Saving the planet comes at a price: "The Avengers"

I know it's been a long, LONG time since I updated, but summer is high-time for my work, and therefore I pretty much live in my car.

But, on the rare occasion that I have a night off, I like to catch a movie, and a few weeks ago I saw "The Avengers"

The Movie
Acting as a sequel to literally 5 different films, The Avengers is the story of six superheros joining together to stop the planet from being destroyed by an alien army.I know, it's not exactly an original plot, but hey. The movie is filled with one-liners and amazing action sequences, making the plot seem fresh and intuitive.

The movie includes a stellar cast of well known actors, all reprising their roles as Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Black Widow (Scarlet Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner). Samuel L. Jackson returns as Nick Fury, director of the secret government agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., along with Agent Coulson (played by Clark Gregg) as well. The only new addition to the franchise is the Hulk, who in the past two Hulk movies was played by Eric Bana and Edward Norton. However, Mark Ruffalo played the character in this film, and I have to admit, he did a great job.

What Doesn't Make Sense
Actually, in this case, the movie is actually pretty logical. Ok, not really, but better than most superhero movies!

I heard a story on the radio just after the movie came out that made me laugh. Essentially, a disaster analysis company took the time to go through the movie and come up with a numerical value for the amount of damage that the heroes would have caused had they really taken the fight to the streets of New York. What made the report even better was towards the end of the movie, clips of interviews shown by news agencies are flashed around, including one of the Mayor of New York saying "Who is going to pay for all this!?"

It's just something that I notice a lot in movies where there is mass destruction caused by an alien force (or dinosaurs... like The Lost World) there is no mention of the amount of damage that something like that would cause. But in the case of The Avengers, there is a price tag, calculated by professionals too! That price is $160 Billion.

Here is the report that the company created. I also lists how the attack could either be classified as a terrorist attack, and act of war, or an act of God (since Loki is technically a god...). It's just interesting to read how much damage something like this would actually cause!

I'm glad to see that someone else in the world likes to look at movies from a logical point-of-view too.

Until next time.

....but look at the view! "The Lost World"

Greetings! It's been a while, I know, but I've been super busy with school and now my internship... working 7 days a week is quite exhausting. Anyways, on one of my nights off, I decided to watch some of my old favourites, and I decided upon "The Lost World," featuring Jeff Goldblum, Julianne Moore, and Vince Vaughn.


The Movie

Sequel to the 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park, the plot is essentially Dr. Ian Malcolm (Goldbloom) is essentially forced to go back to InGen's "biological preserve" islands, where a genetic experiment went very, very wrong a few years earlier. However, this island is not the resort portion of the park, but the breeding center, and all the animals have escaped and bred in the absence of their human caretakers. 

So, Dr. Malcom goes to this new island to try and rescue his animal psychologist girlfriend Sara (Moore), along with a team of wildlife researchers, but the animals prove to be more wild then they previously imagined. And, after another team of poachers, secretly sent by InGen to "pillage" the animals for profit, things go from bad to worse very quickly. The ending is pretty out there, and certainly isn't the same as the first film, which makes it just as much of a contender as the first film for quality. 

What Doesn't Make Sense

So, although we learned from the first film that no amount of technology can help you to survive when you're surrounded by dinosaurs, the research team brings a whole bunch of fancy trailers, jeeps, rigs, and hand-held devices. In theory, they are well-prepared, and they choose a very beautiful clearing at the edge of a cliff to set up came. It's all fine and dandy until this happens...

Yup, the beautiful view turned out to be a not-so-beautiful view once the T-Rex's figured it out. 

My first observation is 'Why the HECK did they put the trailer so close to the cliffs!?' I understand that they want to stay as close to edge of the island as possible, as it is mentioned earlier in the film that all the carnivorous dinosaurs are concentrated in the center. But really, on top of a cliff?? Why!?

My second observation is that this trailer has TWO DOORS! Earlier in the movie, even moments earlier when Dr. Malcolm runs into the trailer to warn Sarah and Nick (Vaughn), you can see the second door. So, when they tried the first door and discovered it was jammed, they could have just walked 6 feet to the left and tried the other one. Or even jump out the front windshield, which has now been shattered by the T-Rex's. Point is there were a couple alternatives to getting out of the trailer BEFORE it was pushed over the cliff. 

And just as one last little additional remark. T-Rex is not exactly known for being extremely intelligent. They can smell rotting flesh from miles away, but I doubt they would be able to huddle together and come up with a plan to push a trailer over the edge of the cliff. So I also find it unlikely that this entire scenario would occur...

But, I love this movie none the less. Jeff Goldblum pretty much makes the entire film with his witty remarks, and the special effects are still amazing (they go down hill in the 3rd film...). So if you haven't seen this movie yet, DO IT! I like to think of it as a modern cautionary tale, essentially trying to tell us that just because we have the scientific capability to bring animals back from extinction doesn't mean we should. Because they'll eat you!

Until next time