As Isabel and I line up our potential ducks in probable rows and try to keep on top of our lesson plans and grading, we've still managed to sneak in some entertainment. So here are some Terptudinal lightning reviews for you...
1. Paranormal Activity 2 -- Scary movies about haunted houses might fall under the category of unhealthy curiousity -- especially when they are shot entirely using voyeuristic cinematography. PA 2 is a "prequel" to the pretty creepy cult classic Paranormal Activity, the low budget film about a co-habitating couple who decide to record their experience of haunting using an expensive camcorder. The first movie, which is fiction, was pretty darned scary. I've never been more disturbed watching a static screen of two people lying in bed. PA2 ups the ante by having an entire family haunted and by using not just a camcorder, but a series of security cameras and an occasional camcorder. At first, this seems like pretty boring camera work...and all the three-quarter aerial shots do, at times, feel a bit like watching The Sims: The Movie. All that being said, the move was so scary that Isabel literally injured herself watching it. No joke. It was like one of those old-timey B-Movie warnings come true: "Do not watch this movie if you have a heart condition or...are accident prone." Not the most thought-provoking movie, but worth a watch if you like to be freaked out by scary things. One thing that does bother me about these movies, though, is that the series does perhaps represent demonic powers as being excessively powerful without every showing an equally or superior "good" supernatural power. I'm hoping that a third movie might either feature a successful exorcist and/or angelic balance to the demonic forces at work in these movies.
2. The Social Network -- Isabel and I enjoyed this movie, and it was certainly well constructed, but we had some issues. Primarily, it is a fairly humorless satire. Well, that might not be fair. There are some funny bits...but they are mostly overwhelmed by depressing depictions of higher education, West Coast decadence, and jealousy that none of us are as rich as Mark Zuckerberg. Harvard comes off looking absolutely horrible in this movie. Not that I mind. I've always sour graped that I wouldn't really have wanted to go to Harvard. The only good thing that comes out of Harvard in this film: you can network with rich undergraduates who will give you thousands and thousands of dollars so you can start a business. Seriously. The rest of Harvard is sex parties, vindictive old-money frat boys, sex parties with drugs, classes where you don't learn anything, and girl-on-girl public make-out sessions for the erotic pleasure of frat boys on drugs at sex parties. Harvard administration comes off as snobbish, out-of-touch, and stifling of creativity. Absolutely none of the characters come out clean in the movie, although you perhaps have the most pity for the fictionalized Mark Zuckerberg, who ends the movie (spoiler) looking something like a modern day Uncle Scrooge meets Michael Cera...so, really, nothing like either. The movie concludes with a sense of desolation, loss, broken friendships and promises...but I'm not really sure it ends in tragedy. Tragedy would require catharsis -- pity and fear. It's hard to pity and fear for a billionaire. So, in the end, we're left with the idea that people are awful, but that you can be a Harvard drop out who surrounds himself with drug users, men who exploit women, and all around jerks, and still become the youngest, most successful entrepreneur in the world. I'm sure this is not the point I was supposed to take from the movie, but that's how it came off to me. I watched a bunch of people put Roman orgies to shame, and all become millionaires. No "real" conseuqences. Are we supposed to feel bad that the Mark Zuckerberg character loses his best friend? Really? Like pretty much everyone doesn't lose touch with their college buddies at some point anyway? Only the rest of us usually don't become the head of a billion dollar company. Those characters should be feeling bad for me!
3. Braid -- This one is an indie video game. I became totally addicted to it about four days ago, and now I have Isabel hooked on it. It's a puzzle game in which each level requires the player to manipulate time, either to rewind it, slow it down, or split it into two simultaneous continuums. It's one of the most clever puzzle games I've ever played, while also being a visually stunning parody of classic games like Super Mario Brothers, Donkey Kong, and Elevator Action. The game does get a little stuffy by depicting its game mechanics as a metaphor for human emotions related to time, like loss and regret. The real pleasure of the game comes from the experience of solving puzzles that at first seem as impossible as changing the past...and are usually solved by doing just that. I'll admit that the standard ending of the game is a bit of a let down. It might even be a downer, but I don't think I understood it well enough to know -- and I have me a PhD!
4. Ninjago! -- Lego has just released a new line of Ninja vs. Skeleton toys. There's some kind of card game involved and a plotline. I don't really know much about that...but I do know there are few things cooler than little Legoman Ninja. I snagged a basic "ninja ambush catapault" set for half price at Borders today and spent the evening flipping my ninja across the kitchen table at Isabel for a good part of the evening. Fun was had by all.
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