The Crossing

During this week's Alien day, a new video was released that served as a prologue to May's upcoming Alien: Covenant.  That video is called The Crossing, and features at least part of what happens to Elizabeth Shaw and David after the events of Prometheus.  First, here is the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeMVrnYNwus

I actually like the approach and style of the video very much.  Shaw is very weathered and aged, which makes sense given her intergalactic journey, and David is shown getting close to her without things getting romantic.  This makes sense given Prometheus' themes of jealousy concerning the two.  I also like the ending of the video, which shows David going into George W. Bush (or maybe Ted Cruz) mode and bombing the planet from Alien: Covenant with accelerant.  I guess that explains how the planet comes to be so deformed, and ready for the horrific events of that film.  So, it really whets the appetite for that film, but it also raises the question if these characters will be featured in Covenant any further and at what length.  Certainly its been shown in bits and pieces in some of the trailers, including one that appears to show Shaw being tortured, but I'm still not sure how that's going to work exactly.  Still, I'm anticipating Alien: Covenant quite a bit, and this video only increases that feeling.

Silence

Finally, after many years of waiting and hearsay, I was able to see Martin Scorsese's Silence on Netflix.  It's unfortunate, because this legendary passion project from the renowned director wasn't given a proper release (and lost over $20 million dollars as a result) and consequently didn't come to my home state of Alabama.  I only recently got to see it.  It was worth the wait, but at the same time, quite an ordeal to watch.  It's really the Scorsese film to end all Scorsese films.  The relationship of the Jesuit missionaries to the Japanese villagers, and to their Buddhist overlords, is given very careful attention, and it's never entirely clear, so careful is Scorsese's balanced directorial hand, whose side the director is on.  If not for some public statements made by Scorsese, I'm not sure I would be entirely sure that Scorsese is, in fact, against the Jesuit intervention.  We as viewers inhabit Andrew Garfield's character's perspective pretty completely, and we feel and empathize with his pain during the more trying parts of the film.  For a film goer, the film is a challenge, but it also is absorbing, gorgeously shot, and well-worth seeing.  Check it out.

The Pocket Book of Mindfulness

If you haven't noticed already, lately I've been embarking on a program where I read about 20-50 pages of some book a week, usually on the weekend.  In that vein, lately I finished a book that my brother gave me for Christmas: The Pocket Book of Mindfulness.  If you're in to meditating or mindfulness in general, books on mindfulness can be a great stepping stone toward self-identity.  There are many great quotes in this specific book (it's essentially a book of quotations), but here is my favorite:

"When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."

-Alexander Graham Bell

One part of the Pocket Book series.  Recommended!

Kong: Skull Island

After a hard week, I managed to catch Kong: Skull Island at the Summit recently.  After some rather heavy films in theaters (ahem, Logan) this film is just plain fun.  Although it might appear otherwise, this film is in no way connected to the 2005 King Kong but is instead a reboot and reworking of the franchise.  Like the Marvel and DC Universes, it seeks to link to the Godzilla and hopefully other monster movie universes to create a universe unto itself.  It also sports a great cast, with John Goodman, John C. Reilly, and especially Samuel L. Jackson turning in fine performances.  The film starts out with man on monster and then moves on to monster on monster action, all to chilling effect.  I can't wait to see what else this universe of monsters have in store for us, and now I have to catch the Godzilla and King Kong films that precede it.  If you want a fun time at the movies, then you should definitely check it out!

The Lego Movie

This weekend I caught The Lego Movie (which debuted three years earlier than Lego Batman) on Netflix.  It's really quite a different, and much deeper, movie than Lego Batman, and I'm really glad that I saw it.  I'm not sure if one is better than the other, but they are definitely different.  The premise of the film is monomythic in a Joseph Campbell sense, recalling films such as Star Wars and The Matrix.  Construction worker and average joe, Emmett, discovers he is the chosen one and the sole inhabitant of Lego Land capable of conquering the evil Lord Business.  With the help of Lego Batman (a great character here) and other highly entertaining and endearing lego creations, he sets about doing that.  This film is one of those family movies that is an instant classic, with many memorable moments.  Also. . .

***************SPOILER************************

the twist ending is gripping, suspenseful, and gives the film a totally extra layer of meaning.  Will Ferrell is used to great effect, to say the least, and the whole use of humans in this Lego universe gets us to question the nature of our own reality along with the lego reality we're watching.  As we watch, we truly do not know what will happen next.  It made me very strongly recall this New Yorker article about the recent mix up at the Oscars:  http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/did-the-oscars-just-prove-that-we-are-living-in-a-computer-simulation .  If you see this film, as you should, you will know what I'm talking about.  Definitely one to ponder!