Pages

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Oh the Drama - Doesn't Matter if it's Fake

It's real. All real.


When it comes to story the mind doesn't care if something is real or not. It doesn't matter that Jon Snow never existed, and dragons are fake. It doesn't matter that Trump is clearly trolling you. The deep mind, the learning center, where narrative is processed, isn't critical. It is emotional. It makes emotional links because that's how we figure right and wrong. This is the essential evolutionary function of story, the figuring out of right and wrong, good and bad, safe or dangerous, do it or not.

The critical mind might know what's what, what's real and what's not. That's fine. But story, that's deeper.

The reality of it makes so little difference it's shocking. Charlotte Flair isn't really bashing those two Aussie nitwits in that picture. Daenerys isn't riding dragons around. Your favorite quarterback isn't a real hero. The person you voted for isn't actually a paragon of virtue, a crusader on your behalf. It's all fake. It's all kayfabe. None of it is real but none of that matters. We watch and we feel, that's what matters.

Saturday, November 3, 2018

Venom - Movie Fun

Tom Hardy being awesome.

So I checked out the latest superhero flick, Venom. It was a lot of fun. It was messy, with an inconsistent tone, but for some reason it worked. Tom Hardy was playing it as a bit of a doof, which doesn't make sense if he is supposed to be this accomplished journalist, but for some reason that worked too.

It has your standard CGI fest big climactic battle, which is what you expect from a supers movie, but in other ways it swerves you. It defies expectations in a good way. Expect the girl to get back with the hero? Nope. Expect the love interest's new boyfriend to be a douche? Nope, he's actually pretty cool. These are the little things you'll notice, breaking of unnecessary tropes, that keeps the movie interesting.

I would describe this movie as a bit of a Shane Black style flick. A very dude bro buddy comedy/action thing. With alien symbiotes.