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Tag: post apocalyptic

Isolating Tensions: Foreground & Background in “Children of Men”

COM

The world in P.D. James’ novel The Children of Men differs vastly from the onscreen realm that we see in the 2006 film adaptation. The basic premise remains the same: widespread infertility has halted the birth of human babies for nearly twenty-five years and Oxford professor Theo Faron, along with the rest of humanity, calmly and apathetically awaits the end of the world. With some minor changes in characterization, the screenplay and subsequent film build from the same starting point but enact one striking change. In the film, futuristic England is transformed from the wistful and nostalgic hills of peaceful Oxford to the chaotic and explosive streets of a xenophobic London.

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Paradise Bound: Interstellar and the Quest for Dimensional Transcendence

interstellar

In the beginning, God created Adam. Then, because Adam was lonely, God made Eve. When Eve fell, she led Adam to fall with her and God expelled them both from the garden of Eden. In the 17th Century, English poet John Milton provided his own take on the story of Adam and Eve in his epic poem Paradise Lost. Milton’s version contains moments of sympathy for God, for Eve, and even for Satan, but most poignantly for Adam.

Milton, in his own problematic, misogynist view of Original Sin, presents the idea that Adam chooses a life of companionship over a life of bliss. In other words, the idea of a lonely existence in paradise is worse than whatever could await outside the garden walls, and his decision has haunted us ever since.

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Sailing to “Elysium”

Elysium

Elysium, the newest film from Neill Blomkamp, the creator of District 9 once again forces us into a world where the unspoken social undercurrents of our modern world are thrust into light. The post-apartheid era of District 9 gives way to a stark, segregationist landscape reminiscent of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. On Earth, we experience Los Angeles in the year 2154, a wretched hive of scum and villainy if there ever was one. Citizens of Earth live under the distant glimmer of Elysium, an Edenic off-world haven. Those wealthy enough to flee the plague-ridden Earth have made Elysium their utopian home, while the less fortunate have been left to toil by the sweat of their brows.

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Post-Earth, Post-Feeling

afterearth

All sentiments aside about the film’s director, After Earth exists as an elegant and pensive examination of the power of human emotion.  While it fails to elicit the proper excitement and suspense often required of its chosen genre, the poignant tale of a young boy transforming into his own hero is a unique and thoughtful statement on one’s ability to surpass insurmountable obstacles.

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Waking from “Oblivion” — A Review

Oblivion

Oblivion is the result of too much story and not enough canvas. Think of a house with a tiny frame, or a painting wadded up into a crumpled ball. The story — trust me, it’s in there somewhere — is a compelling work of creative fiction that both reveals and represses human nightmares of technological development. A speculative creation of a sweeping, gothic variety, Oblivion is too ambitious and in its efforts to say too much all at once, its message becomes lost in a frenzied shout of sound and fury.

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