few moments when she wasn’t crying, screaming, or was on the verge of losing it. It’s not that I didn’t understand what was going on. I knew exactly what was going on, but that didn’t help matters because everything was so utterly illogical.
This movie was God-awful. I would call it a dumpster fire, but that wouldn’t do it justice. Instead, I like to think of this movie as a flaming pile of crap that should be avoided at all costs.
June 18, 2018
Westworld: Vanishing Point
Vanishing Point continued the HBO tradition of putting on the most explosive episode where the proverbial s*** hits the fan in the second to the last episode of the season. There was a big reveal and two major character deaths, one not so much of the character’s importance but the implications to the character doing the killing.
The Man in Black
I feel as if Westworld doesn’t do enough character development, but in this episode they did a really strong job with the presentation of William, the Man in Black. The reveal in this episode is the real reason for William’s wife’s suicide, when she sees all of the horrific things he has done in Westworld from his profile, where his true character is revealed. This pushed her to commit suicide. His daughter, Emily, revealed that she is trying to bury him and expose his secrets to the world. Convinced that she is a host created and sent by Ford, the Man in Black first wipes out the QA team then kills his own daughter. On the one hand, it seems ludicrous that he would kill her just on the notion that she’s a host. You would think he would want to be certain beyond any shadow of a doubt. On the other hand, this shows how far over the edge the Man in Black has gone. He’s ultraparanoid and has lost touch with reality. I apt for the latter and see this for the tragedy that it is. Also, as an aside, I’ve been thoroughly annoyed that he’s the CEO of Delos, the most important man in the company, and yet they haven’t sent a squadron of people to his rescue and took Maeve instead of him a couple of episodes ago. At least the QA team recognized that, oh here’s the boss, before he killed them all.
Bernard
For a few episodes, Ford has been in Bernard’s head, telling him what to do. When he tries to convince Bernard to kill Elsie, he’s had enough and goes through a self-procedure to rid himself of Ford’s meddling influence. With Ford out of his head, Bernard heads to the Valley Beyond where if the early episodes prove true, he will be involved in drowning the hosts in some sort of mass execution.
Dolores
Dolores’s gang gets into a fight to the death with the Ghost Nation warriors. The only ones left standing are her and Teddy. Despite, the upgrades she made to Teddy, namely jacking up his aggression and hatred and loyalty, he starts to remember himself. When he goes on his little speech at the end, I never thought he would kill her, so suicide was the only choice for him. Is it just me, or was the show heavily fixated on suicide in this episode, with the Man in Black almost offing himself after realizing that he murdered his daughter? Now Dolores stands alone. She has been hell bent in her mission all season, but her overzealousness has cost her all of her allies and the android she loves. How sad.
In the final episode, I think we will see Dolores ultimately get foiled. I think she will go down in defeat perhaps to be reprogrammed as a kinder and gentler Dolores. I think we will also see the final demise of the Man in Black.
The Man in Black
I feel as if Westworld doesn’t do enough character development, but in this episode they did a really strong job with the presentation of William, the Man in Black. The reveal in this episode is the real reason for William’s wife’s suicide, when she sees all of the horrific things he has done in Westworld from his profile, where his true character is revealed. This pushed her to commit suicide. His daughter, Emily, revealed that she is trying to bury him and expose his secrets to the world. Convinced that she is a host created and sent by Ford, the Man in Black first wipes out the QA team then kills his own daughter. On the one hand, it seems ludicrous that he would kill her just on the notion that she’s a host. You would think he would want to be certain beyond any shadow of a doubt. On the other hand, this shows how far over the edge the Man in Black has gone. He’s ultraparanoid and has lost touch with reality. I apt for the latter and see this for the tragedy that it is. Also, as an aside, I’ve been thoroughly annoyed that he’s the CEO of Delos, the most important man in the company, and yet they haven’t sent a squadron of people to his rescue and took Maeve instead of him a couple of episodes ago. At least the QA team recognized that, oh here’s the boss, before he killed them all.
Bernard
For a few episodes, Ford has been in Bernard’s head, telling him what to do. When he tries to convince Bernard to kill Elsie, he’s had enough and goes through a self-procedure to rid himself of Ford’s meddling influence. With Ford out of his head, Bernard heads to the Valley Beyond where if the early episodes prove true, he will be involved in drowning the hosts in some sort of mass execution.
Dolores
Dolores’s gang gets into a fight to the death with the Ghost Nation warriors. The only ones left standing are her and Teddy. Despite, the upgrades she made to Teddy, namely jacking up his aggression and hatred and loyalty, he starts to remember himself. When he goes on his little speech at the end, I never thought he would kill her, so suicide was the only choice for him. Is it just me, or was the show heavily fixated on suicide in this episode, with the Man in Black almost offing himself after realizing that he murdered his daughter? Now Dolores stands alone. She has been hell bent in her mission all season, but her overzealousness has cost her all of her allies and the android she loves. How sad.
In the final episode, I think we will see Dolores ultimately get foiled. I think she will go down in defeat perhaps to be reprogrammed as a kinder and gentler Dolores. I think we will also see the final demise of the Man in Black.
June 16, 2018
Westworld: Kiksuya
My biggest problem with Westworld this season has been that they have been trying so hard to confuse the viewer with all of the varying timelimes. It’s almost as if they are trying to be too clever. The show almost never gives linear storytelling. Well, they did this episode, and in my humble opinion, they hit a home run. Kiksuya has been my favorite episode thus far this season.
The Man in Black
Perhaps the most ridiculous and stupefying thing in the history of the show occurred when the Westworld quality control employees swooped in to retrieve Maeve after shooting her down, but they left The Man in Black to die. He’s the f***ing CEO of the company. Shouldn’t they have sent a whole squadron of soldiers to save him? It makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, he’s dying and Akecheta shows him no sympathy for what he did to Maeve and her daughter. Before he dies a slow and painful death, his daughter comes to save him.
Akecheta
I thought the backstory of Akecheta was terrific. And since they used linear storytelling, I didn’t have to guess when this was taking place. He had a real neat story about how he was obsessed with the Maze and how the love of his life, Kahona, was taken from him, and how he underwent on a crazy journey to find her. The acting was terrific as he showed the heartbreak of seeing Akecheta purposely choose to die so that he can finally find Kahona, only to see her along with all of the other hosts who were currently inactive. It’s not clear how he was awoken, as even Ford seemed to be surprised at Kacheta’s awakening. The scene with Ford was excellent. The way the show had always portrayed him was him terrorizing Maeve and her daughter, but as it turns out, he was just trying to save her.
Maeve
The big reveal in this episode was that despite Maeve being seemingly out of commission, she has been communicating all along with Akecheta, who relays his story to her. This was so well done, as it seemed he was speaking to Maeve’s daughter, when he was actually communicating telepathically with her. It was a great scene and a great episode.
This episode revealed the potential that Westworld has. They don’t have to purposely confuse the viewers in order to spring reveals to make it a good show. Hopefully, they come to understand this.
The Man in Black
Perhaps the most ridiculous and stupefying thing in the history of the show occurred when the Westworld quality control employees swooped in to retrieve Maeve after shooting her down, but they left The Man in Black to die. He’s the f***ing CEO of the company. Shouldn’t they have sent a whole squadron of soldiers to save him? It makes absolutely no sense. Anyway, he’s dying and Akecheta shows him no sympathy for what he did to Maeve and her daughter. Before he dies a slow and painful death, his daughter comes to save him.
Akecheta
I thought the backstory of Akecheta was terrific. And since they used linear storytelling, I didn’t have to guess when this was taking place. He had a real neat story about how he was obsessed with the Maze and how the love of his life, Kahona, was taken from him, and how he underwent on a crazy journey to find her. The acting was terrific as he showed the heartbreak of seeing Akecheta purposely choose to die so that he can finally find Kahona, only to see her along with all of the other hosts who were currently inactive. It’s not clear how he was awoken, as even Ford seemed to be surprised at Kacheta’s awakening. The scene with Ford was excellent. The way the show had always portrayed him was him terrorizing Maeve and her daughter, but as it turns out, he was just trying to save her.
Maeve
The big reveal in this episode was that despite Maeve being seemingly out of commission, she has been communicating all along with Akecheta, who relays his story to her. This was so well done, as it seemed he was speaking to Maeve’s daughter, when he was actually communicating telepathically with her. It was a great scene and a great episode.
This episode revealed the potential that Westworld has. They don’t have to purposely confuse the viewers in order to spring reveals to make it a good show. Hopefully, they come to understand this.
June 9, 2018
Movie Review: Solo
Coming into the Solo movie, I had lowered expectations since I had heard mixed reviews of the movie. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. I think your opinion of the movie is largely shaped by your mindset and expectations. It wasn’t the classic that some of the other Star Wars movies are and it wasn’t the deepest and most thought provoking movie. It’s a fun action movie set in space—more science fantasy than science fiction. If that’s what you come in looking for, then you’ll enjoy this movie.
I had my doubts about Alden Ehrenreich in the lead role as Han Solo, but he grew on me as the movie wore on. The rest of the cast was strong with Emelia Clark, Donald Glover, and Woody Harrelson in supporting roles. There was a lot of back stabbing and twists in the movie, most of which were easy to see coming and some that weren’t. There was strong special effects and great action scenes as would be expected in this type of movie. I really don’t have much negative to say about the movie. I especially enjoyed L3-37, the android in the movie, and the android revolt that she led. The end of the movie set up for future movies in the Solo series, and I look forward to it, especially with the surprise cameo at the end, and the one that was eluded to.
I had my doubts about Alden Ehrenreich in the lead role as Han Solo, but he grew on me as the movie wore on. The rest of the cast was strong with Emelia Clark, Donald Glover, and Woody Harrelson in supporting roles. There was a lot of back stabbing and twists in the movie, most of which were easy to see coming and some that weren’t. There was strong special effects and great action scenes as would be expected in this type of movie. I really don’t have much negative to say about the movie. I especially enjoyed L3-37, the android in the movie, and the android revolt that she led. The end of the movie set up for future movies in the Solo series, and I look forward to it, especially with the surprise cameo at the end, and the one that was eluded to.
May 25, 2018
Movie Review: Avengers Infiity Wars
The third entry in The Avengers series came in with no shortage of hype. The cast of superheroes as well as A list actors was enormous. The budget was out of this world. The special effects were very impressive. For my money, the movie lived up to the hype. For a movie with this cast of superheroes, the villain had to be worthy of all of this attention, and the choice of Thanos is a good one. They established that he is superior to any villain ever encountered in the Marvel universe when he ran roughshod over a ship carrying Thor, Loki, Hulk, and Heimdahl. His quest for all six Infinity stones led him to encounters with all of the original Avengers plus Doctor Strange, Black Panther and all the Wakandans, and the Guardians of the Galaxy for good measure. This gathering of diverse heroes didn’t feel forced and made sense with the story line.
There was a lot that I liked about the movie. At the top of the list is that they didn’t make Thanos some evil monster hell bent on destruction for the sake of destruction. Thanos was a well-developed character who was the hero of his own story. He felt that what he was doing was right and just, and the others couldn’t understand since they lacked his knowledge and wisdom. He was introspective and even sympathetic at times. I also liked the interaction of familiar characters who had never shared the screen together. The ones that really stood out were the Guardians and Thor, as well as Iron Man and Doctor Strange, two arrogant and powerful characters who meshed well together. Despite the running time of two and a half hours, there was never a dull moment. There was action and intrigue galore, lots of funny moments, and the ending was climactic to say the least. Unless you have no interest in watching super hero movies, this is a must watch.
There was a lot that I liked about the movie. At the top of the list is that they didn’t make Thanos some evil monster hell bent on destruction for the sake of destruction. Thanos was a well-developed character who was the hero of his own story. He felt that what he was doing was right and just, and the others couldn’t understand since they lacked his knowledge and wisdom. He was introspective and even sympathetic at times. I also liked the interaction of familiar characters who had never shared the screen together. The ones that really stood out were the Guardians and Thor, as well as Iron Man and Doctor Strange, two arrogant and powerful characters who meshed well together. Despite the running time of two and a half hours, there was never a dull moment. There was action and intrigue galore, lots of funny moments, and the ending was climactic to say the least. Unless you have no interest in watching super hero movies, this is a must watch.
May 21, 2018
Westworld: Akane No Mai
Akane No Mai brought the long awaited introduction to Shogun World. The story was fun and intriguing and worth the wait.
Dolores and Teddy
This was a tale of android love gone horribly wrong. The seeds for this tragic end to this romance was sewn when Teddy couldn’t go through with assassinating the soldiers at the Fort of Forlorn Hope. That was the moment I knew that it was all over. As the episode wore on, I thought Dolores simply was going to kill Teddy, even when they were having their little tryst. I didn’t see the whole reprogramming happening, so it was a nice surprise twist. My guess is that Teddy emerges as a mean, cold SOB.
Maeve
I enjoyed the opening of Shogun World, where Maeve and company discover that the storyline they stumble into is identical to the one set in Westworld. Maeve even finds her double in Akane. Talk about lazy writing. They couldn’t even come up with unique storylines for Shogun World. As a fellow writer, I appreciated that little subplot. In Shogun World, Akane is protecting Sakura, her surrogate daughter, who Maeve sees as a similar relationship to her daughter, who she’s trying to find. Akane goes off script and kills a messenger, creating a war between Team Maeve and the Shogun’s forces, one in which Maeve is badly outnumbered. After Akane kills the Shogun, and Team Maeve is about to die horribly, Maeve is able to prevail with her superpowers. Before she was able to command hosts by speaking to them. Now she can control the with mental powers of subjugation. It almost doesn’t seem fair. Now, it appears she has an army of samurai warriors on her side.
Season 2 continues to roll along with cool episodes. Although not as good as last week’s, this episode stands on its own two feet.
Dolores and Teddy
This was a tale of android love gone horribly wrong. The seeds for this tragic end to this romance was sewn when Teddy couldn’t go through with assassinating the soldiers at the Fort of Forlorn Hope. That was the moment I knew that it was all over. As the episode wore on, I thought Dolores simply was going to kill Teddy, even when they were having their little tryst. I didn’t see the whole reprogramming happening, so it was a nice surprise twist. My guess is that Teddy emerges as a mean, cold SOB.
Maeve
I enjoyed the opening of Shogun World, where Maeve and company discover that the storyline they stumble into is identical to the one set in Westworld. Maeve even finds her double in Akane. Talk about lazy writing. They couldn’t even come up with unique storylines for Shogun World. As a fellow writer, I appreciated that little subplot. In Shogun World, Akane is protecting Sakura, her surrogate daughter, who Maeve sees as a similar relationship to her daughter, who she’s trying to find. Akane goes off script and kills a messenger, creating a war between Team Maeve and the Shogun’s forces, one in which Maeve is badly outnumbered. After Akane kills the Shogun, and Team Maeve is about to die horribly, Maeve is able to prevail with her superpowers. Before she was able to command hosts by speaking to them. Now she can control the with mental powers of subjugation. It almost doesn’t seem fair. Now, it appears she has an army of samurai warriors on her side.
Season 2 continues to roll along with cool episodes. Although not as good as last week’s, this episode stands on its own two feet.
May 17, 2018
Westworld: Reunion
The Riddle of the Sphinx provided the first big reveals of the season, and was, in my humble opinion, the best episode thus far of season 2. There has been a decent bit of confusion in the season (but this is Westworld so that’s expected), but I have really enjoyed the build, and now the show is giving some payoff to that build.
Jim Delos
In previous episodes, they had hinted that Jim Delos, the CEO of the Delos Corporation that owns Westworld, had failing health and wasn’t long for this world. They also hinted that part of the reason he was interested in purchasing Westworld was the technology that could possibly help him extend his life. Well, in this episode that came to fruition. These were some great scenes, sent in a swanky apartment with young William visiting him and bringing a bottle of whiskey. They engage in some banter, and then William leaves. This scene is repeated over and over again, indicating that it’s no longer Jim Delos but a host with his transferred consciousness. Except the transfer isn’t fully working and they continually have to terminate and restart the process. Later, the Man in Black decides to terminate the program all together, deciding that people shouldn’t live forever. There was a small reveal that Jim’s son Logan, died of a drug overdose years ago, but that was trumped by Big Reveal One—the real purpose of Westworld was to clone human beings but the technology still isn’t there.
Bernard
Bernard is still hurting in this episode and is in some serious need of robot juice (okay coritical fluid). In this episode, he finds Elise, who we last saw when Bernard knocked her out and tied her up. They are in a secret compartment. Bernard has these continual flashbacks of actions he completed in the past and also reveals to Elise that he’s an android. The compartment turns out to be the same one that was holding Jim Delos and their 149 attempts to clone him. From these flashbacks, it becomes clear that Ford had found out what they were doing and sent Bernard in to clean house and kill all of the scientists working on the project. We also learn that Bernard is now acting on his own and is no longer under Ford’s control.
The Man in Black
The Man in Black and his sidekick are taken captive by Major Craddock, who thinks that he is Lazarus resurrected from the dead. He obviously doesn’t realize that he’s an android. After being held in captivity for most of the episode, the Man in Black turns the tables and executes Craddock’s men, leaving his sidekick to kill Craddock after making him swallow nitro glycerin. Big Reveal Number Two—this one was a confirmation of a popular theory that the woman we saw in Raj World is actually The Man in Black’s daughter. After she escapes from her captives in Ghost Nation, she reunites with her father. After all that had been hinted at about their relationship, my guess is that this won’t be a cheery reunion. She blames him and Westworld for her mother’s suicide and knows that her father’s true self is the one he reveals in Westworld.
Great reveals and tons of intrigue. I look forward to the introduction of Shogun World, which should happen in the next episode.
Jim Delos
In previous episodes, they had hinted that Jim Delos, the CEO of the Delos Corporation that owns Westworld, had failing health and wasn’t long for this world. They also hinted that part of the reason he was interested in purchasing Westworld was the technology that could possibly help him extend his life. Well, in this episode that came to fruition. These were some great scenes, sent in a swanky apartment with young William visiting him and bringing a bottle of whiskey. They engage in some banter, and then William leaves. This scene is repeated over and over again, indicating that it’s no longer Jim Delos but a host with his transferred consciousness. Except the transfer isn’t fully working and they continually have to terminate and restart the process. Later, the Man in Black decides to terminate the program all together, deciding that people shouldn’t live forever. There was a small reveal that Jim’s son Logan, died of a drug overdose years ago, but that was trumped by Big Reveal One—the real purpose of Westworld was to clone human beings but the technology still isn’t there.
Bernard
Bernard is still hurting in this episode and is in some serious need of robot juice (okay coritical fluid). In this episode, he finds Elise, who we last saw when Bernard knocked her out and tied her up. They are in a secret compartment. Bernard has these continual flashbacks of actions he completed in the past and also reveals to Elise that he’s an android. The compartment turns out to be the same one that was holding Jim Delos and their 149 attempts to clone him. From these flashbacks, it becomes clear that Ford had found out what they were doing and sent Bernard in to clean house and kill all of the scientists working on the project. We also learn that Bernard is now acting on his own and is no longer under Ford’s control.
The Man in Black
The Man in Black and his sidekick are taken captive by Major Craddock, who thinks that he is Lazarus resurrected from the dead. He obviously doesn’t realize that he’s an android. After being held in captivity for most of the episode, the Man in Black turns the tables and executes Craddock’s men, leaving his sidekick to kill Craddock after making him swallow nitro glycerin. Big Reveal Number Two—this one was a confirmation of a popular theory that the woman we saw in Raj World is actually The Man in Black’s daughter. After she escapes from her captives in Ghost Nation, she reunites with her father. After all that had been hinted at about their relationship, my guess is that this won’t be a cheery reunion. She blames him and Westworld for her mother’s suicide and knows that her father’s true self is the one he reveals in Westworld.
Great reveals and tons of intrigue. I look forward to the introduction of Shogun World, which should happen in the next episode.
May 2, 2018
Westworld: Reunion
In the last episode I was balking at the confusion that the season premiere left me with. There’s still a good bit of confusion thus far with the myriad of timelines that are being employed to tell the story. Sometimes, I wish they would put the date and time on the screen before each scene to make it easier, but it wouldn’t be Westworld if they did. Despite the confusion, the show is doing a great job of building intrigue in season 2.
The Man in Black/Young William
The Man in Black is on a mission just as he was in season one. Robert Ford has set up a game within the park for him to solve, but he must go it alone, as evidenced by the mass suicide of the men he was trying to recruit. He ends that scene with the cryptic line that he built the place he’s going to and it was the worst mistake he ever made. Can’t wait to find out what that is.
I love the scene where Logan is with the representative of Westworld and he goes to the cocktail party with all of the androids. He comes to the conclusion that his host is the robot, only to find out that she was the only human there—other than him of course. It was such a well-crafted scene. When William is with his father-in-law, they hint at his vision of the true purpose of Westworld—to learn about their guests since Westworld is the only place they can act without inhibition—kind of like an extreme version of Vegas.
Dolores
In this episode, they reveal a whole different side to Dolores’s existence. I had no idea that she had been outside of the park, but apparently she spent significant time there, first with Bernard/Arnold in the early days of her existence, and later at the retirement party for Young William’s father in law, who had run the Delos corporation prior to him. Dolores is building an army, and she means to use it to bust into the real world. Of course, she would have no idea just how vast our world is, dwarfing Westworld. Nor can she comprehend just what she would be up against, but she is undeterred as she smashes her way out of Westworld. She tries to sweet talk the Confederados into joining her, and when that doesn’t work, she just kills them all and has them reprogrammed.
Dolores is going somewhere, as is the Man in Black The question is—are they going to the same place, and what will happen when they encounter each other there?
The Man in Black/Young William
The Man in Black is on a mission just as he was in season one. Robert Ford has set up a game within the park for him to solve, but he must go it alone, as evidenced by the mass suicide of the men he was trying to recruit. He ends that scene with the cryptic line that he built the place he’s going to and it was the worst mistake he ever made. Can’t wait to find out what that is.
I love the scene where Logan is with the representative of Westworld and he goes to the cocktail party with all of the androids. He comes to the conclusion that his host is the robot, only to find out that she was the only human there—other than him of course. It was such a well-crafted scene. When William is with his father-in-law, they hint at his vision of the true purpose of Westworld—to learn about their guests since Westworld is the only place they can act without inhibition—kind of like an extreme version of Vegas.
Dolores
In this episode, they reveal a whole different side to Dolores’s existence. I had no idea that she had been outside of the park, but apparently she spent significant time there, first with Bernard/Arnold in the early days of her existence, and later at the retirement party for Young William’s father in law, who had run the Delos corporation prior to him. Dolores is building an army, and she means to use it to bust into the real world. Of course, she would have no idea just how vast our world is, dwarfing Westworld. Nor can she comprehend just what she would be up against, but she is undeterred as she smashes her way out of Westworld. She tries to sweet talk the Confederados into joining her, and when that doesn’t work, she just kills them all and has them reprogrammed.
Dolores is going somewhere, as is the Man in Black The question is—are they going to the same place, and what will happen when they encounter each other there?
April 29, 2018
Movie Review: A Quiet Place
I came into watching A Quiet Place with pretty high expectations, and although I thought it was a decent movie, it didn’t quite live up to those expectations. The movie starts off in 2020 in the early stages of the apocalypse, where creatures, known as Death Angels, have overrun the planet. The death angels are a total rip off of the creatures in Stranger Things in appearance. They are blind and have ultrasonic hearing, are superfast, and are vicious. The story doesn’t take a look at the world at large and instead focuses on one family, the approach taken in Signs, which worked very well for that movie, but presents some problems in this movie, in particular where the conclusion is concerned.
Although I liked aspects of this movie, including the fact that there was almost no dialogue in the movie. It fit well with the overall context of the movie, and I didn’t feel that it was just a gimmick. The overall acting in the movie was good. There was good tension and suspense, but there were also things that didn’t make sense. One was that despite that this was the apocalypse, they had electricity in abundance, and anything that would generate electricity whether it was a generator or some other mechanicsm would be making tons of noise and would require people to run and maintain it attracting the attention of the death angels. Also, when it came to the conclusion of the novel, and how the family finally fought back against the creatures, it seemed so obvious to me that this was how you would attack these creatures with ultrasonic hearing, and that at a year and a half into the apocalypse, nobody had thought of trying this type of attack, yet within the first half hour of the movie, it became obvious to me. It was one of those things that made me ask “how stupid are these people?” Anyway, overall I liked this movie but didn’t love it. It’s worth watching with lowered expectations.
Although I liked aspects of this movie, including the fact that there was almost no dialogue in the movie. It fit well with the overall context of the movie, and I didn’t feel that it was just a gimmick. The overall acting in the movie was good. There was good tension and suspense, but there were also things that didn’t make sense. One was that despite that this was the apocalypse, they had electricity in abundance, and anything that would generate electricity whether it was a generator or some other mechanicsm would be making tons of noise and would require people to run and maintain it attracting the attention of the death angels. Also, when it came to the conclusion of the novel, and how the family finally fought back against the creatures, it seemed so obvious to me that this was how you would attack these creatures with ultrasonic hearing, and that at a year and a half into the apocalypse, nobody had thought of trying this type of attack, yet within the first half hour of the movie, it became obvious to me. It was one of those things that made me ask “how stupid are these people?” Anyway, overall I liked this movie but didn’t love it. It’s worth watching with lowered expectations.
