How alien becomes a horror movie.

           Alien is actually a movie about alien parasites. This movie is a horror movie not because how horrible the alien parasites are, but because of the ignorance of human. I see many chances for the crew to stop the tragedy from happening. However, they missed all of them and let it happened. 

           When they find the single, they could simply just determine whether the single is from human for help or single from alien. One of the crew point out that they are only crew on a cargo ship. They are not professional persons who has sufficient knowledge to handle the situation if the single is from alien. They could simply report it is that they discovered an alien site so that personals who have sufficient knowledge can be sent to handle this situation. Well, they didn't. They send a team to investigate the alien site, and one of the team member Kane get infected by the parasite on his face. They have regulation which could isolate Kane to save the others. They missed this chance again. After they witnessed the corrosive blood penetrating layers of the decks, one of the crew member suggests they should freeze Kane with the parasite, so that they can bring him back to their base and deal with it. This is a good suggestion which can save entire crew, but they still somehow missed this chance. Later, Ash finds the alien is missing form Kane's face, they still decided to investigate the room to find the parasite with no protection for the biological and chemical hazards. They searched the room for the parasites with only a small touch. If I were one of them, I will turn all lights on. After they found the dead parasite, and Kane woke up, they didn't give Kane a medical examination. If they did that, the parasite baby will probably not able to rape Kane's chest when they having dinner together. 

           I can keep listing like this for a while, but I guess I have made my point clear. Lack of sufficient knowledge and common sense leads to the disaster. I mean even the cat can survive the alien attack, how could they fail? Does the cat really need their help to survive? Even Ash is literally using the crew to feed the alien, they should still be able to protect themselves and survive if they use their common sense to make their decisions. I mean they just let themselves get into the worst situation with horror elements such as blood, corrosive acid, face and chest raper, which seems horror to the audiences. The movie is a success if it is trying to present the helpless and hopeless situations when the ignorant facing unknown. 

How many people does it take before it becomes wrong?

           There are too many parts in this movie, such as The Federation Council, artificial form of life, immortality of life, and etc. The most impressing moment to me in this movie to me is when Captain Picard asking the question to Dougherty, "How many people does it take before it becomes wrong?" Of course, the message here is no one should be sacrificed to the interest of the majority. This is not a matter of how many people can be removed from their planet. It is the matter that on one should be removed from their homeland.
            Perhaps, this message is the reason that the movie is completely banned by the mainland Chinese government. There is neither dubbed version of this movie in Chinese nor Chinese subtitle available on the internet. Only a very short introduction is available, which general says this movie is one of the Star Trek series. I guess there is a reason behind this. During the past two decades, there were about one million people removed from the place they live when the Three Gorges Dam was under construction. The High-speed rail in China started at 1999, which relocated lots of people and their families. The urbanization progress also needs relocation. Well, of course this eastern super power has risen during the past two decades, from the contribution of the individuals' compromise, maybe even sufferings with tears. With the compromise from the minorities, the force and resources from every corner of that nation can be concentrated to do big things, but also maybe wrong things.
            This is a dilemma to me. I completely understand why Captain Picard stands up and fight for the bu'ka people against Son'a. This shining moment of humanity is, perhaps, a wishful thinking. Think it this way, what if it was beneficial take the regenerative radiation to save everyone in the universe, including Captain Picard himself? To the Son'a people in this movie, this regenerative radiation is the only hope to them. I asked myself, what if I were a Son'a people, what can I do? I cannot draw a conclusion even I think it over and over for hours. There is simply no neutral solution to make everyone happy. After all, the only thing that comes into my mind is the brutal principle, the survival of the fittest. This is just like a leopard killing a antelope for living. I guess sometimes, that is still a part of the reality of our civilizations.

Who should be responsible for the death of Mr. Buttle?

          Who should be responsible for the death of Mr. Buttle? This question bothers me since the beginning of this movie. However, I cannot find the any person who should be blamed for that. The police are just doing their job, which is arrest Mr. Buttle according to the form they received. They should not be blamed. The typist kills a fly, which falls into the printer and leads the mistake on the form. Yes, he made some mistake, but he should not be blamed because he is completely ignorant about this typo and the consequence of it. The government departments in this movie seem to be responsible for the death of Mr. Buttle. Although several people in these department realize the typo in the form, none of them point that out to save him. Saving him is not their obligation. On the other hand, everyone seems somehow related to Mr. Buttle's death. The typist trusts too much to the printer, and failed to check what happened when the fly fell into the printer. The police trust so much to the form that they even didn't do any investigation. They officers in the government trust too much to their system, so that they don't think there could be something wrong from system. Everyone just trusts too much to the cold machines, to the forms and to the regulations. They leave no room for mistake.
         In human history, we invited and developed a lot things, such as machines, politic systems and cultures. I believe most of them are brought up to serve people, so that they can live easier. However, in Brazil, it is the other way around. People serves forms, they record everything in the forms to keep everything in order. They label everything even themselves with letter and numbers. They try to eliminate the influence Mr. Buttle's death in order to make their system looks perfect. This fanaticism and insanity to the social system in this film is the reason of Mr. Buttle's death. It is just ridiculous.

         





　

We are Wall-Es

Wall-E is a forgotten robot.

His job is to collecting garbage everyday.

At this time, Earth is filled with garbage produced by human, and becomes a planet of  dumping ground.

Wall-e is doing this job according to the program inside him, compressing the garbage to convert it to building blocks. 

He worked in this abandoned alone for 700 years. 
He always has a small plastic box with him.

In side that box, there are warm and loving memories left by human from the garbage, such as a frisbee as his hat, a tableware can be both forks and spoon, lighters as shining boxes. 

He collects all of these, brings them to his home and lives with his pet, a lovely cockroach.

All these are the decorating of his home, and his lonely life. 

But he loves his life.

He needs someone to share his passion of his life.
Then, someday Ewa shows up. 
He wants to be with her. 　　
He brings her to his home, showing her all his treasures.

For this moment, he waited alone for 700 years.

700 years filled with his loneliness and love.

Then, he falls into love and Ewa falls in to her dormancy.

He wants to wake her up, so that he can hold her hands, just like what human did on the tape he found. 

Thus, he follows her to the out space.

He tries everything to save her and accomplish her mission and even makes his ultimate sacrifice to help her.

The human becomes less important in this movie.

Whether going back to earth is even not important to humans. 

Wall-e is just legendary. 

　　

There are lots of Wall-Es in our life.

They keep doing everything they ought to do, collecting knowledge and joy to decorate their life.

That is their passion of their pure, happy but lonely life. 

Sometimes, things get hard and they get frustrated.

They lost the purity and happiness.

Thus, life becomes lonely and frustrate. 

These cannot beat them down. 

Wall-E always keeps trying.

Wall-E always has his hope. 

Wall-E loves his life.

　　 
　　

Prophecy

Every science fiction is a refection to the reality in the society. It indicates the problems of the society with a future-science background. In metropolis, the contradiction between the different classes in society is the problem. In Metropolis, steam powered technology divide the whole society into two extremes.  The spectacular city in Metropolis is one extremes. The skyscrapers and viaducts stands for the achievement of that society.  On the other hand, the rotating gears powered by hot steams are the foundations of the city, which need a lot of backbreaking labor to maintain functioning. Thus the labors who keeps the city running is the other extreme. The labors in this movie are literally the components of the steam machines. With backbreaking labor, their movement becomes stiff and unified. The same clothing and compressed underground working environment give me an illusion of prison or Nazi concentration camp. I see no humanity, creativity and self awareness in them. Although, there is no color filming available when this movie is filmed, the black white images reinforce the impression of the compressed environment, which leads to huge comparison to the city landscape.

I looked up some history about the society when this movie is made. Germany lost the World War I in 1918. Several years later, Nazi party was found and quickly rase to power at about 1925. Then this film was published at 1927. Two years late, the Great Depression took place in 1929, spreading out America and Europe. There were also series of strikes took place worldwide after World War I. Few years later, the World War II was initialized by Nazi Germany at about 1939.

After connecting all these together, there is no doubt that this movie is a reflection of the Germany after World War I. This movie becomes a prophecy. As the very first Si-Fi, Metropolis is probably not a good movie in telling the future about science, but surly it addressed the problem and suffering in the society. As far as I am concerned, the problem is caused by the unbalance between the development of technology and the development of society. With developed technology, we can build the best houses and the best cities. But without an appropriate setup of the society, we cannot decide who should lives in these houses and cities. Caused by this unbalance, the society will certainly fall into chaos.

That's enough, that's enough. I want go home.

Even after found the secret room in his base, Sam still cannot face the reality that he is a clone. The memory of his family was his faith and support during the pervious three years. He cannot believe he is a clone and all these are just memory from the original Sam. He has to call home to conform what he found. What him found is devastating to him. After called back home, him found his wife in his memory actually died fifteen years ago, and there is a Sam with his daughter Eva. This becomes the last straw breaks the camel's back. He falls apart immediately and said "That's enough, that's enough. I want go home." But where is his home?  At this point, his face becomes pale under the sun light. The soft slow music becomes louder and mixed with his sobbing. The camera shifts out of the rover, moving from the sun to the earth. In his eyes, I guess the blue earth looks just familiar and strange. It is familiar in his dream during the last three years. However, when his dream breaks, it is no longer the home he thought.  Every hope on that planet is lost. 

This is the most touching moment to me in this movie. I saw the faith of sam is fallen apart, and he lost his courage to live. I guess that's the reason he give up his chance back to earth. At his last moment, he opened his eye, and witnessed the spaceship depart from the moon, with the other Sam in it. Eventually, people on earth knows what happened, and the cycle of cloning on earth could be stopped. I guess this is probably the best ending that can comfort him. 

The baby didn't end the chaos.

When I see this scene, I was shocked as if I was one of the people or soldiers. The war stops immediately when everyone heard the crying from the baby. People start gather to the baby, reaching out their hand to touch her. Soldier of both side cease their fire and make their way for the baby. Two soldiers even kneel down and make the sign of the cross.  It is like a tiny spark, which ignites and then spreads the hope of human species. At the end of this scene, someone fired a bazooka from the building and break the peace. 

I'm not sure about this. But I always have an illusion that I am a third person in the film with Theo and Kee, especially in the pervious scene, when Theo walks in the building and searching for Kee and her baby right before this scene starts. I guess it is because they didn't change the camera and used it follow Theo for too long. Anyway, when this scene starts my illusion is still there.  This illusion keeps me highly alert.  The crying from baby, the religious background music and the gun fire are mixed together and becomes a symphony. My alert is gradually removed with the background music and the baby crying. However, it is also raised with the gun shots occasionally. My alert reaches the peak when the bazooka is fired. 

This scene seems very real to me. I say it real not because of the hope from the baby, but the humanity from the refugees and soldiers. It puts both the promising and despaired future of entire human being on the balance of war. Eventually, the humanity is awaken, thus people gather to the baby and soldiers cease their fire and make way for Theo and Kee. However, this shiny humanity does not last very long. Even everyone has witnessed the baby, someone still fired the bazooka and eliminate the temperate peace. The scene could just end with Theo and Kee left safely. However, instead of ending with peace, the war restarts with the bazooka. And even at the end of the movie, there are still flights bombing the city, which indicates that the war is still going on even people knows there is a baby, a hope for all human beings. I guess the meaning of this bazooka and the bombing flights are very symbolic. Even we have the hope, which brings up our humanity from the bottom of our mind and lead us to the temperature peace, we are still going to fall back to chaos. It is sin engraved in our nature.