Day: April 28, 2019

This is a *SPOILER FREE* Ten Minute review.

We waited a few days to go see the movie, hopeful that it would not be spoiled by media. It wasn’t. It could’ve been, but we were careful. I am grateful that it wasn’t because seeing the film without expectation really helped me to appreciate the film for what it was trying to do. It also helped me to recognize all that this film was trying to do, and I must say Avengers: Endgame tries to do too much.

The problem with major market film over literature (even comics) is that you are attempting to please too many audiences. You are catering to too many demographic groups in the Blockbuster arena. It is as if everyone and every group needs to have their moment on screen. Avengers delivers very clearly in this respect. Everyone and every group gets their moment. It was far too obvious that everyone and every group had their moment. Still, at the core the story being told is about the original gang of avengers and their journey through this extended phase of the MCU. It is clear that this phase ended with the arrival of Captain Marvel. It is also clear that this film was meant to be a passing of the torch of sorts to the next group of heroes with feature films on the way. This was done far too literally in my opinion. As a result, we wind up feeling like the Russo’s were in fact catering to demographics in a very ‘Yes We Can’ fashion.

Much has been made on the internet of the fact that there is no after credit scene. This is utterly bollocks. The credits themselves are the scene. Stay. Watch. Appreciate the roll call of all the heroes and finally all the workers who made this possible. It isn’t done in the typical fashion of, “Here is a clip from the next film’ however, those clips are not actually ever canonical to the films they profess. They are instead teasers of what might happen. This film has actual credits that applaud what did happen from the start of the universe in film till now.

Overall, Avengers is a must watch. It is a beautifully shot film that does fail as a sci-fi (or even rational) argument, but it works as a comic on screen, and that is all it ever really was.

Or maybe cryo-fic. I started reading a new work by John Scalzi and it talked about a man who was an observer in an operating room. The idea of the thing had me buzzing about cryo-fic. Imagine this: You are in surgery and about to die. There is an insurance agent standing there and their job is to recover your body at the moment of death–they are supposed to freeze you until you can be thawed and fixed later in order to pay your bills. This ties into the idea of speculating on futures and the general thought process behind the insurance industry and stock markets, but pushes it to an unfortunate extreme.

At first my thought was: This is not cost effective. However, it is. The workers become chattal slaves of a sort. In truth, if we reach the level of tech required we could argue that the insurance company could employ scans of their brains (rebuilt as AI structures) as digital agents who are working during the time they are frozen. Since we ‘own’ our DNA and brain imagery, the work being done would be done only as a measure to pay for the time they are in cryo-freeze.

There is more to this idea, I think. I might even consider designing a short story around the concept. The key is that it goes back to the standing argument I have made about science fiction–the more you read, the more interesting and creative stuff develops as a result of that. This is especially true of good writing like the stuff Scalzi puts out. I need more good stuff.

Some Thoughts:

1. Going to see the Avengers today. Not sure if it is ‘good stuff’ but it will be fun.
2. Apparently I am not completely above wanting to be recognized. I recently received an email inviting me to what appeared to be an exclusive workshop for humanities professors. I talked it through with my partner and she patiently explained that it was not at all exclusive. I thanked her for that small vial of reality. I was thinking I was someone again, and that is not remotely healthy or useful.
3. Working on the new Jarvis laptop a little today. Not much, but moving into basic design aesthetics phase. Screen images and what not.