where: EDWARDS FAIRFIELD STADIUM 16 & I-MAX in Fairfield, CA
when: Friday, November 12th, 2010
show: 12:01 a.m.
costs: $11.00 Ticket + $4.50 Hot Dog + $0.00 small Diet Coke ( free on Movie Watcher Rewards Card ) = $15.50
show: 12:01 a.m.
costs: $11.00 Ticket + $4.50 Hot Dog + $0.00 small Diet Coke ( free on Movie Watcher Rewards Card ) = $15.50
auditorium: 15
seat: 4th row, 5th seat
synopsis/overview: THE MATRIX and WAR OF THE WORLDS had sex and ended-up with this mutant of a movie, with PREDATOR as its nanny.
Our scientists' search for extra-terrestrial intelligence backfires when a massive alien invasion preys on helpless humans.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Blue lights; 2.) Military helicopters; 3.) "The cat's out of the bag"; 4.) "I'm late"; 5.) "We have a winner"; 6.) Complaint; 7.) The curious guy; 8.) Rapture; 9.) "There's something out there"; 10.) Roof-top; 11.) More raptured people; 12.) "It controls you"; 13.) The old man; 14.) Pictures; 15.) "It's the timer"; 16.) Basement garage; 17.) Brain; 18.) "Like it or not, this is happening"; 19.) "I hate L.A."; 20.) "It is real, you'd better wake up"; 21.) "I felt powerful, I still do"; 22.) "Remind us how it worked last time"; 23.) First hit; 24.) "They're not dead"; 25.) "We're at war"; 26.) "What if there's not enough bed sheets"; 27.) "He's sick"; 28.) Helicopter; 29.) Viya con Dios; 30.) Hand-to-multiple-hands combat; 31.) Beamed-up; 32.) Inside the cyborg ship; 33.) The Red Brain; and 34.) Photo stills during the Ending Credits.
audience reaction: The crowd was less than enthusiastic about this movie either because it was late in the night and they were all very sleepy or because this movie is all SFX and nothing else.
recommendation: I didn't like this movie. It is strictly a rental.
spoiler alert! First of all, an invasion of that magnitude would have been easily detected by every country's air defense system. It looked like only the California Air National Guard ( weekend warriors that they are ) responded to the attack. And they responded too slowly. What about the rest of the Armed Forces? There are plenty of gangs in Los Angeles, and they are better armed than the police and could have put-up a good fight against the alien invaders. But their predilection for territorial battles was not put to any use at all. Since the alien ships are essentially giant cyborgs, their flesh would not be impervious to fire, explosions, acids, bombs, gun/artillery fire, infections, etc. A cyborg's injured body parts that are made of flesh cannot be mechanically rebuilt on the spot, but must be biologically regrown which take considerable time. I guess that the aliens didn't know that at 4:27 a.m. in Los Angeles mostly alcoholics, drug addicts, pimps, prostitutes, sociopaths, sex addicts, crazy people, homeless people, and disease-infested people are out on the streets! The brains of such people would have severely impeded the aliens' invasion plan as well as their coordination. The human brain is, on average, about three pounds. If you bear that in mind, the way that each human brain was extracted and manhandled ( should that be, cyborghandled? ) and the weight of the brain, itself, pressing down on the mechanical hand together would have severely damaged the motor cortex of each brain. In other words, those cyborgs that received the brain transplants would not have functionally ambulated due to this fact alone! What about Human Donor/Extra-Terrestrial Recipient Incompatibility? Don't the technically-advance cyborgs have heat sensors to better hunt us humans with? Why did he say, "Vaya con Dios" to the evil alien cyborg? Doesn't he know that it is Spanish for, "Go with God"? The condo could not have possibly blown-up because when the window was broken all of that built-up gas should have become diluted to the point where a massive explosion was simply unlikely. Why didn't the octopus-like cyborg use its many arms to defend itself against Jarrod ( Eric Balfour )? The blue light makes the people lose their will and makes them "robotic," so why did the couple get "lovey-dovey" when they were being "tractor-beamed" into the cyborg ship? Some of the lines were unintentionally funny. Is it just me or did they unnecessarily put a Flash-Back Scene at the beginning of this movie to make it longer by a few wasted minutes? Why didn't the alien cyborgs invade mainland China where they can have an "All-You-Can-Eat Buffet" to their ( transplanted? ) hearts' content?
fyi: This movie is meant to be a cautionary tale on two fronts: Artificial intelligence gone wrong and blind religious reliance on "The Rapture."
In our quest to improve on the human organism, scientists are finding ways to make a biological and mechanical interface more feasible. The Cybernetic Organism, a.k.a. Cyborg, of Sci-Fi fame is not all fiction anymore as advances in nanotechnology, computers, robotics and various areas of specialty in the medical world have made it a definite possibility.
This movie shows an inter-galactic, parasitic alien cyborg parallel gone unchecked.
As for the religious side of the coin ....
Conspiracy theorists have started to postulate that the New World Government under the leadership of the Anti-Christ will claim that the long and eagerly anticipated Rapture of the Christian Church will actually be a massive alien abduction, to try to fool The Believers into fighting against their Lord and Saviour.
word of advice: If you use an Electronic Bug Zapper, the Law of Karma will sentence you to be abducted by aliens whose spaceship looks like one big, mean-looking bug zapper!
tidbits: My seat was creaky. And the seat next to it, number 6, was very dirty. This theatre needs to have a lot of its seats replaced in every single auditorium since they are showing their age.
The sound system was not working well, too. It wasn't loud enough and it didn't have the "Surround-Sound" effect.
I went to Food 4 Less after the movie to buy the ingredients that I will need for tomorrow's Arroz Con Gandules.
Blogspot.com is acting-up again because I can't get my synopsis/overview to be in the color green.
