-This week I looked at John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) starring Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, and Keith David. IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/?ref_=nv_sr_1
-This movie kept you on the edge of your seats. Although made in the early 80s, it was still enjoyable to watch despite the special effects that weren't so special. There was an eeriness about the whole movie like you didn't know who you could trust. My favorite part in the movie is when the doctor goes to use the defibrillator on Norris and his stomach turns into 2 jaws and bites his arms off. The monsters are very corny, put the movie on the whole is good. It got a very high rating on IMDb and for good reason. Very enjoyable movie that I would watch again. 8/10.
-The science in the Thing is almost non-existant. They devolop a theory throughout the movie that the thousands of year old aliens learn to "imitate" other organisms. This starts with a dog. The alien somehow coats its body with one of a sled dog. At one point the scientist claims that the alien "learned" to digest things. How could the alien ever consume anything if there was no digestion? Also, digestion is too complicated of a process to spring spontaneously, see conditions for Natural Selection proposed by Darwin. Whenever provoked, it broke its way out of the dog body and began showing its true form... which changes throughout the movie. Each alien is different than the one before it. Aliens have not been study in full in real life, but there must be a type of order amongst species. Each organism would most likely at least resemble other organisms within that species. Soon the aliens start imitating humans. I'm not an alien expert, but I have never seen a terrestrial organism that can completely coat its outward body into something that resembles a human. I've heard of camouflage and coloration in animals, but never a completely different skin. This movie will most likely never become a reality. If it somehow were able to, we would be in deep deep trouble.
Monday, March 28, 2016
-Finished Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) starring Gary Oldman, Keri Russell, and Andy Serkis. The link the IMDb page can be found here. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2103281/?ref_=fn_al_tt_4
-This entertaining movie is a continuing movie in a rebooted series about genetically evolved apes that threaten the human race after a super simian flu wipes out most of the civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie more than the originals or even the other reboot. There was a lot of action and well-done CGI. My favorite scene was when two apes fooled humans into pretending they were dumb and killed them and took their weapons. 8/10.
-Now to address the scientific side behind the movie. It is interesting how they approached the speech aspect of the apes in this movie. Most movies just assume that apes can learn to speak out of nowhere and run with that idea. In this movie, speech is looked at a little differently. In the beginning, the apes are pretty non-vocal and speak in grunts. They first learn sign language. And something neat that I didn't realize is that the younger apes can learn sign language easier than the older apes. This is interesting and how humans typically learn. The apes in this movie were extremely smart and were able to learn and adapt to behavior. As I mentioned earlier, the apes were able to understand that if they walked like apes, then they weren't seen as harmful, but if they acted like humans they posed a threat. I am no expert, but it might take some time before we see apes leading a revolution to overthrow humans.
-This entertaining movie is a continuing movie in a rebooted series about genetically evolved apes that threaten the human race after a super simian flu wipes out most of the civilization. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie more than the originals or even the other reboot. There was a lot of action and well-done CGI. My favorite scene was when two apes fooled humans into pretending they were dumb and killed them and took their weapons. 8/10.
-Now to address the scientific side behind the movie. It is interesting how they approached the speech aspect of the apes in this movie. Most movies just assume that apes can learn to speak out of nowhere and run with that idea. In this movie, speech is looked at a little differently. In the beginning, the apes are pretty non-vocal and speak in grunts. They first learn sign language. And something neat that I didn't realize is that the younger apes can learn sign language easier than the older apes. This is interesting and how humans typically learn. The apes in this movie were extremely smart and were able to learn and adapt to behavior. As I mentioned earlier, the apes were able to understand that if they walked like apes, then they weren't seen as harmful, but if they acted like humans they posed a threat. I am no expert, but it might take some time before we see apes leading a revolution to overthrow humans.
Monday, March 14, 2016
-Just watched Peter Weir's Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) starring Russell Crowe and Paul Bettany. A link to the IMDb page can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311113/?ref_=nv_sr_1
-This movie was very entertaining. This movie followed the HMS Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars in pursuit of a powerful French warship. It is full of action, but has several slow scenes. It definitely portrays sailor life during the 1800s. My favorite scene is when Paul Bettany's character removes a bullet from his own abdomen using a mirror as a guide. It was an interesting scene because it demonstrates the sterility of sail boats during the time and the risk for infection. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. 8/10.
-This is not a typical movie one would consider to talk about evolution in. However, there is a character, played by Paul Bettany, who is a physician and a naturalist that greatly resembles Charles Darwin. This movie takes place in the South American seas and islands. One island in particular is the Galapagos islands. While the majority of the crew is interested in fighting and defending the ship, he is more interested in studying specimen on the islands. There is a scene where the crew is having target practice and he is studying a beetle that was found near the island. While discussing adaptations in organisms, a boy asks him if God caused the changes in the specimen in which he replied that God could have done that or he caused them to change. This reminded me of Dobzhansky and I found that very interesting that they would incorporate that into this movie. In one scene, he is describing how an insect uses camouflage to disguise itself from predators. The captain then camouflages the ship to hid from their "predator." It is interesting that this movie would incorporate a Darwin-like character into an action movie. It shows the impact that Darwin had on the world.
-This movie was very entertaining. This movie followed the HMS Surprise during the Napoleonic Wars in pursuit of a powerful French warship. It is full of action, but has several slow scenes. It definitely portrays sailor life during the 1800s. My favorite scene is when Paul Bettany's character removes a bullet from his own abdomen using a mirror as a guide. It was an interesting scene because it demonstrates the sterility of sail boats during the time and the risk for infection. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. 8/10.
-This is not a typical movie one would consider to talk about evolution in. However, there is a character, played by Paul Bettany, who is a physician and a naturalist that greatly resembles Charles Darwin. This movie takes place in the South American seas and islands. One island in particular is the Galapagos islands. While the majority of the crew is interested in fighting and defending the ship, he is more interested in studying specimen on the islands. There is a scene where the crew is having target practice and he is studying a beetle that was found near the island. While discussing adaptations in organisms, a boy asks him if God caused the changes in the specimen in which he replied that God could have done that or he caused them to change. This reminded me of Dobzhansky and I found that very interesting that they would incorporate that into this movie. In one scene, he is describing how an insect uses camouflage to disguise itself from predators. The captain then camouflages the ship to hid from their "predator." It is interesting that this movie would incorporate a Darwin-like character into an action movie. It shows the impact that Darwin had on the world.
Sunday, March 13, 2016
-I recently watched Ridley Scott's fan-favorite classic Alien (1979) starring Sigourney Weaver and John Hurt. A link to the IMDb page can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/?ref_=nv_sr_2
-This movie revolutionized the horror and "A.I." genre in movies. Although I believe it was a little bit before its time, this movie was very entertaining. Had I watched this movie maybe 25 years ago, the horror aspect would have been more prominent. Today's movies are far scarier so therefore it was not as frightening as it would have been to someone in the 80s. A spaceship in deep space that is used for mining is under attack by an alien. Sigourney Weaver is a lone survivor, along with a cat, as she struggles to survive. The aliens evolve while on board. My favorite scene in this movie was when the alien popped out of John Hurts stomach. It was very gruesome and portrayed the nastiness of the alien. 8/10.
-This movie, although entertaining, does not have much scientific background. Alien movies are able to push the limits of normal thinking, because there is not definite evidence in order to study. This way, film makers have a bit of lee way when creating movies and don't have to follow scientific thinking as much as normal. However, there are still constraints to evolution that were ignored in this movie. The alien, which starts off as a small creature smaller than an average house cat manages to grow to larger than a human in a short span. There are many reasons why this is not possible, firstly with the physiological constraint. The amount of food that would have to be consumed is astronomical to have it grow that much that fast. Natural selection can be a fast moving process, but within one generation, this is not possible. Such a simple creature over the course of a few hours grows up to 10 times its size. It would be interesting if specimen were able to grow exponentially like this, but I'm afraid that the big screen stretches the truth at times.
-This movie revolutionized the horror and "A.I." genre in movies. Although I believe it was a little bit before its time, this movie was very entertaining. Had I watched this movie maybe 25 years ago, the horror aspect would have been more prominent. Today's movies are far scarier so therefore it was not as frightening as it would have been to someone in the 80s. A spaceship in deep space that is used for mining is under attack by an alien. Sigourney Weaver is a lone survivor, along with a cat, as she struggles to survive. The aliens evolve while on board. My favorite scene in this movie was when the alien popped out of John Hurts stomach. It was very gruesome and portrayed the nastiness of the alien. 8/10.
-This movie, although entertaining, does not have much scientific background. Alien movies are able to push the limits of normal thinking, because there is not definite evidence in order to study. This way, film makers have a bit of lee way when creating movies and don't have to follow scientific thinking as much as normal. However, there are still constraints to evolution that were ignored in this movie. The alien, which starts off as a small creature smaller than an average house cat manages to grow to larger than a human in a short span. There are many reasons why this is not possible, firstly with the physiological constraint. The amount of food that would have to be consumed is astronomical to have it grow that much that fast. Natural selection can be a fast moving process, but within one generation, this is not possible. Such a simple creature over the course of a few hours grows up to 10 times its size. It would be interesting if specimen were able to grow exponentially like this, but I'm afraid that the big screen stretches the truth at times.
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