The Best Motto

Gd, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannon change
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

You woke up this morning - Congratulations! You got another chance!

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

WALL-E

As I mentioned at the beginning of my blogging career, when I kept a paper and pen journal, it was exclusively to record my opinion on the books I read and the movies I have seen. I intended to do this here, in my virtual journal, but, unfortunately, there are some many other things to express my opinion about, and so few hours of mental breaks at work, that I have been consistently lagging behind. I watched "WALL-E" at the beginning of the last Independence Day weekend (back when we still had half-decent President, and not an America-hating crooked bastard), and I have finally decided to pen down few remarks.

Even though I have watched the commercials prior to actually seeing the movie, I still suffered a mildly severe disappointment after being introduced to the actual "work of art". To put it mildly, it was a propaganda fest for the brown-shirt-wearing, red-flag-waiving members of the one of my all time favorite groups - envirowacos. Basically, mother earth became totally unfit for human habitation because it was covered by mountains of garbage produced by our over-crazed consumerism and total disrespect for Gaia. Humanity (somehow exclusively American) escaped Earth (being lied to by corporate goon) on super-luxury space ships that were programmed to cater to their every need, and where they remained for few generations, eventually de-evolving into stupid globs of fat with atrophied legs. Finally, with some help from love-struck WALL-E (a robot), they returned to Earth and started cleaning and re-planting it (in the process somehow resembling evolving cave people).

Animation was fantastic, and the love story between WALL-E and EVA (another robot) very, very touching. A lot of noise was made to the tune that there is practically no dialogue between those two; in my case, funnily enough, it was a fellow moviegoer who pointed that fact out. Whatever the case, the effect was truly, well, effective; the absence of dialogue makes the whole romance that much more touching. But, as a whole, after such funny and heart-warming productions like "Ratatouille", "Monsters, Inc.", and "Incredibles", and such touching, tear jerking masterpiece like "Finding Nemo", "WALL-E" rings hollow with this anti-sustainability, pro-capitalism, jaded and cynical consumer.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

"back when we still had half-decent President, and not an America-hating crooked bastard"

This statement immediately makes your opinion invalid and laugh worthy. There's a reason the American people voted for a President like Obama and not a moron like you (what? surely this must be Dubya to be saying something so stupid).

There's a reason WALL-E's the best reviewed movie of the year. Because it's the best of the year. Just as you are totally out of touch with America and how they want change and something different rather than the redneck ignorant moron as President, so too are you out of touch with movies and how they want a hopeful, beautiful, piece of art rather than a man in a batsuit or a movie about war.

See you at The Oscars, where WALL-E will walk away with no less than 3, and for good reason. Fool.

Dina said...

Well, I'm a pinko commie liberal & proud of it, so why does the above comment piss me off so much more than the original post?

Dude: political opinions and taste in art are two very, very different things. I have enjoyed books, art, and films, here the major premise was completely at odds with some aspect of my ideology.

And why can't there be hopeful, beautiful art about a man in a batsuit?

Dina said...

Not that I've seen Wall-E, or anything...

La Poutine Cachere said...

Midgard Dragon- Since your point is being tuned into the American public, you might want to concede that "The Dark Knight" was a raging success both at the box office and critically. And that, Dear Sir/Madam, indicates that there are plenty of Americans who are nervous about the "dark state of the world" and are not looking for escapist "art" to elevate their sad lives.

It is this atmosphere of unease that caused so many Americans to a) vote for Obama, in the hopes of turning things around, b) fork over their $13 in these tough economic times to see "The Dark Knight" in theatres. In short, "The Dark Knight" seems to have struck a chord with Americans as much as Obama has, so maybe you might want to avoid sweeping comments about what Americans want.

And Barb, from your summary, WALL-E sure sounds like a big-time ripoff aka "modernized" version of "The Lorax", which was one of my all-time favourite films as a tree-hugging Canuck. :)

Ookamikun said...

I liked the trailer. The movie itself, meh. Yes, great animation. Nowadays movies are mostly great CG and nothing else.

What ruined the movie for me was the talking and the humans. It felt like the movie was 2 different movies, written by 2 different people and mashed together in a half assed way. Yes, it's hard to make a long silent movie but the humans totally ruined it for me.

Anonymous said...

loved wall e! Aside from animation; to make such a charming movie with few words and mainly grunts and other noises was very orignal. Nemo still number 1, maybe if ellen was the voice of eva though... :)
fav. anony.

Ookamikun said...

Madagascar 2! And Shlomik concurs.