Battle: Los Angeles

Although I originally saw this movie about two weeks ago I’m writing about it now; partially because I had a great deal of academic responsibilities and partially because I wanted to think about the film before ripping into it. Basically, I didn’t want to needlessly bash this film before contemplating it for a few days but after about two weeks I feel confident in completely ripping it apart. In short, I really didn’t like Battle: Los Angeles. I found it a halfhearted copy of Independence Day, a mixture of Emmerich’s mediocre science fiction extravaganza and American military propaganda. I walked out of the theater saying to myself, “must join the Marines, must join the Marines,” before realizing I’m a pacifist and would rather rot in prison than join the military.

Transformers: A reflection of America’s dualistic nature

This goddamn Hub channel keeps playing terrible cartoons from my childhood. It started with G.I. Joe and now its Transformers. Let me state up front that Transformers is a terrible cartoon, with convoluted plotlines, horrifically inane dialogue, and is actually a stupid idea when thinking about it – various vehicles transforming into giant robots = stupid. I know a good deal of people like Transformers and I don’t mean to insult their intelligence (which I hope I’m not doing) but I just find it insipid; I have no idea why I liked this as a child.

Last night I recorded an episode about a group of Autobots and Decepticons traveling back to medieval times. The other episodes I watched (or rather, tried to watch) recently were too dumb to finish but I felt a time travel episode may prove entertaining. Turns out it was. However, it wasn’t the antics of these transforming robots that I enjoyed; it was the critique of energy consumption that I enjoyed more.