The End of an Epic

I just finished watching the finale of Battlestar Galactica for a second time and wanted to post a few thoughts on it. First things first, Battlestar is without a doubt one of the finest science fiction series of all time. The approach that Battlestar took was that of the first science fiction novels, in which the fiction was not the subject, but merely a tool for revealing and confronting issues of the real world we live in. Battlestar confronted the issues of our day with brutal honesty and I loved it for this. Real moral dilemmas were presented, ones that had no clear right or wrong side, and that we as viewers weren't sure how to mentally deal with. While I was interested by Battlestar's exploration of artificial intelligence and the nature of persons, it was always the political conflicts between humans that interested me the most. Battlestar even explored the supernatural in several episodes, but the religious themes in the show were primarily used to examine Colonial society and religion's relationship to characters' decision-making. While the question of the existence of a supernatural was certainly posed, it was never a question that I was interested in having answered within the context of the Battlestar narrative. Much more interesting to me were the ways in which real people dealt with the consequences of their respective belief or unbelief in the supernatural.

So, we come to the finale, which I have mixed feelings about (and probably always will). On the one hand, I enjoyed the well-staged final battle, some of the flashbacks, and the ways in which each character arc was resolved. I felt that the characters came full circle and were left in a very natural, logical and fulfilling place by the end. I was not pleased, however, with how the finale dealt with the supernatural. Three things in particular were troublesome:

1. The "deus ex machina" nature of the ending—the fact that the narrative relied heavily on the supernatural. For most of the show, the progression of the narrative had been motivated and carried out by the characters in the story. The finale introduced the supernatural as an actual agent (not merely a vague, grand "mover of events"). To me this was ultimately unsatisfying. I particularly disliked the fact that humans were discovered to have evolved separately on earth. Something of this utter improbability can only be explained through use of the supernatural.

2. The way in which the supernatural was talked about—Baltar's categorization of the supernatural as a "force of nature", "beyond good and evil" was a disappointing portion of the episode with shaky theological grounding. Nearly all of Head Six and Head Baltar's conversation at the end of the episode was far too explicit and hokey.

3. The fact that the Battlestar "universe" and our own were connected so closely. Showing modern Times Square, New York City, was a mistake. It took me out of the immersive world of Battlestar in a way that almost broke the "fourth wall". I felt like the last three minutes simply did not belong in a Galactica episode. Aesthetically, it was jarring, especially the last video montage of robotic advancements, put to a modern rendition of "All Along the Watchtower". The connection between the two "worlds" was also troublesome because of the sheer improbability that our modern civilization would be so close in all almost every aspect to Colonial civilization. We have the same clothes, cars, weapons, etc. down to the smallest details. Sure, this fits with the theme of show "all this has happened before, all this will happen again" but it implies some sort of mystical set of Platonic forms built into our DNA that tell us what a car should look like, etc. This kind of mysticism is not in keeping with what the show has been. The "all this has happened before" statement had been a sobering view of the cyclical nature of human history and our repeated engagement in war, not some weird mystical mantra. I feel that if the connection between the Battlestar world and our own had not been made so explicit, then the similarities between the two worlds could simply have been "visual analogies".

The way in which the finale used the supernatural was disappointing and, as all finales have the possibility of doing, it marred the show. The brilliance of the show overall, however, gives me confidence that the mistakes of the finale will not be enough to significantly affect the show's legacy, or disturb its place as one of the finest shows in television history.

January Movies

Some thoughts on movies I've watched this month...



Ponyo
Miyazaki's latest film was completely hand-animated, and its humanity showed in each frame. The story, like many of Miyazaki's, does not conform to "Western" standards of story logic or satisfying narrative progression, but feels more original and in many ways more "childlike". I'm sure that if I saw this movie as a child I wouldn't have the problems with the plot that I do now. I am trying to watch movies like this with more of the mind of a child, but it will take time. That being said, this film did not fail to delight me. The visuals were beautiful as always with Miyazaki, and the characters were memorable. This is the first Miyazaki film that I have watched with an English dub, and I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the voice acting. The fact that the film was totally hand-animated was very apparent. I believe that the lack of computer-aided effects contributed to the wonderfully hand-made feeling of all the ocean animation. What a spectacular interpretation of a storming sea!



Fantastic Mr. Fox
I had expected to love this film but came out disappointed. I typically love stop-motion animation but I don't feel that this film utilized the technique in the wonderful ways other films have. Perhaps it wasn't the animation that was the problem but the lack of something to grab me—a narrative "hook". The characters were not interesting enough on their own, so the plot itself needed to drive the film, which it did not. I never had a sense of curiosity or excitement—I never felt any narrative momentum. I did admire the simplicity and hand-made quality of the film but there just wasn't enough substance in the story itself to interest me.



The Lovely Bones
I was interested to see this film both because it was a big departure from Peter Jacksons' normal fare and because it inspired such extreme responses. My impression of the film is that it is essentially confused, torn between opposing impulses. Actually, there are three opposing impulses, each associated with one of the film's three storylines. First, you have Suzie Salmon's post-death experiences, the weakest portion of the film; then, her family's attempt to move past the grief of her death; and third, the inner life of her killer. Suzie's storyline did not work at all in concert with the other two, and the second two portions did not fit together that well either. The most interesting part of the film by far was the exploration of the killer's inner world. This was haunting on a level I haven't experienced on film for quite a while. Stanley Tucci's acting here was superb. I've read some reviews that fault Jackson for not showing Suzie's death, but I thought that particular choice worked quite well. The surreal bathroom scene in which Suzie realizes that she is dead was extremely well crafted and terrifying on a level that won't let me forget it any time soon. The family story line was decent but didn't really seem to go anywhere. Suzie's portion of the film was marred by its tone (too preachy and sentimental) and its overwrought digital effects. It would have worked much better if staged without the use of CGI, using the real world as its material. Overall, I think much more subtlety was needed to translate this story to film than Jackson afforded it. That being said, the film was not a complete disaster and the fact that it has stuck in my mind with some intensity points to that fact.



One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
This was a terrific film, filled with great performances and plenty of food for thought. As I was watching it, I realized how much all scenes involving mental institutions filmed since owe a tremendous debt to this film. Each of the characters was memorable and not overstated. My growing anger at the head nurse and at the overall methods of the institution showed me how well this film let forth its cry against the kind of harmful authoritarianism practiced by the institution. The end, in which the Indian chief finally escapes, was a classic cinematic moment.

Holiday Movies

I watched three movies over the holidays that seemed to fit together very well, though there were great differences between each of them. All three of them were "world-building" films—in each, the setting or environment of the film was one of the most important "characters" and in two of the films was perhaps more important than the story itself. All of these films were excellent and nourished my imagination over the holiday break. Here are a few jumbled thoughts on each of the films.



The Dark Crystal
This was a film I had seen when I was much younger, so a certain nostalgia might have colored my reception of the film a bit. That being said, this movie delighted me more than any film has in several years. The film's "delights" were accomplished through the supreme detail and sheer amount of life that was built into every frame. The film uses puppetry, animatronics and other pre-CGI effects to build its world. The fact that no digital imaging was used is what I believe lent to this sense of life. Every creature, every environment was built in the real world and operated by human hands. Though there isn't a single human in the movie, the movie feels so much more "human" than the two other, more recent films I saw. The scene that particularly stood out and delighted me was one in which the two main characters find themselves in a swamp, filled with every kind of bizarre creature imaginable. Especially wonderful are the half-plant, half-animal organisms. The matte paintings in this film (traditional glass, not digital) are also exceedingly beautiful.



Avatar
I went into this movie with moderate expectations and was blown away, not only by the visual effects, but by the characters and the story. I had heard from reviews that the dialogue wasn't great and that the plot was derivative and dull. While the plot was certainly derivative it was anything but dull. The way the story unfolded was incredibly engaging, and the characters were so arresting that the dialogue was hardly noticeable on its own. The digital Na'vi creatures were so fully realized and so closely tied to the performances of their actors, that it took only a few minutes for me to forget that they were computerized creations. The world, like that of The Dark Crystal, was realized so fully and beautifully it became the central character to me. I also appreciated the general attempt at being scientifically accurate with the technology and the overall nature of the planet. The pacing of this movie was perfect—there wasn't a single point that I felt lagged. There are very, very few films that have accomplished such perfect pacing. I had expected that Avatar, with all its digital effects, might feel cold, but it didn't at all.



A.I.
This much overlooked film by Steven Spielberg, based on a story by Stanley Kubrick, creates a world less fully realized that those of The Dark Crystal and Avatar, but a world much more closely tied to our own (so that such a realization is unnecessary). The story is the absolute focus of this film, following an artificially created boy in his quest to become real. It is closely tied to the Pinocchio story and its simultaneous tragedy and hope is handled beautifully by Spielberg. Haley Joel Osment, the actor who plays the boy, delivers the best performance I've ever seen by a child actor. The film is dense in its thematic content, much more so than The Dark Crystal or Avatar, but it remains a "feeling" movie. The love of the artificial boy for his human mother is something that we are aware is part of his programming, but at the same time we know it goes beyond programming and is truly "real". This love story is ultimately what holds the film together and makes it successful. Of course, it helps that Spielberg truly is a master filmmaker and stages the performances of nearly every sequence with great artistry. The beginning of the film, which takes place entirely in a domestic household setting, feels like no other domestically located sequence I've ever seen. To me, this portion of the film is utterly captivating. The end of the film, in which highly advanced cybernetic beings find the artificial boy after thousands of years, is also fascinating, though there are a few things that I find weaken the sequence. The very end, though, which slips into a kind of dream, is beautifully realized and intensely emotional.