LOST: Coming to Terms with “THE END”.

First off, I am not going to write this up with what I “think” happened or any theorizing that I am going to do. I am simply going to try and make it as simple as possible for anyone who doesn’t understand the ending. Mostly because I want anyone who doesn’t understand to stop embarrassing themselves.

1. THE ISLAND WAS NOT PURGATORY.
Every moment that we shared with the survivors of OCEANIC flight was real, it happened, from when Jack opened his eyes in the pilot, to the discovery of the Hatch in Season 2, the caged heat sex session with Kate and Sawyer in season 3, and so on. All of the time we spent with our heroes was real; the Island existed and was the “cork” for all that is evil. So no one should feel cheated about the ending.

2. If you think you “called it” in Season 1 you were wrong.

By “called it” did you mean the flash sideways was a purgatory and that Jake and a Locke possessed by an ancient evil were going to fight over the Island and that Hurley would be left to be it’s guardian? Along with Benjamin Linus as his second in command? (Who wasn’t even in the first season.)? Is that what you mean by calling it? Or by “calling it” do you mean that the Island was purgatory? Cause then you’re wrong.

3. STILL MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS

Yes, there are still soooo many things that we all want to know. But by being the avid comic book reader that I am, I tend to just let things go and I have no problem with dangling plot threads, just plot holes. For example, we do no know why Walt was special, but after he left the Island it didn’t really matter why. We just had to focus on the remaining characters. But this past season 6 did have many slow episodes yet moved forward in a direction that not many people wanted, they wanted answer and the writers decided to focus on character, which is the better choice. Would you really rather see a show that just spent time answering every asinine question that came up? LOST isn’t special in the regard in having many questions come up and not answer them. I mean, there are plenty of logic holes in 24, Glee, Heroes, Pushing Daises, True Blood, but you just go with it. The writers did try and answer as many questions as it could without really derailing the momentum, which is the best thing one could ask for.

4. ONCE AGAIN, NOT EVERYONE DIED ON THE ISLAND.

At the end of the show you have Jack closing his eyes in the same place where he opened them before in the PILOT. Now this can be confusing to many, and I can see how you may think that it’s purgatory because of that. But Jack died in that moment as he saw Lapidis, Sawyer, Kate, Claire, Miles, and Richard fly off in the plane. Jack died knowing that his friends where going to fly back home. After that, Ben and Hurley ran the island as a team, and did it different than the insecure Jacob did. (I’m assuming, this is me making awesome presumptions.)

The finale wasn’t written with the intention of answering everyone’s question about everything, it was about learning how to let go and making peace. It was about the characters we’ve loved and hated over the past 6 years and use seeming them give each other a final good bye. It played with the idea that you do no die alone, you have loved ones waiting for you to pass, and it plays with the idea of time as an ever present anomaly and not a straight laced timeline. The show had a lot of broad ideas that they presented to us, and some went along with it and other didn’t.

5. IF YOU THINK THAT I’M WRONG, I’M NOT

At the end of the final hour of Lost, Christian Sheppard appeared to his son to help him come to terms with what was happening. But in reality, Christian was a mouthpiece for the Writers to explain to us what was happening. It really couldn’t be any more cut and dry. Here’s a transcript to elaborate with some italicized pieces of dialogue to help you see where we get clarification of what is going on.

Jack SHEPARD (JS): You Died.

CHRISTIAN SHEPARD (CS): Yeah, yes I did.

JS: Then how are you here right now?

CS: How are you here?

JS: I died too. (Sobs)

CS: It’s okay, its okay, its okay son.

JS: I love you.

CS: I love you too son.

JS: Are you real?

CS: I sure hope so, yeah I’m real; everything that’s ever happened to you is real. All those people in the church are all real too.

(Meaning that everything we saw Jake and the others do was real and did in fact happened and that there was an island that existed and Jake sacrificed himself to save it and his friends.)

JS: They are all dead?

CS: Everyone dies sometime kiddo. Some before you, and some long after you.

(This explains that while some, like Sayid, Shannon, Juliette, Charlie, all died before Jack did, others died long after like Kate, Sawyer, Hugo, and Ben. Plus on this level, it makes the moments of enlightenment seem more poignant especially for Claire and Kate. Imagine a mother giving birth to her son all over again and Kate experience the birth of this child that she loves, or maybe that two close friends got reunited all over again it hits on a much bigger level than Charlie’s who died prematurely.)

JS: Why are they all here now?

CS: Well there is no now here.

JS: Where are we dad?

CS: This is a place that you all made together so you can find one another. The most important part of your life was the time you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone. Jack, you needed all of them and they needed you.

JS: For what?

CS: To remember, and to let go.

JS: Kate, she said we were leaving

Cs No, moving on.

JS: Where are we going?

CS: Let’s go find out.

(So in essence the main characters of LOST created these flash sideways as a way for them to live out a life without the influence of the island and do have it be the life they think they waned. They needed this as a way for them all to get together and pass through into the next stage, whether it is heaven or something else that they believe in. They just built this as a way for their clique to pass through together.)

The finale may not of been what people wanted, which is fine, but at least people should understand it before the assume that the easiest answer is the right one. Plus, this was far more rewarding on an emotional level than the recent BSG finale.

We got to say goodbye to the people we followed for years, and saw them pass happily into the next life. I for one loved the time I spent with this show and I don’t regret a second…. Well maybe the episode “Stranger in Paradise” that didn’t need to exist.

Top Ten Favorite Holiday Films...

So it’s that time of year again — the air is crisp and cool. With the well wishing about to commence to one another on the street, I wanted to muster up some of my favorite Holiday films. As a disclaimer, not all of my films are centered around the idea of Christmas. Some are, of course, but others are just films that happened to take place during that particular holiday. Before the list commences I have a number of honorable mentions: Home Alone, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Bad Santa and Batman Returns.

10. Edward Scissorhands
This gem from the early ‘90s was director Tim Burton’s first film that set him apart. But this story about an outsider being brought in and accepted by a loving family cemented his career and that of star Johnny Depp. The movie itself has vivid images of winter that still resonate with modern audiences. It may not be the best constructed film, or even the best written film. But when Halloween has long since passed and Christmas is quickly approaching, Edward Scissorhands may be playing on my TV.

9. Muppet Christmas Carol
All that the new iteration of A Christmas Carol by Robert Zemeckis makes me want to do is watch this fantastic film from my childhood. I haven’t seen it in a couple of years, but I will be watching it in the next couple of days, as soon as I can find it in my pile of movies.

8. A Christmas Story
I know it may be cliché, but this film really does embody the perfect Christmas/Holiday film. It’s about growing up, family, and the spirit of Christmas. Sure, it’s a little sappy, but there is a reason it plays on a loop every Christmas day.

7. Trading Places
This is when Eddie Murphy was still in his prime. It almost makes me sad when I watch this movie and I start to think of how great Eddie Murphy once was, before he was relegated to children films and his super low-brow comedy that he does now. When he and Dan Akroyd were on film together, it was comedic magic. (I know that sounded really lame, but it’s true.) And this film just happens to take place during Christmas. It really doesn’t send home any type of heart warming yuletide message... and I like that.
6. The Ref
In the early ‘90s before Se7en and Usual Suspects, this is how I was introduced to Kevin Spacey. He was perfect as an uptight husband in the rich suburbs. This was a starring vehicle for Dennis Leary who played a criminal on the run who takes a rich couple hostage. Hilarity ensues.

5. Scrooged
Bill Murray + Christmas Carol + ‘80s Debauchery = My favorite Charles Dickens adaptation on film.

4. A Nightmare Before Christmas
This movie isn’t just a great movie for the season. It’s great year round and really showed how stop motion filmmaking can make such a huge impact on an audience. It really is a great film. It’s just really depressing that Disney is milking it so much every year.

3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
Oh, the Griswold clan, we went with them on two vacations before we saw how they spent the holidays. It was a disaster in many respects, but Rex is finally going to get his pool. Now that is what the holidays are all about... thinking about summer.

2. Gremlins
Gizmo is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. I still want a mogwai. But when it comes to a Christmas monologue, Phoebe Cates’ morbid take on Christmas, and how it affected her family, is amazing. Sure did color me a vivid picture and made me greatly appreciate my uneventful Christmases with my family.

1.Die Hard
John McClain just wanted to go to L.A. to visit his estranged wife and kids but ends up being stuck in an office building with no shoes and fighting back and killing nameless eastern Europeans. If that doesn’t scream Christmas, then you are not American. Die Hard is a seminal piece of film history. It reinvigorated action films so people now get behind the underdog or average joe like John McClain. I love this movie, and I always watch it as close to Christmas as possible.

Also if you want a great Christmas special, rent the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Christmas. It’s one of the rudest and funniest comedies on TV. I love it!

11 years since his last feature film, James Cameron returns to provide shock and awe to movie goers this holiday season.

There has been a lot of hype and cynicism building up for this film. Some have called it a 'game changer", "revolutionary", and the "next step." Other see it as an over blown and over produced piece of work from a self obsessed ego maniac.

There are parts that are true for each side of the fences. But one thing is true, hyperbole is being thrown around by everyone.

I saw the footage at Comic Con, and it did not blow me away. It looked great and there was a lot of detail in every frame. But it did not cause me to change my pants like others in the room.

Which worked out great for me, my expectations were lowered and I went about my day waiting to see the full motion picture. I went to Avatar day in Aug. Which showed close to the same footage they showed at Comic Con, nothing too different.

So Cameron and Fox won me over and I was going to pay to see their movie, mostly due to the ballsy marketing campaign. So the months came and went, and buzz continued to build and build. But still, I maintain my optimism in check.

I saw Avatar last night at midnight on a proper IMAX 3D screen. The film, for lack of a better or more original word, is awesome. In the true definition of the word:

awe·some (ôsm)
adj.
1. Inspiring awe: an awesome thunderstorm.
2. Expressing awe: stood in awesome silence before the ancient ruins.

Every frame of the movie, from Jake Sulley waking up from his cryogenic slumber in the space ship, to the Na'vi bonding with the creatures of Pandora. Every frame of the film is filled with awe-inspiring images and creativity. The story is an original idea from Cameron, but the concepts have been done before where an outsider becomes part of a group and changes sides (i.e. Dances with Wolves or Last Samurai).

But no other movie before has shown so much technical proficiency and perfection than Cameron does in Avatar. Cameron's cognizance of the camera and the technology he helped create is phenomenal. After the first five minutes of the film, you forget it’s in 3D and you are completely immersed in Pandora and the humans who are disturbing the peace.

For as many stunning visuals that the film has, the story is where it struggles the most. The outline of the film is fine, it makes sense and provides an enthralling enough narrative. It is structured in a very traditional and Hollywood way. It even has the whole white people fantasy, where ‘savages’ can’t help themselves and have to have a white person save them. But that’s another post by another more eloquent writer, Annalee Newitz (http://io9.com/5422666/). Yet these problems do not hinder the film. Avatar is straight forward in it’s story layout, there is an establishing first act (filled with quite a bit of exposition), a second act ending that is tragic and beautiful at the same time, and the third ties everything up and have one of the best action sequences I have ever seen. But the dialogue, oh goodness, the dialogue. Other than Stephan Lang’s perfect Colonel Miles Quaritich, everyone’s dialogue seemed clichéd, which stands out so much more in such an original piece of film.

The rest of the cast doesn’t have much to work with in regards to dialogue but they all make it work. Sam Worthington erases the memory of his Terminator Salvation performance within the first act of the film. He is engaging and you go with him on his journey gleefully. His leading lady, Zoe Saaldana, embodiment of Neytiri, is astounding, other than Andy Serkis, no other actor or actress has been able to emote as perfectly through FX as Zoe. Her performance is Oscar worthy, but the dilemma there is, would you nominate the actress or the FX team? Think about that and get back to me.

The rest of the supporting cast is great, Sigourney Weaver is as wonderful as ever, also it’s fun to see Undeclared’s Joel Moore getting work, and Michelle Rodriguez, who I have never found attractive, was incredibly sexy in the movie.

This review may be repetitive and almost cookie cutter compared with others floating around, but this movie delivers. It isn’t just a film for film snobs to like and judge you for not watching, it’s a MOVIE. It is fun, engaging, and most importantly entertaining throughout it’s 2 ½ plus running time. Which I did not feel at all.

But the film’s visual’s and set pieces are the main event. They are outstanding/astonishing and any other hyperbole you want to through out. You must see this film in 3D and not wait for DVD. You will be doing yourself a huge disservice if you wait.


Now comparing to other Cameron films, is it my favorite? No, I still love Aliens above all. But if I were 10 – 16 years old, this movie would of changed my life. But I have a strong nostalgic connection to Aliens and T2. Not so much Abyss, since I just saw it for the first time a couple of weeks ago thanks to Tim Metz. It’s sad that the first movie with a fully realized CGI creature was such a bomb, it was a great movie that was underappreciated. But I digress, Avatar proves that James Cameron’s ego is much deserved, because he delivers. He is not a Michael Bay who wants to blow stuff up and make it look cool, so much that it hinders the story. James Cameron cares about “his” vision more so than what other people want. Yet with James Cameron, his vision is what people love and will eat up and await his next film. I’m willing to wait another 11 years if Cameron can deliver films like this every time.

How Alan got his groove back...

I know it’s been awhile since you’ve had my in your weekly newsletter. But surprisingly summer tends to be much much busier for me than any other time of the year. But the season is winding down and the sheer number of unread books in my collection is staggering, I still bought them anyway with every intention of reading them. Silly me, over the near 3 months without reading the majority of my books I have accumulated 2 full long boxes and 3 short boxes of unread comics. But I always managed to read every Captain America andGreen Lantern affiliated book without question. But I have begun to read as many comics as possible in the past week. Every chance I get, I have a comic book in my hand. The recent activity is because of necessity, but because one book reminded me how much I LOVE the art of comic storytelling. One book has made me remember how much fun comics can be. It is neither of the major two that I mentioned, or Proof, my favorite indie book on the market. But it is DC’s experiment that stole my heart, Wednesday Comics is my favorite book to come out all year.

Please don't pick and choose, remember an entire life.

Michael Jackson.

Yesterday and today are troubling me a bit. With the recent passing of Michael Jackson, generations of people are showing their love and warm memories of the man.

Which is a very genuine and sincere thing to feel. But what is a tad disturbing to me is when some people (No one in specific) say, "Let's remember him for his music!" or in the like.

To me, this is very ignorant and naive. How can we justifiably choose to only remember what we want? Are we that removed from reality now? I am not accusing Michael Jackson of his prior misgivings. I am not sure what happened during his sleep overs. Could of been completely innocent or very vile, I am not here to judge him.

I only ask that people stop choosing to only remember him as a musician. He was a man, and remember the life and all that happened in it. Because we can learn just as much from his mistakes and faults as we can from his cool beats and vocal stylings. This reminds me of a situation with professional Wrestler Chris Benoit, who killed his wife and autistic child a while back. The media lambasted him but the wrestling community only wanted to remember his work in ring.

But hopefully this trend doesn't continue.

What will happen when OJ dies? "OMG he was such a great running back!!! Lets remember him as an athlete and comedy spoof actor."

Or Phil Specter? "Yeah he may of shot a girl in cold blood, but dude he produced a BEATLES album."

Or Chris Brown? "Dude he danced really good!!! Who cares if Rhiana can't take a hit."

Or to the most extreme level, "Hitler was a moderately passable painter, so lets remember that."

Now I am not a stranger to death, I lost my mother close to a decade ago and I lost someone very close to me recently. Both women were very strong and filled with kindness in their hearts and I choose to remember their lives as a whole and not picking and choosing. In the long run you would just rob yourself of more learning experiences.

In closing, it is sad that the King of Pop has passed away at such a young. His entire life basically shown to the public through a lens. Do I wish he cleared up his name? Yes. Do I wish his looming comeback was successful and he made another great album? A resounding yes.

But we don't get that and now we have a tarnished legacy which should be remembered in its entirety.

Sam Rockwell MOON's me.

This was originally supposed to only be a small review on Facebook's Flixter, but I just kept writing and writing.

I had to drive out quite a bit to catch Moon last night. I have to say it was well worth the gas and time. Relative new director Duncan Jones, brings a very stoic and quite Science FIction film to life. I don't want to give much away, I actually only heard it was good from some trusted sources and decided to jump in without viewing a trailer. It was worth the gamble, the film was probably one of the best Sci-Fi films I have seen in the past couple of years. Well this Sunshine and Star Trek. But it was the opposite of what Star Trek is. It wasn't big and sprawling, there were no big action set pieces or alien encounters. It dealt with an amazing Sam Rockwell, doing the best acting job of his career, and his loyal computer Gerty. Sam Rockwell plays astronaut Sam Bell, who works for the Lunar incorporation collecting H3 energy and sending it back to earth. He is signed a 3 year contract to be alone and collect data on the Moon. But towards the end of his tenure, things start to go a little crazy. Now the audience may have to take a bit of a leap within the first act of the film. But I chose to follow, and it was worth it. I'd say check it out, it's only in like 3 theaters in LA. I saw it at the Edwards University 8 in Irvine. I wish I had a better seat, but I tend to love the whole run down theater that shows art house films. It's almost like method movie watching. One more thing, there practical effects used in the film brought me back to a nostalgic time in my life. I used to love seeing models in movies, and i'm glad the feeling still resonates with me. There were a great deal of exterior model shots during the film, so I was glad to see they didn't have to resort to CGI. (Well they probably didn't have the money for it anyway.) All in all, Moon was great. I want to see it again, now knowing what I have in store for me I think I can truly get more out of it.

Updated stories...

So I have been really bad about updating my ish...

So here is a link to my new stories at the school paper.  I made a pact with myself that i will write something once a week for the blog.  

I don't know about what, movies, tv, music, or other forms of entertainment.  

Anyway, here are the links:

www.chaffeybreeze.com/media/storage/paper257/news/2009/05/04/ArtsEntertainment/LesserKnown.Movies.Can.Be.A.Treat-3734622.shtml?reffeature=popuarstoriestab

www.chaffeybreeze.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=81a7ff00-3c15-4c2e-a7f6-d3397aaac6ad

http://www.chaffeybreeze.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=66ca6e63-02d2-4f5b-a894-a4b284c99a3b

http://www.chaffeybreeze.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=75db4f3a-8b8a-47c6-a5ce-b665d94bea02

http://www.chaffeybreeze.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=4a03267b-6b43-404c-a5f5-f1b0bd41c01e

http://www.chaffeybreeze.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=8c8133ce-c6a2-45c5-97e5-0dd4ced86b89