Tuesday, July 23, 2013

At The Movies

My report on how I spent my summer vacation: I watched a lot of movies. I'm hoping that I can expand just a trifle on that thesis before school starts up again and I have to be accountable for my actions over the past couple of months. Perhaps I should start thinking about how I can expound on this thesis to bring a more educational ring to it.
What did I learn from the movies I watched this summer? Well, for one thing, I learned that the only viable solution to giant monsters from the bottom of the sea is an army of giant robots to knock them back into the hole through which they crawled.
I also watched movies at home. My Home Box Office offered up a pretty terrifying film in which bad guys had turned the world's drinking water into poison gas. It was one of those dystopian visions of the future where, before you know it, we all end up eating crackers that the government tells us is plankton, but they're really made of people. Except this on turned out to be a documentary. The other thing that makes it the perfect summer film is that it's a sequel: Gasland 2. It's got good guys and bad guys, intrigue, and things tend to blow up. Alas, there are no giant robots, just frightened homeowners and giant corporations bent on making more billions of dollars regardless what happens to those who prefer their drinking water with a little less methane in it.
But getting back to the lessons I learned from the giant robots of Pacific Rim, I found it inspiring to think that faced with worldwide destruction by a bunch of scary beasts, the nations across the globe would band together in a concerted effort to rid the planet of these scaly invaders. Pooling their technologies and resources, the human race was able in the words of the much-hyped trailer, "Cancel the Apocalypse."
This got me to thinking. What sort of threat would it take to get us all to band together and go face-to-face, toe-to-toe with seemingly unstoppable threats to our continued existence? Unfortunately, sustainable and renewable energy for all is not nearly as cool as giant robots. It's not science fiction. It's just science. But it does have giant windmills in it. And I don't know about you, but I find BP ever bit as frightening as a twenty-story tall lizard that spits acid.
Now it's time to watch something more diverting, like Fruitvale Station.

1 comment:

  1. There was one bit in Gasland that gave me hope for ending the Apocalypse: that windpower alone could replace all fossil fuel sources everywhere. Keep in mind that windmills in the ocean would LOOK like giant robots!

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