TRON: Legacy

I recently got the chance to see TRON: Legacy in 3D at the nearby Henry Ford IMAX Theater, and now after watching the entire movie, I can say that it really wouldn't have mattered whether the movie was 3D or not. All that mattered is that the movie ranks as one of my favorite movies of all time. The 3D special effects were just icing on the cake.

The movie opens up in Center City with the main characters, Kevin Flynn and his son, Sam, in 1989, during the night before Kevin went missing. Kevin, the creator of the hit arcade game, Tron, was also the head of a large gaming company, Encom. After the day he went missing, the company's stocks declined sharply and caused discord within the company, as leadership shifted between members. Sam ends up running away from his home, and twenty years later, he heads out to Encom Tower to hack into their systems right before the first release of their new operating system. He ends up successful but does get caught in the process.

After spending a night in jail for breaking and entering, Sam returns to his flat in a remote part of Center City to find out that his father's assistant stopped by to tell him that he received a page from Kevin's office at the now abandoned arcade. The office's number was disconnected for twenty years, but Sam didn't seem to care. But Sam quickly changes his mind and heads out to the arcade, where he finds Kevin's secret office and, after fiddling around with an extremely outdated but fully operational computer screen, is transported to the world Kevin created -- The Grid. Almost immediately after he sets foot outside, two "guards" in black seize him by the arms and place him in an empty slot, along with seven other people.

Sam was confused at first as to where he was and why he had been taken by the guards. However, he quickly finds out where and why these mysterious people had taken him -- the hard way. He is lowered down to an underground bunker and is clad with a battle suit and an identity disc. He was then taken out into an arena where he faced various "Programs", under the guise of humans, also equipped with suits and identity discs. In the enclosed arenas, the identity discs were the weapons, and if the opponent was hit with an identity disc, then the opponent was "de-resoluted" and burst into several metallic cubes.

When Sam made it to the final round, Clu, the overseer, finds out that he was not a “Program”, but a “User”. Thus, he had to compete in the “Challenge of the Grid”, in which he faced his opponent from the final round in a “Light Match”. In the Light Match, both combatants are given a Light Cycle (similar to a motorcycle) and four teammates. In this game, the combatants attempt to destroy enemy Light Cycles by trapping them within boundaries, similar to the game Snake. When it was just Sam and his opponent left in the arena, and Sam was on the verge of losing, Quorra, Kevin’s “apprentice”, bursts in and lets Sam escape in Kevin’s Light Runner.

Sam and Quorra eventually arrive at Kevin’s residence outside of The Grid. There, Kevin explains why he could not return to the outside world and why it would be extremely dangerous to try and escape. Back in 1989, he created Clu and promised to make a perfect world with him. However, as Kevin discovered that “isomorphic algorithms” had came out of the blue, he and Clu had conflicting views on them. While Kevin viewed them as the perfect individuals, Clu viewed them as imperfections, and thus, eradicated all of them (except one, as revealed later), betrayed Kevin, and took control of The Grid. It is also revealed that Sam opened up a portal to the outside world when he entered, and that there is a way to the portal.

Knowing this, Sam sets out back into The Grid and meets someone he met during the “games”, who escorts him into a club. At the party, he meets Zuse, the only one who can access the portal. When Zuse realizes that he was the son of Kevin Flynn, he treats Sam like royalty and discusses the escape plan in his private lounge, but when Kevin and Quorra arrive, several programs controlled by Zuse swoop in and fight everyone off. During the fiasco, however, Quorra becomes injured and Zuse steals Kevin’s disc. Clu arrives at the scene later on, and Zuse tries to work out a deal for the disc, but Clu just takes it and blows up the club.

Meanwhile, Sam realizes that Zuse had taken Kevin’s disc, but Kevin jut shrugs it off. The three end up boarding a freight train-like vehicle to the portal. During the ride, Kevin tries to figure out how to repair Quorra’s damaged disc, which proved to be a complicated task, since the disc structure was fairly complex. However, Kevin manages to succeed anyway. While the three were on board the freight train, Clu orders a search for the three, and just when the trio saw the portal in reach, they soon realize a horrible nightmare: Clu is building an army of programs, with several shipments of new programs coming at that very moment. Clu even delivers a speech talking about how the programs have been restricted from entering the outside world like Kevin does, and promises that a new frontier will open up for them.

The three organize a plan to escape to the portal, despite the low probabilities. They use Quorra as a diversion, while Kevin readies a jet plane and Sam retrieves the ring. Everyone in the plan know that the possibilities are low, but they carry on with it anyway. Kevin ends up forcing one of the programs to let him through, with a simple bonk to the program’s head. Sam fights off four of Clu’s cronies with magnificent style, and surprisingly, Clu’s chief assistant, Jarvis, ends up surrendering. Sam takes the captured disc and escapes to the flight deck with Quorra.

Clu, however, would not give up the disc that easily. He takes six of the jets for him and five other programs. When Kevin and Quorra end up seeing the pursuing jets, Sam is instantly assigned to the turret position and shoots down four of the planes with ease. The final two planes, the ones piloted by Clu and Tron (the other original creation), remained elusive until Tron decided to crash his plane into Clu’s. However, Clu survives and continues pursuing the trio.

Kevin, Sam, and Quorra eventually make it to the platform. But Clu got there first, and is the only obstacle between them and the portal. Kevin tries to explain the situation and why Kevin “betrayed” Clu. However, Clu did not believe Kevin’s apology and both sides fight each other. Kevin lets Sam and Quorra proceed to the portal and sacrifices himself. As the portal begins to close, Clu takes Kevin’s disc, only to find that he secretly swapped it with Quorra’s. Clu attempts to jump to the closing portal, but Kevin holds him back with a powerful force, which then destroys everything he created.

Sam finds himself back in the real world, and is greeted by Alan, Kevin’s assistant from earlier. Sam explains to him what happened inside the parallel universe of The Grid. He exits and finds Quorra next to Sam’s motorcycle. The two ride on the expressway and they finally get a feel for the outside world.

I am normally not someone who enjoys science fiction, but this movie was one of the few exceptions. The plot of the movie was cleverly written, and the special effects/CGI were spectacular. Some of the scenes were so intense that they made me glued to my seat despite my urge for popcorn and a soda refill. I would give this movie a four out of four stars. It is one of the truly magnificent movies of 2010.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun

 
I have recently started reading again, and one of the books I have read over this summer was a fairly unique book by J.R.R. Tolkien, titled The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun. It is an English translation of two Norse poems, or lays: “The Lay of the Volsungs” and “The Lay of Gudrun”.

To most new readers, the overall sentence structure is interrupted, with seemingly out-of-place text fragments, but it is in Old English and so is merely the natural rhythm of the translation. In the preface of the book, the different types of rhythms are explained (there are six types of rhythms in all). These rhythms are made out of “strong” and “weak” elements, which can also be called “lifts” and “dips”.

For example, the phrase “knights in armor” has a “falling-falling” type of rhythm, in which the first syllables in the segments are the “strong“ elements, which are usually stressed and more high-pitched than the “weak“ elements, as in “knights in | armor”, with the italics indicating the strong portions. These rhythms may hinder many new readers, but it is just part of what makes Old English translations unique.

The first poem, The Lay of the Volsungs, is about the adventures and history of the Volsung family, as well as Sigmund and Sigurd. It describes the events of the tragedy between Sigurd and Brynhild (one of Odin’s finest Valkyries), as well as how it was linked to several other terrible events, like the needless slaying of the god Otr, the willful deed of Loki, and the extrication of Odin. In the end, all of these events set off a curse that ultimately leads to Sigurd’s death and Brynhild‘s suicide. Even though Odin equipped Sigurd with gear, a horse, and Brynhild (in order to punish the family of Hreidmar for the exaction of Otr’s ransom), in the end, all of his efforts go in vain.

This lay shows many real-life issues and feelings in its storyline, including trust, betrayal, vengeance, conflicting emotions, and the “you can’t have ‘em all” mentality. It mixes all of those issues and emotions into one poem-story that truly reaches into you and evokes feelings towards the characters and the storyline.

There is another poem, The Lay of Gudrun, and this one is about the maiden Gudrun, who is incapable of carrying out plans for almost anything, no matter what intentions Gudrun has for the outcome. Her mother, Grimhild, is the main antagonist in this story. She is skilled in reading minds and hearts and using their weaknesses, so it is no surprise that her will dominates both Gudrun and her older brother, Gunnar. Gunnar is an impatient character and often turns to violence in times of doubt.

Gudrun falls in love with Sigurd, but upon his death, unlike Brynhild, she did not take her own life. When provoked (in this poem-story, by Brynhild), she tends to be reckless, and her mistakes during these rampages sets off a calamitous series of events that ends in the slaying of the Niflung people by Attila and his Hun army (in this poem-story, Atli). Also, due to Atli’s rise in power, Gunnar soon realizes how much Sigurd could help him fend off the Huns.

This lay was meant to be a sequel to The Lay of the Volsungs and shows issues and emotions, such as manipulation, love, vengeance, the weakness of the human psyche, and the disastrous effects that happen as a result of them. Like its prequel, it also mixes them together into an influential poem-story.

In conclusion, this book, containing the two lays: The Lay of the Volsungs and The Lay of Gudrun, is a relatively unique piece of literature, containing Old English interpretations of the two lays. Although their format and diction may be confusing at first, if you can manage to interpret it correctly, it turns into a masterpiece with profound meaning.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is undoubtedly one of the most revealing movies I have seen so far. It paints a clear and accurate picture of the terror and the prejudice that the Nazis gave to the Jews during the World War II era. This "terror" was exemplified throughout the movie, in the forms of pro-Nazi propaganda, the "farm" which was actually a concentration camp, and the misgivings the Nazi party officials were distributing to their followers.

The movie opens up with Bruno, a naïve 8-year-old boy, playing in the streets of Berlin with his three friends on his way home from school. However, when he gets to his house, his mother informs him that the family will be moving to the German countryside the following day for the time being, due to the fact that it was too dangerous in Berlin. The next morning, Bruno played with his friends for one last time before he headed off to the countryside.

Upon arrival to the family's countryside home, Bruno, still lonely from being separated from his friends, reluctantly explores the house. He finds his own room and looks outside the window. From there, he saw what he had thought to be a farm from a gap between two trees. Excited at the thought of new friends to play with, he told his mother about the farm and asked her if he could go there. However, she declined to let him go there.

After more long, boring days in which there were little events of importance with the exception of Bruno meeting the house servant, Pavel (a Jewish doctor before he was shipped to the camp), and getting a new propaganda-filled instructor, he decides to venture out into the wilderness and to the farm. The task was not easy. He had been caught once, and getting past the back outhouse was complicated. However, after seeing a way out of the back outhouse, he continued heading toward the farm.

When he arrived at the farm, he noticed there was a tall barbed-wire fence
separating the wilderness from the farm. What's more, he noticed a Jewish child (named Shmuel [pronounced shMOLE]; revealed not too far from this point) about his age across the fence. He started a conversation with him, and they shared their names with each other. Bruno promised Shmuel that he would return and talk when he can.

His parents did not know about Shmuel at all, despite Bruno being caught stepping out of the backyard door, which was part of the route he took to get to the farm. As the days passed, Bruno asked Shmuel why he was wearing "pajamas" and about a "number game" involving the number on his shirt. He replied that it was supposed to be a uniform and that the number was just assigned to him upon entry. During this same discussion, Shmuel told him that the place was a concentration camp, not a farm, and that Jews were sent here regardless of profession or background.

As time passed, things only got worse for Bruno. Pavel, the servant, was mauled to death by an SS officer who served as his father's aide-de-camp/driver just because he accidentally tipped over his glass of wine during dinnertime. His sister, Gretel, was becoming a Nazi-freak and plastered pro-Hitler and pro-Nazi propaganda posters all over her bedroom wall. Bruno became curious about the smoke and odor coming from the concentration camp (which was actually made up of the Jews' dead bodies being incinerated). Probably the most crushing event of all was that Shmuel replaced Pavel as servant, so Bruno gave him some food; however, the same Nazi officer who mauled Pavel jumped to the conclusion that Shmuel was stealing food. Thus, he was beaten and received many visible injuries off-camera. As a result of his injuries, Bruno did not see Shmuel for several days on end despite visiting for all of those days. When he finally did see Shmuel again, he had a severe bruise around his right eye.

A few days later, he snuck and watched a short film from a window about the concentration camps, which was packed with a truckload of false advertising and misgivings, giving the viewers the impression that the camps were nice places, when in reality, they were the exact opposite. Bruno knew something was wrong with the Nazis.

In the end, the family had to leave the house, but he wanted to talk to Shmuel and play with him before going back to Berlin, and so, he ran away to the camps and disguised himself as a captive Jew. Also, Bruno helped Shmuel look around the camp for his father who had been missing for days.

His family was frantically searching for him, when at the same time, he was being led to the gas chambers with a literal herd of other Jews. When his father finally located his whereabouts, it was too late. Everyone in the gas chamber had been killed, including Bruno. His mother wept at the site where he had changed clothes and dug his way into the camp.

This story was a very clear example of the prejudice against the Jews, as well as friendship and how it can affect someone's actions, for better or for worse. It also conveys the image of how people from different races can form a lasting friendship very quickly, despite cultural and traditional tensions between the two races. Overall, it was a very heartwarming, and, in the end, heartbreaking, movie.

Odd and the Frost Giants

The book "Odd and the Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman is a very short read, consisting of only 117 pages with large margins and text. However, it is a great story, and is sure to please younger audiences.

It tells a story during the Viking era about how Odd, a very unfortunate (his father died during a sea raid on Scotland and a tree fell on one of his legs) 12-year-old boy, while venturing out into the woods during an abnormally long winter, met up with three talking animals (a bear, an eagle, and a fox). The true forms of the said animals were actually the Norse gods Thor, Odin, and Loki respectively. The reason why the three gods were transformed into animals and were in Midgard (the regular Earth) instead of Asgard (the city of gods) was because the Frost Giants, a group of giant humans with icicles and the like on their bodies, had banished them from Asgard (for reasons explained later in the story), and forced Heimdall (a god who had the power of transportation between the two worlds) to transport them to Midgard.

Odd took them to his home, where he took care of them for a night. The next morning, he decided to venture to Asgard in order to restore the gods' places there. However, getting to Asgard was very tricky during the wintertime, since you had to have a rainbow in order to get there, and all the water was frozen. However, Odd refused to give up, and after some experimentation with a frozen waterfall, different materials in an attempt to melt the ice, and a little help from the three banished gods, they were finally able to create a rainbow to Asgard.

Upon arrival to Asgard, Odd noticed the dimensions were twisted in a way: everyone was bigger here than they were on Midgard. After some refreshments and rest, Odd decided to venture to the Frost Giants' residency, Jotunheim (Giant's Place) to meet up with them and restore order to Asgard. One giant saw him and asked why he had come. He replied that he wanted the gods back in their proper places in Asgard. At first, the giant refused, since the gods had supposedly cheated the Frost Giants as a whole out of a dare (involving building a wall in a certain amount of time), but Odd stood his ground, and after repeatedly lengthening the discussion and changing the subject, he finally found something to satisfy him. Odd pulled out a wood carving that he found earlier while in the woods, even before he found the animals, and that satisfied the Frost Giant, and he left and let the gods have their places in Asgard.

At the table of gods and goddesses in Asgard, Odd was invited to a majestic feast, and all three gods in their animal forms were transformed into their original selves. Everyone at the feast thanked Odd for bringing back the three gods to Asgard once more. As a side result of the Frost Giants' retreat, the long winter in Midgard ended, and he finally went home without anyone in Midgard knowing about what happened right above their heads.

Overall, the book was a short but great read, and is useful if you want to fit a book into a tight schedule. Its length doesn't downplay its quality, and the storyline flowed smoothly. Also, for laughs, check out the text in parentheses in the author biography at the end of the book!

Avatar

A few days ago, I went to the movies to watch the new movie Avatar. Needless to say, I was very impressed with everything, from the stunning special effects to the engaging plot. Also, the themes the movie expresses using its characters and plot are very relevant to the state of the world or one's personal life. It is a movie of adventure, learning, gaining confidence, betrayal, and most of all, determination in many different forms.

The movie starts with several humans landing on a new planet called Pandora. Jake Sully, the main character, was one of them. The humans in place there had already built a research base. They were studying the Na'Vi, the native people, and their way of life. In order to accomplish this, the humans generate "Avatars", bodies similar to those of the Na'Vi controlled when a person "links" their nervous system to their corresponding Avatar through a machine, allowing him to report any findings from research while completely evading any suspicion.

During the first days of research, Jake's Avatar was separated from his colleagues by an enormous carnivorous beast. He was able to outrun it, but he soon got lost in the vast forest. However, he was saved by Neytiri, a female Na'Vi, and she took him to her clan, whose living quarters were inside the hollowed trunk of the giant "Hometree". At first, he was treated with hostility, but after Mo'at, Neytiri's mother and a prominent figure in the clan's life, said he was a sign from Eywa, the deity of all life in their clan. After that, Mo'at assigned Neytiri to the task of teaching Jake the ways of the clan.

At first, Jake was a bit shaky with their ways, such as "bonding" with animals to have control over them for as long as necessary. But with time, practice, and determination, he was able to master and memorize many aspects and values of the culture, such as the preservation of nature, the complex language, and their spiritual beliefs. With every new discovery, Jake reported his findings on the daily video log.

However, when Jake heard news about how the humans were going to destroy Hometree in order to mine a precious mineral, he was desperate. The humans in charge of the operation told Jake to talk the clan into leaving the area, since they would be crushed if they try to resist. However, when Jake tried, the clan refused to believe him and he was bound with ropes. Upon arrival of the airships the humans were using to destroy Hometree, the clan tried to pierce the steel and glass with their bows and arrows to no avail. After the airships made their assault on Hometree, Neytiri found out that her father was killed by a huge splinter of wood, and she told Jake never to go near her again.

Jake made his return to the clan on a majestic red ikran (bird-like creature) that only five people have tamed before and led the clan to a state of rebellion. They began to find other clans to fight against the humans who destroyed Hometree. These humans were now targeting the Tree of Souls, the clan's major spiritual center, and were also setting up armed offensives on land and in the air. The humans saw with their thermal radar scans that the number of Na'Vi in the area jumped by a huge margin. This was their signal to fight. Meanwhile, some of the humans who sympathized with the Na'Vi escaped in a helicopter and supported them in the fight.

The fight was long, intense, and was definitely not one-sided. Each side had their triumphs and failures. Many of the people Jake knew died in the battle, including Tsu'tey, the new clan leader, Trudy, a pilot who sympathinzed with the Na'Vi, and Neytiri was almost crushed by a dead animal. In the end, it was two (Jake and Neytiri) versus one (Col. Miles Quaritch). Jake was the one who fought Col. Quaritch and his machine for most of the fight, but in the end, it was Neytiri and her bow and arrow that sealed the fight with two shots to the chest.

Jake came out of a link machine transported via helicopter at the scene of the fight, and nearly died from lack of oxygen, but Neytiri found him in his human form and put the emergency oxygen mask on his face, reviving him. In the end, the spiritual leaders of the clan transported Jake's soul from his human body to his Avatar, and now, he was forever a Na'Vi.

As I said before, I really liked this movie for a number of things. First, James Cameron's imagination inspired him to make this movie, and I have to say that his imagination is incredible, from the very concept of the movie being set in a land only a select few can see, to the prehistoric-like animals and the vivid plants. I also like the message this movie sends to its viewers (that everything has consequences; demonstrated heavily in the second half of the movie). In addition, it subtly speaks out against deforestation, only seen in one part of the movie, but very powerful in its appeal. Also, the plot compels you not to leave your seat for any purpose, and you will often miss something big if you go out for a bathroom break or a new bag of popcorn. I give this movie a 5/5, since it is very good, and I don't see any ways in which it can become better.

Arc of Justice

I have recently finished yet another great book, this time for U.S. History class instead of English. It is called "Arc of Justice" and is about the troubles of a 1920's family in the city of Detroit, Michigan, which was heavily segregated at the time. It depicts the outrageous level of segregation and the anti-black movement in the United States in the so-called "Roaring Twenties." Also, it is supposed to be a college-level book, yet in my school, we are assigned the book, but it is really worth the time to read.

This book, based on a true story, revolves around the life of Dr. Ossian Sweet, a man whose education level was well above that of the average African-American, and was even higher than many white Americans. He even won a scholarship to one of the only two prestigious African-American medical schools in the country, Howard University in Washington, D.C. However, all his life the terror of the white man loomed over him, ready to strike his community, like white mobs did in various cities in both the South and the North. The whites were also willing to deride him from his promising career path in the medical field. When he moved into a home at the edge of a traditionally white neigborhood, he was confronted by a mob. He had to protect his home from them, even resorting to firing a bullet into the crowd, killing a man in the process. All of the people in the home were held on trial, and they had to face the long and topsy-turvy struggle for freedom.

This story was well written and I would recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate a good book at times. Although the plot was a bit shaky, the transitions between the current state of the story and the flashbacks and bits of history were present. The examples given about segregation in the story help the reader picture what it was like to be an African-American in the early 1900's. Life for them was obviously tough during this period, and "Arc of Justice" paints a picture of this well. Also, readers can gain background information on aspects of history that play a pivotal role in this story, from the various lynchings and race riots sweeping urban areas, such as Chicago and Tulsa, to the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) and their history and how they contributed to the main court case in the story.

This book paints the picture of the life of an African-American just wanting to be successful after all his hardships, including his early years in a very anti-black town, his grueling years at Howard University, and the turbulent course of the court case that changed his life for the better. It also shows the various sides that the residents of the 1920's USA have taken on the problem of racial segregation, most significantly the pro-white, pro-Protestant Ku Klux Klan and the colored-supporters in the NAACP. Overall, it is a great read and is sure to leave you satisfied in the end.